Histories were written in antiquity only to be re-written when political sentiments changed, but the original intentions can still be revealed by asking the right questions, because the structure of the written texts stayed the same - the first clue. The second clue is found in the trail of rubble left after the destruction of sacred sites underneath which richly decorated treasures of gold, silver and precious gems were buried. Starting in Egypt a thread of evidence winds through Europe: via Crete, Athens and Delphi it leads to Rome and the ancient Etruscans, the thread leads along overland routes and waterways to Britain.

The history unfolds when at the northern end of Scotland a visit by a grammarian from Tarsus, sent “by some emperor to investigate the nearest of the islands” (Orkney), was described by Plutarch: historian, philosopher and priest in Delphi who wrote popular essays read by Romans and Greeks. Borrowing a metaphor from Zeus who sent two birds (eagles or swans) in opposite directions to find the centre of the earth, they met above Delphi, the spot marked by the Greeks as the navel of the earth, where the god Apollo supposedly killed a serpent or dragon who watched over the oracle. The second of the "two men who happened to meet in Delphi” was a Spartan who regularly visited the city of cave-dwellers (Petra) and traveled to India for his studies.

In his essay “ON THE ‘E’ AT DELPHI”, Plutarch, a Platonic philosopher trained in Athens, listed a series of definitions that was a key to describe the numbers - in the appropriate chronological order and with a suitable definition - that was later used to design the Elder Futhark rune alphabet. Answers to the many questions about the lost history of early Europe begin to unravel with study of the essay that describes, step by step, the concepts essential to the system of meditation as taught by the Buddha Gotama in India in the 6th century BC. The system of “mystic numbers” used by Pythagoras (a contemporary of the Buddha) to describe phenomena was studied by Plato after the death of Socrates when he visited the Pythagoreans in Italy, Plato continued to describe details about the “eye of the mind” that can see objects as “one” or as “many”, depending on perception of an object, his cave simile describes the function of the sixth sense located in the heart, knowledge now lost to Europe. The lineage of oral transmission continued, but definitions of essential concepts were written down by Plutarch during the reign of Hadrian. After the demise of Delphi in the fourth century a selection of abstract symbols from Linear A and B clay tablets, found at locations where Pythagoras was known to teach, were allocated to each chapter in Plutarch’s essay as a visual shorthand of definitions of concepts - refining a tradition already used by the Etruscans and reportedly described by emperor Claudius, the “conquerer of Britain”.

With this information as a guide objects in Europe can be analysed to reveal the meaning of messages hidden in the numbers found in decorative patterns that can be interpreted in a way similar to mandalas. The exact same system of numbers that described meditation was applied to make votive objects from the 6th century BC until 1,700 years later, when over 30 advanced rune inscriptions were made in the Maeshowe tomb in Orkney - where the grammarian from Tarsus was sent by “some emperor” (most likely Trajan and Hadrian) to investigate the phenomena of light in the tomb of Maeshowe. The results of his investigations were applied in the design of the Pantheon in Rome; a three-dimensional diagram of the system of meditation. The same numbers were repeated meticulously on the three golden collars found in Ålleberg with 3 rings that represent Three Trainings (ethics, concentration, wisdom), Färjestaden with 5 rings (5 clinging aggregates) and Möne with 7 rings (Seven Stages of Purification). On each collar, with images densely stacked strictly following the numbers, a great deal of information about the meditation system can be deciphered. 

In the text several objects with the same set of numbers are interpreted by following the formal structure that is still taught at Buddhist universities and by meditation teachers with knowledge of Abhidhamma - there is a perfect match. The system of meditation reached Europe during the lifetime of the Buddha and the knowledge was maintained meticulously until the 12th century. The definitions of runes used to translate objects were already arrived at after many years of careful study, when finally the essay of Plutarch appeared to match the definitions as used - in the same order - it was a great surprise. The essay of Plutarch offers written evidence from antiquity that the unwritten doctrines of Plato and the mystic numbers of Pythagoras were based on the system of meditation as taught by the Buddha Gotama in India.

Visible proof is found in the use of numbers. In the cairn of Maeshowe the sun (symbol of  Delphian Apollo) lights up the rear wall (cave simile of Plato) for exactly 1/16th of a solar year (Sixteen Vipassanā Insight Knowledges), symbolised by the 16th rune of the Elder Futhark rune alphabet, the lightning bolt ᛋ depicts the “light of wisdom”, the concept of liberation embedded in the number 16 was described by Plutarch as “Such, so far as I remember, was the end of the arithmetical or mathematical reasons for extolling the letter ‘E'.” The light enters the tomb for for 1/32 of a year that symbolically dies at the moment of the winter solstice (death-consciousness mind-moment) and is reborn (rebirth-linking mind-moment ) to describe Dependent Origination and Cause and Effect, the teachings of the Buddha, the duration of the light for a period of 1/32 of a solar year represents the “32 Marks of a Great Man”, the qualities of the Buddha. The numbers were used to design visible light effects in the Pantheon, but also on famous objects such as the Vix crater,  the massive silver rings of Scotland, the golden collars of Sweden, the Horns of Gallehus and even on famous hoards of jewellery found at Thetford where combinations of objects repeat the same numbers.

The essay of Plutarch confirmed that the rune translation key matches the information about the “unwritten doctrines of Plato and the mystic numbers of Pythagoras, it also confirms that some Roman emperors (including Augustus, Claudius and Hadrian described in the text) were protectors of the meditation system, instead of force they used the “handshake of friendship” to rule the Roman Empire. 

Texts from antiquity were re-written to hide the early history and promote new rulers until even the memory of the meditation system was forgotten, but with translations of text and images becoming available on internet it became possible to recognise evidence that reveals the many threads of the web of knowledge prevalent in Europe that finally leads to one single central source: the system of meditation originally taught by the Buddha.

All contents is the personal view of the author.