Paganism? Siberian Shamanism migrated to Turkey and then emerged as Paganism because of Agriculture.

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Paganism (beginning around 12,000 years ago)

Paganism (such as that seen in Turkey: 12,000 years ago). Gobekli Tepe: “first human-made temple” around 12,000 years ago. Sedentism and the Creation of goddesses around 12,000 years ago as well as male gods after 7,000 years ago. Pagan-Shaman burial in Israel 12,000 years ago and 12,000 – 10,000 years old Paganistic-Shamanistic Art in a Remote Cave in Egypt. Skull Cult around 11,500 to 8,400 Years Ago and Catal Huyuk “first religious designed city” around 10,000 years ago.

Paganism is approximately a 12,000-year-old belief system and believe in spirit-filled life and/or afterlife that can be attached to or be expressed in things or objects and these objects can be used by special persons or in special rituals that can connect to spirit-filled life and/or afterlife and who are guided/supported by a goddess/god, goddesses/gods, magical beings, or supreme spirits. If you believe like this, regardless of your faith, you are a hidden paganist.

Around 12,000 years ago, in Turkey, the first evidence of paganism is Gobekli Tepe: “first human-made temple” and around 9,500 years ago, in Turkey, the second evidence of paganism is Catal Huyuk “first religious designed city”. In addition, early paganism is connected to Proto-Indo-European language and religion. Proto-Indo-European religion can be reconstructed with confidence that the gods and goddesses, myths, festivals, and form of rituals with invocations, prayers, and songs of praise make up the spoken element of religion. Much of this activity is connected to the natural and agricultural year or at least those are the easiest elements to reconstruct because nature does not change and because farmers are the most conservative members of society and are best able to keep the old ways.

The reconstruction of goddesses/gods characteristics may be different than what we think of and only evolved later to the characteristics we know of today. One such characteristic is how a deity’s gender may not be fixed, since they are often deified forces of nature, which tend to not have genders. There are at least 40 deities and the Goddesses that have been reconstructed are: *Pria, *Pleto, *Devi, *Perkunos, *Aeusos, and *Yama.

The reconstruction of myths can be connected to Proto-Indo-European culture/language and by additional research, many of these myths have since been confirmed including some areas that were not accessible to the early writers such as Latvian folk songs and Hittite hieroglyphic tablets. There are at least 28 myths and one of the most widely recognized myths of the Indo-Europeans is the myth, “Yama is killed by his brother Manu” and “the world is made from his body”. Some of the forms of this myth in various Indo-European languages are about the Creation Myth of the Indo-Europeans.

The reconstruction of rituals can be connected to Proto-Indo-European culture/language and is estimated to have been spoken as a single language from around 6,500 years ago. One of the earliest ritual is the construction of kurgans or mound graves as a part of a death ritual. kurgans were inspired by common ritual-mythological ideas. Kurgans are complex structures with internal chambers. Within the burial chamber at the heart of the kurgan, elite individuals were buried with grave goods and sacrificial offerings, sometimes including horses and chariots.

The speakers of Pre-Proto-Indo-European lived in Turkey and it associates the distribution of historical Indo-European languages with the expansion around 9,000 years ago, with a proposed homeland of Proto-Indo-European proper in the Balkans around 7,000 years ago. The Proto-Indo-European Religion seemingly stretches at least back around 6,000 years ago or likely much further back and I believe Paganism is possibly an approximately 12,000-year-old belief system.

The earliest kurgans date to 6,000 years ago and are connected to the Proto-Indo-European in the Caucasus. In fact, around 7,000 years ago, there appears to be pre-kurgan in Siberia. Around 7,000 to 2,500 years ago and beyond, kurgans were built with ancient traditions still active in Southern Siberia and Central Asia, which display the continuity of the archaic forming methods. Kurgan cultures are divided archaeologically into different sub-cultures such as Timber Grave, Pit Grave, Scythian, Sarmatian, Hunnish, and Kuman–Kipchak. Kurgans have been found from the Altay Mountains to the Caucasus, Ukraine, Romania, and Bulgaria. Around 5,000 years ago, kurgans were used in the Ukrainian and Russian flat unforested grasslands and their use spread with migration into eastern, central, northern Europe, Turkey, and beyond. ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, & ref

Progressed organized religion (around 5,000 years ago)

Progressed organized religion (such as that seen in Egypt: 5,000 years ago “The First Dynasty dates to 5,150 years ago”). This was a time of astonishing religion development and organization with a new state power to control. Around the time of 5,000 to 4,000 years ago, saw the growth of these riches, both intellectually and physically, became a source of contention on a political stage, and rulers sought the accumulation of more wealth and more power.

*The First Dynasty*

Date: 3,150 B.C.E. (5,150 years ago)

 The Beginning Rise of the Unequal State Government Hierarchies, Religions and Cultures Merger

The Pharaoh in ancient Egypt was the political and religious leader holding the titles ‘Lord of the Two Lands’ Upper and Lower Egypt and ‘High Priest of Every Temple’. In 5,150 years ago the First Dynasty appeared in Egypt and this reign was thought to be in accordance with the will of the gods; but the office of the king itself was not associated with the divine until later.

Around 4,890 years ago during the Second Dynasty, the King was linked with the divine and reign with the will of the gods. Following this, rulers of the later dynasties were equated with the gods and with the duties and obligations due to those gods. As supreme ruler of the people, the pharaoh was considered a god on earth, the intermediary between the gods and the people, and when he died, he was thought to become Osiris, the god of the dead. As such, in his role of ‘High Priest of Every Temple’, it was the pharaoh’s duty to build great temples and monuments celebrating his own achievements and paying homage to the gods of the land. Among the earliest civilizations that exhibit the phenomenon of divinized kings are early Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt.

In 5,150 years ago the First Dynasty appeared in Egypt with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt by the king Menes (now believed to be Narmer). Menes/Narmer is depicted on inscriptions wearing the two crowns of Egypt, signifying unification, and his reign was thought to be in accordance with the will of the gods; but the office of the king itself was not associated with the divine until later. During the Second Dynasty of Egypt 4,890-4,670 years ago King Raneb (also known as Nebra) linked his name with the divine and his reign with the will of the gods. Following Raneb, the rulers of the later dynasties were equated with the gods and with the duties and obligations due to those gods. As supreme ruler of the people, the pharaoh was considered a god on earth.

The honorific title of `pharaoh’ for a ruler did not appear until the period known as the New Kingdom 3,570-3,069 years ago. Monarchs of the dynasties before the title of `pharaoh’ from the New Kingdom were addressed as `your majesty’ by foreign dignitaries and members of the court and as `brother’ by foreign rulers; both practices would continue after the king of Egypt came to be known as a pharaoh. Ref Ref

CURRENT “World” RELIGIONS (after 4,000 years ago)

Hinduism around 3,700 to 3,500 years old. Judaism around 3,450 or 3,250 years old. (The first writing in the bible was “Paleo-Hebrew” dated to around 3,000 years ago). Jainism around 2,599 – 2,527 years old. Confucianism around 2,600 – 2,551 years old. Buddhism around 2,563/2,480 – 2,483/2,400 years old. Christianity around 2,000 years old. Shinto around 1,305 years old. Islam around 1407–1385 years old. Sikhism around 548–478 years old. Bahá’í around 200–125 years old.

Paganism 12,000-4,000 years old

12,000-7,000 years old: related to (Pre-Capitalism)

7,000-5,000 years old: related to (Capitalism) (World War 0) Elite and their slaves!

5,000 years old: related to (Kings and the Rise of the State)

4,000 years old: related to (First Moralistic gods, then the Origin time of Monotheism)

Paganism (such as that seen in Turkey: 12,000 years ago)

Haplogroup G2a (Y-chromosomal DNA) and the Seeming Development of Early Agriculture – “Haplogroup G descends from macro-haplogroup F, which is thought to represent the second major migration of Homo sapiens out of Africa, at least 60,000 years ago. Haplogroup G has 303 mutations confirming a severe bottleneck before splitting into haplogroups G1 and G2. G1might have originated around modern Iran around 26,000 years ago. G2 would have developed around the same time in West Asia and haplogroup G2 appear to have been closely linked to the development of early agriculture in the Fertile Crescent part, around 11,500 years before present. G2a branch expanded to Anatolia, the Caucasus, and Europe, while G2b diffused from Iran across the Fertile Crescent and east to Pakistan.

There has so far been ancient Y-DNA analysis from Early Neolithic Anatolia, Iran, Israel, Jordan as well as most Neolithic cultures in Europe (Thessalian Neolithic in Greece, Starčevo culture in Hungary/Croatia, LBK culture in Germany, Remedello in Italy, and Cardium Pottery in south-west France and Spain) and all sites yielded a majority of G2a individuals, except those from the Levant. This strongly suggests that farming was disseminated by members of haplogroup G at least from Anatolia/Iran then moved to Europe. 44 ancient Near Eastern samples, including Neolithic farmers from Jordan and western Iran, and found one G2b sample dating from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic (9,250 years ago) and a G2a1 from the Early Pottery Neolithic (7,700 years ago), both from Iran. The highest genetic diversity within haplogroup G is found in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent, between the Levant and the Caucasus, which is a good indicator of its region of origin.

Çatalhöyük in south-central Anatolia/Turkey was founded by farmers who also brought domesticated goats and sheep. Also around 8,500 years ago, G2a Neolithic farmers arrived in northwest Anatolia and Thessaly in central Greece, as attested by the ancient genomes around the time that it seems cattle domestication was introduced to Çatalhöyük and other sites in Central Anatolia, presumably by trading with their eastern neighbors. Ancient skeletons from the Starčevo–Kőrös–Criș culture (8,000-6,500 years ago) in Hungary and Croatia, and the Linear Pottery culture (7,500-6,500 years ago) in Hungary and Germany, all confirmed that G2a (both G2a2a and G2a2b) remained the principal paternal lineage even after farmers intermingled with indigenous populations as they advanced. G2a farmers from the Thessalian Neolithic quickly expanded across the Balkans and the Danubian basin, reaching Serbia, Hungary, and Romania by 7,800 years ago, Germany by 7,500 years ago, and Belgium and northern France by 7,200 years ago. By 7,800 years ago, farmers making cardial pottery arrived at the Marmara coast in northwest Anatolia with ovicaprids and pigs.

These people crossed the Aegean by boat and colonized the Italian peninsula, the Illyrian coast, southern France and Iberia, where they established the Cardium Pottery culture (5000-1500 BCE). Once again, ancient DNA yielded a majority of G2a samples in the Cardium Pottery culture, with G2a frequencies above 80% (against 50% in Central and Southeast Europe). Nevertheless, substantial minorities of other haplogroups have been found on different Neolithic sites next to a G2a majority, including C1a2, H2, I*, I2a1, I2c, and J2a in Anatolia, C1a2, E-M78, H2, I*, I1, I2a, I2a1, J2 and T1a in Southeast and Central Europe (Starčevo, Sopot, LBK), as well as E-V13, H2, I2a1, I2a2a1 and R1b-V88 in western Europe (Cardium Pottery, Megalithic). H2 and T1a were found in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Levant and are undeniably linked to the early development of agriculture alongside G2a. That being said, C1a2 was also found in Mesolithic Spain and, as it is an extremely old lineage associated with the first Paleolithic Europeans, it could have been found all over Europe and Anatolia before the Neolithic. E1b1b was also found in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic Levant, but the subclades may not be E-M78 or E-V13 (more likely E1b1b1* or E-M123).

R1b-V88 surely spread from the Near East too, although through a different route, with cattle herders via North Africa, then crossing over to Iberia. The rest probably represent assimilated hunter-gatherers descended from Mesolithic western Anatolian (I*, I2c, J2) and Europeans (E-V13, I*, I1, I2a, I2a1, I2a2). It is interesting to note that many of these lineages, such as C1a2, H2 and I* are virtually extinct anywhere nowadays, and several others are now very rare in Europe (I2c, R1b-V88).” ref

Haplogroup J (mtDNA) and the Seeming Spread of Early Agriculture – “Samples have been identified from various Neolithic sites, including Linear Pottery culture (LBK) in Central Europe, the Cardium Pottery culture in southern France, Megalithic cultures in northern Spain, and the Funnelbeaker culture in Germany and Sweden. All Neolithic samples tested to date belonged to J1*, J1c or J2b1a. One question that follows is: did J1c and J2b1a lineages actually come from the Near East during the Neolithic, or whether they were already in the Balkans and just expanded from there? Both being rare in the Near East today, the second hypothesis might seem more convincing at first. However, the age of J2b1a has been estimated at 11,000 years before present, while the Neolithic started over 12,000 years ago in the Near East. In other words, it could have arrived from the Near East as J2b1* and developed into J2b1a only after reaching Europe, which would explain why this particular subclade is almost exclusively European while all other subclades of J2b1 are mostly Middle Eastern or the eastern Mediterranean. J2b1a would, therefore, have come as a maternal lineage of early agriculturalists alongside the paternal lineage G2a (and perhaps also E1b1b and T1a). J1c, however, is too old (15,000 years) for that scenario.

If it had been part of the Neolithic expansion from the Fertile Crescent, many J1c subclades would be primarily West Asian today, which isn’t the case. The only J1c individuals outside Europe belong to deep clades that clearly originated in Europe or in Anatolia. DNA of Early Neolithic farmers from western Anatolia and from the Starcevo culture in Hungary and Croatia, and found that J1c was present in both cultures, alongside other typical European Neolithic lineages like H5, K1a, N1a, T2, and X2. Of 44 ancient Near Eastern samples, including Neolithic farmers from Jordan and western Iran, and well as Chalcolithic and Bronze Age samples from Armenia and the Levant, but did not find any J1c, apart from a single sample in Neolithic Iran.

This suggests that J1c lineages were probably not found among the very first farmers of the Fertile Crescent but were rather assimilated in neighboring populations further north, notably in Anatolia and Iran, but probably also in the Balkans, which were connected to Anatolia by a land bridge during the glacial and immediate post-glacial periods. Haplogroup J has been found in Bronze Age samples from the Yamna culture (J2b), Corded Ware culture (J1c and J2b1a), the Catacomb culture (J1b1a1), the Unetice culture (J1b1a1), and the Urnfield culture (J1b1), all in Central Europe. The Corded Ware culture is associated with the expansion of Y-haplogroup R1a from the northern Russian steppe, and in light of the continuity with Neolithic samples from Central Europe it can be assumed that J1c and J2b1a maternal lineages were not brought by the newcomers, but absorbed by the male invaders. On the other hand, J1b has never been found in Europe before the Bronze Age and was very probably brought by the Indo-Europeans carrying R1b paternal lineages. Both the Unetice and the Urnfield cultures are thought to have been founded mainly by R1b men.” ref

• Gobekli Tepe: “first human-made temple” around 12,000 years ago.
• Sedentism and the Creation of goddesses around 12,000 years ago as well as male gods after 7,000 years ago.
• First Patriarchy: Split of Women’s Status around 12,000 years ago & First Hierarchy: fall of Women’s Status around 5,000 years ago.
• Natufians: an Ancient People at the Origins of Agriculture and Sedentary Life
• J DNA and the Spread of Agricultural Religion (paganism)
• Paganism: an approximately 12,000-year-old belief system
• Shaman burial in Israel 12,000 years ago and the Shamanism Phenomena
• Need to Mythicized: gods and goddesses
• “36cu0190” a Historic and Prehistoric site in Pennsylvania
• 12,000 – 10,000 years old Shamanistic Art in a Remote Cave in Egypt
• 12,000 – 7,000 Years Ago – Paleo-Indian Culture (The Americas)
• 12,000 – 2,000 Years Ago – Indigenous-Scandinavians (Nordic)
• Norse did not wear helmets with horns?
• Pre-Pottery Neolithic Skull Cult around 11,500 to 8,400 Years Ago?
• Catal Huyuk “first religious designed city”around 10,000 years ago
• 9,000-8500 year old Female shaman Bad Dürrenberg Germany
• Kurgan 6,000 years ago/dolmens 7,000 years ago: funeral, ritual, and other?
• Connected “dolmen phenomenon” of above-ground stone burial structures?
• Stars: Ancestors, Spirit Animals, and Deities (at least back to around 6,000 years ago)
• Evolution Of Science at least by 5,500 years ago
• 5,500 Years old birth of the State, the rise of Hierarchy, and the fall of Women’s status
• “Jiroft culture” 5,100 – 4,200 years ago and the History of Iran

Paganism is approximately a 12,000-year-old belief system and believe in spirit-filled life and/or afterlife that can be attached to or be expressed in things or objects and these objects can be used by special persons or in special rituals that can connect to spirit-filled life and/or afterlife and who are guided/supported by a goddess/god, goddesses/gods, magical beings, or supreme spirits. If you believe like this, regardless of your faith, you are a hidden paganist.

