Is there a connection between Dolmans/Kurgans and Ziggurats/Pyramids?

 Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

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.

Ancient Megaliths: Kurgan, Ziggurat, Pyramid, Menhir, Trilithon, Dolman, Kromlech, and Kromlech of Trilithons

6th millennium BCE

“The 6th millennium BCE spanned the years 6000 BCE to 5001 BCE (around. 8,000 to 7,000 years ago). This millennium is reckoned to mark the end of the global deglaciation which had followed the Last Glacial Maximum and caused sea levels to rise by some 60 m (200 ft) over a period of about 5,000 years. Neolithic culture and technology had spread from the Near East and into Eastern Europe by 6000 BCE. Its development in the Far East grew apace and there is increasing evidence through the millennium of its presence in prehistoric Egypt and the Far East. In much of the world, however, including north and western Europe, people still lived in scattered Palaeolithic hunter-gatherer communities. The world population is believed to have increased sharply, possibly quadrupling, as a result of the Neolithic Revolution. It has been estimated that there were perhaps forty million people worldwide at the end of this millennium, growing to 100 million by the Middle Bronze Age c. 1600 BCE.” ref

“The use of pottery found near Tbilisi is evidence that grapes were being used for winemaking c. 5980 BCE. It has been estimated that humans first settled in Malta c. 5900 BCE, arriving across the Mediterranean from both Europe and North Africa. Evidence of cheese-making in Poland is dated c. 5500 BCE. Junglefowl were domesticated around c. 5500 BCE in Southeast Asia. The Zhaobaogou culture in China began c. 5400 BCE. It was in the north-eastern part of the country, primarily in the Luan River valley in Inner Mongolia and northern Hebei. Four identified cultures starting around 5300 BC were the Dnieper-Donets, the Narva (eastern Baltic), the Ertebølle (Denmark and northern Germany), and the Swifterbant (Low Countries). They were linked by a common pottery style that had spread westward from Asia and is sometimes called “ceramic Mesolithic“, distinguishable by a point or knob base and flared rims. Indigenous Australians in what is now southwestern Victoria were farming and smoking eels as a food source and trade good using stone weirs, canals, and woven traps around 6000 BCE.” ref

5th millennium BCE

“The 5th millennium BC spanned the years 5000 BCE to 4001 BCE (around 7,000 to 6,000 years ago). The rapid world population growth of the previous millennium, caused by the Neolithic Revolution, is believed to have slowed and become fairly stable. It has been estimated that there were around forty million people worldwide by 5000 BCE, growing to 100 million by the Middle Bronze Age c. 1600 BCE. Chinese civilization advanced in this millennium with the beginnings of three noted cultures from around 5000 BCE. The Yangshao culture was based in the Huang He (Yellow River) basin and endured for some 2,000 years. It is believed that pigs were first domesticated there. Pottery was fired in kilns dug into the ground and then painted. Millet was cultivated. A type-site settlement for the Yangshao was established c. 4700 BCE at Banpo near modern Xi’an, Shaanxi. Also about 5000 BCE, the Hemudu culture began in eastern China with cultivation of rice, and the Majiabang culture was established on the Yangtze estuary near modern Shanghai, lasting until c. 3300 BCE.” ref

“The 5th millennium has become a start point for calendars and chronologies. The year 4750 BCE is the retrospective startpoint for the Assyrian calendar, marking the traditional date for the foundation of Assur, some 2,000 years before it actually happened. Another traditional date is 19 July 4241 BCE, marking the supposed beginning of the Egyptian calendar, as calculated retrospectively by Eduard Meyer. The more likely startpoint is 19 July 2781 BCE, one Sothic cycle later. It has generally been believed that the calendar was based on a heliacal (dawn) rising of Sirius but that view is now being questioned. According to the Ussher chronology, the creation of Earth happened on 22/23 October 4004 BCE. This chronology was the work of James Ussher, whose basis was the dates in the Old Testament of the Bible. He estimated that the universe was created by God at either 18:00 on the 22nd (Jewish calendar) or 09:00 on the 23rd (Ussher-Lightfoot-Chronology). Yet another calendar starting date in the 5th millennium is Monday, 1 January 4713 BCE, the beginning of the current Julian Period, first described by Joseph Justus Scaliger in the sixteenth century. This Julian Period lasts 7,980 years until the year 3268 (current era) in the next millennium. It is a useful device for date conversions between different calendars. The date of origin has the integer value of zero in the Julian Day Count: i.e., in the Julian Calendar; the equivalent date in the Gregorian Calendar is 24 November 4714 BCE.” ref

“It is estimated that the beginning of the Pastoral Neolithic was in the later phase of the Green Sahara, in the 6th or 5th millennium BCE. It was prior to the end of the African humid period (c. 3900 BCE) and the desiccation of the Green Sahara. During this time, sub-Saharan Africa remained in the Palaeolithic. As the grasslands of the Sahara began drying after c. 3900 BCE, herders moved into the Nile Valley and by the middle of the 3rd millennium BCE into eastern Africa. The earliest-known permanent settlement in Egypt, situated at the southwestern edge of the Nile Delta (near Merimde Beni Salama), dates to approximately 4750 BCE — possibly composed of as many as 16,000 residents. It is estimated that the distinctive Aboriginal rock carvings near Sydney were created sometime between 5000 BCE and 3000 BCE. The Cucuteni–Trypillia culture (aka Tripolye culture) began around 4800 BCE. It was centered on modern Moldova and lasted in three defined phases until c. 3000 BCE. From about 4500 BCE until c. 2500 BCE, a single tongue called Proto-Indo-European (PIE) existed as the forerunner of all modern Indo-European languages, but it left no written texts and its structure is unknown.” ref

4th millennium BCE

“The 4th millennium BC spanned the years 4000 BCE to 3001 BCE. Some of the major changes in human culture during this time included the beginning of the Bronze Age and the invention of writing, which played a major role in starting recorded history. The city states of Sumer and the kingdom of Egypt were established and grew to prominence. Agriculture spread widely across Eurasia. World population growth relaxed after the burst that came about from the Neolithic Revolution. World population was largely stable in this time at roughly 50 million with a slow overall growth rate at roughly 0.03% per year.” ref

• “4000 BCE – Epoch of the Masonic calendar’s Anno Lucis era.
• 3929 BCE – Creation according to John Lightfoot based on the Old Testament of the Bible, and often associated with the Ussher chronology.
• 3761 BCE – Since the Middle Ages (12th century), the Hebrew calendar has been based on rabbinic calculations of the year of creation from the Hebrew Masoretic text of the bible. This calendar is used within Jewish communities for religious and other purposes. The calendar’s epoch, corresponding to the calculated date of the world’s creation, is equivalent to sunset on the Julian proleptic calendar date 6 October 3761 BCE.
• 3114 BCE – One version of the Mayan calendar, known as the Mesoamerican Long Count, uses the epoch of 11 or 13 August 3114 BCE. The Maya Long Count calendar was first used approximately 236 BCE (see Mesoamerican Long Count calendar#Earliest Long Counts.
• 3102 BCE – According to calculations of Aryabhata (6th century), the Hindu Kali Yuga began at midnight on 18 February 3102 BCE.
• 3102 BCE – Aryabhata dates the events of the Mahabharata to around 3102 BCE. Other estimates range from the late 4th to the mid-2nd millennium BCE.” ref

• Mesopotamia
  • 4100–3100 BCE – the Uruk period, with emerging Sumerian hegemony and development of Proto-cuneiform writing; base-60 mathematics, astronomy and astrology, civil law, complex hydrology, the sailboat, potter’s wheel and wheel; the Chalcolithic proceeds into the Early Bronze Age.
  • 3500–2340 BCE – Sumer: wheeled carts, potter’s wheel, White Temple ziggurat, bronze tools and weapons.
  • First to Fourth dynasty of Kish in Mesopotamia.
  • Sumerian temple of Janna at Eridu erected.
  • Temple at Al-Ubaid and tomb of Mes-Kalam-Dug built near Ur, Chaldea.
  • 3000 BCE – Tin is in use in Mesopotamia soon after this time
  • 3500–2340 BCE – First cities developed in Southern Mesopotamia. Inhabitants migrated from north.
  • The cuneiform script proper emerges from pictographic proto-writing in the later 4th millennium BCE. Mesopotamia’s “proto-literate” period spans the 35th to 32nd centuries BCE. The first documents unequivocally written in the Sumerian language date to the 31st century BCE, found at Jemdet Nasr.
  • Dams, canals, stone sculptures using inclined plane and lever in Sumer.
  • Urkesh (northern Syria) founded during the fourth millennium BCE possibly by the Hurrians.
  • The Courtyard is introduced to Mesopotamia.
• Persian plateau
  • 4000 BCE – Susa is a center of pottery production.
  • c. 4000 BCE – Beaker from Susa (modern Shush, Iran) is made. It is now at Musée du Louvre, Paris.
  • Proto-Elamite from 3200 BCE.
  • Anatolia and Caucasus
    • c. 3700 BCE to 3000 BCE – The Maykop culture of the Caucasus, contemporary to the Kurgan culture, is a candidate for the origin of Bronze production and thus the Bronze Age.
    • 3400–2000 BCE – Kura-Araxes: earliest evidence found on the Ararat plain.
• Egypt
  • 4000–3000 BCE – Naqada culture on the Nile. First hieroglyphs appear thus far around 3500 BCE as found on labels in a ruler’s tomb at Abydos.
  • Predynastic pharaohs Tiu, Thesh, Hsekiu, Wazner, Ro, Serket, Narmer.
  • 3500–3400 BCE – Jar with boat designs, from Hierakonpolis is created. Predynastic Egypt.
  • c. 3150 BCE – Predynastic period ended in Ancient Egypt. Early Dynastic (Archaic) period started (according to French Egyptologist Nicolas Grimal). The period includes 1st and 2nd Dynasties.
  • c. 3100 BCE– Narmer Palette.
  • Sails used in the Nile.
  • Mastabas, the predecessors of the Egyptian pyramids.
  • Harps and flutes played in Egypt.
  • Lyres and double clarinets (arghul, mijwiz) played in Egypt.
  • Earliest known numerals in Egypt.
• Europe
• Crete: Rise of Minoan civilization.
  • c. 4000 BCE – First neolithic settlers in the island of Thera (Santorini), Greece, migrating probably from Minoan Crete.
• Pontic–Caspian steppe
  • 3500–2300 BCE – The Yamna culture (“Kurgan culture”), succeeding the Sredny Stog culture on the Pontic–Caspian steppe in the Caucasus and Central Asia. This culture is believed to have been the locus of the Proto-Indo-Europeans, and thus the Urheimat, or point of origin, of the Proto Indo-European language, according to the Kurgan hypothesis.
  • 5500–2750 BCE – The Trypillian culture has cities with 15,000 citizens, eastern Europe.
  • Kurgan culture of what is now Southern Russia and Ukraine; possibly the first domestication of the horse.
• Balkans
  • c. 3500 BCE – Figures of a man and a woman, from Cernavodă, Romania, are made. They are now at National Historical Museum, Bucharest.
  • c. 3138 BCE Ljubljana Marshes Wheel is a wooden wheel that was found in the Ljubljana Marsh in Slovenia. Radiocarbon dating showed that it is approximately 5,150 years old, which makes it the oldest wooden wheel yet discovered.
• c. 4000–2000 BCE – People and animals, a detail of rock-shelter painting in Cogul (Roca dels Moros), Lleida, Spain, are painted. It is now at Archaeology Museum of Catalonia, Barcelona.
• Arzachena & Ozieri cultures.
• Malta
  • 3600 BCE – Construction of the Ġgantija megalithic temple complex on the Island of Gozo: the world’s oldest extant unburied free-standing structures, and the world’s oldest religious structures. (See Göbekli Tepe for older, buried religious structures.)
  • 3600–3200 BCE – Construction of the first temple within the Mnajdra solar temple complex, containing “furniture” such as stone benches and tables, that set it apart from other European megalith constructions.
  • 3600–3000 BCE – Construction of the Ta’ Ħaġrat and Kordin III temples.
  • 3250–3000 BCE – Construction of three megalithic temples at Tarxien.
  • 3200–2500 BCE– Construction of the Ħaġar Qim megalithic temple complex, featuring both solar and lunar alignments.
• Northern Europe
• 4000–2700 BCE – The Funnelbeaker culture, Scandinavia, originated in southern parts of Europe and slowly advanced up through today’s Uppland.
  • 3300–2900 BCE – Construction of the Newgrange solar observatory/passage tomb in Ireland.
  • • c. 3100–2600 BCE – Neolithic settlement at Skara Brae in the Orkney Islands, Scotland, is inhabited.
    • Construction in England of the Sweet Track, the world’s first known engineered roadway.
    • Garth tsunami in the Northern Isles.
    • c. 3100 BCE – The earliest phase of the Stonehenge monument (a circular earth bank and ditch).
    • The Céide Fields are developed, the first signs of the eventual complete deforestation of Ireland.
  • c. 3300 BCE – Ötzi the Iceman dies near the present-day border between Austria and Italy, only to be discovered in 1991 buried in a glacier of the Ötztal Alps. His cause of death is believed to be homicide.

• Central Asia

  • • 3500–2500 BCE – Afanasevo: Siberia, Mongolia, Xinjiang, Kazakhstan—late copper and early Bronze Age.
    • c. 4000 BCE – Horses are domesticated in the western Eurasian Steppes in what is now northern Kazakhstan (see the Botai culture).

  East Asia

  • Neolithic Chinese settlements. They produced silk and pottery (chiefly the Yangshao and the Longshan cultures), wore hemp clothing, and domesticated pigs and dogs.
  • 4000–2500 BCE – Vietnamese Bronze Age culture. The Đồng Đậu Culture, produced many wealthy bronze objects.

