The Story of Princess Scota
By Heather Elizabeth Adams
In 1955, archaeologist Dr. Sean O'Riordan of Trinity College, Dublin, made an interesting discovery during an excavation of the Mound of Hostages at Tara, site of ancient kingship of Ireland. Bronze Age skeletal remains were found of what has been argued to be a young prince, still wearing a rare necklace of faience beads, made from a paste of minerals and plant extracts that had been fired. The skeleton was carbon dated to around 1350 BC. In 1956, J. F. Stone and L. C. Thomas reported that the faience beads were Egyptian: ?In fact, when they were compared with Egyptian faience beads, they were found to be not only of identical manufacture but also of matching design. The famous boy-king Tutankhamun was entombed around the same time as the Tara skeleton and the priceless golden collar around his mummy?s neck was inlayed with matching conical, blue-green faience beads?. An almost identical necklace was found in a Bronze Age burial mound at north Molton, Devon.
Lorraine Evans in her compelling book, Kingdom of the Ark, reveals archaeological connections between Egypt and Ireland. Evans argues that the connections between the two distant lands were plausible and there is archaeological evidence to support the theory. In 1937 in North Ferriby, Yorkshire, the remains of an ancient boat were discovered. While thought to be a Viking longship at first, continued excavation produced additional ships, wrecked in a storm. Further investigation showed that the boats were much older than Viking ships and were of a type found in the Mediterranean. It was concluded that these boats originated from 2000 years before the Viking age and were radiocarbon dated to around 1400 to 1350 BC. Evans then makes connections to argue that these boats could originate from Egypt, as the timeframe fits the dating of the faience beads. While investigating the origins of the people of Scotland in the Bower manuscript, the Scotichronicon, she discovers the story of Scota, the Egyptian princess and daughter of a pharaoh who fled from Egypt with her husband Gaythelos with a large following of people who arrive in a fleet of ships. They settled in Scotland for a while amongst the natives, until they were forced to leave and landed in Ireland, where they formed the Scotti, and their kings became the high kings of Ireland. In later centuries, they returned to Scotland, defeating the Picts, and giving Scotland its name.
Evans then posits the questions: Was the Tara necklace a gift from the Egyptians to a local chieftain after their arrival? Or was the Tara prince actually Egyptian himself? According to Bower?s manuscript, Scota?s descendants were the high kings of Ireland. In her quest to discover the true identity of ?Scota,? as it was not an Egyptian name, she finds within Bower?s manuscript that Scota?s father is actually named as being Achencres, a Greek version of an Egyptian name. In the work of Manetho, an Egyptian priest, Evans discovers the translation of the name?the pharaoh Achencres was none other than Akhenaten, who reigned in the correct timeframe of 1350 BC. Evans believes that Scota was Meritaten, eldest daughter of Akhenaten and Nefertiti. The third eldest daughter, Ankhesenpaaten, married her half-brother, King Tutankhamun, son of Akhenaten and his secondary wife, Kiya. The controversial religious shift to the god Aten caused conflict with the Amun priesthood, who reasserted their authority after Akhenaten?s reign ended and he disappeared from history. This conflict and the rumored deaths by plague would have been sufficient motivation for the pharaoh?s eldest daughter to accept a foreign prince in marriage, rather than being Tut?s wife as would have been normal protocol, and to flee from the conflicted country.
What happens to Scota and her people? For this, we must return again to the myths of the people inhabiting Ireland at the time, the Tuatha de Danaan, the magical children of the Goddess Danu: ?It was they who originally established the site of Tara, in the Boyne river valley, as the ritual inauguration and burial place of the ancient kings of Ireland. They were generally regarded as the gods and goddesses of the Celtic tribes, but it is believed that their true origins date far back into prehistory?. Could the de Danaan even perhaps have been the descendants of the lost land of Atlantis, migrants to Ireland after its final destruction, estimated by Edgar Cayce to have been around 10,000 BC? Cayce states in various psychic readings that the Atlanteans migrated to parts of the Yucatan and later into North America to merge with the existing native Mound Builders in the Ohio region. As Tara is also a sacred mound site, could there be a connection? It is an interesting speculation, and if the ?Sons of Mil? were indeed Egyptians, there is another connection to mound-building cultures, as sacred burial mounds were the origins for the pyramid structures that followed in the evolution of pyramid building in Egypt. Could there have been a common tie to these two cultures, united once more upon the Hill of Tara? Perhaps that, too, could explain part of the ancient symbolic meaning of the site, a place of sacred union of two cultures with a thread of common identity.
In the Annals of the Four Masters, dating to 1632-36, Scota?s husband is named Eremon, and it is Eremon and Eber who divide the land of Ireland between them, with Eremon in the north and Eber in the south. What is interesting to me about this version is the similarity between the division of Ireland and the division of Egypt itself. Egypt was divided into Upper and Lower Egypt, unified by a central connecting city, Memphis. If we consider the existing myths of Ireland?s legends, it, too, was divided to have a central site of unity, known as Mide, the omphalos of Ireland. Within Mide is where the Hill of Tara is situated, as a site of the High Kingship, representing the unity of the land and all of its people.