Around 12,000 years ago, in Turkey, the first evidence of paganism is Gobekli Tepe: “first human-made temple” and around 9,500 years ago, in Turkey, the second evidence of paganism is Catal Huyuk “first religious designed city”. In addition, early paganism is connected to Proto-Indo-European language and religion. Proto-Indo-European religion can be reconstructed with confidence that the gods and goddesses, myths, festivals, and form of rituals with invocations, prayers, and songs of praise make up the spoken element of religion. Much of this activity is connected to the natural and agricultural year or at least those are the easiest elements to reconstruct because nature does not change and because farmers are the most conservative members of society and are best able to keep the old ways.

The reconstruction of goddesses/gods characteristics may be different than what we think of and only evolved later to the characteristics we know of today. One such characteristic is how a deity’s gender may not be fixed, since they are often deified forces of nature, which tend to not have genders. There are at least 40 deities and the Goddesses that have been reconstructed are: *Pria, *Pleto, *Devi, *Perkunos, *Aeusos, and *Yama.

The reconstruction of myths can be connected to Proto-Indo-European culture/language and by additional research, many of these myths have since been confirmed including some areas that were not accessible to the early writers such as Latvian folk songs and Hittite hieroglyphic tablets. There are at least 28 myths and one of the most widely recognized myths of the Indo-Europeans is the myth, “Yama is killed by his brother Manu” and “the world is made from his body”. Some of the forms of this myth in various Indo-European languages are about the Creation Myth of the Indo-Europeans.

The reconstruction of rituals can be connected to Proto-Indo-European culture/language and is estimated to have been spoken as a single language from around 6,500 years ago. One of the earliest ritual is the construction of kurgans or mound graves as a part of a death ritual. kurgans were inspired by common ritual-mythological ideas. Kurgans are complex structures with internal chambers. Within the burial chamber at the heart of the kurgan, elite individuals were buried with grave goods and sacrificial offerings, sometimes including horses and chariots.

The speakers of Pre-Proto-Indo-European lived in Turkey and it associates the distribution of historical Indo-European languages with the expansion around 9,000 years ago, with a proposed homeland of Proto-Indo-European proper in the Balkans around 7,000 years ago. The Proto-Indo-European Religion seemingly stretches at least back around 6,000 years ago or likely much further back and I believe Paganism is possibly an approximately 12,000-year-old belief system.

At a mound is called Gadachrili Gora, and the Stone Age farmers who lived here 8,000 years ago were grape lovers: Their rough pottery is decorated with bunches of the fruit, and analysis of pollen from the site suggests the wooded hillsides nearby were once decked with grapevines. Combined with the grape decorations on the outside of the jars, ample grape pollen in the site’s fine soil, and radiocarbon dates from 7,800 to 8,000 years ago, the chemical analysis indicates the people at Gadachrili Gora were the world’s earliest winemakers.  ref

Starting from 9,500 years ago, a new population began to settle the Balkans and the Danube valley. Evidence shows that the Neolithic newcomers mixed with the indigenous population in Lepenski Vir. Arriving from Asia Minor/Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), the immigrants had a completely different physical appearance and lifestyle. With them, they brought a knowledge of agriculture, first grain crops, and husbandry: sheep, cattle, and goats. Based on the research, Starović concluded that the blending of the population occurred almost immediately, during the first immigrant generation, which was unique as in the other parts of Europe two such different communities would live next to each other at first. He believes that this melting pot was a keystone of human development in Europe. It produced the boom of the Lepenski Vir culture, establishing the “original Balkan Neolithic, the most original occurrence in the entire prehistory in Europe, which founded all we know today – the concepts of village, square, family – which then spread over and overwhelmed the continent”. ref

The culture of Lepenski Vir is around 8,5 millennia old and is located on the right bank of the Danube in the Djerdap gorge (The Iron gates of the Danube) near the town of Donji Milanovac. It was the center of one of the most complex prehistoric cultures. Rich cultural layer reveals the traces of the highly developed culture that had complex social relations and as such was the first in Europe to organize its settlement according to a plan. Trapezoid-base houses with a primitive wooden construction which were organized in the shape of a horseshoe. The buildings surrounded an open space – the first known square, with the central building, probably some kind of a temple or a shrine. Fireplace surrounded by fishlike stone figurines took central place in every house. Stone idols found in Lepenski Vir represent the oldest monumental stone sculptures found in Europe. At first, they only had a head with a strange expression, while in later stages these figurines had anthropomorphic shapes. Besides these figurines, numerous tools and arms made of stone, bone, and antler, pottery and jewelry made of shells and pebbles were found here. Based on these pieces of evidence we can conclude that these first inhabitants of the Danube banks lived at the time of the so-called Neolithic revolution when the first communities started working the land and tamed some animals. The culture of Lepenski Vir developed in the period from 8,500 to 7,500 years ago. ref, ref

The main site consists of several archeological phases starting with Proto-Lepenski Vir, then Lepenski Vir Ia-e, Lepenski Vir II and Lepenski Vir III, whose occupation spanned from 1,500 to 2,000 years, from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic period, when it was succeeded by the Neolithic Vinča culture and Starčevo culture, both upstream the Danube, 135 km (84 mi) and 139 km (86 mi) from Lepenski Vir, respectively. The Vinca culture a Neolithic archaeological culture in Serbia and smaller parts of Romania (particularly Transylvania), dated to the period 7,700–8,500 or 7,300–6,700/6,500 years ago.

The Vinča culture occupied a region of Southeastern Europe (i.e. the Balkans) corresponding mainly to modern-day Serbia (with Kosovo), but also parts of Romania, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Montenegro, Republic of Macedonia, and Greece. This region had already been settled by farming societies of the First Temperate Neolithic, but during the Vinča period sustained population growth led to an unprecedented level of settlement size and density along with the population of areas that were bypassed by earlier settlers.  it was thought, on the basis of typological similarities, that Vinča and other Neolithic cultures belonging to the ‘Dark Burnished Ware’ complex were the product of migrations from Anatolia to the Balkans but the Dark Burnished Ware complex appeared at least a millennium before Troy I, the putative starting point of the westward migration. An alternative hypothesis where the Vinča culture developed locally from the preceding Starčevo culture.

Named for its type site, Vinča-Belo Brdo, a large tell settlement. These settlements maintained a high degree of cultural uniformity through the long-distance exchange of ritual items but were probably not politically unified. Various styles of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figurines are hallmarks of the culture, as are the Vinča symbols, which some conjecture to be the earliest form of proto-writing. Although not conventionally considered part of the Chalcolithic or “Copper Age”, the Vinča culture provides the earliest known example of copper metallurgy. A number of satellite villages belonging to the same culture and time period were discovered in the surrounding area. These additional sites include Hajdučka Vodenica, Padina, Vlasac, Ikaona, Kladovska Skela, and others. Found artifacts include tools made from stone and bones, the remains of houses, and numerous sacral objects including unique stone sculptures.

It is assumed that the people of Lepenski Vir culture represent the descendants of the early European population of the Brno–Předmostí (Czech Republic) hunter-gatherer culture from the end of the last ice age. Archeological evidence of human habitation of the surrounding caves dates back to around 20,000 BC. The first settlement on the low plateau dates back to 11,500–9,200 BC. The late Lepenski Vir (8,300–8,000 years ago) architectural development was the development of the Trapezoidal buildings and monumental sculpture.^[1] The Lepenski Vir site consists of one large settlement with around ten satellite villages. Numerous piscine sculptures and peculiar architecture have been found at the site. And the sculptures of this size so early in human history and original architectural solutions, define Lepenski Vir as the specific and very early phase in the development of the prehistoric culture in Europe. ref, ref

An 8,000-YEAR-OLD VEILED MOTHER GODDESS NEAR BULGARIA’S VIDIN ‘PUSHES BACK’ NEOLITHIC REVOLUTION IN EUROPE. The head of the Neolithic Mother Goddess, the earliest deity of Europe’s first sedentary farmers was found along with and other artifacts and structures in the settlement in Mayor Uzunovo, Vidin District, close to the Danube River, in Northwest Bulgaria. Also, in Bulgaria is found one of the oldest funerals in the Balkans – an early Neolithic funeral of a person at the age of 12-13, which dates back to around 8,300-8,150 years ago. The Neolithic settlement at Dzhulyunitsa existed between 8,300 and 7,700 years ago. Bulgaria farming inhabitants of 8,000 years ago deliberately burned individual homes down, perhaps as some sort of sacrifice. It’s likely they followed a religion concerned with fertility and there are graves dating to the end of the sixth millennium BC, with one skeleton buried in a fetal position. Some of the earliest European evidence for farming is found here as the new crops and domestic animals spread from the Near East through modern-day Turkey.

The finds from the Ohoden excavations indicate that the Balkan Peninsula was the center of a prehistoric civilization which spread to the rest of Europe and we can ponder what they spread the settlement, also had a religious shrine of the sun cult. Early Neolithic pits with traces of fire were next to a northern pit, and an 8,000-year-old stone structure set at a right angle and featuring an arch has been discovered. This is one of the earliest stone structures in the Balkans. The shrine is believed to have been a fertility and sun temple as its floor was paved with U-shaped stones directed to the east; it contained dozens of clay and stone disc symbolizing the sun disc, respectively the sun cult, in early agrarian societies. At the Ohoden site with the sanctuary containing a prehistoric altar decorated with huge trophy elk horns placed 2 meters away from a ritual burial of a man. ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

The earliest kurgans date to 6,000 years ago and are connected to the Proto-Indo-European in the Caucasus. In fact, around 7,000 years ago, there appears to be pre-kurgan in Siberia. Around 7,000 to 2,500 years ago and beyond, kurgans were built with ancient traditions still active in Southern Siberia and Central Asia, which display the continuity of the archaic forming methods. Kurgan cultures are divided archaeologically into different sub-cultures such as Timber Grave, Pit Grave, Scythian, Sarmatian, Hunnish, and Kuman–Kipchak. Kurgans have been found from the Altay Mountains to the Caucasus, Ukraine, Romania, and Bulgaria. Around 5,000 years ago, kurgans were used in the Ukrainian and Russian flat unforested grasslands and their use spread with migration into eastern, central, northern Europe, Turkey, and beyond. ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, & ref

Y-DNA G2a, F* and J2 are what we would expect from a source in Anatolia or the Caucasus Mountains or the highlands of Iran, not the Levant or Arabia or even the lowlands of Mesopotamia (although J2 would surely be found in Mesopotamia in significant proportions). The first European farmers probably emerged from the highlands that form the Southern boundaries of Europe and West Asia, rather than from what we would conventionally think of as the “Near East” proper. And rather than being European hunter-gatherers who were assimilated into the first wave of Neolithic farmers in the Balkans, that the Pelasgians (the indigenous inhabitants of the Aegean Sea region and their cultures) may have been the first wave Neolithic farmers in the Balkans (who probably arrived around 9,000-6,000 years ago). ref

The arrival of the Neolithic culture comes from Anatolia between 9.000 and 5.000 years ago, mtDNA data from Early Neolithic farmers of the Starčevo Criş culture in Romania (Cârcea, Gura Baciului, and Negrileşti sites), confirm their genetic relationship with those of the LBK culture (Linienbandkeramik Kultur) in Central Europe, and they show little genetic continuity with modern European populations. On the other hand, populations of the Middle-Late Neolithic (Boian, Zau and Gumelniţa cultures), supposedly the second wave of Neolithic migration from Anatolia, had a much stronger effect on the genetic heritage of the European populations. In contrast, we find a smaller contribution of Late Bronze Age migrations to the genetic composition of Europeans. Based research findings, it has been proposed that permeation of mtDNA lineages from the second wave of Middle-Late Neolithic migration from North-West Anatolia into the Balkan Peninsula and Central Europe represent an important contribution to the genetic shift between Early and Late Neolithic populations in Europe, and consequently to the genetic make-up of modern European populations.

The study of the genomes of a 7,000-year-old farmer from Germany and eight ~8,000-year-old hunter-gatherers from Luxembourg and Sweden have shown that most present-day Europeans derive from at least three highly differentiated populations. Besides, authors have proposed that early European farmers had a ~44% ancestry from a ‘basal Eurasian’ population.