  • Indian Subcontinent

    • Mehrgarh III–VI
    • 3500 BCE Metalcasting began in the Mohenjodaro area.
    • 3300 BCE – Bronze Age starts in Indus Valley (Harappa).
      • Drainage and Sewage collection and disposal
    • Ochre Coloured Pottery culture

    Americas

    • c. 3600 BCE – In Colombia, first rupestrian art Chiribiquete (Caquetá).
    • c. 3000 BCE – First pottery in Colombia at Puerto Hormiga (Magdalena), considered one of the first attempts of pottery of the New World. First settlement at Puerto Badel (Bolívar).
    • c. 3600 BCE – Evidence of maize domestication appear in the Valley of Tehuacán.
    • Norte Chico civilization in Northern Peru starts.
  • Sub-Saharan Africa remains in the Paleolithic period, except for the earliest neolithization of the Sahel following the desiccation of the Sahara in c. 3500 BCE As the grasslands of the Sahara began drying after 3900 BC, herders spread into the Nile Valley and into eastern Africa (Eburan 5, Elmenteitan). The desiccation of the Sahara and the associated neolithisation of West Africa is also cited as a possible cause for the dispersal of the Niger-Congo linguistic phylum.” ref

3rd millennium BCE

“The 3rd millennium BCE spanned the years 3000 to 2001 BCE or around 5,000 to 4,000 years ago. This period of time corresponds to the Early to Middle Bronze Age, characterized by the early empires in the Ancient Near East. In Ancient Egypt, the Early Dynastic Period is followed by the Old Kingdom. In Mesopotamia, the Early Dynastic Period is followed by the Akkadian Empire. In what is now Northwest India and Pakistan, the Indus Valley civilization developed a state society. World population growth relaxed after the burst due to the Neolithic Revolution. World population was largely stable, at roughly 60 million, with a slow overall growth rate at roughly 0.03% p.a.” ref

“The Bronze Age began in the Ancient Near East roughly between 3000 BCE and 2500 BCE. 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. In the 3rd millennium BCE, 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 monumental architecture, imperialism, organized absolutism, and internal revolution. 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. In this millennium, 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.” ref

“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, 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 during the 3rd millennium BC, limits were being pushed by architects and rulers. Towards the close of the millennium, Egypt became the stage of the first popular revolution recorded in history. 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

Near East

• c. 4th millennium BCE–5th century BCE: Old Dilmun period.
• c. 2900–2350 BCE: Early Dynastic Period (Mesopotamia)
• c. 2334–2154 BCE: Akkadian Empire
• 3100–2686 BCE: Early Dynastic Period (Egypt)
• c. 2700 BCE–1600 BCE: Old Elamite period.
• 2686–2181 BCE Old Kingdom of Egypt
• 2181–2055 BCE First Intermediate Period of Egypt
• c. 3000 BCE: Nubian A-Group Culture comes to an end.
• c. 2300 BCE: Nubian C-Group culture.

Europe

• c. 3200 BCE: Cycladic culture in Aegean islands of Greece.
• c. 3200 BCE–3100 BCE: Helladic culture in mainland Greece.
• c. 3200 BCE–2800 BCE: Ozieri culture.
• Founding of Europe’s oldest civilization, the Minoan Civilization in 3000 BCE.
• Corded Ware culture (also Battle-axe culture, or Single Grave culture).
• Late Maikop culture.
• Late Vinca culture.
• Globular Amphora culture.
• Early Beaker culture.
• Yamnaya culture, Catacomb culture, likely loci of Indo-European Satemization.
• The Sintashta-Petrovka-Arkaim culture emerges from the Catacomb culture from about 2200 BCE, likely locus of Proto-Indo-Iranian.
• Butmir culture.
• Late Funnelbeaker culture.
• Baden culture.
• Gaudo culture.

South Asia

• 2800 BCE–2600 BCE: Harappan 2.
• 2600 BCE–1900 BCE: Harappan 3 (Mature Harappan).

East and Southeast Asia

• Longshan culture
• Baodun culture
• Shijiahe culture
• Liangzhu culture
• Majiayao culture
• Lower Xiajiadian culture
• c. 2500 BCE: Austronesian peoples from Formosa colonize Luzon in northern Philippines.

Americas

• Mesoamerican Archaic period
• Old Copper Complex
• Caral/Norte Chico civilization.

Sub-Saharan Africa

• Savanna Pastoral Neolithic

Certain 4th millennium BCE events were precursors to the 3rd millennium BCE:

• c. 3700-1800 BCE: Caral-Supe Chico civilization. Caral-Supe flourished between the fourth and second millennia BCE, with the formation of the first city generally dated to around 3500 BCE, at Huaricanga, in the Fortaleza area. It is from 3100 BCE onward that large-scale human settlement and communal construction become clearly apparent, which lasted until a period of decline around 1800 BCE.
• c. 3500 BCE-3000 BCE Huaricanga is the earliest city of the Norte Chico civilization, called Caral or Caral-Supe in Peru and Spanish language sources. “It existed around 3500 BCE and was the oldest city in the Americas and one of the earliest cities in the world.” It is located in the arid Fortaleza Valley on Peru’s north central coast and is 14 mi (23 km) inland from the Pacific Ocean. The site covers a total area of 100 hectares, and is the largest Late Archaic construction in the Norte Chico region. The three earthwork mounds on the large site are believed to be remains of pyramidal-shaped structures. Two standing stones, known as huancas, also survive. Excavation in 2007 revealed a structure believed to be a temple, of a design similar to, but predating, the Mito architectural tradition seen in the Peruvian highlands. In addition, later research in the Fortaleza and Pativilca valleys has found evidence of maize cultivation, as well as fourteen other domesticated species of fruits and vegetables. This suggests that agriculture may have been more important to the development of Caral-Supe civilization than previously thought, as it was for other independent civilizations of the world, such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and India.
• c. 3700 BCE: Lothal: Indus Valley trade-port city in India.
• c. 3650 BCE–3000 BCE: Minoan culture appeared on Crete.
• c. 3200 BCE/3100 BCE: Helladic culture and Cycladic culture both emerge in Greece.
• The 3rd millennium BCE included the following key events:
• c. 3000 BCE: Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt.
• c. 3000 BCE: First evidence of gold being used in the Middle East.
• c. 3000 BCE: Nubian A-Group, Ta-Seeti “kingdom” came to an end, possibly due to raids by Egypt.
• c. 3000 BCE–2000 BCE Vessels from Denmark are made; they are now at National Museum, Copenhagen.
• c. 2890 BCE: Second Dynasty of Egypt, reign of Hotepsekhemwy.
• Syria: Foundation of the city of Mari (29th century BCE).
• Semitic tribes occupy Assyria in northern part of the plain of Shinar and Akkad.
• Phoenicians settle on Syrian coast, with centers at Tyre and Sidon.
• Beginning of the period of the mythical Sage Kings in China, also known as the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.
•  c. 2879 BCE: Rise of the Xích Quỷ Kingdom and the Hồng Bàng dynasty in northern Viet Nam and southern China.
  • c. 2800 BCE–2700 BCE: Harp Player, from Keros, Cyclades, was made. It is now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
  • Iran: Creation of the Kingdom of Elam.
  • Germination of the Bristlecone pine tree “Methuselah” about 2700 BCE, one of the oldest known trees still living now.
  • c. 2686 BCE: Third Dynasty of Egypt, reign of Sanakhte.
  • c. 2613 BCE: Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, reign of Sneferu.
  • c. 2600 BCE Founding of the Chalcolithic Iberian civilizations of Los Millares and Zambujal.
  • 2600 BCE: Unified Indus Valley civilisation.
  • c. 2500 BCE: The state of Assyria is established.
  • c. 2500 BCE: Excavation and development of the Hypogeum of Ħal-Saflieni at Paola, Malta, a subterranean temple complex subsequently used as a necropolis.
  • c. 2500 BCE–2200 BCE: Incised panel “Frying pan”, from Syros, Cyclades is made; it is now at the National Archaeological Museum, Athens.
  • c. 2500 BCE–2200 BCE: Two figures of women, from the Cyclades, are made; they are now at Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens.
  • Dynasty of Lagash in Sumer.
  • 2474 BCE–2398 BCE: Golden age of Ur in Mesopotamia.
  • c. 2498 BCE: Fifth Dynasty of Egypt, reign of Userkaf.
  • c. 2492 BCE: The Armenian patriarch Hayk defeats the Babylonian king Bel (legendary account).
  • c. 2345 BCE: Sixth Dynasty of Egypt, reign of Teti.
  • 2334 BCE: Sargon of Akkad conquers Mesopotamia, establishing the Akkadian Empire.
  • c. 2300 BCE: C-Group pastoralists arrive in Nubia.
  • c. 2181 BCE: Seventh and Eighth Dynasty of Egypt (2181–2160 BCE).
  • c. 2160 BCE: Ninth Dynasty of Egypt, reign of Akhtoy Meryibtowe.
  • c. 2130 BCE: Tenth Dynasty of Egypt, reign of Meryhathor.
  • c. 2134 BCE: Eleventh Dynasty of Egypt, reign of Mentuhotep I.
  • Megalithic, Corded Ware culture and the Beaker flourish in Europe.^]
  • Sumerian poetry, lamenting the death of Tammuz, the shepherd god.
  • Sumerian cuneiform writing (reduces pictographs still in use to about 550 BCE).
  • Major religious festival in Sumeria celebrates victory of god of spring over goddess of chaos.
  • Earliest Trojan culture.
  • Glass beads in Egypt.
  • The world’s last surviving mammoth population, on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean, goes extinct, sometime between 2500 and 2000 BCE.
  • c. 2070 BCE–1600 BCE: The first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography—Xia dynasty begins in China. ref

3rd millennium BCE: Inventions, Discoveries, Introductions

• The oldest documented evidence of the practice of meditation are wall arts in the Mohenjodaro and Harappa.
• Stepwell: Earliest clear evidence of the origins of the stepwell is found in the Indus Valley civilisation‘s archaeological site at Mohenjodaro in Pakistan.
• Toilet platforms above drains, in the proximity of wells, are found in several houses of the cities of Mohenjodaro and Harappa.
• Pottery develops in Americas (30th century BCE).
• c. 3000 BCE: Potter’s wheel appears in Mesopotamia.
• 2900 BCE–2400 BCE: Sumerians invent phonogram (linguistics).
• 2650 BCE: Reservoirs, script, metals and pottery used in the city of Dholavira in Indus Valley civilization.
• c. 2300 BCE: Metals are used in Northern Europe.
• Chinese record a comet.
• Building of the Great Pyramid of Giza (26th century BCE).
• Sails used on ships (20th century BCE).
• First ziggurats built in Sumer.
• Near East civilizations enter Bronze Age around 3000 BCE.
• Oldest known medicine wheel constructed in the Americas.
• First Copper (~2500 BCE) and then Bronze (~2000 BCE) and other types of metallurgy are introduced to Ireland.
• The kunga was first bred in Ancient Syria and Mesopotamia by hybridizing captured now-extinct Syrian wild ass males with domestic donkey females between 2600 and 2000 BCE. It later fell out of favor when both domestic horses and their donkey hybrids, mules, arrived in the ancient Near East at the end of the millennium.
• Domestication of the horse with the coming of Indo-Europeans in central Eurasia.
• The chariot emerges in Eurasian Steppe just before 2000 BCE.
• The camel (dromedary) domesticated (though widespread use took until mid-to-late 2nd millennium BCE).
• Indoor plumbing and sewage in the Indus Valley civilization.
• Sumerian medicine discovers the healing qualities of mineral springs.
• Weaving loom known in Europe.
• Ornamental buttons—made from seashell—were used in the Indus Valley civilisation for ornamental purposes by 2000 BCE.
• Sumerian numerical system based on multiples of 6 and 12.
• Egyptians begin use of papyrus.
• Austronesian peoples have developed lateen sail, and the out-rigger as well as extensive development of celestial navigation systems.
• Oldest known evidence of the inhalation of cannabis smoke, as indicated by charred cannabis seeds found in a ritual brazier at a burial site in present-day Romania. ref

3rd millennium BCE: Cultural Landmarks

• c. 3000 BCE–2500 BCE: Tomb, Newgrange, Ireland, was built.
• c. 2750 BCE–1500 BCE Stonehenge, Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, England, is built.
• Completion of the Great Pyramid of Giza.
• Completion of first phase of Stonehenge monument in England.
• Era of Buena Vista pyramid/observatory in Peru.
• The Sydney rock engravings in Sydney, Australia, which are examples of Aboriginal rock art, date from around 3000 BCE. ref

“The Egyptian pyramids are ancient masonry structures located in Egypt. Sources cite at least 118 identified “Egyptian” pyramids. Approximately 80 pyramids were built within the Kingdom of Kush, now located in the modern country of Sudan. Of those located in modern Egypt, most were built as tombs for the country’s pharaohs and their consorts during the Old and Middle Kingdom periods. The earliest known Egyptian pyramids are found at Saqqara, northwest of Memphis, although at least one step-pyramid-like structure has been found at Saqqara, dating to the First Dynasty: Mastaba 3808, which has been attributed to the reign of Pharaoh Anedjib, with inscriptions, and other archaeological remains of the period, suggesting there may have been others. The otherwise earliest among these is the Pyramid of Djoser built c. 2630–2610 BCE during the Third Dynasty. This pyramid and its surrounding complex are generally considered to be the world’s oldest monumental structures constructed of dressed masonry. The most famous Egyptian pyramids are those found at Giza, on the outskirts of Cairo. Several of the Giza pyramids are counted among the largest structures ever built. The Pyramid of Khufu is the largest Egyptian pyramid. It is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World still in existence, despite its being the oldest wonder by about 2,000 years.” ref

