Written by Luke Eastwood Reviewed by Katrina Rasbold
If you love reading about ancient history, (and I don’t mean “the Romans invaded England in the 4th century and decided to stay awhile” kind of ancient but the “this person is thought to have lived in 1356 BCE” kind of ancient) then this is the book for you. Eastwood’s exploration of the royal line of Ancient Egypt is nothing short of heroic and he leaves no stone unturned in his literary archeologist efforts to research and convey the potential migration of Egyptians to Ireland and Scotland.
Using an exhaustive library of information about the royal lines of Ancient Egypt and their migration, the author carefully sculpts a working theory that Scotia, ancestor of the Gaels, is actually Meritaten, an Egyptian princess and later, queen.
Although the consensus thought is that Scotia lives only in myth, there is a gravesite thought to be hers in Kerry County, Ireland, although Ireland officially does not acknowledge the site as an archeological monument. From this point, Eastwood works backwards to her time in 1351/53 BCE to track the possibility that “Mayati,” as she was affectionally called by her family, is the legendary Scotia for which Scotland is named.
The daughter of a more famous mother, Nefertiti, and half-sister to an even more famous brother, Tutankhamun, Meritaten has her own fascinating story that the author carefully reconstructs using tidbits gleaned from the work of ancient writers and contemporary analysts.
When does speculation, which is rife in this book, graduate to hypothesis? When the remarkable level of circumstantial evidence comes together as it has in this book. The author freely admits that there is no irrefutable proof that says that Meritaten was Scoti or that Scoti ever actually existed in human form, and yet, the evidence he puts forth in this work is compelling, to say the least.
One significant part of the book is a chapter detailing Eastwood’s meticulous examination of the gravesite, evaluating the engravings and glyphs on the stones that mark the final resting place of whomever is buried there.
In this book, one chapter builds on the next, so do not skip ahead. Information from the chapter you skip is necessary for following the (proposed) timeline of Meritaten’s journey from Egypt to Spain to Scotland to Ireland. Since, as this book relates, 70% of British, Irish, and Spanish men and 50% of all Western European men are related to Tutankhamun, we know that Haplogroup R-M269 propagated there somehow. What started around the Black Sea 9500 years ago might well have pass through exactly the route and means the author proposes.
My suggestion is to read the book and keep your mind open to the possibilities.
Want to join the conversation about this blog post? Go to the Green Egg Forum and scroll for the forum post that relates to this article: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1069823176940972
Katrina Rasbold is a professional Witch, published author, priestess, and editor of Green Egg Magazine. She and her husband, Eric, are the creators of the CUSP spiritual path and owners of Crossroads Occult. You can reach her through www.katrinarasbold.com.