Archaeological data show that the Neolithic expansion from Anatolia was not a single event but was represented by several waves of migrants. In this respect, the Proto-Sesklo culture in Greece, from which directly Starčevo-Criş in the northern Balkans and indirectly LBK in Central Europe originate represents only the first great wave of Neolithisation of Europe. A later great wave of migration from North-West Anatolia led to important cultures of South-Eastern Europe such as Vinča and Boian cultures.

aDNA studies of hunter-gatherers revealed a high genetic homogeneity in the pre-Neolithic groups throughout Europe, whether from Scandinavia, Central Europe or the Iberian Peninsula. The analysis of aDNA from Early European farmer groups of the Linear Pottery Culture (LPC, also known as Linienbandkeramik Kultur or LBK) in Central Europe suggested a genetic discontinuity in Central Europe and favored instead of a process of Neolithic transition through a of population diffusion into and across the area, based on a high frequency of the N1a haplogroup (about 15%) in the LBK farmers, absent in hunter-gatherers in this same region and almost nonexistent (0.2%) in the present-day European populations. Moreover, these first farmers shared an affinity with the modern-day populations from the Near East and Anatolia, supporting a major genetic input from this area during the advent of farming in Europe. Studies of other Neolithic sites in the North of France, Hungary and the Northeast of Iberian Peninsula also supported this view. However, an ancient mtDNA study of a Neolithic site in the Mediterranean region of Europe, namely in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), led to the proposal of a dual model for explaining the Neolithic dispersion process in Europe: DD in Mediterranean area and CD in Central Europe. ref

• “12,000 years ago: Jericho has evidence of settlement dating back to 10,000 BC. Jericho was a popular camping ground for Natufian hunter-gatherer groups, who left a scattering of crescent microlith tools behind them.
• 12,000 years ago: Earliest dates suggested for the domestication of the goat.
• 11,600 years ago: Start of the current Holocene epoch.
• 11,000 -12,00/13,000 years ago (9,000 BC): Earliest date recorded for construction of temenoi ceremonial structures at Göbekli Tepe in southern Turkey, as possibly the oldest surviving proto-religious site on Earth.
• 11,000 years ago: Emergence of Jericho, which is now one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. Giant short-faced bears and giant ground sloths go extinct. Equidae goes extinct in North America.
• 10,500 years ago: Earliest supposed date for the domestication of cattle.
• 10,000 years ago: The Quaternary extinction event, which has been ongoing since the mid-Pleistocene, concludes. Many of the ice age megafauna go extinct, including the megatherium, woolly rhinoceros, Irish elk, cave bear, cave lion, and the last of the sabre-toothed cats. The mammoth goes extinct in Eurasia and North America, but is preserved in small island populations until ~1650 BC.
• 11,000 – 9,000 years ago: Byblos appears to have been settled during the PPNB period, approximately 8800 to 7000 BC. Neolithic remains of some buildings can be observed at the site.
• 10,000 – 8,000 years ago: The post-glacial sea level rise decelerates, slowing the submersion of landmasses that had taken place over the previous 10,000 years.
• 10,000 – 9,000 years ago: In northern Mesopotamia, now northern Iraq, cultivation of barley and wheat begins. At first they are used for beer, gruel, and soup, eventually for bread. In early agriculture at this time, the planting stick is used, but it is replaced by a primitive plow in subsequent centuries. Around this time, a round stone tower, now preserved to about 8.5 meters high and 8.5 meters in diameter is built in Jericho.
• 9,500–5,900 years ago: Neolithic Subpluvial in North Africa. The Sahara desert region supports a savanna-like environment. Lake Chad is larger than the current Caspian Sea. An African culture develops across the current Sahel region.
• 9,500 years ago: Çatalhöyük urban settlement founded in Anatolia. Earliest supposed date for the domestication of the cat.
• 9,200 years ago: First human settlement in Amman, Jordan; ‘Ain Ghazal Neolithic settlement was built spanning over an area of 15 hectares.
• 9,000 years ago: Jiahu culture began in China.
• 9,000 years ago: large first fish fermentation in southern Sweden.
• 8,200–8,000 years ago: 8.2 kiloyear event: a sudden decrease of global temperatures, likely caused by the final collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, which leads to drier conditions in East Africa and Mesopotamia.
• 8,000-5,000 years ago: development of proto-writing in China, Southeast Europe (Vinca symbols) and West Asia (proto-literate cuneiform).
• 8,000 years ago: Evidence of habitation at the current site of Aleppo dates to about c. 8,000 years ago, although excavations at Tell Qaramel, 25 kilometers north of the city show the area was inhabited about 13,000 years ago, Carbon-14 dating at Tell Ramad, on the outskirts of Damascus, suggests that the site may have been occupied since the second half of the seventh millennium BC, possibly around 6300 BC. However, evidence of settlement in the wider Barada basin dating back to 9000 BC exists.
• 7,500 years ago: Copper smelting in evidence in Pločnik and other locations.
• 7,200–6,000 years ago: 5200–4000 BC:Għar Dalam phase on Malta. First farming settlements on the island.
• 6,100–5,800 years ago: Żebbuġ phase. Malta.
• 6,070–6,000 years ago: Trypillian build in Nebelivka (Ukraine) settlement which reached 15,000—18,000 inhabitants.
• 6,500 years ago: The oldest known gold hoard deposited at Varna Necropolis, Bulgaria.
• 6,000 years ago: Civilizations develop in the Mesopotamia/Fertile Crescent region (around the location of modern-day Iraq). Earliest supposed dates for the domestication of the horse and for the domestication of the chicken, invention of the potter’s wheel.
• 5,900 years ago: 5.9 kiloyear event: a rapid and intense aridification event, which likely started the current Sahara Desert dry phase and a population increase in the Nile Valley due to migrations from nearby regions. It is also believed this event contributed to the end of the Ubaid period in Mesopotamia.
• 5,800 years ago: The Post Track and Sweet Track causeways are constructed in the Somerset Levels.
• 5,800 years ago: Trypillian build in Talianki (Ukraine) settlement which reached 15,600—21,000 inhabitants.
• 5,800–5,600 years ago: Mġarr phase A short transitional period in Malta’s prehistory. It is characterized by pottery consisting of mainly curved lines.
• 5,700 years ago: starts mass graves at Tell Brak in Syria.
• 5,700 years ago: Trypillian build in Maidanets (Ukraine) settlement which reached 12,000—46,000 inhabitants and built 3-story building.
• 5,700 years ago: Minoan culture begins on Crete.
• 5,600–5,200 years ago: Ġgantija phase on Malta. Characterized by a change in the way the prehistoric inhabitants of Malta lived.
• 5,500 years ago: Uruk period in Sumer. The first evidence of mummification in Egypt.
• 5,500 years ago: the oldest known depiction of a wheeled vehicle (Bronocice pot, Funnelbeaker culture)
• 5,300 years ago: Bronze Age begins in the Near East, Newgrange is built in Ireland. Hakra Phase of the Indus Valley Civilisation begins in the Indian subcontinent.
• 5,300–5,000 years ago: Saflieni phase in Maltese prehistory.” ref

Progressed organized religion

Progressed organized religion (such as that seen in Egypt: 5,000 years ago),

(Prehistoric Egypt 40,000 years ago to The First Dynasty 5,150 years ago)

4,600 years ago: (2600 BC): Writing is developed in Sumer 

and Egypt, triggering the beginning of recorded history.

*The First Dynasty*

Date: 3,150 B.C.E. (5,150 years ago)

 The Beginning Rise of the Unequal State Government Hierarchies, Religions and Cultures Merger

The Pharaoh in ancient Egypt was the political and religious leader holding the titles ‘Lord of the Two Lands’ Upper and Lower Egypt and ‘High Priest of Every Temple’. In 5,150 years ago the First Dynasty appeared in Egypt and this reign was thought to be in accordance with the will of the gods; but the office of the king itself was not associated with the divine until later.

Around 4,890 years ago during the Second Dynasty the King was linked with the divine and reign with the will of the gods. Following this rulers of the later dynasties were equated with the gods and with the duties and obligations due those gods. As supreme ruler of the people, the pharaoh was considered a god on earth, the intermediary between the gods and the people, and when he died, he was thought to become Osiris, the god of the dead. As such, in his role of ‘High Priest of Every Temple’, it was the pharaoh’s duty to build great temples and monuments celebrating his own achievements and paying homage to the gods of the land. Among the earliest civilizations that exhibit the phenomenon of divinized kings are early Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt.

In 5,150 years ago the First Dynasty appeared in Egypt with the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt by the king Menes (now believed to be Narmer). Menes/Narmer is depicted on inscriptions wearing the two crowns of Egypt, signifying unification, and his reign was thought to be in accordance with the will of the gods; but the office of the king itself was not associated with the divine until later. During the Second Dynasty of Egypt 4,890-4,670 years ago King Raneb (also known as Nebra) linked his name with the divine and his reign with the will of the gods. Following Raneb, the rulers of the later dynasties were equated with the gods and with the duties and obligations due those gods. As supreme ruler of the people, the pharaoh was considered a god on earth.

The honorific title of `pharaoh’ for a ruler did not appear until the period known as the New Kingdom 3,570-3,069 years ago. Monarchs of the dynasties before the title of `pharaoh’ from the New Kingdom were addressed as `your majesty’ by foreign dignitaries and members of the court and as `brother’ by foreign rulers; both practices would continue after the king of Egypt came to be known as a pharaoh. Ref Ref

“This was a time of astonishing creativity as city-states and empires emerged in a vast area stretching from the Mediterranean to the Indus Valley. The previous millennium had seen the emergence of advanced, urbanized civilizations, new bronze metallurgy extending the productivity of agricultural work, and highly developed ways of communication in the form of writing. Around the time of 5,000 to 4,000 years ago, saw the growth of these riches, both intellectually and physically, became a source of contention on a political stage, and rulers sought the accumulation of more wealth and more power. The civilizations of Sumer and Akkad in Mesopotamia became a collection of volatile city-states in which warfare was common. Uninterrupted conflicts drained all available resources, energies, and populations. Also, in Egypt, pharaohs began to posture themselves as living gods made of an essence different from that of other human beings. Even in Europe, which was still largely Neolithic during the same period, the builders of megaliths were constructing giant monuments of their own. In the Near East and the Occident around 5,000 years ago and religion developed and advanced to roughly the ways we are somewhat familiar to a large amount, limits were being pushed by architects and rulers. After lengthy wars, the Sumerians recognized the benefits of unification into a stable form of national government and became a relatively peaceful, well-organized, complex technocratic state called the 3rd dynasty of Ur. This dynasty was later to become involved with a wave of nomadic invaders known as the Amorites, who were to play a major role in the region during the following centuries.” ref

“Foreign artifacts dating to the 7,000 years ago in the Badarian culture in Egypt indicate contact with distant Syria. In predynastic Egypt, by the beginning of the 6,000 years ago, ancient Egyptians in Maadi were importing pottery as well as construction ideas from Canaan. By the 4th millennium BCE, shipping was well established, and the donkey and possibly the dromedary had been domesticated. Domestication of the Bactrian camel and use of the horse for transport then followed. Charcoal samples found in the tombs of Nekhen, which were dated to the Naqada I and II periods, have been identified as cedar from Lebanon. Predynastic Egyptians of the Naqada I period also imported obsidian from Ethiopia, used to shape blades and other objects from flakes. The Naqadans traded with Nubia to the south, the oases of the western desert to the west, and the cultures of the eastern Mediterranean to the east. Pottery and other artifacts from the Levant that date to the Naqadan-era have been found in ancient Egypt. Egyptian artifacts dating to this era have been found in Canaan and other regions of the Near East, including Tell Brak and Uruk and Susa in Mesopotamia. By the second half of the 4th millennium BCE, the gemstone lapis lazuli was being traded from its only known source in the ancient world—Badakhshan, in what is now northeastern Afghanistan—as far as Mesopotamia and Egypt. By the 3rd millennium BCE, the lapis lazuli trade was extended to Harappa, Lothal and Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley Civilization of modern-day Pakistan and northwestern India. The Indus Valley was also known as Meluhha, the earliest maritime trading partner of the Sumerians and Akkadians in Mesopotamia. The ancient harbor constructed in Lothal, India, around 4,400 years ago is the oldest seafaring harbor known. The overland route through the Wadi Hammamat from the Nile to the Red Sea was known as early as predynastic times; drawings depicting Egyptian reed boats have been found along the path dating to 6,000 years ago. Ancient cities dating to the First Dynasty of Egypt arose along both its Nile and Red Sea junctions, testifying to the route’s ancient popularity. It became a major route from Thebes to the Red Sea port of Elim, where travelers then moved on to either Asia, Arabia or the Horn of Africa.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egyptian_trade

• Progressed organized religion starts, an approximately 5,000-year-old belief system
• Origin of Logics is Naturalistic Observation at least by around 5,000 years ago.
• Ziggurats (multi-platform temples: 4,900 years old) to Pyramids (multi-platform tombs: 4,700 years old)
• 4,250 to 3,400 Year old Stonehenge from Russia: Arkaim?

Genetic analyses shows that 7,000-8,000 years ago, a closely related group of early farmers moved into Europe from the Near East, confirming the findings of previous studies. ref

Progressed organized religion is approximately a 5,000-year-old belief system and believe in spirit-filled life and/or afterlife that can be attached to or be expressed in things or objects and these objects can be used by special persons or in special rituals that can connect to spirit-filled life and/or afterlife and who are guided/supported by a goddess/god, goddesses/gods, magical beings, or supreme spirits and are attached to a standardized and hierarchy structure of control, rules, male dominance, oppression, and lowering of women status. If you believe like this, regardless of your faith, you are a hidden animist, shamanist, totemist, and paganist.

This was a time of astonishing creativity as city-states and empires emerged into a vast area that stretch from the Mediterranean to the Indus Valley. The previous thousand years had seen the emergence of advanced and urbanized civilizations, new bronze metallurgy that extend the productivity of agricultural work, and highly developed ways of communication in the form of writing. 5,000 years ago, the growth of these riches, both intellectually and physically, became a source of contention on a political stage, and rulers sought the accumulation of more wealth and more power. Along with this came the first appearances of mega-architecture, imperialism, organized absolutism, and internal revolution. The civilizations of Sumer and Akkad in Mesopotamia became a collection of volatile city-states where warfare was common and the uninterrupted conflicts drained all the available resources, energies, and populations.

In addition, during this period, larger empires succeeded the last and conquerors grew in stature until the great Sargon of Akkad pushed his empire to the whole of Mesopotamia and beyond. It would not be surpassed in size until Assyrian times 1,500 years later. In the Old Kingdom of Egypt, the Egyptian pyramids were constructed and would remain the tallest and largest human constructions for thousands of years. Also in Egypt, pharaohs began to posture themselves as living gods made of an essence different from that of other human beings. Even in Europe, during the same period, which was still largely primitive, the builders of megaliths were constructing giant monuments of their own. Around 5,000 years ago, in the Near East and Fertile Cresent where agriculture arose, religion developed and advanced to roughly the ways we are somewhat familiar with today, and limits were being pushed by architects and rulers. ref, ref, ref, ref