“Preceded by assumed earlier sites in the Eastern Sahara, tumuli with megalithic monuments developed as early as 4700 BCE in the Saharan region of Niger. Fekri Hassan (2002) indicates that the megalithic monuments in the Saharan region of Niger and the Eastern Sahara may have served as antecedents for the mastabas and pyramids of ancient Egypt. During Predynastic Egypt, tumuli were present at various locations (e.g., Naqada, Helwan). From the time of the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3150–2686 BCE), Egyptians with sufficient means were buried in bench-like structures known as mastabas. At Saqqara, Mastaba 3808, dating from the latter part of the 1st Dynasty, was discovered to contain a large, independently built step-pyramid-like structure enclosed within the outer palace facade mastaba. Archaeological remains and inscriptions suggest there may have been other similar structures dating to this period. The first historically documented Egyptian pyramid is attributed by Egyptologists to the 3rd Dynasty pharaoh Djoser. Although Egyptologists often credit his vizier Imhotep as its architect, the dynastic Egyptians themselves, contemporaneously or in numerous later dynastic writings about the character, did not credit him with either designing Djoser’s pyramid or the invention of stone architecture. The Pyramid of Djoser was first built as a square mastaba-like structure, which as a rule were known to otherwise be rectangular, and was expanded several times by way of a series of accretion layers, to produce the stepped pyramid structure we see today. Egyptologists believe this design served as a gigantic stairway by which the soul of the deceased pharaoh could ascend to the heavens.” ref

“Though other pyramids were attempted in the 3rd Dynasty after Djoser, it was the 4th Dynasty, transitioning from the step pyramid to true pyramid shape, which gave rise to the great pyramids of Meidum, Dahshur, and Giza. The last pharaoh of the 4th Dynasty, Shepseskaf, did not build a pyramid, and beginning in the 5th Dynasty; for various reasons, the massive scale and precision of construction decreased significantly leaving these later pyramids smaller, less well-built, and often hastily constructed. By the end of the 6th Dynasty, pyramid building had largely ended and it was not until the Middle Kingdom that large pyramids were built again, though instead of stone, mudbrick was the main construction material. Long after the end of Egypt’s own pyramid-building period, a burst of pyramid-building occurred in what is present-day Sudan, after much of Egypt came under the rule of the Kingdom of Kush, which was then based at Napata. Napatan rule, known as the 25th Dynasty, lasted from 750 BCE to 664 BCE. The Meroitic period of Kushite history, when the kingdom was centered on Meroë, (approximately in the period between 300 BCE and 300 CE), experienced a full-blown pyramid-building revival, which saw about 180 Egyptian-inspired indigenous royal pyramid-tombs constructed in the vicinity of the kingdom’s capital cities. Al-Aziz Uthman (1171–1198), the second Ayyubid Sultan of Egypt, tried to destroy the Giza pyramid complex. He gave up after only damaging the Pyramid of Menkaure because the task proved too large.” ref

“The shape of Egyptian pyramids is thought to represent the primordial mound from which the Egyptians believed the earth was created. The shape of a pyramid is also thought to be representative of the descending rays of the sun, and most pyramids were faced with polished, highly reflective white limestone, in order to give them a brilliant appearance when viewed from a distance. Pyramids were often also named in ways that referred to solar luminescence. For example, the formal name of the Bent Pyramid at Dahshur was The Southern Shining Pyramid, and that of Senusret II at El Lahun was Senusret Shines. While it is generally agreed that pyramids were burial monuments, there is continued disagreement on the particular theological principles that might have given rise to them. One suggestion is that they were designed as a type of “resurrection machine.” The Egyptians believed the dark area of the night sky around which the stars appear to revolve was the physical gateway into the heavens. One of the narrow shafts that extend from the main burial chamber through the entire body of the Great Pyramid points directly towards the center of this part of the sky. This suggests the pyramid may have been designed to serve as a means to magically launch the deceased pharaoh’s soul directly into the abode of the gods. All Egyptian pyramids were built on the west bank of the Nile, which, as the site of the setting sun, was associated with the realm of the dead in Egyptian mythology.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Atlit-Yam (Pre-Pottery Neolithic C) is a 40,000-square-metre site/village, near Haifa, Israel, where its people lived in spacious stone houses, complete with paved floors, courtyards, fireplaces, storage facilities, and wells. As well as grain stores, graves, and a ritual stone circle. In the area are also twelve Pottery Neolithic sites. Most of the PN sites (Kfar-Samir; Hishuley Carmel; Kfar-Galim; Nahal Galim; Hahoterim; Tel-Hreiz; Megadim; Atlit north bay; Neve-Yam and Habonim) are attributed to the Wadi Rabah culture, considered as late Pottery Neolithic or early Chalcolithic, while the Neve-Yam North site belongs to the Lodian culture, which predates the Wadi Rabah culture. ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

There is a water mote around a central altar in the middle of the standing stones that may represent a “mound” of creation mythology. 

9,000-6,500 Years Old Submerged Pre-Pottery/Pottery Neolithic Ritual Settlements off Israel’s Coast

Creation Myths

“All creation myths are in one sense etiological because they attempt to explain how the world formed and where humanity came from. Myths attempt to explain the unknown and sometimes teach a lesson. While creation myths are not literal explications, they do serve to define an orientation of humanity in the world in terms of a birth story. They provide the basis of a worldview that reaffirms and guides how people relate to the natural world, to any assumed spiritual world, and to each other. A creation myth acts as a cornerstone for distinguishing primary reality from relative reality, the origin and nature of being from non-being. In this sense cosmogonic myths serve as a philosophy of life – but one expressed and conveyed through symbol rather than through systematic reason. And in this sense they go beyond etiological myths (which explain specific features in religious rites, natural phenomena, or cultural life). Creation myths also help to orient human beings in the world, giving them a sense of their place in the world and the regard that they must have for humans and nature.” ref

“Mythologists have applied various schemes to classify creation myths found throughout human cultures. Eliade and his colleague Charles Long developed a classification based on some common motifs that reappear in stories the world over. The classification identifies five basic types:

• Creation ex nihilo in which the creation is through the thought, word, dream, or bodily secretions of a divine being.
• Earth-diver creation in which a diver, usually a bird or amphibian sent by a creator, plunges to the seabed through a primordial ocean to bring up sand or mud which develops into a terrestrial world.
• Emergence myths in which progenitors pass through a series of worlds and metamorphoses until reaching the present world.
• Creation by the dismemberment of a primordial being.
• Creation by the splitting or ordering of a primordial unity such as the cracking of a cosmic egg or a bringing order from chaos.” ref

“Marta Weigle further developed and refined this typology to highlight nine themes, adding elements such as deus faber, a creation crafted by a deity, creation from the work of two creators working together or against each other, creation from sacrifice and creation from division/conjugation, accretion/conjunction, or secretion. An alternative system based on six recurring narrative themes was designed by Raymond Van Over:

• Primeval abyss, an infinite expanse of waters or space
• Originator deity which is awakened or an eternal entity within the abyss
• Originator deity poised above the abyss
• Cosmic egg or embryo
• Originator deity creating life through sound or word
• Life generating from the corpse or dismembered parts of an originator deity” ref

Creation from chaos

• Enûma Eliš (Babylonian creation myth)
• Greek cosmogonical myth
• Jamshid
• Korean creation narratives
• Kumulipo
• Leviathan (Book of Job 38–41 creation myth)
• Mandé creation myth
• Pangu
• Raven in Creation
• Serer creation myth
• Sumerian creation myth
• Tungusic creation myth
• Unkulunkulu
• Väinämöinen
• Viracocha

Earth diver

• Ainu creation myth
• Cherokee creation myth
• Iroquois creation myth
• Väinämöinen
• Yoruba creation myth
• Ob-Ugric creation myth

Emergence

• Hopi creation myth
• Maya creation of the world myth
• Diné Bahaneʼ (Navajo)
• Zuni creation myth

Ex nihilo (out of nothing)

• Debate between sheep and grain
• Barton cylinder
• Ancient Egyptian creation myths
• Genesis creation myth (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Rastafari)
• Kabezya-Mpungu
• Māori myths
• Mbombo
• Ngai
• Popol Vuh

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

9,000-7,000 years-old Sex and Death Rituals: many ancestor and fertility cult sites, 100+ with phallic and vulva shape structures as well as artifacts in Israel, Jordan, and the Sinai.  The cult sites in the Eilat Mountain region, mainly around Nahal Roded part of Israel’s southern Negev desert. Artifacts and radiometric analyses indicate that an organized religion was firmly established in the area 9,120 to 8,900 years ago. The ritualistic cult sites consist of small, low stone installations – circular, oval and elongated, as well as a repeated pattern of a pair with an elongated cell pointing to a circle. They also contain ‘regular’ phallic standing stones, vulva perforated standing stones, anthropomorphic stone images and other features. Sites consist of small, low stone installations – circular, oval and elongated, as well as a repeated pattern of a pair with an elongated cell pointing to a circle. They also contain ‘regular’ phallic standing stones (Masseboth like European Menhir “standing stones”), vulva perforated standing stones, anthropomorphic stone images and other features. As shown in the main picture the seven small circular masseboth “standing stones,” as found in Nahal Shehoret, with a small copper nodule at the foot of the central massebah. Surface collection of flint artifacts include bidirectional blade cores and tools, flakes and ad-hoc tools, suggesting that the sites mainly date to the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period. Although the majority of these sites is currently recorded in the Eilat mountains, they were also found in other regions of the Negev and in southern Jordan, and therefore they represent a broad phenomenon. Excavations at the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B ritual site of Naḥal Roded 110 in the Southern Negev, Israel, have revealed evidence—unique to this region—for on-site flint knapping and abundant raptor remains. ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

9,000-7,000 years-old Sex and Death Rituals: Cult Sites in Israel, Jordan, and the Sinai

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Pre-Columbian Red-Paint (red ochre) Maritime Archaic Culture 8,000-3,000 years ago

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

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 which I think relates to Arcane Capitalism’s origins

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

ref, ref, ref, ref

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

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref 

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

• The First Expression of the Male God around 7,000 years ago?
• White (light complexion skin) Bigotry and Sexism started 7,000 years ago?
• Between 7,000-5,000 Years ago, rise of unequal hierarchy elite, leading to a “birth of the State” or worship of power, strong new sexism, oppression of non-elites, and the fall of Women’s equal status
• Paganism 7,000-5,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Capitalism) (World War 0) Elite and their slaves!

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Japan’s population Origins and Religious Beliefs

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

ref

“Mound Builders” of the Americas

“A number of pre-Columbian cultures in North America were collectively termed “Mound Builders“, but the term has no formal meaning. It does not refer to a specific people or archaeological culture, but refers to the characteristic mound earthworks which indigenous peoples erected for an extended period of more than 5,000 years. The “Mound Builder” cultures span the period of roughly 3500 BCE or around 5,500 years ago (the construction of Watson Brake) to the 16th century CE, including the Archaic period, Woodland period (Calusa culture, Adena and Hopewell cultures), and Mississippian period. Geographically, the cultures were present in the region of the Great Lakes, the Ohio River Valley, and the Mississippi River Valley and its tributary waters. The first mound building was an early marker of political and social complexity among the cultures in the Eastern United States. Watson Brake in Louisiana, constructed about 3500 BCE during the Middle Archaic period, is the oldest known and dated mound complex in North America. It is one of 11 mound complexes from this period found in the Lower Mississippi Valley.” ref

“These cultures generally had developed hierarchical societies that had an elite. These commanded hundreds or even thousands of workers to dig up tons of earth with the hand tools available, move the soil long distances, and finally, workers to create the shape with layers of soil as directed by the builders. But early mounds found in Louisiana preceded such cultures, and were products of hunter-gatherer cultures. From about 800 CE, the mound-building cultures were dominated by the Mississippian culture, a large archaeological horizon, whose youngest descendants, the Plaquemine culture and the Fort Ancient culture, were still active at the time of European contact in the 16th century. One tribe of the Fort Ancient culture has been identified as the Mosopelea, presumably of southeast Ohio, who spoke an Ohio Valley Siouan language. The bearers of the Plaquemine culture were presumably speakers of the Natchez language isolate. The first written description of these cultures were made by members of Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto‘s expedition, between 1540 and 1542.” ref

“The namesake cultural trait of the Mound Builders was the building of mounds and other earthworks. These burial and ceremonial structures were typically flat-topped pyramids or platform mounds, flat-topped or rounded cones, elongated ridges, and sometimes a variety of other forms. They were generally built as part of complex villages. The early earthworks built in Louisiana around 3500 BCE are the only ones known to have been built by a hunter-gatherer culture, rather than a more settled culture based on agricultural surpluses. Some effigy mounds were constructed in the shapes or outlines of culturally significant animals. The most famous effigy mound, Serpent Mound in southern Ohio, ranges from 1 foot (0.30 m) to just over 3 feet (0.91 m) tall, 20 feet (6.1 m) wide, more than 1,330 feet (410 m) long, and shaped as an undulating serpent. Radiocarbon dating has established the age of the earliest Archaic mound complex in southeastern Louisiana. One of the two Monte Sano Site mounds, excavated in 1967 before being destroyed for new construction at Baton Rouge, was dated at 6220 years ago (plus or minus 140 years). Researchers at the time thought that such hunter-gatherer societies were not organizationally capable of this type of construction. It has since been dated as about 6500 years ago, or 4500 BCE, although not all agree.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Agriculture religion (Paganism) with farming reached Britain between about 7,000 to 6,500 or so years ago and seemingly expressed in things like Western Europe’s Long Barrows

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

ref

“Anu ziggurat and White Temple at Uruk. The original pyramidal structure, the “Anu Ziggurat” dates to around 4000 BCE or around 6,000 years ago, and the White Temple was built on top of it circa 3500 BCE or around 5,500 years ago. According to some historians, the design of the ziggurat was probably a precursor to that of the pyramids in Egypt, the earliest of which dates to c. 2600 BCE or around 4,600 years ago. others say the Pyramid of Zoser and the earliest Egyptian pyramids may have been derived locally from the bench-shaped mastaba tomb.” ref

