The Ancient Mystery of the Sator Square,A sator square, also known as a rotas square, was a word squ

The Ancient Mystery of the Sator Square,A sator square, also known as a rotas square, was a word square common in the Ancient Roman Empire.  The square was a palindrome featuring four words, “SATOR”, “AREPO”, “TENET”, “OPERA”, and “ROTAS”.  Arranged in a grid, no matter how you read a sator square, whether right to left, left to right, top to bottom, or bottom to top, you still have the same combination of "SATOR", “AREPO”, “TENET”, “OPERA”, and “ROTAS”.While the design is certainly ingenious, the purpose of this square is a mystery. Romans typically hanged them on their houses and private dwellings.  Some were even carved directly into the stonework of buildings.  Examples can be found all over the Roman Empire.Today historians debate the meaning of the sator square, with theories ranging from folk magic to religious purposes.  One popular theory was that is was a code used by ancient Christians as method of identifying themselves without getting caught and persecuted, much like the Jesus fish symbol.  If the “N” from “TENET” remains in place, the rest of the letters can be rearranged to form the words “PATER NOSTER” (our father) in the shape of the cross, flanked by “A” and “O” (alpha and omega, the beginning and the end).  While intriguing, the Christian theory meets hard skepticism.  For example, a sator square was found in the ruins of Pompeii, yet the city had been destroyed by the volcano Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD.  Christianity had not really spread to Southern Italy at that time and thus seems an unlikely explanation for its purpose.Today historians, code breakers, mathematicians, and even occultists continue to debate the meaning of the sator square, with little consensus as to its purpose. -- source link

More pics about