• “5,750 years ago: The Proto-Semitic people emerged from a generally accepted urheimat in the Levant. The Proto-Semitic people would migrate throughout the Near East into Mesopotamia, Egypt, Ethiopia and the eastern shore of the Mediterranean.
• 5,700 years ago: Lothal: Indus Valley trade-port city in India.
• 5,650 years ago: Minoan culture appeared on Crete.
• 5,500 Years old birth of the State, the rise of Hierarchy, and the fall of Women’s status
• 5,300 years ago: The Indus Valley Civilization (IVC) was a Bronze Age civilization (3300–1300 BCE; mature period 2600–1900 BCE) in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, noted for its cities built of brick, roadside drainage system and multi-storeyed houses, as well as for creating artifacts which could be linked to pre-Vedic religions.
• 5,200 years ago: Helladic culture and Cycladic culture both emerge in Greece.
• 5,102 years ago: This was the beginning of Kaliyuga, a new age among the followers of Indian religions.
• 5,100 years ago: The initial form of Stonehenge was completed. The circular bank and ditch enclosure, about 110 metres (360 ft) across, may have been completed with a timber circle.
• 5,100 years ago: Newgrange, the 250,000 ton (226,796.2 tonne) passage tomb aligned to the winter solstice in Ireland, was built.
• 5,000 years ago: Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt.
• 5,000 years ago: First evidence of gold being used in the Middle East.
• 5,000 years ago: Vessels from Denmark
• 5,000 years ago: Sumerian Cuneiform emerged from the proto-literate Uruk period, allowing the codification of beliefs and creation of detailed historical religious records.
• 5,000 years ago: The second phase of Stonehenge was completed and appeared to function as the first enclosed cremation cemetery in the British Isles.
• 4,900 years ago: Beginning of the Early Dynastic Period I in Sumer.
• 4,900 years ago: Sumerianpictographs evolve into phonograms.
• 4,900 years ago: Mesopotamian wars of the Early Dynastic period.
• 4,900 years ago: Votive statues from the Square Temple of Eshnunna (modern Tell Ashmar, Iraq) were made.
• 4,900 years ago: Syria: Foundation of the city of Mari.
• 4,900 years ago: Semitic tribes occupy Assyria in northern part of the plain of Shinar and Akkad.
• 4,900 years ago: Phoenicians settle on Syrian coast, with centers at Tyre and Sidon.
• 4,900 years ago: Beginning of the period of the Sage Kings in China, also known as the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.
• 4,900 years ago: Ziggurats (multi-platform temples: 4,900 years old) to Pyramids (multi-platform tombs: 4,700 years old)
• 4,879 years ago: Rise of the Văn Lang Kingdom and the Hồng Bàng Dynasty in northern Viet Nam.
• 4,874 years ago: The 365-day calendar year was installed in ancient Egypt
• 4,852 years ago: The beginning of the period of the Three August Ones and Five Emperors in China.
• 4,832 years ago: Estimated germination of the Methuselah Tree, the oldest known living organism
• 4,807 years ago: Suggested date for an asteroid or comet impact occurring between Africa and Antarctica, around the time of a solar eclipse on May 10, based on an analysis of flood stories. Possibly causing the Burckle crater and Fenambosy Chevron.
• 4,800 years ago: Ur becomes one of the richest cities in Sumer
• 4,800 years ago: Harp Player, from Keros, Cyclades, was made. It is now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
• 4,800 years ago: Iran: Creation of the Kingdom of Elam.
• 4,800 years ago:  Seated Harp Player, from Keros, Cyclades, is made.
• 4,775 years ago: Second Dynasty wars in Ancient Egypt.
• 4,773 years ago: the 365-day calendar is introduced in Egypt.
• 4,750 years ago: End of the Early Dynastic I Period, and the beginning of the Early Dynastic II Period in Mesopotamia.
• 4,750 years ago: Estimated ending of the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture in the region of modern-day Romania, Moldova, and southwestern Ukraine
• 4,700 years ago: Germination of the Bristlecone pine tree “Methuselah“, one of the oldest known trees still living now.
• 4,700 years ago: Merit-Ptah is world’s first female physician mentioned by name.
• 4,700 years ago: Old Kingdom of Egypt begins. 3rd–6th Dynasties.
• 4,700 years ago: Mesoamericans begin to plant and domesticate maize.
• 4,697 years ago: The Yellow Emperor starts to reign in China.
• 4,685 years ago: Bull lyre from the tomb of Queen Puabi, Ur (modern Muqaiyir, Iraq) was made.
• 4,640 years ago: The cultivation and weaving of silk starts to be a closely guarded secret in China.
• 4,630 years ago: Imhotep, Vizier of Egypt, constructs the Pyramid of Djoser The Djoser pyramid is a step pyramid (or proto-pyramid) is considered to be the earliest large-scale cut stone construction and was thought to function in both life and the afterlife, which was sealed with a 3.5 ton block after the burial. The symbolism of the step pyramid form, which did not survive the 3rd Dynasty, is unknown, but it has been suggested that it may be a monumental symbol of the crown, especially the royal mortuary cult, since seven small step pyramids (not tombs) were built in the provinces.
• 4,627 years ago: Construction of the Caral metropolis in Peru
• 4,600 years ago: Mature Harappan phase of the Indus Valley Civilisation begins. The cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro become large metropolises and the civilization expands to over 2,500 cities and settlements across the whole of Pakistan, much of northern India, and parts of Afghanistan and Iran, covering a region of around one million square miles, which was larger than the land area of its contemporaries Egypt and Mesopotamia combined, and also had superior urban planning and sewage systems. The civilization began using the mature Indus script for its writing system.
• 4,600 years ago: End of the Early Dynastic II Period and the beginning of the Early Dynastic IIIa Period in Mesopotamia.
• 4,600 years ago: Founding of the Chalcolithic Iberian civilizations of Los Millares and Zambujal.
• 4,600 years ago: the Indus Valley Civilisation rises to become a powerful civilization.
• 4,600 years ago: Pre-Palace Period, phase I, in Crete
• 4,600 years ago: Wild horses still provide hunting feasts in Denmark. (Clutton-Brock)
• 4,600 years ago: Large water tank, possibly a public or ritual bathing area, Mohenjo-daro, Indus Valley Civilisation, is made.
• 4,600 years ago: Butmir culture existed in Butmir, near Ilidža, Bosnia and Herzegovina, dating from the Neolithic. It is characterized by its unique pottery, and is one of the best researched European cultures from 2600-2400 BC.
• 4,600 years ago: Unified Indus Valley Civilisation.
• 4,550 years ago: Estimated date of completion of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
• 4,550 years ago: Mesannepada is king of Ur (followed by his son, A-annepadda) who founds the First Dynasty of Ur and overthrows the last king of Uruk, as well as Mesilim of Kish.
• 4,550 years ago:: Great Lyre with bull’s head, from the tomb of King Meskalamdug, Ur (modern Muqaiyir, Iraq) is made.
• 4,500 years ago: Excavation and development of the Hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni at Paola, Malta, a subterranean temple complex subsequently used as a necropolis.
• 4,500 years ago: The legendary line of Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors of China is founded by the Yellow Emperor.
• 4,500 years ago: the construction of the stone circle at Stonehenge begins and continues for the next five hundred years.
• 4,500 years ago: Rice was first introduced to Malaysia
• 4,500 years ago: Scribal schools flourish throughout Sumer.
• 4,500 years ago: Assyria is established.
• 4,500 years ago: Cylinder seal from Sumer and its impression are made. It is now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
• 4,500 years ago: Excavation and development of the Hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni at Paola, Malta, a subterranean temple complex subsequently used as a necropolis.
• 4,500 years ago: Valley Temple of Khafra, Giza, is built.
• 4,500 years ago: Khafra from Giza Valley, Temple of Khafra is made. Fourth Dynasty of Egypt. Discovered by Auguste Mariette. It is now kept in Egyptian Museum, Cairo.
• 4,500 years ago: Mohenjo-daro is about 7 square miles (18 km²) in size and has a population of c. 20,000 to 50,000.
• 4, 500 years ago: Incised panel “Frying pan”, from Syros, Cyclades is made.
• 4,500 years ago: Two figures of women, from the Cyclades, are made.
• 4,494 years ago: End of Fourth Dynasty, start of Fifth Dynasty in Egypt. Construction of the Pyramids begins.
• 4,494 years ago:  “Sculptors at work”, relief from Saqqara, Fifth Dynasty. It is now at Egyptian Museum, Cairo, Egypt.
• 4,494 years ago: The Seated Scribe, a sculpture found at Saqqara, Fifth Dynasty of Egypt is made.
• 4,494 years ago: The first of the oldest surviving religious texts, the Pyramid Texts, was composed in Ancient Egypt.
• 4,492 years ago: Traditional date for the legendary foundation of Armenia by Hayk.
• 4,492 years ago: The Armenian patriarch Hayk defeats the Babylonian king Bel (legendary account) and Hayk founds Armenia.
• 4,474 years ago: Golden age of Ur in Mesopotamia.
• 4,450 years ago: End of the Early Dynastic IIIa Period and beginning of the Early Dynastic IIIb Period in Sumer.
• 4,450 years ago: Kish is lost to Hamazi tribesmen of the Kurdistan mountains; Elam under the Awan dynasty occupies parts of Sumer.
• 4,419 years ago: Neferefre is pharaoh
• 4,410 years ago: By this time, kings in Sumer have ceased to be automatically high priests of the city deity. Infiltration and conquest of Mesopotamia by ancient Semitic-speaking peoples begins.
• 4,400 years ago: Construction of Stonehenge
• 4,400 years ago: Megalithic culture begins to spread through Europe and the western Mediterranean.
• 4,400 years ago: Earliest signs of Corded Ware culture from the Caucasus.
• 4,400 years ago: Southeastern Spain is settled from the Mediterranean, by people using Prehistoric Egyptian-style pottery.
• 4,400 years ago: Amorites and Canaanites occupy Syria and Lebanon.
• 4,334 years ago: Sargon of Akkad conquers Mesopotamia, establishing the Akkadian Empire.
• 4,334 years ago: City of Lothal founded under the Indus Valley Civilisation.
• 4,333 years ago: According to the Korean creation story, Dangun Wanggeom established the first Korean Empire, Gojoseon
• 4,300 years ago:  C-Group pastoralists arrive in Nubia.
• 4,300 years ago: Megalithic, Corded Ware culture and the Beaker flourish in Europe.
• 4,300 years ago: Sumerian poetry, lamenting the death of Tammuz, the shepherd god.
• 4,300 years ago: Sumerian cuneiform writing reduces pictographs still in use to about 550 BC.
• 4,300 years ago: Major religious festival in Sumeria celebrates the victory of god of spring over goddess of chaos.
• 4,300 years ago: Earliest Trojan culture.
• 4,300 years ago: Beginning of the Pengtoushan culture in China.
• 4,300 years ago: Indus Valley Civilization (Harappan) flourishing in modern day eastern Pakistan – western India.
• 4,300 years ago: Metals start to be used in Northern Europe.
• 4,300 years ago: Unetice culture emerges in the modern day Czech Republic.
• 4,300 years ago: Disk of Enheduanna, from Ur, (modern Muqaiyir, Iraq) is made.
• 4,300 years ago: “Head of a man from Nineveh” (modern Kuyunjik, Iraq) is made.
• 4,285 years ago: Enheduanna, high priestess of the moon god Nanna in Ur, was born.
• 4,254 years ago: Stela of Naram-Sin, probably from Sippar, discovered in Susa (modern Shush, Iran), is made.
• 4,250 years ago: Earliest evidence of maize cultivation in Central America.
• 4,240 years ago: Akkad, capital of the Akkadian Empire, becomes the largest city in the world, surpassing Memphis, capital of Egypt.
• 4,220 years ago: Scord of Brouster farmstead established in Shetland, Scotland
• 4.2 kiloyear event – a severe aridification event that probably lasted the entire 22nd century BC and caused the collapse of several Old World civilizations.
• 4,217 years ago: Nomadic invasions of Akkad.
• 4,200 years ago: The Minoan Civilization developed in Crete. Citizens worshipped a variety of goddesses.
• 4,150 years ago: The earliest surviving versions of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh—originally titled He who Saw the Deep (Sha naqba īmuru) or Surpassing All Other Kings (Shūtur eli sharrī)—were written.
• 4,104 years ago: Approximate date of the Biblical flood according to the Hebrew Calendar.
• 4,070 years ago: Xia Dynasty, first Chinese dynasty and government system established.
• 4,000 years ago: Kultepe? An archaeological site with a 4,000 years old women’s rights document.
• 3,700 years ago: The oldest of the Hindu Vedas (scriptures), the Rig Veda was composed.
• 3,600 years ago: The ancient development of Stonehenge came to an end.
• 3,500 years ago: The Vedic Age began in India after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilisation.
• 3,450 years ago: This is the traditionally accepted period in which, according to legend, the Israelite lawgiver Moses gave the Ten Commandments.
• 3,351 years ago: The reign of Akhenaten, sometimes credited with starting the earliest known recorded monotheistic religion, in Ancient Egypt
• 3,300 years ago: The “standard” Akkadian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh was edited by Sin-liqe-unninni.
• 3,250 years ago: The Upanishads (Vedic texts) were composed, containing the earliest emergence of some of the central religious concepts of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism. ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

My thoughts on Religion Evolution with external links for more info:

• (Pre-Animism Africa mainly, but also Europe, and Asia at least 300,000 years ago), (Pre-Animism – Oxford Dictionaries)
• (Animism Africa around 100,000 years ago), (Animism – Britannica.com)
• (Totemism Europe around 50,000 years ago), (Totemism – Anthropology)
• (Shamanism Siberia around 30,000 years ago), (Shamanism – Britannica.com)
• (Paganism Turkey around 12,000 years ago), (Paganism – BBC Religion)
• (Progressed Organized Religion “Institutional Religion” Egypt around 5,000 years ago), (Ancient Egyptian Religion – Britannica.com)
• (CURRENT “World” RELIGIONS after 4,000 years ago) (Origin of Major Religions – Sacred Texts)
• (Early Atheistic Doubting at least by 2,600 years ago) (History of Atheism – Wikipedia)

“Religion is an Evolved Product” and Yes, Religion is Like Fear Given Wings…

Atheists talk about gods and religions for the same reason doctors talk about cancer, they are looking for a cure, or a firefighter talks about fires because they burn people and they care to stop them. We atheists too often feel a need to help the victims of mental slavery, held in the bondage that is the false beliefs of gods and the conspiracy theories of reality found in religions.

“Understanding Religion Evolution: Animism, Totemism, Shamanism, Paganism & Progressed organized religion”

Understanding Religion Evolution:

• Pre-Animism (at least 300,000 years ago)
• Animism (Africa: 100,000 years ago)
• Totemism (Europe: 50,000 years ago)
• Shamanism (Siberia: 30,000 years ago)
• Paganism (Turkey: 12,000 years ago)
• Progressed organized religion (Egypt: 5,000 years ago), (Egypt, the First Dynasty 5,150 years ago)
• CURRENT “World” RELIGIONS (after 4,000 years ago)
• Early Atheistic Doubting (at least by 2,600 years ago)

“An Archaeological/Anthropological Understanding of Religion Evolution”

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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People wrongly say “Paganism” like there is only one kind or only one meaning.

I am not supporting Paganism as I am atheist and antireligious. I am just offering this inform to others so we know what we or others are talking about.

Paganism is an umbrella term that encompasses a wide variety of religions, belief-sets and spiritual paths. The lack of a firm and agreed definition makes the question ‘What is paganism?’ a very difficult one to answer.

Paganism is a broad group of religions including modern pagan religions, indigenous religions and historical polytheistic religions. In a wider sense, paganism has also been understood to include any non-Abrahamic, folk, ethnic religion or or European occultism.

The term pagan is from Latin “Paganus” likely acquired its meaning in Christian speach via Roman military jargon. Early Christians adopted military motifs and saw themselves as “Milites Christi” (“soldiers of Christ”). Classical Latin pagus which originally meant “region delimited by markers”, paganus had also come to mean “of or relating to the countryside”, “country dweller”, “villager”; by extension, “rustic”, “unlearned”, “yokel”, “bumpkin”; in Roman military jargon, “non-combatant”, “civilian”, “unskilled soldier”. It is related to pangere (“to fix”, “to fasten”) and ultimately comes from Proto-Indo-European *pag- (“to fix”). The adoption of paganus by the Latin Christians as an all-embracing, pejorative term for polytheists but was relatively a word of Latin slang originally some what devoid of religious meaning. The evolution occurred only in the Latin west, and in connection with the Latin church. Elsewhere, “Hellene” or “gentile” (ethnikos) remained the word for “pagan”; and paganos continued as a purely secular term, with overtones of the inferior and the commonplace.

What do pagans believe?

Some pagans believe in a single god or single goddess, some believe in a god and goddess, some believe in many gods and/or many goddesses, some believe there is no god and some are not sure whether there is/are god(s) or not. Some worship these gods, and some (even those who believe in them) do not. Some are animist (Nature – Veneration) and believe that ‘spirit’ exists in all humans, animals, plants, non-living things like rocks, planets, oceans and wind, as a real concept or an abstract concepts such as love, creativity, and change.

Some pagans feel closer to the deities of other cultures – Native American, Celtic, Norse, Roman, Greek, Germanic, Scandinavian, Slavic, Baltic, Albanian, Armenian, Basque, Etruscan, Finnic, Georgian, Egyptian, Vainakh… etc.