“The Mesopotamians built the earliest pyramidal structures, called ziggurats. In ancient times, these were brightly painted in gold/bronze. Since they were constructed of sun-dried mud-brick, little remains of them. Ziggurats were built by the Sumerians, Babylonians, Elamites, Akkadians, and Assyrians for local religions. Each ziggurat was part of a temple complex which included other buildings. The precursors of the ziggurat were raised platforms that date from the Ubaid period during the fourth millennium BCE. The earliest ziggurats began near the end of the Early Dynastic Period. The latest Mesopotamian ziggurats date from the 6th century BCE. Built in receding tiers upon a rectangular, oval, or square platform, the ziggurat was a pyramidal structure with a flat top. Sun-baked bricks made up the core of the ziggurat with facings of fired bricks on the outside. The facings were often glazed in different colors and may have had astrological significance. Kings sometimes had their names engraved on these glazed bricks. The number of tiers ranged from two to seven. It is assumed that they had shrines at the top, but there is no archaeological evidence for this and the only textual evidence is from Herodotus. Access to the shrine would have been by a series of ramps on one side of the ziggurat or by a spiral ramp from base to summit.” ref

“A ziggurat (/ˈzɪɡʊˌræt/; Cuneiform: 𒅆𒂍𒉪, Akkadian: ziqqurratum, D-stem of zaqārum ‘to protrude, to build high’, cognate with other Semitic languages like Hebrew zaqar (זָקַר) ‘protrude’) is a type of massive structure built in ancient Mesopotamia. It has the form of a terraced compound of successively receding storeys or levels. Notable ziggurats include the Great Ziggurat of Ur near Nasiriyah, the Ziggurat of Aqar Quf near Baghdad, the now-destroyed Etemenanki in Babylon, Chogha Zanbil in Khūzestān and Sialk Plus, Sumer in general. The Sumerians believed that the gods lived in the temple at the top of the ziggurats, so only priests and other highly respected individuals could enter. Sumerian society offered them many things such as music, harvest, and creating devotional statues to live in the temple. The word ziggurat comes from ziqqurratum (height, pinnacle), in ancient Assyrian. From zaqārum, to be high up. The Ziggurat of Ur is a Neo-Sumerian ziggurat built by King Ur-Nammu, who dedicated it in honor of Nanna/Sîn in approximately the 21st century BC during the Third Dynasty of Ur. One of the best-preserved ziggurats is Chogha Zanbil in western Iran. The Sialk ziggurat, in Kashan, Iran, is one of the oldest known ziggurats, dating to the early 3rd millennium BCE. Ziggurat designs ranged from simple bases upon which a temple sat, to marvels of mathematics and construction which spanned several terraced stories and were topped with a temple.” ref

“Ziggurats were built by ancient Sumerians, Akkadians, Elamites, Eblaites, and Babylonians for local religions. Each ziggurat was part of a temple complex that included other buildings. The precursors of the ziggurat were raised platforms that date from the Ubaid period during the sixth millennium BCE. The ziggurats began as platforms (usually oval, rectangular or square). The ziggurat was a mastaba-like structure with a flat top. The sun-baked bricks made up the core of the ziggurat with facings of fired bricks on the outside. Each step was slightly smaller than the step below it. The facings were often glazed in different colors and may have had astrological significance. Kings sometimes had their names engraved on these glazed bricks. The number of floors ranged from two to seven. Access to the shrine would have been by a series of ramps on one side of the ziggurat or by a spiral ramp from base to summit. The Mesopotamian ziggurats were not places for public worship or ceremonies. They were believed to be dwelling places for the gods, and each city had its own patron god. Only priests were permitted on the ziggurat or in the rooms at its base, and it was their responsibility to care for the gods and attend to their needs. The priests were very powerful members of Sumerian and Assyro-Babylonian society.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

6,720 to 4,920 years old Ritualistic Hongshan Culture of Inner Mongolia with 5,000-year-old Pyramid Mounds and Temples

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref 

By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night.

• By day the “Bible God” was in a cloud pillar.
• By night the “Bible God” was in a fire pillar.

Did a 4,520–4,420-year-old Volcano In Turkey Inspire the Bible God?

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Is there a connection between Dolmans/Kurgans and Ziggurats/Pyramids?

(nationalgeographic.com) “Experts now believe that megaliths stood at the very heart of ritual practice for the networks of communities scattered across western Europe later in the new Stone Age, or Neolithic period, that had begun around 10,000 B.C. Their function was both earthly and celestial: a focus for rites concerning the movement of the heavenly bodies across the skies, a memorial to the community’s ancestors, and an awe-inspiring site to cement local loyalty and solidarity.” ref

(megalithic.co.uk) The main picture is of the Great Salbyk Kurgan is one of the most majestic and mysterious ancient monuments of southern Siberia. The mound is located in the Valley of the Kings, where several thousand years ago there was the Kingdom of Tagars. Age Monument near 2’300-2500 years. It is believed that it was an ancient temple, and Astronomical Observatory (showing the movement of the Sun and the Moon). Still remains a mystery what devices used for the importation and installation of these stones. At the corners and sides of the stone-fences were enough driven large menhirs, all 23 stone up to a height of 6 meters (everyone brings their energy). Before the construction of a giant earth embankment inside the stone-fence was a crypt of logs in the form of a truncated pyramid. This whole crypt inside and outside covered with a thick layer of bark. The crypt had the height of 2.5 m and a depth of two metros of water covered pit. It is claimed that around the burial zone has long been observed a strong anomaly, the study of these phenomena have engaged scholars. ref

(http://earth-chronicles.ru/news) Bolshoy Salbyk Kurgan is located in the Republic of Khakassia. All the mounds of the Salbyk valley belong to the Tagar culture (the archaeological culture of the Bronze and Iron epoch (9th — 3rd centuries BC) was named after the toponym – Tagarsky Island on the Yenisei River). It is interesting that scientists know more how the representatives of this culture were buried than how they lived. The mounds of the Salby valley go back to the very flourishing of the Tagar culture (Caucasians) and for good reason, the leaders are buried in them. Hence the name “Valley of the Kings”. According to the calculations of the scientist, in ancient times, the height of this earthen pyramid reached 30 meters but, the embankment was already strongly washed, the height of the hill reached 12 meters. The mound is a stone square (area 70 70 m) of huge plates of Devonian sandstone (weighing 50-70 tons). From a distance, it looks like a real stone forest. It is believed that it was both an ancient temple and an astronomical observatory. In the corners and sides of this stone fence, large menhirs were dug in, only 23 stones up to 6 meters high. Prior to the construction of a giant earthen mound inside a stone wall, a vault was made of logs in the form of a truncated pyramid. This entire crypt, both inside and outside, is covered with a thick layer of bark. The crypt had a height of 2.5 m and covered a two-meter depth pit. A log corridor led to the tomb. In this little house, only one person was buried. Apparently, it was the most powerful man of that era, whose sovereignty extended to the entire Khakass-Minusinsk hollow. There were several other people in the grave with him: two young warriors and female servants, who apparently were supposed to serve and protect him in the next world. A mile and a half from the Bolshoy Salbyk Kurgan there is a bipolar anomalous zone, marked by two plates, called the Salbyk Gate. This is a very popular place not only among tourists. People come here from different places to touch them. You can even see that in some places the stones are polished by their hands. This place is also popular among the shamans. Next, to the Big Salbyk Kurgan, there was a cult center of the Bronze Age, and there were several stone sculptures – one of them “Igyr Oba” – is kept in the museum of Khakassia. Perhaps for the construction of the mound were used large plates and steles, taken from the sanctuaries of the Bronze Age, previously standing on the ground. A sculptural image of a lying tiger was found from the south-west side of the mound. A similar image of tigers is on bronze tagar plaques. On some stones of the Bolshoy Salbyk kurgan, there are cave paintings made in the technique of point knockout. Sketchy anthropomorphic images prevail among them: standing, lying, dancing figures of people. Such images were widespread in the Tagar culture. According to calibrated radiocarbon definitions, the Bolshoy Salbyk Kurgan can be dated to the 5th century. Also found were bronze knives, awls, earthen vessels belong to the Saragash stage of the Tagar culture. ref

• Dolmens (single-chamber ritual megaliths, around 7,000/6,000 years ago; likely emerging from Brittany, northern France) 
• Kurgans (tumulus, burial mound over a burial chamber, around 7,000/6,000 years ago; likely emerging from the Caucasus dated to the 6,000 years ago, except it seems there is a pre-kurgan burial mound in Siberia from Novosibirsk region, dating to around 7,000-years ago) 
• Ziggurats (multi-platform temples around 4,900 years ago; likely emerging from Tell al-‘Ubaid is the type site, with an Early Dynastic temple) 
• Pyramids (multi-platform tombs around 4,700 years ago; likely emerging from Gisr el-Mudir at Saqqara only a several hundred feet west of the Step Pyramid and the Buried Pyramid)

*Dolmens (single-chamber ritual megaliths, around 7,000/6,000 years ago; likely emerging from Brittany, northern France) 

“Astronomers are exploring what might be described as the first astronomical observing tool, potentially used by prehistoric humans 6,000 years ago in Portugal. They suggest that the long, narrow entrance passages to ancient stone, or ‘megalithic’, tombs may have enhanced what early human cultures could see in the night sky, an effect that could have been interpreted as the ancestors granting special power to the initiated.” – ref

Dolmens used in this way seems like the features found in some pyramids, aiming to the stars that could have been thought to actually be ancestors or the place they go as in a possible reason to think ghosts live in the skies, that could relate to things like the zodiac. Could this also relate in some way to ‘Sky Burial’ theory and its possible origins at least 12,000 years ago to likely 30,000 years ago or older. The dolmens reached Britain, Ireland and southern Scandinavia about 6,000 years ago. Sites in central and southern Europe were constructed at a similar date. They are generally all regarded as tombs or burial chambers, despite the absence of clear evidence for this. Human remains, sometimes accompanied by artefacts, have been found in or close to the dolmens which could be scientifically dated using radiocarbon dating. However, it has been impossible to prove that these remains date from the time when the stones were originally set in place. A dolmen is a type of single-chamber megalithic, usually consisting of two or more vertical megaliths stones supporting a large flat horizontal capstone or “table”. ref

*Kurgans (tumulus, burial mound over a burial chamber, around 7,000/6,000 years ago; likely emerging from the Caucasus dated to the 6,000 years ago, except it seems there is a pre-kurgan burial mound in Siberia from Novosibirsk region, dating to around 7,000-years ago) 

I think they could have so religious thinking transfer to things like pyramids. Maybe even to Ziggurats (multi-platform temples: 4,900 years old) or to Pyramids (multi-platform tombs: 4,700 years old). Ziggurats were huge religious monuments built in the ancient Mesopotamian valley and western Iranian plateau, having the form of a terraced step pyramid of successively receding stories or levels. There are 32 ziggurats known at, and near, Mesopotamia. Twenty-eight of them are in Iraq, and four of them are in Iran. Ziggurats were built by the Sumerians, Babylonians, Elamites, and Assyrians as monuments to local religions. The probable predecessors of the ziggurat were temples supported on raised platforms or terraces that date from the Ubaid period during the 6,000 years ago and the latest date from the 2,600 years ago. The earliest ziggurats probably date from the latter part of the Early Dynastic Period of Sumer. Tepe Sialk ziggurat, Iran was built around 5,000 years ago and the oldest settlements in Sialk to date back from 8,000-7,500 years ago. ref, ref, ref

*Ziggurats (multi-platform temples around 4,900 years ago; likely emerging from Tell al-‘Ubaid is the type site, with an Early Dynastic temple) 

Ziggurats (multi-platform temples: 4,900 years old)