Sadly, it is in the battle for Ireland at Slieve Mish, as recorded in the Lebor Gabala, that Scota meets a tragic end and is killed. After her death in this battle, the war continued on at Tailtinn against the three kings of the Tuatha de Danaan, the husbands of the Goddesses Banba, Fodla, and Eriu: MacCuill, MacCeacht, and MacGreine. The sons of Mil, after prolonged battle, conquered the de Danaans and took the seat of Tara. According to the Bower manuscript, Scota was buried ?between Sliab Mis and the sea,? and her grave, Fert Scota, is found in a glen located in Glenscota.
The exact location of Scota?s resting place remains a mystery, much like the particulars of her past, which are slowing being unveiled. As with many myths, a real person lent her persona and identity to the landscape of the land she became a part of, giving Scotland her name, giving the Celts an additional layer to their unique heritage that is unsung and still somewhat new in theory, as the truths of history do their slow unraveling of their yarns.
I know from my own intuitive experiences that more of the story of Scota and the Egyptian connection to the Celts will indeed by revealed. On the Summer Solstice of 2006, I had this dream about Tara and its importance as a sacred site to the healing of our world, of finding unity amongst our current state of chaos:
?While excavating Tara, we are looking for evidence of kingship, an Egyptian connection. I am shown that there are two connections?a tree, as in the Tree of Life. Something else spirals with the tree to connect and to make a third way, a way between the worlds. I am told that as they dig that they will find things that may be in England, but that Ireland and the Hill of Tara will be riddled with pearls. Pearls of the sea show kingship, sovereignty, the true center of kingship, a center that rules over all. I am shown two snake-like DNA strands, winding together like vines, and these two twisted strands are connected to Tara. Pearls are the birthstone of the month of June, and the rose is also the flower of that month. The Rose of Tralee comes to mind and its connections to their beauty queen pageant?queenship, the rose. Tara as the site of Queenship, the beautiful center of the rose. I am told more about the beautiful pearls all over Tara, the pearls of the crown, of finding this lost race of kingship once more, which is NOT located in England, I am told. The Goddess stands on Tara, in the center, looking out over Ireland, Scotland, and England, showing me a trinity. She stands on Tara and under it, showing the way between of the above and below, the way between the trinity, with Her in the center, and that She, plus the Land, plus the People, equal the Sacred Three. She tells me that She is the Mother of the boy in my visions, the sacred son who will also be my son one day, and where to find him to bring him home. The Irish were a race of persecution, persecuted by the English, so I am told that history?s conquerors cannot be our future history?s leaders. Because of the past, no people will follow them. But this is not true of the Irish, for the true leaders of the People unite the three, She says, the People, Her, the Land. She leaves me with the suggestion that the Irish are a mix of three races, not just one of European descent, and this is also important to lead our way into our future to understand our Oneness and our equality, our harmony with the Land, with Her.?
After the dream ended, I thought about the meaning of the Celts, of the ideal of striving for unity, of Brehon laws, of equality. I realized that my own name is significant in this symbolism?my last name was originally Adam before my great-grandfather changed it, which means the red earth, the first people, all five races in one. And then I realized as well the connection of Tara. Backwards, Ta-ra becomes Ra-Ta, the priest from an Egyptian past-life of Edgar Cayce who assisted in building the pyramids. Then I took it a step further to remember that the names of the Egyptian creator god Ptah and of course the sun god Ra combined become Ptah-Ra. Was the name of Tara Herself, derived somehow from these Egyptian origins? The making of the sun king or Ra was derived from the power of Tea, the Goddess, in Her union with him. Of course, within Egyptian culture, it was Isis who held the sacred name of Ra, so it was she who held the secret power to create over all of the gods and goddesses of Egypt. And what of the sacred boy from my own visions, a boy of dark skin and dark hair? In one vision, he was walking upon a sacred mound, as if it were Brigid?s Mound in Glastonbury, but it was definitely Celtic. Was he the lost prince in the Mound of Hostages whom Evans identifies as Egyptian, capturing my attention many years ago to lead me upon this journey, of connecting the cultures of two very variant lands? Is he indeed the soul of my son yet to be born, a connection tied together in totality at last for myself in my own personal journey as well? The questions about Tara and her secrets continue, as my own quest to uncover more answers begins.
(As published in the ?Ancient Mysteries Newsletter,? March 2007, Association for Research and Enlightenment, Virginia Beach, VA. Reprinted with permission from the author.)
About the author: Heather Elizabeth Adams is a writer, researcher, and college educator. While residing in London, England, she specialized in Goddess Mythology for her PhD research and completed four years of spiritual training in Glastonbury as a Priestess of Avalon with noted writer Kathy Jones. Heather is the founder of The Sacred Sept of the Swan, an organization dedicated to honoring indigenous cultures, ancient mysteries, and the Divine Feminine through online courses, events, and pilgrimages to sacred landscapes around the world. She can be contacted at: castleeire@gmail.com.