Paganism represents a wide variety of traditions that emphasize reverence for nature and a revival of ancient polytheistic and animistic religious practices. Some modern forms of Paganism have their roots in 19th century C.E. European nationalism (including the British Order of Druids), but most contemporary Pagan groups trace their immediate organizational roots to the 1960s, and have an emphasis on archetypal psychology and a spiritual interest in nature. Paganism is not a traditional religion per se because it does not have any official doctrine, but it does have some common characteristics joining the great variety of traditions. One of the common beliefs is the divine presence in nature and the reverence of the natural order in life. Paganism often has absorbed influences from around the world and some Pagans choose to specialise in one of these traditions, or paths as they are often known.

Some groups take influences from a particular part of the world. Some follow ancient Scandinavian, Germanic and Anglo-Saxon belief systems. Other traditions are defined by elements of their practice. For instance, Wiccans use magical techniques in worship, Druids emphasize arts and philosophy, and Shamans employ spirit-journeying for healing.

What about neopaganism?

There are new religious movements that have been called occult, new age, neopaganism, and esotericism, but they have the same obscure and arcane reasonless revelations and prophecies. Generally, the word “occult” is associated with secret knowledge and practices that deal with the supernatural or “psychic” phenomena and often, with the purpose of obtaining personal power. Some occult practices rely on good or evil “spirits” or “deities” to achieve their goals. Interest in the occult has been promoted by the new age, neopaganism, and esotericism.

All religions had a beginning point and a point when someone started telling lies. One of the new religious movements’ highly influential liars of reasonless revelations, prophecies, or predictions was Aleister Crowley, an esoteric conman who influenced scientology, eckankar, and wicca, which was created as a hoax. A hoax tries to make you believe in something that is not true or compatible with reality such as creationism, prayer, or magic for examples. Really, how is any religion different from a hoax religion? To me there is little to no difference. Aleister Crowley was a hoaxer, occult delusionary, and esoteric conman extraordinaire who inspired others like him directly or to a much lesser second hand sense such as Gerald Gardner (wicca 1954).

Aleister Crowley, the continual hoaxer who once faked his own death by leaving a sad note about heartbreak at the top of this dangerous rock formation and the implication being that he had jumped to his death. The papers ran with it and announced Crowley’s suicide much to the amusement of Crowley. Some weeks later, Crowley arrived unannounced at an exhibit of some of his paintings in Berlin and showed that his death was a hoax. Gerald Gardner was a hoaxer, occult delusionary and esoteric conman who took a bunch of Aleister Crowley’s writings and material from liber al vel legis, and sort of cut and paste them with a few words changed and added into his creation of initiation rituals, the charge of the goddess, the drawing down the moon ritual, and more.

Aleister Crowley was an English occultist, ceremonial magician, and novelist, responsible for founding the religion and philosophy of thelema, in which role he identified himself as the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the aeon of horus. Crowley claimed to have been contacted by a supernatural entity named aiwass, who provided him with the book of the law, a sacred text that served as the basis for thelema. Crowley was influenced from a variety of sources, ranging from Eastern religious movements and practices like hindu, yoga, and buddhism, scientific naturalism, and various currents within Western esotericism, among them ceremonial magic, alchemy, astrology, rosicrucianism, kabbalah, and the tarot. Several Western esoteric traditions other than thelema were also influenced by Crowley. Gerald Gardner, founder of gardnerian wicca, made use of much of Crowley’s published material when composing the gardnerian ritual liturgy.

Anton LaVey and Michael Aquino, who are two prominent figures in religious satanism were also aware of Crowley’s work and had conflicting thoughts on it. It is not uncommon to read the name Aleister Crowley and it linked to satanism or devil worship. There have been various statements made by Crowley or attributed to him that were used as proof that he was the archetypal satanist. However, many occultists reject the belief of Crowley-the-Satanist as well. Many of these occultists, even some of these are satanists and followers of Crowley’s magical system of thelema believed he was a satanist; however, there are some satanic groups who also reject the idea of Crowley being a satanist. Many of the people claiming that Crowley was a satanist based their assumptions on the literal interpretations of his writings. It is clear that some of Crowley’s writings were extremely anti-christian. However, to be anti-christian does not make someone a satanist per se and does not indicate that the person identifies with the popular conceptions of satanists. Crowley wrote of being the servant of satan, “the devil, our lord whose number of magic is 666, the seal of his servant the beast” in his ritual for the attainment of knowledge and conversation of his holy guardian angel, shaitan-aiwaz. Kenneth Grant, another student of Crowley, wrote, “This whole ritual is an invocation of shaitan (satan) or set.” It is easy to see how Crowley, the great beast 666, gained the reputation as a satanist and hardcore anti-christian. The simple answer to the question of Aleister Crowley of having been a satanist is that there is no definitive answer. The religion of satanism is stupid and is just like all religions. I do care and am against satanism, even though it is not real, it is still a religion or a form of religious thinking, all of which I reject just like all other religions or pseudo-religions.

Now we get to Wicca:

Gerald Gardner, founded the religion of wicca and put it together in the middle 1950s using blatant rip-offs of Aleister Crowley, Freemasonry, Egyptian ideologies and Celtic lore. Wiccans or neo-pagan witches are not satanists nor do they worship devils or consort with demons. Let us address the satanic ritual abuse and used to describe the actions of “pseudo-satanists” or those who sexually abuse children and use the trappings of so-called satanic rituals and claims of magical powers to coerce and terrify victims, but do not actually believe in the official organized satanic rituals. In the first place, there has never been any consensus on what actually constituted satanic ritual abuse and it was actually used more a catchall fear motivated term. This lack of a single definition, as well as confusion between the meanings of the term “ritual” (religious versus psychological), allowed a wide range of allegations and evidence to be claimed as a demonstration of the reality of satanic ritual abuse claims, irrespective of which “definition” the evidence supported.

A survey of more than 12,000 satanic ritual abuse allegations has found no substantiating evidence for an intergenerational conspiracy, but did document several examples of abuse by pseudo-satanists. Despite allegations appearing in the United States, Holland, Sweden, New Zealand, and Australia, no real material evidence has been found to verify allegations of organized cult-based abuse that practices human sacrifice and cannibalism. Satanic ritual abuse is considered a moral panic and no more credible to the historical witch-hunts. Anthropologists, sociologists, and journalists performed the initial investigations of satanic ritual abuse, which failed to find evidence of satanic ritual abuse actually occurring. However, they concluded that satanic ritual abuse was a result of rumors and folk legends that were spread by the media hype, christian fundamentalism, and some evangelical activists and groups were using claims of satanic ritual abuse to further their religious and political goals.

Now back to wicca, which is the largest category of neopaganism. Wicca, no matter how it would like, it is not historically accurate and not part of or a continuation of a Stone Age religion. Wiccan expressions are essentially esoteric, not exoteric. Wicca is a decentralized religion, which mostly involves witchcraft as a spiritual system, and though many share this common name, many wiccans develop their own beliefs, rituals, and other practices. As a result, they place their emphasis on a subjective religious experience and not on historically verifiable facts. Originally, wicca’s founder Gerald Gardner claimed the rituals in the book of shadows were the original rituals used by British wiccans for centuries; it becomes quite obvious when reading it that the material comes from several sources. The writings of Aleister Crowley were a major source of material and without question; there were no sources from British wiccans as historically there is no such thing as British wicca since it was created in the 1950’s. If wicca is the survival of an ancient tradition, there would be a record of those beliefs somewhere and yet, there is not. There is an old saying that if you ask any ten wiccans about their religion, you will get at least fifteen different answers. Margot Adler a wiccan author states, “The most authentic and hallowed wiccan tradition is stealing from any source that didn’t run away too fast.”

The truth is all too clear and not a single culture from pre-christian Europe held beliefs, even remotely similar to those of wicca. There are literally thousands of inscriptions to Celtic deities, most of them appearing only once, and many tied to small areas of population. The surviving Celtic myths speak of their gods as behaving as individual beings unto themselves and not pieces of one super-god. The druids, often cited by new agers as being monotheistic, were actually of little importance to Celtic religion. After the Romans outlawed the druids, the Celtic religious practice continued uninterrupted. The druids are often viewed as something of a mystical brotherhood of priests and wizards. Upon closer examination, one finds they were more akin to a guild of bards and lawyers who acted as priests from time to time. Wicca instead relatively a mix of witch cult, ceremonial magic, Victorian ideas and British legend about nature worship, some old esoteric knowledge into his original tradition, including eastern mysticism, kabballah, a sprinkling of hinduism and spiritualism all put together by Gerald Gardner created and founded wicca with possibly some additional help and wicca is relatively a mix of witch cult, ceremonial magic, Victorian ideas and British legend about nature worship, some old esoteric knowledge into Gardner’s original tradition that includes eastern mysticism, kabballah, and a sprinkling of hinduism and spiritualism.

The claims of a surviving Stone Age cult appears to me as an attempt to validate wicca by making it appear older and to give it the popular appeal of “ancient and powerful mysteries.” Many wiccans criticize or deny the division of an ultimate deity into a purely good god and another into purely evil. For wiccans, the ultimate deity divides into a male god and female goddess. Since this division does not correspond to a division between good and evil, it follows that the male god and female goddess must be mixtures of good and evil or is mixtures of positive and negative values. However, as stated before, wiccan views on theology are numerous and varied and there is no universally agreed-upon religious canon. Traditionally, wicca is a duotheistic religion that venerates both a triple goddess associated with the moon, stars, and often the earth, and a horned god associated with the sun, forests, and animals. These two deities are variously understood through the frameworks of pantheism as being dual aspects of a single godhead, duotheism as being two polar opposites, hard polytheism as being two distinct deities in a larger pantheon which includes other pagan gods, or soft polytheism as being composed of many lesser deities. In some pantheistic conceptions, found within the wicca and including monotheism, the concept that there is just one deity, which is seen by some such as dianic wiccans as being the goddess, whilst by others, like the church and school of wicca as being genderless.

There are other wiccans, who are atheists or agnostics and do not believe in any actual deity, but instead view the gods as psychological archetypes of the human mind, which can be evoked and interacted with. Many wiccans believe that the god and goddess are merely two aspects of the same godhead, often viewed as a pantheistic deity, thereby encompassing everything in the universe within its divinity. Many wiccans believe in magic, a manipulative force exercised through the practice of witchcraft or sorcery. Several wiccans agree with the definition of magic offered by ceremonial magicians such as Aleister Crowley, who declared that magic was “the science and art of causing change to occur in conformity with will.” Many wiccans believe magic to be a law of nature, yet misunderstood or disregarded by contemporary science, and as such, they do not view it as being supernatural, but a part of super powers that reside in the natural.

Some wiccans believe that magic is simply making full use of the five senses in order to achieve surprising results, whilst other wiccans do not claim to know how magic works and merely believing that it does because they have observed it to be so. Some spell it “magick,” a variation coined by the influential occultist Aleister Crowley, though this spelling is more commonly associated with Crowley’s religion of thelema than with wicca. If wicca really is nature-based, then it is contradictory to the present theory of nature and is so deeply inconsistent with natural science. Therefore, if wicca really does demand empirical testing, then it is contradictory for wiccans to make claims that are obviously empirically false. Skeptics and rationalists ought to put pressure on wiccans to naturalize their beliefs. Wiccan texts are full of woo and just plain irrational thinking. It is precisely because wicca has naturalism that it seems it can very easily become naturalized and de-mythologized. As long as our brain structures remain the same, religion is here to stay. The question is whether the Wiccan religion can be changed so that it becomes more rational.

References 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

• Paganism?
• Understanding Religion Evolution: Animism, Totemism, Shamanism, Paganism & Progressed organized religion
• Damien, I was wondering what your thoughts are on Paganism?
• Paganism: an approximately 12,000-year-old belief system
• J DNA and the Spread of Agricultural Religion (paganism)
• Sky Burials: Animism, Totemism, Shamanism, and Paganism
• Paganism, Folk religion, & Ethnic/indigenous religion
• Animism, Totemism, Shamanism, and Paganism
• Stars: Ancestors, Spirit Animals, and Deities (at least back to around 6,000 years ago) 

Paganism (Turkey: 12,000 years ago)

Paganism 12,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Pre-Capitalism)

Paganism 7,000-5,000 years old: (Capitalism) (World War 0) Elite and their slaves!

Paganism 5,000 years old: progressed organized religion related to (Kings and the Rise of the State)

Paganism 4,000 years old: (First Moralistic gods, then the Origin time of Monotheism)

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Gobekli Tepe: “first human made temple” around 12,000 years ago

Ritualistic Bird Symbolism at Gobekli Tepe and its “Ancestor Cult” a Sacred Sky Burial Relationship between Birds and Spirits of the Dead

Myths from several regions’ associate birds with the creation of the world. Sacred ideas of birds range from a creator role, to a symbol of life as well as relating to both death and rebirth. Birds are a common totem or believed spirit and relate to renewal, transformation, and ancestors as well. In this deity, spirit or ancestor role they may be seen as Bird People (people with the characteristics of birds) a common motif in myths. Also, birds are commonly associated with or relate to fertility, longevity, and life itself. ref

Crow/Raven

“Many references to ravens exist in world lore and literature. Most depictions allude to the appearance and behavior of the wide-ranging common raven (Corvus corax). Because of its black plumage, croaking call, and diet of carrion, the raven is often associated with loss and ill omen. Yet, its symbolism is complex. As a talking bird, the raven also represents prophecy and insight. Ravens in stories often act as psychopomps, connecting the material world with the world of spirits. The Raven has appeared in the mythologies of many ancient peoples. Some of the more common stories are from those of Greek, Celtic, Norse, Pacific Northwest, and Roman mythology.” ref

“In Greek mythology, ravens are associated with Apollo, the God of prophecy. They are said to be a symbol of bad luck, and were the gods’ messengers in the mortal world. According to the mythological narration, Apollo sent a white raven, or crow in some versions to spy on his lover, Coronis. When the raven brought back the news that Coronis had been unfaithful to him, Apollo scorched the raven in his fury, turning the animal’s feathers black. That’s why all ravens are black today. According to Livy, the Roman general Marcus Valerius Corvus (c. 370-270 BCE) had a raven settle on his helmet during a combat with a gigantic Gaul, which distracted the enemy’s attention by flying in his face.” ref

“The raven (Hebrew: עורב‎; Koine Greek: κόραξ) is the first species of bird to be mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, and ravens are mentioned on numerous occasions thereafter. In the Book of Genesis, Noah releases a raven from the ark after the great flood to test whether the waters have receded (Gen. 8:6-7). According to the Law of Moses, ravens are forbidden for food (Leviticus 11:15; Deuteronomy 14:14), a fact that may have colored the perception of ravens in later sources. In the Book of Judges, one of the Kings of the Midianites defeated by Gideon is called “Orev” (עורב‎), which means “Raven”. In the Book of Kings 17:4-6, God commands the ravens to feed the prophet Elijah. King Solomon is described as having hair as black as a raven in the Song of Songs 5:11. Ravens are an example of God’s gracious provision for all His creatures in Psalm 147:9 and Job 38:41. (In the New Testament as well, ravens are used by Jesus as an illustration of God’s provision in Luke 12:24.)” ref

“Philo of Alexandria (first century CE), who interpreted the Bible allegorically, stated that Noah’s raven was a symbol of vice, whereas the dove was a symbol of virtue (Questions and Answers on Genesis 2:38). In the Talmud, the raven is described as having been only one of three beings on Noah’s Ark that copulated during the flood and so was punished. The Rabbis believed that the male raven was forced to spit. According to the Icelandic Landnámabók—a story similar to Noah and the Ark — Hrafna-Flóki Vilgerðarson used ravens to guide his ship from the Faroe Islands to Iceland. Pirke De-Rabbi Eliezer (chapter 25) explains that the reason the raven Noah released from the ark did not return to him was that the raven was feeding on the corpses of those who drowned in flood.” ref