Mesopotamians revolved around their gods and so, naturally, the homes of the gods on earth: the temples. During the Ubaid Period (7,000 to 6,000 years ago), the movement towards urbanization began, based upon the analysis of grave goods, was one of increasingly polarised social stratification and decreasing egalitarianism, which has been described as a phase of “Trans-egalitarian” competitive households, in which some fall behind as a result of downward social mobility. Moreover, it has been hypothesized that Ubaid culture saw the rise of an elite class of hereditary chieftains, perhaps heads of kin groups linked in some way to the administration of the temple shrines and their granaries, responsible for mediating intra-group conflict and maintaining social order. a temple to Ninhursag, a Sumerian mother goddess. Like the temple at Kafahje, this too was surrounded by an oval-shaped enclosure wall. Tell al-‘Ubaid a low, relatively small tell (settlement mound) site of a prosperous Sumerian town lying on the Euphrates River about 4 miles northwest of the larger nearby city of Ur in southern Iraq‘s Dhi Qar Governorate. The majority of the remains are from the Ubaid period, for which Tell al-‘Ubaid is the type site, with an Early Dynastic temple at the highest point. The Early Dynastic temple is located on the northern edge of the site. The temple of Ninhursag goddess of childbirth and divine protector of wild animals. Erected in a time when the Sumerian cities were nearing their height of power and influence, the temple featured eight large copper-sheathed lions guarding its entrance. The insides of the structure were decorated with elegant reliefs inlaid with red limestone and mother-of-pearl.at the summit was on a cleared oval similar to that at Khafajah. The wall surrounding the temple was built by Shulgi of the Ur III Empire. Also found at Tell al-‘Ubaid was that the lower levels of the tell held smaller houses made from reeds that dated from an earlier period with similar huts, along with primitive pottery, at the lowest levels of the Ur site. The Early Dynastic period is an archaeological culture in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) that is generally dated around 4,900 to 4,350 years ago, involving multiple city-states: small states with a relatively simple structure that developed and solidified over time. It was preceded by the Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods, and saw the invention of writing and the formation of the first cities and states. This development ultimately led to the unification of much of Mesopotamia under the rule of Sargon, the first monarch of the Akkadian Empire. Despite this political fragmentation, such city-states shared a relatively homogeneous material culture. The Early Dynastic period (abbreviated ED period or ED) is an archaeological culture in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) that is generally dated to c. 2900–2350 BC. It was preceded by the Uruk and Jemdet Nasr periods and saw the invention of writing and the formation of the first cities and states. The ED itself was characterized by the existence of multiple city-states: small states with a relatively simple structure that developed and solidified over time. This development ultimately led to the unification of much of Mesopotamia under the rule of Sargon, the first monarch of the Akkadian Empire. Despite this political fragmentation, the ED city-states shared a relatively homogeneous material culture. Sumerian cities like Uruk, Ur, Lagash, Umma and Nippur, located in Lower Mesopotamia, were very powerful and influential. To the north and west stretched states centered on cities such as Kish, Mari, Nagar and Ebla. The ED was preceded by the Jemdet Nasr and then succeeded by the Akkadian period, during which, for the first time in history, large parts of Mesopotamia were united under a single ruler. The entirety of the ED is now generally dated to approximately 2900–2350 BC according to the middle chronology, or 2800–2230 BC according to the short chronology. The ED was divided into the ED I, ED II, ED IIIa, and ED IIIb sub-periods. ED I–III were more or less contemporary with the Early Jezirah (EJ) I–III in Upper Mesopotamia. The exact dating of the ED sub-periods varies between scholars: with some abandoning ED II and using only Early ED and Late ED instead, and others extending ED I while allowing ED III begin earlier so that ED III were to begin immediately after ED I, with no gap between the two. The ED I (2900–2750/2700 BC) is poorly known. In Lower Mesopotamia, it shared characteristics with the final stretches of the Uruk (c. 3300–3100 BC) and Jemdet Nasr (c. 3100–2900 BC) periods. ED I is contemporary with the culture of the Scarlet Ware pottery typical of sites along the Diyala in Lower Mesopotamia, the Ninevite V Culture in Upper Mesopotamia, and the Proto-Elamite Culture in southwestern Iran. New artistic traditions developed in Lower Mesopotamia during the ED II (2750/2700–2600 BC). These traditions influenced the surrounding regions. According to later Mesopotamian historical tradition, this was the time when famous kings such as Lugalbanda, Enmerkar, Gilgamesh, and Aga ruled over Mesopotamia. Archaeologically, this sub-period has not been well-attested to in excavations of Lower Mesopotamia, leading some researchers to abandon it altogether. The ED III (2600–2350 BC) saw an expansion in the use of writing and increasing social inequality. Larger political entities developed in Upper Mesopotamia and Southwestern Iran. ED III is usually further subdivided into the ED IIIa (2600–2500/2450 BC) and ED IIIb (2500/2450–2350 BC). The Royal Cemetery at Ur and the archives of Fara and Abu Salabikh date back to ED IIIa. The ED IIIb is especially well-known through the archives of Girsu (part of Lagash) in Iraq and Ebla in Syria. The end of the ED is not defined archaeologically, but politically. The conquests of Sargon and his successors upset the political equilibrium throughout Iraq, Syria, and Iran. The conquests lasted many years into the reign of Naram-Sin of Akkad and built on ongoing conquests during the ED. The transition is much harder to pinpoint within an archaeological context. It is virtually impossible to date a site to either ED III or Akkadian period based on ceramic or architectural evidence alone. In southwestern Iran, the first half of the Early Dynastic period corresponds with the Proto-Elamite period. This culture disappears toward the middle of the third millennium, to be replaced by a less sedentary way of life. Due to the absence of written evidence and a lack of archaeological excavations targeting this period, the socio-political situation of Proto-Elamite southwestern Iran is not well understood. Iran’s Pyramid the Ziggurat of Choghazanbil, Built by the Elamites in approximately 1250 BCE, it resembles the architecture employed in the Egyptian pyramids and Mayan edifices. Iran’s Pyramid originally five stories high, but at present only three floors remain. The Elamite Dynasty built many such edifices in ancient Persia, the most important of which is the ziggurat of Choghazanbil in Khuzestan province. The Choghazanbil edifice is the only surviving ziggurat in Iran and one of the most important remnants of the Elamite civilization, which thrived in Iran. The earliest known presence of Elamites has been recorded at Awan (now called Shoushtar, a town in Khouzestan province). Choghazanbil is located in Khouzestan province 30 km southwest of Shoush (Susa), the famous capital of Elam near Dez River which bifurcates from the large Karoun River. The original name of this town and its ziggurat was Dur-Untash which, according to the inscriptions discovered at the foundations of the ruined building in that town, derived its name from Untash-Gal, the Elamite king (1275-1240 BCE) who was the founder of that town. This name has been repeatedly mentioned in Elamite and Assyrian inscriptions. The word `Dur’ in the Akkadian and Elamite languages means a town or an enclosed and distinct region. Ziggurat in Sumerian language means ascending to heaven and has its root in the Elamite word Zagratu. The highest story of the ziggurat was called Kukunnu or Kizzum which name was ascribed to all the stories.
Choghazanbil means a hill-like basket (Zanbil), because in the Dezfouli or Lori dialect Chogha means a hill. Recently, an Iranian archeologist said evidence indicates the existence of a ziggurat older than the 3,000-year-old counterpart at Choghazanbil and Haft-Tappeh in Khuzestan province. Choga-Zanbil means ‘basket mound.’ It was built around 3,250 years ago by the king Untash-Napirisha, mainly to honor the great god Inshushinak. Choghazanbil is an example of a stepped pyramidal monument Its original name was Dur Untash, which means ‘town of Untash’, but it is unlikely that many people, besides priests and servants, ever lived there. The complex is protected by three concentric walls which define the main areas of the ‘town’. The inner area is wholly taken up with a great ziggurat dedicated to the main god, which was built over an earlier square temple with storage rooms also built by Untash-Napirisha. The middle area holds eleven temples for lesser gods. It is believed that twenty-two temples were originally planned, but the king died before they could be finished, and his successors discontinued the building work. In the outer area are royal palaces, a funerary palace containing five subterranean royal tombs. The site was occupied until it was destroyed by the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal in 640 BC. Some scholars speculate, based on the large number of temples and sanctuaries at Chogha Zanbil, that Untash-Napirisha attempted to create a new religious center (possibly intended to replace Susa) which would unite the gods of both highland and lowland Elam at one site. The main building materials in Chogha Zanbil were mud bricks and occasionally baked bricks. The monuments were decorated with glazed baked bricks, gypsum and ornaments of faïence and glass. Ornamenting the most important buildings were thousands of baked bricks bearing inscriptions with Elamite cuneiform characters were all inscribed by hand. Glazed terracotta statues such as bulls and winged griffins guarded the entrances to the ziggurat. Near the temples of Kiririsha and Hishmitik-Ruhuratir, kilns were found that were probably used for the production of baked bricks and decorative materials. It is believed that the ziggurat was built in two stages. It took its multi-layered form in the second phase. Knowledge of Elamite history remains largely fragmentary, reconstruction being based on mainly Mesopotamian (Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian and Babylonian) sources. The history of Elam is conventionally divided into three periods, spanning more than two millennia. The period before the first Elamite period is known as the proto-Elamite period: Proto-Elamite: c. 3200 – c. 2700 BC (Proto-Elamite script in Susa); Old Elamite period: c. 2700 – c. 1600 BC (earliest documents until the Eparti dynasty); Middle Elamite period: c. 1500 – c. 1100 BC (Anzanite dynasty until the Babylonian invasion of Susa); and Neo-Elamite period: c. 1100 – 540 BC (characterized Assyrian and Median influence. 539 BC marks the beginning of the Achaemenid period.). The Elamites practised polytheism. Knowledge about their religion is scant, but, according to Cambridge Ancient History, at one time they had a pantheon headed by the goddess Kiririsha/Pinikir. Other deities included In-shushinak and Jabru, lord of the underworld. According to Cambridge Ancient History, “this predominance of a supreme goddess is probably a reflexion from the practice of matriarchy which at all times characterized Elamite civilization to a greater or lesser degree.” The Sialk ziggurat, in Kashan, Iran, is the oldest known ziggurat, dating to the early 3rd millennium BC. Ziggurat designs ranged from simple bases upon which a temple sat, to marvels of mathematics and construction which spanned several terraced stories and were topped with a temple. An example of a simple ziggurat is the White Temple of Uruk, in ancient Sumer. The ziggurat itself is the base on which the White Temple is set. Its purpose is to get the temple closer to the heavens, and provide access from the ground to it via steps. The Mesopotamians believed that these pyramid temples connected heaven and earth. In fact, the ziggurat at Babylon was known as Etemenankia or “House of the Platform between Heaven and Earth”. An example of an extensive and massive ziggurat is the Marduk ziggurat, or Etemenanki, of ancient Babylon. The date of its original construction is unknown, with suggested dates ranging from the fourteenth to the ninth century BC, with textual evidence suggesting it existed in the second millennium. The cultures of Mesopotamia had a polytheistic belief system, which means that the people believed in multiple gods instead of just one. They also believed in demons created by the gods, which could be good or evil. Each city had its own patron deity, some of which were connected to specialized occupations. There were also gods and goddess, the rulers of the sky, air, and more, which received more attention from worshipers. To worship the gods and goddesses, the people of Mesopotamia built large structures, called Ziggurats that served as temples. Inside the worshiping area of the Ziggurat people would place carved stone human figures with wide eyes and clasped hands, praying on behalf of the people of Mesopotamia. This area was also where people could make offerings to please the deities or regain their favor. Some of the most important deities of ancient Mesopotamia were: An (Anu) – Sky god, as well as father of the gods, An was the king of all the gods. There was no art depicting him, all information about this god was translated from ancient texts. Enki (Ea) – God of fresh water, known for his wisdom. He was depicted as a bearded man with water flowing around him. Inanna (Ishtar) – Goddess of love, fertility, and war. She was the most important of the female deities. Nanna (Sin) – God of the moon and the son of Enlil and Ninlil. He travels across the sky in his small boat of woven twigs, surrounded by the planets and stars. Utu (Shamash) – God of the sun and of justice. Between the time when the sun sets in the west and rises in the east he is in the underworld, where he decrees the fate of the dead. The civilizations of southern Mesopotamia—Sumer and Babylonia—built ziggurats in what is considered the classic form. The ziggurat was situated in a walled courtyard that was entered by means of gateways. A large platform covering an area of about an acre formed the base of the structure. The corners of the platform were aligned with the four major points of the compass. This lower platform, like the ones above it, was a solid structure made of clay and sun-dried mud brick* . Unlike the pyramids, ziggurats had no interior passageways or chambers. Most ziggurats had three staircases that led from the ground to the lower level. All the staircases were on one side of the building. Two of them ran along the outside wall, and the third was perpendicular to the wall face and extended some distance away from the base of the ziggurat. Remains of a ziggurat at Ur indicate that only one staircase led to the top of the building. At the top of the ziggurat was a “high temple” to the local god. A “lower temple” for other gods was usually located at the base of the ziggurat. Although impressively designed and built, ziggurats were not very durable. During heavy rain, water penetrated the mud brick interiors and caused them to soften. Over time, the weight of the upper levels would cause the lower walls to bulge and eventually collapse. Several texts from ancient Mesopotamia indicate that the rulers expected this to happen. To try to preserve the structure as long as possible, all ziggurats incorporated features such as internal drainpipes to drain water away from the building. Some ziggurats also contained layers of reeds and bitumen (tarlike substance used for waterproofing) between each level to absorb extra moisture. Notwithstanding these precautions, many ziggurats had to be rebuilt every 100 years or less. The ziggurats in northern Mesopotamia were similar in design and construction to southern ones, but with a few differences. Assyrian ziggurats were typically square, not rectangular like the ones in the south. The four corners were not always aligned to the points of the compass, nor were the external stairways the only means of reaching the temple at the top. However, the most important difference between the two types of ziggurats was their physical surroundings. Sumerian and Babylonian ziggurats stood alone on a site, while the Assyrians incorporated their ziggurats into larger temple complexes that contained other buildings. These temple complexes were constructed on three platforms. The first, or lowest, platform was simply a courtyard surrounding the buildings on the site. The second platform contained the main temple of the god. The ziggurat was the third, and highest, platform in the group. The ancient Mesopotamians believed that the ziggurats served as a link between humans and the gods. Every important city contained a ziggurat dedicated to its local god. The structure rose to the sky, enabling the deities* to descend from heaven to visit their subjects. The high temple on top of the ziggurat received the god when he or she first descended from the sky. The lower temple at the base received the deity upon reaching the earth. The names given to many ziggurats express the idea that ziggurats were the stairways of the gods. The name of the ziggurat in the city of Sippar meant “the staircase to holy heaven,” while the great ziggurat in Babylon was called “the temple which is the foundation of heaven and earth.” In some ziggurats, the high temple had a bedchamber in which sacred marriage ceremonies took place. In these ceremonies, the king would enact a ritual with a priestess of the temple to ensure the fertility and prosperity of the kingdom. (See also Assyria and the Assyrians; Palaces and Temples .) ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

*Pyramids (multi-platform tombs around 4,700 years ago; likely emerging from Gisr el-Mudir at Saqqara only a several hundred feet west of the Step Pyramid and the Buried Pyramid)

Pyramids (multi-platform tombs: 4,700 years old),The earliest known Egyptian pyramids are found at Saqqara, northwest of Memphis. The earliest among these is the Pyramid of Djoser and this first Egyptian pyramid consisted of six mastabas (of decreasing size) built atop one another. The Pyramid of Djoser is a step pyramid (or proto-pyramid) with seven levels high and four-sided. “The step pyramid is the only pyramid in the Old Kingdom that 11 of the king’s daughters were buried inside,” said Egyptologist Zahi Hawass, former minister of state for antiquities. The Pyramid of Djoser was built for the burial of Pharaoh Djoser intended to hold his mummified body. These were the earliest type of Egyptian pyramids and were the predecessors of the “true pyramids” built with smooth sides. What defines a step pyramid is the use of a series of flat platforms on top of one another where they gradually get smaller as they get to the top. It was the largest building of its time, planned by Imhotep “the one who comes in peace”, architect of the Step Pyramid, who was a polymath, poet, judge, engineer, magician, scribe, astronomer, astrologer, physician, high priest and was chancellor to the pharaoh Djoser. The Step Pyramid complex was enclosed by a 30-foot (10-meter) wall and included courtyards, temples, and chapels covering nearly 40 acres (16 hectares)—the size of a large town in the third millennium B.C. As in earlier mastaba tombs, the Step Pyramid’s burial chambers are underground, hidden in a maze of tunnels, probably to discourage grave robbers. The tomb was nevertheless plundered, and all that remains of Djoser, the third king of Egypt’s 3rd dynasty (time line), is his mummified left foot. The Pyramid of Djoser was initially a mastaba tomb, a flat-roofed monument with sloping sides. Through a series of later expansions, the structure evolved into a 62-meter high Pyramid with six layers built on top of each other. The ‘first’ pyramid of the ancient Egyptians was built with a staggering 11.6 million cubic feet of stone and clay. The Pyramid of Djoser was constructed around 4,667 to 4,648 years ago (3rd dynasty) and the nearby enclosure known as Gisr el-mudir would seem to predate the complex do to pottery shards in the filling of the walls date to the Second Dynasty and indicated that the structure was constructed at the end of the Second Dynasty (end of the 28th century BC). Thus, Gisr el-Mudir is the oldest known Egyptian construction for which worked stone was used as a building material. There may be a connection between this enclosure and the two gallery tombs of the Second Dynasty located to the south of the Step Pyramid complex, which has been attributed to Hotepsekhemwy and Nebra or Ninetjer. Possibly, the empty rectangular structure interacted with the graves similarly to how the valley areas interacted with the graves at Abydos. Furthermore, the structure seemingly could also be attributed to Khasekhemwy, on account of similarities to his enclosure at Abydos, Shunet el-Zebib, and also because the erection of a stone building called Men-Netjeret is attributed to him in the Palermo stone which seems to fit chronologically with the construction of Gisr el-Mudir. The rectangular structure probably represents a transitional stage between the enclosures at Abydos and the Step Pyramid complex of Djoser. Abydos one of the oldest cities of ancient Egypt was occupied by the rulers of the Predynastic period, whose town, temple and tombs have been found there. The temple and town continued to be rebuilt at intervals down to the times of the thirtieth dynasty, and the cemetery was used continuously. The pharaohs of the first dynasty were buried in Abydos, including Narmer, who is regarded as founder of the first dynasty, and his successor, Aha. It was in this time period that the Abydos boats were constructed. Some pharaohs of the second dynasty were also buried in Abydos. The temple was renewed and enlarged by these pharaohs as well. Shunet El Zebib (lit. “raisin barn” or “storage of the raisins”), alternatively named Shuneh and Middle Fort, is a large mudbrick structure located at Abydos in Upper Egypt. The edifice dates to the 2nd dynasty (ca 2700 BC.), and was built by the Ancient Egyptian king (pharaoh) Khasekhemwy. Shunet El Zebib is made of hardened mud bricks. It consists of two rectangular surrounding walls built as a so-called funerary enclosure, a place where the deceased king was worshipped and memorized. Such a place was named “house of the Ka” or “Ka-house” by the Egyptians and it was some kind of forerunner to the later mortuary temples known from the Old Kingdom period. As usual for the Early Kingdom, abydene rulers had their own mastaba tomb with a separated funerary enclosure close by. Because Khasekhemwy and his predecessor Peribsen were buried at Abydos and had their funerary enclosures at the same location, some Egyptologists believe that both kings belonged to a royal dynasty line named Thinite Dynasty. This could indeed explain Peribsen’s and Khasekhemwy’s choice of place. However, it is unknown how long the mortuary enclosure of Khasekhemwy was in use, neither its Ancient Egyptian name is known. Because of its thick and interlaced walls, it was long time thought that Shunet El Zebib was a military fortress, which led to its alternative designation as “Middle Fort”. But archaeological findings provide only cultic and religious activities and a location so close to cemeteries speaks rather against any military use. Khasekhemwy’s enclosure domain is now evaluated as the most advanced and most massive version of a Ka-house. Because of the stunning architectural similarities between Shunet El Zebib and the Pyramid complex of 3rd dynasty king Djoser, archaeologists and egyptologists often describe the “Middle Fort” as a direct forerunner of the step pyramid complexes. The flat, stepped inner mount of the Shunet El Zebib is even named “proto-pyramid”. Egyptian step pyramids were created to serve as elaborate burial grounds for royalty. After the famous Egyptian step pyramid that King Djoser had created, no other Egyptian Step pyramid was fully completed. The era of Egyptian step pyramids came to an end when true pyramids began being built in their place during the 4th dynasty. However, there is a 4,600-year-old Egyptian step pyramid in Edfu, seemingly constructed (3rd Dynasty) is older than the Great Pyramid in Giza. The Edfu South Pyramid is part of a group of seven very similar small step pyramids which were all built far from the main centres of Egypt and about which very little is known, along with the pyramids of Elephantine, el-Kula (de), Naqada, Saujet el-Meitin (de), Sinki (de)and Seila (de). The builder and purpose of the pyramid and unknown. There is some thinking that it and the other pyramids were part of a single building project of Pharaoh Huni, the last ruler of the Third Dynasty. Though it has also been suggested that Huni’s successor, Sneferu (4,670 to 4,630 years ago) the founder of the Fourth Dynasty, was the builder. Speculation about the function of the pyramids ranges from a representation of the king, a depiction of the benben, or a symbol of the political and religious unity of the land to a cenotaph for a royal wife. Egyptian provincial step Pyramid facts show that the step pyramid in Edfu is part of the group of pyramids called provincial pyramids that were likely either built by the pharaoh Huni or Snefru. The provincial pyramids are a group of seven step-pyramids that have very similar characteristics and dimensions and were built in settlements throughout central and southern Egypt around the same time period. No one knows the exact reason for the provincial pyramids creation but some experts speculate that they may have been created as symbolic monuments. The Great Pyramid 4,580 to 4,560 years ago (4th dynasty) a (True pyramid) in Giza, is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza pyramid complex bordering what is now El Giza, Egypt. There are three known chambers inside the Great Pyramid. The lowest chamber is cut into the bedrock upon which the pyramid was built and was unfinished. The so-called Queen’s Chamber and King’s Chamber are higher up within the pyramid structure. The main part of the Giza complex is a setting of buildings that included two mortuary temples in honour of Khufu (one close to the pyramid and one near the Nile), three smaller pyramids for Khufu’s wives, an even smaller “satellite” pyramid, a raised causeway connecting the two temples, and small mastaba tombs surrounding the pyramid for nobles. Although succeeding pyramids were smaller than the Great Pyramid, pyramid building continued until the end of the Middle Kingdom. The Middle Kingdom of Egypt is the period in the history of ancient Egypt between circa 4,050 to 3,800 years ago, stretching from the reunification of Egypt under the impulse of Mentuhotep II of the Eleventh Dynasty to the end of the Twelfth Dynasty. During the Middle Kingdom period, Osiris became the most important deity in popular religion. Overall, Pyramids were built to be tombs for pharaohs and their queens. These ancient people went through great effort to ensure their souls would survive after death. Sometimes the individual’s body was put in the pyramid but sometimes the pyramid was just meant as a place for the soul of the deceased to reside in the afterlife. And seemingly why were built with a pyramid shape is most likely some connected importance of the sun in their religion, that a pyramid’s shape was believed to depict descending sun rays. Nubian pyramids are pyramids that were built by the rulers of the ancient Kushite kingdoms. Sudan has more than twice the number of pyramids you’ll find in Egypt relatively more than 200 pyramids, grouped across mainly three sites. The physical proportions of Nubian pyramids differ markedly from the Egyptian edifices: they are built of stepped courses of horizontally positioned stone blocks and range from approximately 6–30 metres (20–98 ft) in height, but rise from fairly small foundation footprints that rarely exceed 8 metres (26 ft) in width, resulting in tall, narrow structures inclined at approximately 70°. Most also have offering temple structures abutting their base with unique Kushite characteristics. By comparison, Egyptian pyramids of similar height generally had foundation footprints that were at least five times larger and were inclined at angles between 40–50°. From 5,100 to 4,890 years ago, Egyptian pharaohs sent their army south along the Nile in search of gold, granite for statues, ostrich feathers, and slaves. Reaching as far south as Jebel Barkal – a small mountain north of Khartoum – they built forts, and later temples, along the route to demonstrate their dominance over the Nubians. The conquered region came to be known as the Kush and the Kushites adopted all aspects of Egyptian culture, from gods to glyphs. But when the Egyptian empire collapsed in 3,070 years ago, the Nubians were free. However, the religion of Amun ran deep and 300 years later Alara, King of the Kush, spearheaded a renaissance of Egyptian culture, including the construction of their own pyramids. Now believing themselves the true sons of the God Amun, Alara’s grandson Piye invaded the north to rebuild the great temples, and for nearly 100 years Egypt was ruled by the “Black Pharaohs”.  At the peak of their reign, under the command of famous Kushite King Taharqa, their territories stretched all the way to Libya and Palestine. The crown of the king bore two cobras: one for Nubia, the other for Egypt. At the peak of their reign, under the command of famous Kushite King Taharqa, their territories stretched all the way to Libya and Palestine. The crown of the king bore two cobras: one for Nubia, the other for Egypt. The last great burial site of these royal Black Pharaohs was at Meroë, an ancient city on the east bank of the Nile. By 300 AD the Kush Empire was in decline. Dwindling agriculture and increasing raids from Ethiopia and Rome spelled the end of their rule. Christianity and Islam followed, and prayers to Egyptian God Amun faded from memory. The first Kushite kingdom had its capital at Kerma (4,600 to 3,520 years ago). The second was centered on Napata (3,000 to 2,300 years ago). Kerma was Nubia’s first centralized state with its own indigenous forms of architecture and burial customs. The last two kingdoms, Napata and Meroë, were heavily influenced by ancient Egypt culturally, economically, politically, and militarily. The Kushite kingdoms in turn competed strongly with Egypt economically and militarily. 2,751 years ago, the Kushite king Piankhi overthrew the 24th Dynasty and united the entire Nile valley from the delta to the city of Napata under his rule. Piankhi and his descendants ruled as the pharaohs of the Twenty-fifth Dynasty. The Napatan domination of Egypt ended with the Assyrian conquest of Egypt in 2,656 years ago. The beginning of Dynasties 22 and 23 witnessed political stability, during which Libyan pharaohs ruled from the Delta, first in Tanis and then Bubastis. The Libyan kings were able to maintain control from the Delta over the High Priests of Amen by placing their children in high positions in the clerical hierarchy. They carried out various building works at Karnak and throughout Egypt. The Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines mentioned various tribes with similar names living in Greater “Libya” (North Africa) in the areas where Berbers were later found. The presence of proto-Berber peoples from prehistory is evident in Saharan caves, where rock paintings depicting diverse megafaunal life point to evidence that before the desertification of the Sahara, northern Africa was a lush and resource-rich region populated by hunter-gatherer societies. The basal two deities of Berber cosmology – a solar figure and a lunar one – are loosely analogous to those of the Egyptians, suggesting a common cultural origin. According to Herodotus, who in his Histories wrote of the Berbers in 2,430 years ago, “They sacrifice to the Sun and Moon, but not to any other god. This worship is common to all the Libyans.” (IV, 198). In common with pre-Abrahamic Middle Eastern peoples, the importance of rocks was a major theme in Berber tradition. Some stone-cut mausoleums, such as the Roman-era Royal Mausoleum of Mauritania, built by Berber kings in traditional style, remain intact today. The Berber veneration of stone structures, which included the burial of the dead under outcroppings or erected monuments, was akin to such practices as the Nabatean pilgrimage to the Black Stone at Mecca’s Kaaba and the Arabian Hutaymi people’s worship of the great boulder Al-Weli abu Ruzuma. Similarities in tradition and language point to an ancient proto-Afroasiatic cultural center from which these groups dispersed. Libya was an unknown territory to the Egyptians: it was the land of the spirits. There were many Berber tribes in ancient Libya, including the now extinct Psylli, with the Libu being the most prominent. The Libyan script that was used in Libya was mostly a funerary script. North Africa has megalithic remains, which occur in a great variety of form and in vast numbers dolmens and circles like Stonehenge, cairns, underground cells excavated in rock, barrows topped with huge slabs, and step-pyramid-like mounds. Most remarkable are the trilithons, some still standing, some fallen, which occur isolated or in rows, and consist of two squared uprights standing on a common pedestal that supports a huge transverse beam. Berbers are an ethnic group encompasses the entire history and geography of North Africa. The name Berber derives from an ancient Egyptian language term meaning “outlander” or variations thereof. The Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines mentioned various tribes with similar names living in Greater “Libya” (North Africa) in the areas where Berbers were later found. Around 7,000 years ago, the Berber populations of North Africa were primarily descended from the makers of the Iberomaurusian and Capsian cultures, as well as Eurasian and Near Eastern. The proto-Berber tribes evolved from these prehistoric communities during the Late Bronze to Early Iron Age. Uniparental DNA analysis has established ties between Berbers and other Afro-Asiatic speakers in Africas, linguistically related to that of the Egyptians, Kushites, Arabs, Syrians, Levantine tribes, and Somalis. Most of these populations belong to the E1b1b paternal haplogroup, with Berber speakers having among the highest frequencies of this lineage. Additionally, genomic analysis has found that Berber and other Maghreb communities are defined by a shared ancestral component. Prehistoric tombs in the Maghreb shows that the bodies of the dead were painted with ochre. While this practice was known to the Iberomaurusians, this culture seems to have been primarily a Capsian industry. The dead were also sometimes buried with shells of ostrich eggs, jewelry, and weapons. Bodies were usually buried in a fetal position.  Pomponius Mela reported that the Augilae (Modern Awjila in Libya) considered the spirits of their ancestors to be gods. They swore by them and consulted them. After making requests, they slept in their tombs to await responses in dreams. Herodotus (2,484 to 2,425 years ago) noted the same practice among the Nasamones, who inhabited the deserts around Siwa and Augila. He wrote: [..]They swear by the men among themselves who are reported to have been the most righteous and brave, by these, I say, laying hands upon their tombs; and they divine by visiting the sepulchral mounds of their ancestors and lying down to sleep upon them after having prayed; and whatsoever thing the man sees in his dream, this he accepts. The Berbers worshiped their kings, too. The tombs of the Numidian kings are among the most notable monuments left by the Classical Berbers. Unlike the majority of mainland Berbers, the Guanches mummified the dead; a Libyan mummy at the Uan Muhuggiag site in Libya where the Tashwinat Mummy was found, which was dated to around 5,600 years ago, at a comparable age to the oldest found in Ancient Egyptian mummy dating to around 5,600-year-old tomb with a mummy (Predynastic Egypt), predates the unification of Egypt. This ancient Egyptian mummy (thought to be a teanager) was also buried with grave goods, including an ivory statue of a bearded man. The tomb is located in the ancient city of Hierakonpolis located between Luxor and Aswan, which was the dominant pre-dynastic urban settlement. The tomb was built before the rule of King Narmer, the founder of the First Dynasty who unified Upper and Lower Egypt in the around 5,100 years ago. Narmer was an ancient Egyptian king of the Early Dynastic Period. He probably was the successor to the Protodynastic king Ka, or possibly Scorpion. Narmer’s tomb in Umm el-Qa’ab near Abydos in Upper Egypt consists of two joined chambers, lined in mud brick. Narmer’s tomb is located next to the tombs of Ka, who likely ruled Upper Egypt just before Narmer, and Hor-Aha, who was his immediate successor. As the tomb dates back more than 5,000 years, and has been pillaged, repeatedly, from antiquity to modern times, it is amazing that anything useful could be discovered in it. Because of the repeated disturbances in Umm el-Qa’ab, many articles of Narmer’s were found in other graves, and objects of other kings, were recovered in Narmer’s grave. Narmer is well attested throughout Egypt, southern Canaan and Sinai: altogether 98 inscriptions at 26 sites.^[k] At Abydos and Hierakonpolis Narmer’s name appears both within a serekh and without reference to a serekh. At every other site except Coptos, Narmer’s name appears in a serekh.In Egypt, his name has been found at 17 sites: 4 in Upper Egypt (Hierakonpolis, Naqada, Abydos, and Coptos); ten in Lower Egypt (Tarkhan, Helwan, Zawyet el’Aryan, Tell Ibrahim Awad, Ezbet el-Tell, Minshat Abu Omar, Saqqara, Buto, Tell el-Farkha, and Kafr Hassan Dawood); one in the Eastern Desert (Wadi el-Qaash); and two in the Western Desert (Kharga Oasis and Gebel Tjauti). During Narmer’s reign, Egypt had an active economic presence in southern Canaan. Pottery sherds have been discovered at several sites, both from pots made in Egypt and imported to Canaan and others made in the Egyptian style out of local materials. Researchers wrung genetic material from 151 Egyptian mummies, radiocarbon dated between Egypt’s New Kingdom (the oldest at 3,388 years) to the Roman Period (the youngest at 426 A.D.), ancient Egyptians showed little genetic change as well as finding not much sub-Saharan African ancestry as reported in the journal Nature Communications. Ancient Egyptians were closely related to people who lived along the eastern Mediterranean, the analysis showed. And the DNA of 93 Egyptian mummies from their study reveals a surprising close relation to ancient people of the Near East such as Armenians. They also shared genetic material with residents of the Turkish peninsula at the time and Europe. Given Egypt’s location at the intersection of Africa, Europe and Asia, and the influx of foreign rulers, Krause said he was surprised at how stable the genetics seemed to be over this period. It was not until relatively recently, last 1,500 years, Egypt became more African and that sub-Saharan genetic influences became more pronounced. However, a study performed on ancient mummies of the 12th Dynasty, identified multiple lines of descent, some of which originated in Sub-Saharan Africa. Complete mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequences were obtained for 90 of the mummies and were compared with each other and with several other ancient and modern datasets. Modern Egyptians generally shared this maternal haplogroup pattern, but also carried more Sub-Saharan African clades. However, analysis of the mummies’ mtDNA haplogroups found that they shared greater mitochondrial affinities with modern populations from the Near East and the Levant compared to modern Egyptians. Additionally, three of the ancient Egyptian individuals were analyzed for Y-DNA, and were observed to bear paternal lineages that are common in both the Middle East and North Africa. The genetic history of Egypt‘s demographics reflects that Berber and other Maghreb communities are defined by a shared ancestral component. This Maghrebi element peaks among Tunisian Berbers. North Moroccans as well as Libyans and Egyptians carry higher proportions of European and Middle Eastern ancestral components, respectively, whereas Tunisian Berbers and Saharawi are those populations with the highest autochthonous North African component. According to Y-DNA analysis show around 45% of Copts in Sudan carry the haplogroup J. The remainder mainly belong to the E1b1b clade (21%). Both paternal lineages are common among other local Afro-Asiatic-speaking populations (Beja, Ethiopians, Sudanese Arabs), as well as many Nubians. E1b1b/E3b reaches its highest frequencies among Berbers and Somalis. Copts in Sudan exclusively carry various descendants of the macrohaplogroup N. This mtDNA clade is likewise closely associated with local Afro-Asiatic-speaking populations, including Berbers and Ethiopic peoples. An ancestral autosomal component of West Eurasian origin that is common to many modern Afroasiatic-speaking populations in Northeast Africa. Known as the Coptic component, it peaks among Egyptian Copts who settled in Sudan over the past two centuries. Copts also formed a separated group in PCA, a close outlier to other Egyptians, Afro-Asiatic-speaking Northeast Africans and Middle East populations. The Coptic component evolved out of a main Northeast African and Middle Eastern ancestral component that is shared by other Egyptians and also found at high frequencies among other Afro-Asiatic-speaking populations in Northeast Africa (~70%). The scientists suggest that this points to a common origin for the general population of Egypt. They also associate the Coptic component with Ancient Egyptian ancestry, without the later Arabian influence that is present among other Egyptians. Among other significant finds at Uan Muhuggiag are elaborate rock paintings, mostly attributed to the later occupation period of around 5,000 years ago. There are more than 100 rock paintings on the shelter’s walls and ceiling. The most notable of these are the Round Head paintings. They were named as such because the heads depicted were quite large, out of proportion to the rest of the body, and also very round with a distinct lack of features. Additionally, there was a painting depicting these figures inside a boat, which may have had a ritual or religious significance. One particular figure inside the boat was upside-down, whom Mori had interpreted as being dead. Some rock art depicted cattle with herders and running hunters. There was also a painting of two oxen that was found on a rock which had detached from the wall above. The stratigraphic layer confirmed the painting to date from about 4700 BP. This provided conclusive evidence that the inhabitants of Uan Muhuggiag at that time were pastoralists. A pyramidion is the uppermost piece or capstone of an Egyptian pyramid or obelisk, in archaeological parlance. They were called benbenet in the Ancient Egyptian language, which associated the pyramid as a whole with the sacred benben stone. During Egypt’s Old Kingdom, pyramidia were generally made of diorite, granite, or fine limestone, which were then covered in gold or electrum; during the Middle Kingdom and through the end of the pyramid-building era, they were built from granite. A pyramidion was “covered in gold leaf to reflect the rays of the sun”; during Egypt’s Middle Kingdom, they were often “inscribed with royal titles and religious symbols.” Very few pyramidia have survived into modern times. Most of those that have are made of polished black granite, inscribed with the name of the pyramid’s owner. Four pyramidia – the world’s largest collection – are housed in the main hall of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. Among them are the pyramidia from the so-called Black Pyramid of Amenemhat III at Dahshur and of the Pyramid of Khendjer at Saqqara. The pyramidion of the scribe Moses (mes,s, New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty, 3,250 years ago) depicts himself making an offering, with his name on two opposite faces. The adjacent opposite faces feature a baboon: “Screeching upon the rising of the Sun, and the Day”. (The baboon is also the god-scribe representation of the Scribe, for the god Thoth.) ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Pyramids in China (pyramidal shaped tomb structures: 5,000 years old)