“The Raven is the chief deity of the Tlingit people of Alaska. All over that region it is the chief figure in a group of myths, fulfilling the office of a culture hero who brings the light, gives fire to mankind, and so on (Thomas 1911, p. 51). A raven story from the Puget Sound region describes the “Raven” as having originally lived in the land of spirits (literally bird land) that existed before the world of humans. One day the Raven became so bored with bird land that he flew away, carrying a stone in his beak. When the Raven became tired of carrying the stone and dropped it, the stone fell into the ocean and expanded until it formed the firmament on which humans now live. In the creator role, and in the Raven’s role as the totem and ancestor of one of the four northwest clan houses, the Raven is often addressed as Grandfather Raven. It is not clear whether this form of address is intended to refer to a creator Raven who is different from the trickster Raven, or if it is just a vain attempt to encourage the trickster spirit to act respectably.” ref

Hawk

“Together with the eagle-hawk the crow plays a great part in the mythology of southeastern Australia (Thomas 1911, p. 51). Ravens also play a part in some European mythologies, such as in the Celtic and Germanic Religions, where they were connected to Bran and the Morrigan in the former and Woden in the latter. According to Florance Waterbury, hawk worship was universal (Waterbury 1952, p. 26). This particular bird was “a heavenly deity; its wings were the sky, the sun and moon were its eyes” (Waterbury 1952, p. 26).” ref

“North Borneo treated the hawk as a god, but it was technically the messenger of the people’s Supreme God (Waterbury 1952, p. 62). There were rituals that involved the hawk when the natives wished to make decisions about certain events, such as journeys from home, major agricultural work, and war (Waterbury 1952, p. 62). In North Borneo we seem to see the evolution of a god in the three stages of the cult of the hawk among the Kenyahs, the Kayans and the sea Dyaks. The Kenyahs will not kill it, address to it thanks for assistance, and formally consult it before leaving home on an expedition. It seems, however, to be regarded as the messenger of the supreme god Balli Penyalong. The Kayans have a hawk-god, Laki Neho, but seem to regard the hawk as the servant of the chief god, Laki Tenangan. Singalang Burong, the hawk-god of the Dyaks, is completely anthropomorphized. He is god of omens and ruler of the omen birds, but the hawk is not his messenger. For he never leaves his house. Stories are, however, told of his attending feasts in human form and flying away in hawk form when all was over (Thomas 1911, p. 52).” ref

“The hawk is commonly associated with the Egyptian god Horus. As a god of the sky, divine authority, war, victory, and civilization, Horus became the patron deity of the pharaohs. The souls of former pharaohs were said to be the followers of Horus and, therefore, the hawk (Waterbury 1952, p. 26). Horus was originally depicted by the Egyptians as a full hawk, but after the Fourth and Fifth Dynasty, depictions with a human body and a hawk head became more common. (Waterbury 1952, p. 27). Other Egyptian deities shown in the form of a hawk or hawk-headed man include Qebehsenuef, Sopdu, Ra (not always), and Sokar.” ref

“Egypt was not the only location of hawk worshippers. There were several other cultures that held the hawk in high regard. The hawk was a deity on the island of Hawaii and symbolized swift justice (Waterbury 1952, p. 62). Along with the lone island from the Hawaiian archipelago, the Fiji islands also had some tribes who worshipped a hawk god (Waterbury 1952, p. 62). Furthermore, although animal worshipping is not a part of Sikh culture, a white falcon bird is mostly regarded in Sikhism as it was associated with the sixth guru and especially the tenth guru. The tenth guru would always carry a white falcon perched on his hand when going out to hunt. The tenth guru was known as the Master of White Hawk. Many people believe that the bird carried by Guru Gobind Singh was a hawk; however, historians believe that the bird was a gyrfalcon or a saker falcon.” ref

Frigatebird

“On Easter Island until the 1860s there was a Tangata manu (Bird man) cult which has left us Paintings and Petroglyphs of Birdmen (half men half frigatebirds). The cult involved an annual race to collect the first sooty tern egg of the season from the islet of Moto Iti and take it to Orongo. The Frigate Bird Cult is thought to have originated in the Solomon Islands before immigrating to Easter Island where it became obsolete (Balfour 1917, p. 374). The Frigate-Bird was a representation of the god Make-make, the god of the seabird’s egg on Easter Island (Balfour 1917, p. 374).” ref

Ibis

“In Ancient Egypt, the ibis was considered sacred as it was viewed as a manifestation of Thoth, a god of the moon and wisdom. In art, Thoth was usually depicted as a man with the head of an ibis, or, more rarely as a baboon. Sacred ibises were kept and fed in temples in his honor, and mummified ibises were given to him as votive offerings. It is thought that the association of the ibis with Thoth may have originated from the curved shape of the bird’s beak, which resembles a crescent moon.” ref

Vulture

“Another species of bird that was considered sacred in Ancient Egypt was the Egyptian vulture. At the city of Nekheb in Upper Egypt there was a temple dedicated to the goddess Nekhbet, who was depicted in art as a vulture, sometimes wearing a royal crown. Nekhbet was closely associated with the Egyptian royal family, and was considered a personal protector of the Egyptian king. She was often portrayed or invoked alongside a similar goddess named Wadjet, who was depicted as a cobra and had her main temple at Buto in Lower Egypt. Nekhbet and Wadjet thus often featured together on temple reliefs and stelae, representing in heraldic format the union between Upper and Lower Egypt. These two goddesses were considered so important that they could be referred to by the simple title “nebty” (“the two ladies”) without any confusion as to their identity. Out of the five names that made up the Ancient Egyptian royal titulary, one of them, the “nebty name,” was dedicated to the Two Ladies. This great honor of patronage over one of the king’s names was shared only with such major gods as Ra and Horus.” ref

“Egyptologists have theorized that the association of Nekhbet with the vulture may have originated from observations of a mother vulture’s behavior as it protects its chicks by “mantling” them with its wings, leading to its association with a protective and maternal goddess. In fact, the Egyptian word “mut” (“mother”) is spelt in hieroglyphs with a picture of a vulture. Due to the vulture’s maternal connotations and its early use in the iconography of Nekhbet, in later periods, a vulture headdress came to be worn by a large number of Egyptian goddesses, as well as by human queens. The goddess Mut, worshipped at Thebes, Egypt, alongside Amun and Khonsu, was written in hieroglyphs with a picture of a vulture, and would be indistinguishable from the common noun “mother” except for the fact that in the goddess’s name, the vulture bears a royal flail. Goddesses who wore the vulture headdress in later periods included Mut, Hathor, Isis, and Wadjet, although only Nekhbet appeared as a vulture in its entirety.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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 “Sky Burial” and its possible origins at least 12,000 years ago to likely 30,000 years ago or older.

“In archaeology and anthropology, the term excarnation (also known as defleshing) refers to the practice of removing the flesh and organs of the dead before burial, leaving only the bones. Excarnation may be precipitated through natural means, involving leaving a body exposed for animals to scavenge, or it may be purposefully undertaken by butchering the corpse by hand. Practices making use of natural processes for excarnation are the Tibetan sky burial, Comancheplatform burials, and traditional Zoroastrian funerals (see Tower of Silence).  Some Native American groups in the southeastern portion of North America practised deliberate excarnation in protohistoric times. Archaeologists believe that in this practice, people typically left the body exposed on a woven litter or altar.” ref

Ancient Headless Corpses Were Defleshed By Griffon Vultures

Sky burial ( Animal Worship mixed with Ancestor Worship) is a funeral practice where a human corpse is placed on a mountaintop, elevated ground, tree, or constructed perch to decompose while be eaten by scavenging animals, especially birds. This Animal Worship (or Zoolatry) rituals may go back to the  Neanderthals who seem to Sacralize birds starting around 130,000 years ago in Croatia with eagle talon jewelry and oldest confirmed burial. Or possible (Aurignacian) “Bird Worship” at  Hohle Fels cave, Germany, early totemism and small bird figurine at around 33,000 years old, which had been cited as evidence of shamanism.

As well as possible ‘Bird Worship’ (in the Pavlovian culture/Gravettian culture) part of Early Shamanism at Dolní Věstonice (Czech Republic) from around 31,000-25,000 years ago, which held the “first shaman burial.” The shamanistic Mal’ta–Buret’ culture of Siberia, dating to 24,000-15,000 years ago, who connect to the indigenous peoples of the Americas show Bird Worship. The Magdalenian cultures in western Europe, dating from around 17,000-12,000 years ago have a famous artistic mural with a bird that I think could relate to reincarnation and at least bird symbolism. Likewise, there is evidence of possible ‘Bird Worship’ at  Göbekli Tepe (Turkey), dated to around 13,000/11,600-9,370 Years ago with “first human-made temple” and at Çatalhöyük(Turkey), dated to around 9,500-7,700 Years ago with “first religious designed city” both with seeming ancestor, animal, and possible goddess worship.

Of Love and Loathing: The Role of the Vulture in Three Cultures (click link for more info)

On The Relationship between Birds and Spirits of the Dead (click link for more info)

Raptor and human – falconry and bird symbolism throughout the millennia on a global scale(click link for more info)

Ritualistic Bird Symbolism at Gobekli Tepe and its “Ancestor Cult” 

Bird People?

“Avian humanoids (people with the characteristics of birds) are a common motif in folklore and myth. Angels are associated with birds more than any other animal because angels that appear to humans in heavenly glory sometimes feature wings.”  ref, ref

“People have also extended the use of the term “angel” to various notions of spirits or figures found in other religious traditions. An angel is generally a supernatural being found in various religions and mythologies. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial beings who act as intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles of angels include protecting and guiding human beings, and carrying out tasks on behalf of God. In fine art angels are usually depicted as having the shape of human beings and they are often identified In Christian artwork with bird wings, halos, and light. They are aluded to as “Manlike Beings”, see Genesis 18:2, Daniel 10:5.

List of Avian Type Humanoids:

• Alkonost from Russian mythology
• Basically all of the Anemoi, best depicted on the Tower of the Winds
• Angels in all Abrahamic religions, though mainly in artistic depictions
• Anzû from Mesopotamian mythology, either a lesser divinity or a monster
• Arke, Iris’ sister who also had wings, said to be iridescent
• Ba, the part of a human’s soul that roughly represents its personality, depicted as a bird with a human head
• Calais and Zetes, sons of the North Wind Boreas
• The Ekek in Philippine mythology is depicted as a humanoid with bird wings and a beak
• Eos is often depicted as winged in art
• Eris (mythology) was depicted as winged in ancient Greek art
• Eros/Cupid is often depicted as winged
• The Faravahar of Zoroastrianism
• Gamayun from Russian mythology
• Gandharvas, skilled musicians from Hinduism who can appear as part man and part bird
• The Garuda, eagle-man mount of Vishnu in Hindu mythology, was pluralized into a class of bird-like beings in Buddhist mythology.
• Geryon, a giant defeated by Hercules who, in one account, was described as having wings and some mid-sixth-century Chalcidian vases portray him as winged
• Harpies, bird-women associated with storm winds known for terrorizing mortals
• The gods Horus and Thoth from ancient Egyptian mythology were often depicted as humans with the heads of a falcon and an ibis, respectively.
• Huitzilopochtli, “hummingbird‘s south” or “hummingbird‘s left”; Aztec god of the sun and war who was often depicted as either a hummingbird or an eagle
• Iris (mythology) was said to have golden wings with “golden-winged” as one of her epithets and was often depicted in art as having wings
• Isis and her sister Nephthys were ancient Egyptian goddesses commonly depicted with kite (bird) heads or wings attached to their arms
• The Kinnara and Kinnari in southeast Asia are two of the most beloved mythological characters, who are benevolent half-human, half-bird creatures
• Karura in Japanese folklore
• Lamassu from Mesopotamian mythology, a winged protective deity
• Lei Gong, a Chinese thunder god, often depicted as a bird man
• The second people of the world in Southern Sierra Miwok mythology
• Morpheus, son of Hypnos and a god of dreams
• Neith, Egyptian goddess sometimes portrayed as having bird wings attached to her arms
• Nemesis was described as winged by Mesomedes and is often portrayed as such in art
• Nightingale the Robber in Slavic folklore, who is killed by the hero Ilya Muromets
• Nike is very famous for her birdlike wings
• Pamola, a bird-man from Abenaki mythology
• Peri, beautiful, winged women from Persian folklore
• Ra, an ancient Egyptian sun god often depicted with a falcon’s head
• Sirens from Greek mythology started out as women-bird hybrids, but later evolved to become closer to mermaids
• Sirin, Russian take on the siren that’s closer to their original depiction as birds
• The swan maidens in the folktales of cultures such as Sweden, Germany, Romania, Serbia, Japan, and Pakistan
• Tangata manu of Easter Island, often depicted as a frigate bird/human hybrid
• The Tengu of Japanese folklore, monstrous forest and mountain dwelling humanoids often possessing the wings, claws, and sometimes the beak of a bird.
• Thanatos and his brother Hypnos were often portrayed as winged
• Wayland the Smith from Germanic mythology; scholars differ on whether they think he organically grew wings to escape imprisonment or fashioned artificial ones like Daedalus
• Winged genie, recurring motif in Assyrian art; they’re bearded men with birds’ wings ref

Birds and Creation

“Myths from several regions associate birds with the creation of the world. One of several creation stories in ancient Egypt said that when land rose out of the primeval waters of chaos,the first deity to appear was a bird perching on that land. The Egyptians called the god the Benu bird and portrayed it as a long-legged, wading heron in the sun temple at Heliopolis. The Benu bird created the universe and then made gods and goddesses and men to live in that universe. A number of creation myths from Southeast Asia feature birds. On the great island of Borneo dwell the Iban people, who tell of Ara and Irik, two bird spirits floating above an expanse of water at the beginning of time. Seizing two eggs from the water, Ara made the sky from one egg, while Irik made the earth from the other. As Irik squeezed the earth into its proper size, mountains and rivers appeared on its surface. Then the two creator spirits shaped bits of earth into the first people and woke them to life with bird cries.” ref

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Possible Clan Leader/Special “MALE” Ancestor Totem Poles around 13,500/11,600 years ago?

Not only are there a set of arms and hands on a few of the “T” shaped pillars, mainly the center pillars, which, to me, may represent clan leader’s ancestors, but there I one pillar seeming to express what, to me, could be a totemistic story done on what looks sort of like a totem pole pillar from Layer II, dated to around 10,800-10,000 years ago, and it appears to involve a woman squatting, potentially giving birth. This could be related to a birth with what may be a child coming out with head and arms showing as well as snakes on either side pointing to the child. And of even more interest, one stone slab holds a crude carving a naked woman squatting with her legs spread and genitals open, possibly also referencing childbirth but it could be of a somewhat sexual nature and this expression of design seems to be somewhat new in the archaeology record.