In the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in northern China, Chinese archeologists have discovered a pyramid which they have dated to be more than 5,000 years old. Archaeologist Guo Dashun stated that the three-stepped pyramid belongs to the Hongshan culture period of 5,000 to 6,000 years ago, during the Stone Age. At the top of the pyramid, the archeologists found seven tombs and the ruins of an altar. Also found were many fragments of broken pottery carved with the Chinese character mi (rice). They also discovered a bone flute, a stone ring, and a life-sized sculpture of a goddess. The term Chinese pyramids refers to pyramidal shaped structures in China, most of which are ancient mausoleums and burial mounds built to house the remains of several early emperors of China and their imperial relatives. About 38 of them are located around 16 to 22 mi) north-west of Xi’an, on the Guanzhong Plains in Shaanxi Province. The most famous is the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, northeast of Xi’an and 1.7 km west of where the Terracotta Warriors were found. The earliest tombs in China are found just north of Beijing in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and in Liaoning. They belong to the Neolithic Hongshan culture (6,700 to 2,900 years ago) a culture in northeastern China. The site of Niuheliang in Liaoning contains a pyramidal structure.culture in northeastern China. Hongshan burial artifacts include some of the earliest known examples of jade working. The Hongshan culture is known for its jade pig dragons and embryo dragons. Clay figurines, including figurines of pregnant women, are also found throughout Hongshan sites. Small copper rings were also excavated. Origin of the mysterious Yin-Shang bronzes in China indicate they contain lead with puzzlingly highly radiogenic isotopic compositions appeared suddenly in the alluvial plain of the Yellow River around 3,400 years ago. Excavators have discovered an underground temple complex—which included an altar—and also cairns in Niuheliang. The temple was constructed of stone platforms, with painted walls. Archaeologists have given it the name Goddess Temple due to the discovery of a clay female head with jade inlaid eyes. It was an underground structure, 1m deep. Included on its walls are mural paintings. Housed inside the Goddess Temple are clay figurines as large as three times the size of real-life humans. The exceedingly large figurines are possibly deities, but for a religion not reflective in any other Chinese culture. The existence of complex trading networks and monumental architecture (such as pyramids and the Goddess Temple) point to the existence of a “chiefdom“ in these prehistoric communities. Painted pottery was also discovered within the temple. Over 60 nearby tombs have been unearthed, all constructed of stone and covered by stone mounds, frequently including jade artifacts. Cairns were discovered atop two nearby two hills, with either round or square stepped tombs, made of piled limestone. Entombed inside were sculptures of dragons and tortoises. It has been suggested that religious sacrifice might have been performed within the Hongshan culture. In northeast China, Hongshan culture was preceded by Xinglongwa culture (6200–5400 BC), Xinle culture (5300–4800 BC), and Zhaobaogou culture, which may be contemporary with Xinle and a little later. Yangshao culture was in the larger area and contemporary with Hongshan culture (see map). These two cultures interacted with each other. Just as suggested by evidence found at early Yangshao culture sites, Hongshan culture sites also provide the earliest evidence for feng shui. The presence of both round and square shapes at Hongshan culture ceremonial centers suggests an early presence of the gaitian cosmography (“round heaven, square earth”). The three exceptional pyramids around Xi’an, constructed using three different methods:

1. The Qian Shi Huang pyramid (Qin Dynasty) constructed of clay bricks

The first and largest “burial pyramid” is thought to be that of the first Emperor Qin Shi Huang, who unified China as a country and founded the Qin Dynasty. It lies in the huge mausoleum at the foot of the Qing Ling Shan Mountains, 80 km southwest of Xi’an. He began construction as soon as he ascended the throne at the tender age of 13 in 246 BC. It was to be of tremendous dimensions – its base was 354 x 357 meters, and its original height was 200 meters, making it the largest “pyramid” in the world (for comparison, the great pyramid in Giza is 230 x 230 meters and 147 meters high). For the 36 years that work went on, up to 700,000 people were employed at the site at a time to construct the pyramid and the subterranean complexes over an area of several thousand square meters. Construction was completed in 210 BC.

2. Qian Ling pyramid (Tang Dynasty), formed from a hill

This pyramid and the burial complexes are located on the slopes of Mount Liang, 6 km north of Quianling, the county seat, 80 km northwest of Xi’an. It is the mausoleum of the third Tang emperor, Gaozong (650-683 AD) and his wife, who became the Empress Wu Zetian (684-704, seventh daughter of Emperor Zhongzong (Li Xian), who was buried there in 684 or 706. The “pyramid” was not made by piling up material, however, but by shaping an existing hill (resulting in a “shaped pyramid”) which is not square and has large differences in its base lengths. What is special is the emperor’s subterranean burial chambers, which belie influences that are atypical for early China (see Fig. ??). Of the 18 Tang emperor burial sites in the Guanzhong Plain, it is the only complex that was not found and plundered by grave robbers. The enormous stairway access is almost 2 km long with two bulwark towers in front of the “pyramid” and is flanked by figures of animals and people that are up to 4 meters high and by monolithic stone pillars. Among these are armed guards, winged horses (yima), stone lions (shishi) and the Shusheng Tablets and Uncharactered Stele (wuzibei).