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art 

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Göbekli Tepe

“Investigating the function of Pre-Pottery Neolithic stone troughs from Göbekli Tepe – An integrated approach Abstract: An integrated approach using contextual, use-wear, scientific, and experimental methods was used to analyze the role of stone troughs of up to 165 l capacity at the Early Neolithic site Göbekli Tepe in the context of other stone containers found there. Around 600 (mostly fragmentary) vessels from the site constitute the largest known assemblage from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic of the Near East. Besides the large limestone troughs, it encompasses middle-sized, coarsely made limestone vessels, finely executed platters, and ‘greenstone’ vessels. All lines of evidence taken together indicate the use of limestone troughs for the cooking of cereals.” ref

“Is there any evidence for any production activities in Göbekli Tepe (for instance agriculture, or beer-brewing as was mentioned by Dietrich et al.)? Traces of typical domestic activities are missing so far at Göbekli Tepe, as are any traces of Prehistoric agriculture or husbandry – any remains of plants and animals discovered as of yet hint at the respective wild forms only. However, numerous flint tools and flint flakes clearly hint at flint knapping on a grand scale taking place at and around Göbekli Tepe. The possible production of beer in the frame of large scale feasting is indeed a point worthy of discussion in the frame of these already mentioned large feasts – since preliminary chemical analysis hints at oxalate residues in large stone vessels at the site.” ref

Around 13,000 years ago the site functioned as a ritual or religious center with the early circles around 11,600 years ago and then 11,130–10,620 years ago is Layer III first building stage. A totemistic-shamanistic proto-paganism meeting place of ancestor worship and cultic feasting as well as drinking, with evidence of beer brewing almost 11,000 years ago. Next, around 10,280–9,970 is enclosure B, and at around 9,560–9,370 is enclosure C building stages. Some pillars are around 15 to 20 ft-foot-high and can weigh up to 20 tons, many with totem animals and anthropomorphic human-like fertility cult representations. ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Consequences of Agriculture in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and the Levant

“The ancient Near East was one of the earliest centers of agriculture in the world, giving rise to domesticated herd animals, cereals, and legumes that today have become primary agricultural staples worldwide. Although much attention has been paid to the origins of agriculture, identifying when, where, and how plants and animals were domesticated, equally important are the social and environmental consequences of agriculture. Shortly after the advent of domestication, agricultural economies quickly replaced hunting and gathering across Mesopotamia, the Levant, and Anatolia. The social and environmental context of this transition has profound implications for understanding the rise of social complexity and incipient urbanism in the Near East.” ref

“Economic transformation accompanied the expansion of agriculture throughout small-scale societies of the Near East. These farmsteads and villages, as well as mobile pastoral groups, formed the backbone of agricultural production, which enabled tradable surpluses necessary for more expansive, community-scale economic networks. The role of such economies in the development of social complexity remains debated, but they did play an essential role in the rise of urbanism. Cities depended on agricultural specialists, including farmers and herders, to feed urban populations and to enable craft and ritual specializations that became manifest in the first cities of southern Mesopotamia. The environmental implications of these agricultural systems in the Mesopotamian lowlands, especially soil salinization, were equally substantial. The environmental implications of Mesopotamian agriculture are distinct from those accompanying the spread of agriculture to the Levant and Anatolia, where deforestation, erosion, and loss of biodiversity can be identified as the hallmarks of agricultural expansion.” ref

“Agriculture is intimately connected with the rise of territorial empires across the Near East. Such empires often controlled agricultural production closely, for both economic and strategic ends, but the methods by which they encouraged the production of specific agricultural products and the adoption of particular agricultural strategies, especially irrigation, varied considerably between empires. By combining written records, archaeological data from surveys and excavation, and paleoenvironmental reconstruction, together with the study of plant and animal remains from archaeological sites occupied during multiple imperial periods, it is possible to reconstruct the environmental consequences of imperial agricultural systems across the Near East. Divergent environmental histories across space and time allow us to assess the sustainability of the agricultural policies of each empire and to consider how resulting environmental change contributed to the success or failure of those polities.” ref

On Scorpions, Birds, and Snakes—Evidence for Shamanism in Northern Mesopotamia during the Early Holocene

“Based on a systematic ethno-archaeological approach and comparison of figurative decorations in northern Mesopotamia, we suggest new interpretations of the figurative art of early Holocene sites in that region. Recently discovered decorated objects from different early Holocene sites hint at shamanistic practices and at close cultural-ideological ties in northern Mesopotamia from the upper Tigris to the middle Euphrates during the early Holocene. The data indicate a highly standardized symbolic repertoire. We argue that the monumental buildings at Göbekli Tepe and the emergence of standardized associations of motives indicate a society in a liminal state, with adherents still closely tied to their traditions; but some aspects of the applied mediality distinguish them from the highly flexible and situational ideologies of hunter-gatherers and point to the development of institutionalized religious authorities and dogma before farming.” ref

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Catal Huyuk “first religious designed city” around 9,500 to 7,700 years ago (Turkey)

This is also similar to spread legged seeming or possible goddess motifs which are a part of the extensive religious art in the 9,500-to-7,700-year-old site of Catal Huyuk, the “first religious created city”, which also is also located in Turkey. Likewise, the other stone art on the T-shaped stones may be stylized with what, to me, are or could be animal spirits, with the seemingly most symbolically used animal being snakes, which are 28% of the engravings. Possibly indicating it held more significance than other animals.

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Kurgan Hypothesis

“The Kurgan hypothesis (also known as the Kurgan theory or Kurgan model) or Steppe theory is the most widely accepted proposal to identify the Proto-Indo-European homeland from which the Indo-European languages spread out throughout Europe and parts of Asia. It postulates that the people of a Kurgan culture in the Pontic steppe north of the Black Sea were the most likely speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE). The term is derived from the Russian kurgan (курга́н), meaning tumulus or burial mound. The Steppe theory was first formulated by Otto Schrader (1883) and V. Gordon Childe (1926), then systematized in the 1950s by Marija Gimbutas, who used the term to group various prehistoric cultures, including the Yamnaya (or Pit Grave) culture and its predecessors. In the 2000s, David Anthony instead used the core Yamnaya culture and its relationship with other cultures as a point of reference.” ref

“Gimbutas defined the Kurgan culture as composed of four successive periods, with the earliest (Kurgan I) including the Samara and Seroglazovo cultures of the Dnieper–Volga region in the Copper Age (early 4th millennium BCE). The people of these cultures were nomadic pastoralists, who, according to the model, by the early 3rd millennium BCE had expanded throughout the Pontic–Caspian steppe and into Eastern Europe. Recent genetics studies have demonstrated that populations bearing specific Y-DNA haplogroups and a distinct genetic signature expanded into Europe and South Asia from the Pontic-Caspian steppe during the third and second millennia BCE. These migrations provide a plausible explanation for the spread of at least some of the Indo-European languages, and suggest that the alternative Anatolian hypothesis, which places the Proto-Indo-European homeland in Neolithic Anatolia, is less likely to be correct.” ref

“Cultures that Gimbutas considered as part of the “Kurgan culture”:

• Bug–Dniester (6th millennium)
• Samara (5th millennium)
• Khvalynsk (5th millennium)
• Dnieper–Donets (5th to 4th millennia)
• Sredny Stog (mid-5th to mid-4th millennia)
• Maikop–Dereivka (mid-4th to mid-3rd millennia)
• Yamnaya (Pit Grave): This is itself a varied cultural horizon, spanning the entire Pontic–Caspian steppe from the mid-4th to the 3rd millennium.
• Usatovo culture (late 4th millennium)” ref

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“The shaman is, above all, a connecting figure, bridging several worlds for his people, traveling between this world, the underworld, and the heavens. He transforms himself into an animal and talks with ghosts, the dead, the deities, and the ancestors. He dies and revives. He brings back knowledge from the shadow realm, thus linking his people to the spirits and places which were once mythically accessible to all.–anthropologist Barbara Meyerhoff” ref

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From the Evidence, I Speculate, the First Human-Male God was Created in the Balkans around or after 7,000 years ago following Harsher climate, Emerging social hierarchy, and Fear of violence.

Fear of Wars Violence and the Creation of Male God: Hamangia culture around 7,250-6,500 years ago (Romania and Bulgaria)?

The First Expression of the Male God around 7,000 years ago?

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Ancient mDNA “N1a1a1” and Pottery from Turkey to Europe? People likely descended from central Anatolian populations with Pottery and mDNA “N1a1a1” such as Boncuklu/Çatalhöyük, spread to central Europe through NW Anatolia thousands of years later?

Arcane Capitalism: Primitive socialism, Primitive capital, Private ownership, Means of production, Market capitalism, Class discrimination, and Petite bourgeoisie (smaller capitalists)

7,522-6,522 years ago Linear Pottery culture, sometimes fortified or palisade settlements and weapon-traumatized bones also found, all which I think relates to Arcane Capitalism’s origins.

Arcane = complicated and therefore understood or known by only a few people

To me, societies start with primitive anarchism and socialism at least 100,000 years ago and are seen in animist-only thinking that is now largely limited to southern Africa today. Then they lose systematic anarchism possibly by 50,000 to 40,000 years ago but keeps socialism/primitive communism with the emergence of totemism largely limited to Europe and then spreading out from there. And to me, arcane/primitive capitalism emerges at or around 7,000 to 5,000 years ago in central Europe especially southern Germany or surrounding areas (Czecho-Slovakia and Austria), and then spread out from there.

Early Pottery People movements and its eventual emergence of Elites, Private property, and the Private ownership of the means of production, (private accumulation of capital) which are seen as characteristics that distinguish capitalism from socialism.

Private property creates monopoly power, harming allocative efficiency, unlike the Common ownership of property helping allocative efficiency. ref

“An earlier view saw the Linear Pottery Culture as living a “peaceful, unfortified lifestyle”. Since then, settlements with palisades and weapon-traumatized bones have been discovered, such as at Herxheim, which, whether the site of a massacre or of a martial ritual, demonstrates, “…systematic violence between groups”. Most of the known settlements, however, left no trace of violence.” ref

“In 2015 a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences details the findings of researchers at a site near Schöneck-Kilianstädten, who “found the skeletons of 26 adults and children, who were killed by devastating strikes to the head or arrow wounds. The skull fractures are classic signs of blunt force injuries caused by basic stone-age weapons.” Pottery has been found in long houses, as well as in graves. Analysis of the home pottery reveals that each house had its own tradition.” ref

“The early Neolithic in Europe featured burials of women and children under the floors of personal residences. Remains of adult males are missing. Probably, Neolithic culture featured sex discrimination in funerary customs, and women and children were important in ideology concerning the home. Burials beneath the floors of homes continued until about 4000 BCE or 6,022 years ago. However, in the Balkans and central Europe, the cemetery also came into use at about 5000 BCE or 7,022 years ago.” ref

“Linear Pottery Culture cemeteries contained from 20 to 200 graves arranged in groups that appear to have been based on kinship. Males and females of any age were included. Both cremation and inhumation were practiced. The inhumed were placed in a flexed position in pits lined with stones, plaster, or clay. Cemeteries were close to, but distinct from, residential areas. The presence of grave goods indicates both a sex and a dominance discrimination. Male graves included stone celts, flint implements, and money or jewelry of Spondylus shells. Female graves contained many of the same artifacts as male graves, but also most of the pottery and containers of ochre.” ref

“The goods have been interpreted as gifts to the departed or personal possessions. Only about 30% of the graves have goods. This circumstance has been interpreted as some sort of distinction in dominance, but the exact nature is not known. If the goods were gifts, then some were more honored than others; if they were possessions, then some were wealthier than others. These practices are contrasted with mass graves, such as the Talheim Death Pit and the Herxheim archeological site.” ref

“Their Neolithic agricultural economy was based primarily on the cultivation of crops from the Fertile Crescent, such as Emmer wheat, Einkorn wheat, peas, and lentils, and to a lower extent barley, millet, rye, and broad beans. The Linear Pottery Culture people settled on fluvial terraces and in the proximities of rivers, especially in regions rich in fertile loess. Stockbreeding was also practiced, of cattle in particular, but also of goats and pigs. The Linear Pottery Culture farmers supplemented their diets by hunting deer and wild boar in the open forests.” ref

7,522-6,522 years ago Linear Pottery culture which I think relates to Arcane Capitalism’s origins

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Sacred/Ritual Monuments of the Earth, as well as Stone or Wood such as Henges or Other Roughly Circular Earthworks, Seem to Start Around 7,000 years ago.

“There are three related types of Neolithic earthwork that are all sometimes loosely called henges. The essential characteristic of all three is that they feature a ring-shaped bank and ditch, with the ditch inside the bank. Because the internal ditches would have served defensive purposes poorly, henges are not considered to have been defensive constructions (cf. circular rampart). The three henge types are as follows, with the figure in brackets being the approximate diameter of the central flat area:

1. Henge (> 20 m). The word henge refers to a particular type of earthwork of the Neolithic period, typically consisting of a roughly circular or oval-shaped bank with an internal ditch surrounding a central flat area of more than 20 m (66 ft) in diameter. There is typically little if any evidence of occupation in a henge, although they may contain ritual structures such as stone circles, timber circles, and coves. Henge monument is sometimes used as a synonym for henge. Henges sometimes, but by no means always, featured stone or timber circles, and circle henge is sometimes used to describe these structures. The three largest stone circles in Britain (Avebury, the Great Circle at Stanton Drew stone circles and the Ring of Brodgar) are each in a henge. Examples of henges without significant internal monuments are the three henges of Thornborough Henges. Although having given its name to the word henge, Stonehenge is atypical in that the ditch is outside the main earthwork bank.
2. Hengiform monument (5 – 20 m). Like an ordinary henge except the central flat area is between 5 and 20 m (16–66 ft) in diameter, they comprise a modest earthwork with a fairly wide outer bank. Mini henge or Dorchester henge are sometimes used as synonyms for hengiform monument. An example is the Neolithic site at Wormy Hillock Henge.
3. Henge enclosure (> 300 m). A Neolithic ring earthwork with the ditch inside the bank, with the central flat area having abundant evidence of occupation and usually being more than 300 m (980 ft) in diameter. Some true henges are as large as this (e.g., Avebury), but lack evidence of domestic occupation. Super henge is sometimes used as a synonym for a henge enclosure. However, sometimes Super henge is used to indicate size alone rather than use, e.g. “Marden henge … is the least understood of the four British ‘superhenges’ (the others being  Avebury, Durrington Walls, and Mount Pleasant Henge)”. ref

Henges may be classified as follows:

• Class I henges, which have a single entrance created from a gap in the bank;
• Class II henges which have two entrances, diametrically opposite each other;
• Class III henges, which have four entrances, facing each other in pairs. ref

“Subgroups exist for these when two or three internal ditches are present rather than one. Henges are usually associated with the Late Neolithic or Early Bronze Age, and especially with the pottery of this period: Grooved Ware, Impressed Wares (formerly known as Peterborough Ware), and Beakers. Sites such as Stonehenge also provide evidence of activity from the later Bronze Age Wessex culture.” ref

“Henges often contain evidence of a variety of internal features, including timber or stone circles, pits, or burials, which may pre- or post-date the henge enclosure.” ref

Some of the best-known henges are at:

• Avebury, about 20 miles (32 km) north of Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain, in Wiltshire
• Knowlton Circles henge complex in Dorset
• Maumbury Rings in Dorset (later reused as a Roman amphitheatre and then a Civil War fort)
• Mayburgh Henge in Cumbria
• The Ring of Brodgar in Orkney
• Thornborough Henges complex in Yorkshire ref

“Henges sometimes formed part of a ritual landscape or complex, with other Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments inside and outside the henge. Earlier monuments associated with a later henge might include Neolithic monuments such as a cursus (e.g., at Thornborough Henges the central henge overlies the cursus), or a long barrow such as the West Kennet Long Barrow at Avebury, Wiltshire, or even, as in the case of Stonehenge, Mesolithic post holes. A c. 2 km circle of large pits has also been discovered centered on Durrington Walls henge. Later monuments added after the henge was built might include Bronze Age cairns as at Arbor Low. ref

 Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Masseboth similar but much smaller than a European Menhir, dates to around 13,000-11,000 years ago in the Near East. Kurgan a burial mound over a timber burial chamber, dates to around 7,000/6,000 years ago. Dolmen a single-chamber ritual megalith, dates to around 7,000/6,000 years ago. Ziggurat a multi-platform temple around 4,900 years ago. Pyramid a multi-platform tomb, dates to around 4,700 years ago. #3 is a Step Pyramid (or proto pyramid) for the burial of Pharaoh Djoser it went through several revisions and redevelopments. First are three layers of Mastaba “house of eternity” a flat-roofed rectangular structure, then two step pyramid one on top the other, showing the evolution of ideas.

Before the monument (from 8000 BC):

“Archaeologists have found four, or possibly five, large Mesolithic postholes (one may have been a natural tree throw), which date to around 10,000 years ago, beneath the nearby old tourist car-park once used. These held pine posts around two feet six inches (0.75 m) in diameter, which were erected and eventually rotted in situ. Three of the posts (and possibly four) were in an east-west alignment which may have had ritual significance. Another Mesolithic astronomical site in Britain is the Warren Field site in Aberdeenshire, which is considered the world’s oldest Lunar calendar, corrected yearly by observing the midwinter solstice. Similar but later sites have been found in Scandinavia. A settlement that may have been contemporaneous with the posts has been found at Blick Mead, a reliable year-round spring one mile (1.6 km) from Stonehenge.” ref

“Salisbury Plain was then still wooded, but 4,000 years later, during the earlier Neolithic, people built a causewayed enclosure at Robin Hood’s Ball and long barrow tombs in the surrounding landscape. In approximately 5,500 years ago, a Stonehenge Cursus was built 2,300 feet (700 m) north of the site as the first farmers began to clear the trees and develop the area. A number of other previously overlooked stone or wooden structures and burial mounds may date as far back as 6,000 years ago. Charcoal from the ‘Blick Mead’ camp 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from Stonehenge (near the Vespasian’s Camp site) has been dated to 6,000 years ago. The University of Buckingham‘s Humanities Research Institute believes that the community who built Stonehenge lived here over a period of several millennia, making it potentially “one of the pivotal places in the history of the Stonehenge landscape.” ref

Stonehenge 1 (around 5,100 years ago)

“The first monument consisted of a circular bank and ditch enclosure made of Late Cretaceous (Santonian Age) Seaford Chalk, measuring about 360 feet (110 m) in diameter, with a large entrance to the north east and a smaller one to the south. It stood in open grassland on a slightly sloping spot. The builders placed the bones of deer and oxen in the bottom of the ditch, as well as some worked flint tools. The bones were considerably older than the antler picks used to dig the ditch, and the people who buried them had looked after them for some time prior to burial. The ditch was continuous but had been dug in sections, like the ditches of the earlier causewayed enclosures in the area. The chalk dug from the ditch was piled up to form the bank. This first stage is dated to around 5,100 years ago, after which the ditch began to silt up naturally. Within the outer edge of the enclosed area is a circle of 56 pits, each about 3.3 feet (1 m) in diameter, known as the Aubrey holes after John Aubrey, the seventeenth-century antiquarian who was thought to have first identified them. The pits may have contained standing timbers creating a timber circle, although there is no excavated evidence of them. A recent excavation has suggested that the Aubrey Holes may have originally been used to erect a bluestone circle. If this were the case, it would advance the earliest known stone structure at the monument by some 500 years. A small outer bank beyond the ditch could also date to this period.” ref

“Archaeologists, excavated more than 50,000 cremated bone fragments, from 63 individuals, buried at Stonehenge. These remains had originally been buried individually in the Aubrey holes and subsequently re-interred together in one hole, Aubrey Hole 7. Analysis of the remains has shown that the cremated were almost equally men and women, and included some children. As there was evidence of the underlying chalk beneath the graves being crushed by substantial weight, the team concluded that the first bluestones brought from Wales were probably used as grave markers. The remains date to around 5,000 years ago. The bones of many of the individuals that buried there where around the time of construction and had probably come from near the source of the bluestone in Wales and had not extensively lived in the area of Stonehenge before death.” ref

Stonehenge 2 (around 5,000 years ago)

“Evidence of the second phase is no longer visible. The number of postholes dating to the early third millennium BC suggest that some form of timber structure was built within the enclosure during this period. Further standing timbers were placed at the northeast entrance, and a parallel alignment of posts ran inwards from the southern entrance. The postholes are smaller than the Aubrey Holes, being only around 16 inches (0.4 m) in diameter, and are much less regularly spaced. The bank was purposely reduced in height and the ditch continued to silt up. At least twenty-five of the Aubrey Holes are known to have contained later, intrusive, cremation burials dating to the two centuries after the monument’s inception. It seems that whatever the holes’ initial function, it changed to become a funerary one during Phase two. Thirty further cremations were placed in the enclosure’s ditch and at other points within the monument, mostly in the eastern half. Stonehenge is therefore interpreted as functioning as an enclosed cremation cemeteryat this time, the earliest known cremation cemetery in the British Isles. Fragments of unburnt human bone have also been found in the ditch-fill. Dating evidence is provided by the late Neolithic grooved ware pottery that has been found in connection with the features from this phase.” ref

Stonehenge 3 I (around 4,600 years ago)

“Archaeological excavation has indicated that around 4,600 years ago, the builders abandoned timber in favor of stone and dug two concentric arrays of holes (the Q and R Holes) in the center of the site. These stone sockets are only partly known (hence on present evidence are sometimes described as forming ‘crescents’); however, they could be the remains of a double ring. Again, there is little firm dating evidence for this phase. The holes held up to 80 standing stones (shown blue on the plan), only 43 of which can be traced today. It is generally accepted that the bluestones (some of which are made of dolerite, an igneous rock), were transported by the builders from the Preseli Hills, 150 miles (240 km) away in modern-day Pembrokeshire in Wales. Another theory is that they were brought much nearer to the site as glacial erratics by the Irish Sea Glacier although there is no evidence of glacial deposition within southern central England. Evidence of Megalithic quarrying had been found at quarries in Wales identified as a source of Stonehenge’s bluestone, indicating that the bluestone was quarried by human agency and not transported by glacial action.” ref

“The long-distance human transport theory was bolstered by the discovery of a megalithic bluestone quarry at Craig Rhos-y-felin, near Crymych in Pembrokeshire, which is the most likely place for some of the stones to have been obtained. Other standing stones may well have been small sarsens (sandstone), used later as lintels. The stones, which weighed about two tons, could have been moved by lifting and carrying them on rows of poles and rectangular frameworks of poles, as recorded in China, Japan, and India. It is not known whether the stones were taken directly from their quarries to Salisbury Plain or were the result of the removal of a venerated stone circle from Preseli to Salisbury Plain to “merge two sacred centers into one, to unify two politically separate regions, or to legitimize the ancestral identity of migrants moving from one region to another”. Each monolith measures around 6.6 feet (2 m) in height, between 3.3 and 4.9 ft (1 and 1.5 m) wide and around 2.6 feet (0.8 m) thick. What was to become known as the Altar Stone is almost certainly derived from the Senni Beds, perhaps from 50 miles (80 kilometres) east of Mynydd Preseli in the Brecon Beacons.” ref

“The north-eastern entrance was widened at this time, with the result that it precisely matched the direction of the midsummer sunrise and midwinter sunset of the period. This phase of the monument was abandoned unfinished, however; the small standing stones were apparently removed and the Q and R holes purposefully backfilled. Even so, the monument appears to have eclipsed the site at Avebury in importance towards the end of this phase. The Heelstone, a Tertiary sandstone, may also have been erected outside the north-eastern entrance during this period. It cannot be accurately dated and may have been installed at any time during phase 3. At first it was accompanied by a second stone, which is no longer visible. Two, or possibly three, large portal stones were set up just inside the north-eastern entrance, of which only one, the fallen Slaughter Stone, 16 feet (4.9 m) long, now remains. Other features, loosely dated to phase 3, include the four Station Stones, two of which stood atop mounds. The mounds are known as “barrows” although they do not contain burials. Stonehenge Avenue, a parallel pair of ditches and banks leading two miles (3 km) to the River Avon, was also added. Two ditches similar to Heelstone Ditch circling the Heelstone (which was by then reduced to a single monolith) were later dug around the Station Stones.” ref

Stonehenge 3 II (around 4,600-4,400 years ago)

“During the next major phase of activity, 30 enormous Oligocene–Miocene sarsen stones (shown grey on the plan) were brought to the site. They may have come from a quarry around 25 miles (40 km) north of Stonehenge on the Marlborough Downs, or they may have been collected from a “litter” of sarsens on the chalk downs, closer to hand. The stones were dressed and fashioned with mortise and tenon joints before 30 were erected as a 108-foot (33 m) diameter circle of standing stones, with a ring of 30 lintel stones resting on top. The lintels were fitted to one another using another woodworking method, the tongue and groove joint. Each standing stone was around 13 feet (4.1 m) high, 6.9 feet (2.1 m) wide, and weighed around 25 tons. Each had clearly been worked with the final visual effect in mind; the orthostats widen slightly towards the top in order that their perspective remains constant when viewed from the ground, while the lintel stones curve slightly to continue the circular appearance of the earlier monument.” ref

“The inward-facing surfaces of the stones are smoother and more finely worked than the outer surfaces. The average thickness of the stones is 3.6 feet (1.1 m) and the average distance between them is 3.3 feet (1 m). A total of 75 stones would have been needed to complete the circle (60 stones) and the trilithon horseshoe (15 stones). It was thought the ring might have been left incomplete, but an exceptionally dry summer revealed patches of parched grass which may correspond to the location of removed sarsens. The lintel stones are each around 10 feet (3.2 m) long, 3.3 feet (1 m) wide, and 2.6 feet (0.8 m) thick. The tops of the lintels are 16 feet (4.9 m) above the ground. Within this circle stood five trilithons of dressed sarsen stone arranged in a horseshoe shape 45 feet (13.7 m) across, with its open end facing northeast. These huge stones, ten uprights, and five lintels, weigh up to 50 tons each. They were linked using complex jointing. They are arranged symmetrically. The smallest pair of trilithons were around 20 feet (6 m) tall, the next pair a little higher, and the largest, single trilithon in the southwest corner would have been 24 feet (7.3 m) tall. Only one upright from the Great Trilithon still stands, of which 22 feet (6.7 m) is visible and a further 7.9 feet (2.4 m) is below ground. The images of a ‘dagger’ and 14 ‘axeheads’ have been carved on one of the sarsens, known as stone 53; further carvings of axeheads have been seen on the outer faces of stones 3, 4, and 5. The carvings are difficult to date, but are morphologically similar to late Bronze Age weapons. Laser scanning of the carvings supports this interpretation. The pair of trilithons in the northeast are smallest, measuring around 20 feet (6 m) in height; the largest, which is in the southwest of the horseshoe, is almost 25 feet (7.5 m) tall.” ref

“This ambitious phase has been radiocarbon dated to between 2600 and 2400 BC, slightly earlier than the Stonehenge Archer, discovered in the outer ditch of the monument in 1978, and the two sets of burials, known as the Amesbury Archer and the Boscombe Bowmen, discovered three miles (5 km) to the west. Analysis of animal teeth found two miles (3 km) away at Durrington Walls, thought by Parker Pearson to be the ‘builders camp’, suggests that, during some period between 2600 and 2400 BC, as many as 4,000 people gathered at the site for the mid-winter and mid-summer festivals; the evidence showed that the animals had been slaughtered around nine months or 15 months after their spring birth. Strontium isotope analysis of the animal teeth showed that some had been brought from as far afield as the Scottish Highlands for the celebrations. At about the same time, a large timber circle and a second avenue were constructed at Durrington Walls overlooking the River Avon. The timber circle was oriented towards the rising Sun on the midwinter solstice, opposing the solar alignments at Stonehenge. The avenue was aligned with the setting Sun on the summer solstice and led from the river to the timber circle. Evidence of huge fires on the banks of the Avon between the two avenues also suggests that both circles were linked. They were perhaps used as a procession route on the longest and shortest days of the year. Parker Pearson speculates that the wooden circle at Durrington Walls was the center of a ‘land of the living’, whilst the stone circle represented a ‘land of the dead’, with the Avon serving as a journey between the two.” ref

Stonehenge 3 III (around 4,400-4,280 years ago)

“Later in the Bronze Age, although the exact details of activities during this period are still unclear, the bluestones appear to have been re-erected. They were placed within the outer sarsen circle and may have been trimmed in some way. Like the sarsens, a few have timber-working style cuts in them suggesting that, during this phase, they may have been linked with lintels and were part of a larger structure.” ref

Stonehenge 3 IV (around 4,280-3,930 years ago)

“This phase saw further rearrangement of the bluestones. They were arranged in a circle between the two rings of sarsens and in an oval at the center of the inner ring. Some archaeologists argue that some of these bluestones were from a second group brought from Wales. All the stones formed well-spaced uprights without any of the linking lintels inferred in Stonehenge 3 III. The Altar Stone may have been moved within the oval at this time and re-erected vertically. Although this would seem the most impressive phase of work, Stonehenge 3 IV was rather shabbily built compared to its immediate predecessors, as the newly re-installed bluestones were not well-founded and began to fall over. However, only minor changes were made after this phase.” ref

Stonehenge 3 V (around 3,930-3,600 years ago)

“Soon afterward, the northeastern section of the Phase 3 IV bluestone circle was removed, creating a horseshoe-shaped setting (the Bluestone Horseshoe) that mirrored the shape of the central sarsen Trilithons. This phase is contemporary with the Seahenge site in Norfolk.” ref

After the monument (around 3,600 years ago to the Middle Ages)

“The Y and Z Holes are the last known construction at Stonehenge, built about 1600 BC, and the last usage of it was probably during the Iron Age. Roman coins and medieval artifacts have all been found in or around the monument but it is unknown if the monument was in continuous use throughout British prehistory and beyond, or exactly how it would have been used. Notable is the massive Iron Age hillfort Vespasian’s Camp built alongside the Avenue near the Avon. A decapitated seventh century Saxon man was excavated from Stonehenge. The site was known to scholars during the Middle Ages and since then it has been studied and adopted by numerous groups.” ref 

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Lenticular Cloud Formations may connect to Ancient “House of Gods” Mythology

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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• My Thoughts on Possible Migrations of “R” DNA and Proto-Indo-European?
• Proto-Indo-European (PIE), ancestor of Indo-European languages: DNA, Society, Language, and Mythology
• Yamnaya culture or at least Proto-Indo-European Languages/Religions may actually relate back to North Asia?
• 7,020 to 6,020-year-old Proto-Indo-European Homeland of Urheimat or proposed home of their Language and Religion
• Hell and Underworld mythologies starting maybe as far back as 7,000 to 5,000 years ago with the Proto-Indo-Europeans?
• Bronze Age “Ritual” connections of the Bell Beaker culture with the Corded Ware/Single Grave culture, which were related to the Yamnaya culture and Proto-Indo-European Languages/Religions
• Understanding Proto-Indo-Europeans and Paganism Religions