3. Earthen Pyramid of Princess Yongtai (Tang Dynasty)

Princess Yongtai (Huang Ti) was the granddaughter of Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu Zetian, and died in 701 AD at only 17 years of age. She was buried near the Qianling Mausoleum in 706, together with Prince Duwei Wu Yanhin, a nephew of Wu Zetian who had died one year earlier (this delayed burial was possible because the bodies had been mummified). Yongtai‘s grave is surrounded by strong, 3-meters-tall walls, oriented to the four cardinal directions. They are 275 meters long from north to south and 220 meters wide from east to west. The pyramidal hill is located in the middle of the mausoleum. Today, it is only 14 meters high, with a respectable side length of 56 meters. An arched corridor 88 meters long, almost 4 meters wide and 6 meters high leads from the southern entrance to an antechamber and from there to the actual burial chamber. This one impressed and surprised me even more than that of Emperor Gaozong; it corresponds almost exactly to the Egyptian construction method. These similarities are not limited to the long corridors leading below the pyramid, but also include the chamber‘s shape and especially the outer sarcophagus. It is made of black basalt and is almost identical to the 24 sarcophagi in the Serapeum of Sakkara (see page 92). The frescoes are also exceptionally well preserved. The burial chamber‘s east and west walls are covered with depictions of black dragons, white tigers and an honor guard, and the ceiling features astronomical motifs. The antechamber‘s east and west walls bear depictions of waiting servants. This tomb is believed to have been plundered very early. Nevertheless, more than 1,300 items have been discovered in the vicinity during the past 50 years, including gold- and silverware, glazed figurines, porcelain and copperware.

3. Earthen Pyramid of Mao Ling (Han Dynasty)

This burial site is located 40 km from Xi‘an, near the village of Maoling, northeast of the city of Xingping. The mausoleum of Mao Ling, the burial pyramid of Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty (141-87 BC) is the largest of the five mausoleums built during the Western Han Dynasty and is also called the “Pyramid of the East”. Its construction is thought to have begun in 139 BC and lasted 53 years. It was surrounded by a square bulwark wall almost 6 meters thick, 431 meters long east to west and 415 meters long north to south. There was one gate in the middle of each section of the wall, one for every cardinal point. The central burial mound is a truncated pyramid, eroded to a height of 46.5 meters, with a base of about 217 x 222 meters. Around the central mausoleum are over 20 other tombs for Wudi’s family, ministers and generals, such as the burial pyramid of generals Huo Qubing, Wei Qing and Jin Midi, located between 1 and 2 km east of the emperor‘s tomb. Today, the complex also features the Mao Ling Museum, where splendid burial objects are displayed; historical records claim that the emperor spent one third of all tax income for several decades on the mausoleum‘s construction and his family’s burial goods.

Finding feng shui?

Early feng shui relied on astronomy to find correlations between humans and the universe. The culture may also have contributed to the development of settlements in ancient Korea. A group called “Qiang” were mentioned in ancient Chinese texts as well as in inscriptions on oracle bones 3000 years ago. The Qiang people who practice Qiang folk religion are an ethnic group in Chin mainly in a mountainous region in the northwestern part of Sichuan on the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. It is possible that the modern Qiang might be descendants of one of the groups referred to as Qiang in ancient times. Many of the peoples formerly designated as “Qiang” were gradually removed from this category in Chinese texts as they become sinicized or reclassified, and by the Ming and Qing dynasties, the term “Qiang” denoted only non-Han people living in the upper Min River Valley and Beichuan area, the area now occupied by the modern Qiang. Qiang territory lies between the Han Chinese and historical Tibet, and the Qiang would fall under the domination of both. Each village may have one or more stone towers in the past, and the Himalayan Towers remains a distinctive feature of some Qiang villages. Himalayan Towers are also called Stone star-shaped towers, are a series of stone towers located mostly in Kham, a province of premodern Tibet, and in Sichuan. The towers are located principally in the Changtang and Kongpo regions of Tibet as well as in the area inhabited by the modern Qiang people and in the historical region inhabited by the Western Xia. These towers can be found both in cities and in uninhabited regions. Many of the towers use a star pattern of walls as opposed to a strictly rectangular method and heights can exceed 200 ft. The Qiang worship five major gods, twelve lesser gods, some tree gods, and numerous stones were also worshiped as representatives of gods. A special god is also worshiped in every village and locality, who are mentioned by name in the sacred chants of the Qiang priests. Mubyasei, also known Abba Chi, is the supreme god of the universe and the same name is also used to refer to a male ancestor god, Abba Sei. In certain places, Shanwang, the mountain god, is considered to represent the supreme god. Archaeologists have released a photograph of a skull found in an ancient tomb in Alaer (Aral) in Southern Xinjiang, China.  The skull shows an unusual characteristic in which the teeth are vertically oriented instead of horizontally.  In addition, the researchers have revealed that the skeleton recovered from the tomb measured a massive 2.3 metres (7 feet 6 inches) which researchers have said that skeleton is 4,000 years old and belonged to the Qiang people. The Qiang people have been recognized as a ‘first ancestor’ culture due to their ancient roots – they were mentioned in ancient Chinese texts as well as inscriptions on the oracle bones of 3,000 years ago. However, the ancient Qiang people referred to in these ancient texts were a broad group of nomadic people and the ancestors of the modern Tibeto-Burman speakers, they are therefore not the equivalent of the modern Qiang people who are a small branch of the ancient Qiangs. The Qiangs were also not a single distinctive ethnic group in the past. According to historical records, a clan group made their homes in what is today’s Sichuan Province. During 600 to 900 AD when the Tibetan Regime gradually expanded its rule over the region, some Qiangs were assimilated by the Tibetans and others by the Hans, leaving a small number unassimilated. These developed into the distinctive ethnic group of today. Prehistoric transport and trade nvolved migrations out of the Fertile Crescent would carry early agricultural practices to neighboring regions—westward to Europe and North Africa, northward to Crimea, and eastward to Mongolia. Interestingly, the region where the tomb was uncovered is in the same region where the well-known Tarim mummies with Caucasoid features were recovered. The mummies were found to have typical Europoid body features (elongated bodies, angular faces, recessed eyes), and many of them have their hair physically intact, ranging in color from blond to red to deep brown. Like the Qiang skeleton, the Tarim mummies were also found to be very tall.  Could there be a link between them? The ancient people of the Sahara imported domesticated animals from Asia between 6000 and 4000 BCE. In Nabta Playa by the end of the 7th millennium BCE, prehistoric Egyptians had imported goats and sheep from Southwest Asia. Foreign artifacts dating to the 5th millennium BCE in the Badarian culture in Egypt indicate contact with distant Syria. In predynastic Egypt, by the beginning of the 4th millennium BCE, 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 (Ancient India) 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 2,400 years ago is the oldest seafaring harbor known. Ancient Egyptian trade consisted of the gradual creation of land and sea trade routes connecting the Ancient Egyptian civilization with the Fertile Crescent, Arabia, Sub-Saharan Africa, and India. are circular and stepped and were made of clay. structures of Igbo culture was the Nsude Pyramids, at the Nigerian town of Nsude, northern Igboland. Ten pyramidal structures were built of clay/mud. The first base section was 60 ft. in circumference and 3 ft. in height. The next stack was 45 ft. in circumference. Circular stacks continued, till it reached the top. The structures were temples for the god Ala/Uto, who was believed to reside at the top. A stick was placed at the top to represent the god’s residence. The structures were laid in groups of five parallel to each other. Because it was built of clay/mud like the Deffufa of Nubia, time has taken its toll requiring periodic reconstruction. These pyramids bear a different but somewhat similar resemblance to the Step Pyramid of Saqqara, in Egypt and could have possibly, derive from the same cultural/religious/philosophical tradition that inspired this ancient Egyptian monument also similar to Nubian-like pyramids thousands of miles away from the Nubian area in the heart of Igboland. Evidence like this could show some correlation between the ancient Egyptians and the ancient Igbo. There is an existing ideology amongst the Yorubas of Nigeria and other writers of Yoruba history that the original ancestors of the Yorubas originated in ancient Egypt hence there was migration between Egypt and Yorubaland. This researcher contends that even if there was migration between Egypt and Nigeria, such migration did not take place during the predynastic and dynastic period as speculated by some scholars. No one knows precisely the origins of the methods of specialized bronze and brass castings in Nigeria, and the reasons for the similarities between the Nok terracottas (as old as 2,500 years), the art from Igbo-Ukwu near Enugu, and the Yoruba art that produced the famous Ife bronze heads and those of ancient Egyptians. These arts found in Nigeria might have been produced independently of any foreign culture. The ancient Egyptians were not known to be too keen about traveling and to adapt so much to foreign cultures. Trade, adventure, and escape from wars might have led some of them to travel to other parts of the world, but traveling to stay in other countries seemed not to be one of their preferences. Furthermore, the absence of a known and generally acceptable descendant of Egyptians in Nigeria suggests that the Egyptians did
not live in Nigeria permanently. The Nubian dynasty of Egypt (the 25th Dynasty of Egypt) saw the first widespread construction of pyramids (many in modern Sudan) since the Middle Kingdom. Amongst the Yorubas of Nigeria, are of the opinion that there were migrations between Egypt and Yorubaland. There is some thinking that there is some linkage between the Egyptians to the Yorubas, like the various forms of spirits, gods and ancestors worshipped. A royal pyramidal tomb, located in Ji’an, Jilin, was built by the Goguryeo Kingdom. The site includes archaeological remains of 40 tombs which were built by Goguryeo, which was founded by Jumong in a region called Jolbon Buyeo, thought to be located in the middle Amrok River and Tongjia River basin, overlapping the current China–North Korea border located in and around the city of Ji’an in China. Some of the tombs have elaborate ceilings designed to roof wide spaces without columns and carry the heavy load of a stone or earth tumulus (mound) was placed above them. The paintings in the tombs, while showing artistic skills and specific style, are also an example of strong influence from various cultures. located in and around the city of Ji’an in China. Koguryo (or Goguryeo, 2,037 years ago to 668 CE) was an ancient kingdom located in what is now Manchuria and the northern Korean Peninsula. Goguryeo was a Korean kingdom with a religion makeup of Buddhism, Taoism, and Shamanism. In the geographic monographs of the Book of Han, the word Goguryeo was first mentioned around 2,113 to 1,349 years ago, as a region under the jurisdiction of the Xuantu Commandery, page 33. Capital Cities and Tombs of the Ancient Goguryo Kingdom located in and around the city of Ji’an in China and located in the northern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula and the southern and central parts of inner and outer Manchuria. Goguryeo was an active participant in the power struggle for control of the Korean peninsula and was also associated with the foreign affairs of neighboring polities in China and Japan. Jumong, the founder of Goguryeo, was worshipped and respected among the people. There was even a temple in Pyongyang dedicated to Jumong. At the annual Dongmaeng Festival, a religious rite was performed for Jumong, ancestors, and gods.  Other pyramids in China, built using different construction methods, and not simply made of piled-up earth. What may deserve more attention than the earthen pyramids of Xi’an, as they are actual layered stone block pyramids, much like those in South America.

Layered stone pyramid of Jian/Zangkunchong (Goguryeo Dynasty)

There are two isolated layered pyramids near the city of Ji’an in Jangxi province in southeastern China. The perfectly preserved Ji’an pyramid is built of precisely cut stone blocks and contains a large burial chamber. Each base has a length of exactly 31.60 meters on every side, and the height is 12.4 meters. It is made up of seven layers, the first of four layers of stone, and all others of three. This layout is surprisingly similar to that of the layered pyramids in South America. The twelve monoliths that were placed so as to lean against the outer walls’ lower layers – the largest of which is 2.7 meters wide and 4.5 meters high – also set this one apart from other Chinese pyramids. Of these twelve monoliths, four are so-called guardian stones, but only “Paechong” (Korean for “warden‘s tomb”) is still intact. Interestingly, the pyramid is oriented to the cardinal points, while the heads of the stone sarcophagi in the chamber pointed precisely to the mystical volcanic crater of Paektusan (Mount Paektu) on the horizon with its beautiful crater lake at an altitude of 2,500 meters. There are three hypotheses about who built it: The first hypothesis suggests that it was built during the ancient Goguryeo empire, which briefly ruled Korea and parts of eastern China, as a stone mausoleum for King Kwangkaeto the Great (Gwangaeto, 374-413 AD). He is also credited with the construction of the nearby stone pyramid that is almost completely destroyed. The foundation walls, with their base lengths of almost 40 meters, are all that remain of that pyramid, which is thought to be his tomb. The second hypothesis posits that the remaining pyramid is the tomb of King Zangsu (Jangsu), which is why it is called “Zangkunchong”. It is also called Juni Ten (the general’s tomb) and “Pyramid of the East”. This name comes from the 20th regent of Goguryeo, the northernmost of the three Korean kingdoms, whose capital was Ji’an. Historical documents state that king Jansu was crowned king in 413 AD at the young age of 19 and went on to lead the kingdom, stretching from Korea to Mongolia, to its golden age. He died in 491 AD. But how did the Goguryeo Dynasty acquire the knowledge necessary for the construction of such flawless layered pyramids, the likes of which had never been seen in the area, and were not seen there again? The third hypothesis posits that the pyramids were built during the Kokuryo period, around 500 AD. That theory does not name the ruler who is buried there.

Xia Pyramids (Xia Dynasty), made of clay bricks 

The Xia pyramids are located in western China, on the eastern slope of the Helan mountains, about 35 kilometers west of Yinchuan, the capital of the autonomous region of Ningxia Hui. They consist of pyramidal mausoleums for the imperial family with heights of between 9 and 20 meters, and 207 documented stone tombs for nobles and higher magistrates, all scattered over an area of 40 km2. Chinese researchers have conducted archaeological and scientific analyses on these tombs since the 1980s, but the sudden rise and fall of the western Xia dynasty (also referred to as the Tangut Empire, 1038-1227) remains a mystery. One theory suggests that they were overrun and largely eradicated by invading Mongols under Genghis Khan. The best-preserved burial pyramid (Mausoleum No. 3) is the only one to have been excavated and explored. It was attributed to the first Xia emperor, Jingzong (1003-1048), whose birth name was Li Yuanhao. The pyramids were built with clay tiles, and the construction method used combines elements from the construction of pyramids, towers and traditional temple-mausoleums, while the chambers feature Buddhist elements and paintings, although these might have been added later.

Stone and earth Xituanshan Pyramid near Jiaohe

The ruins of Xituanshan, near the city of Jiaohe, on the border of the Taklamakan Desert, were excavated in 1950 after water erosion exposed the first two tombs (see sunken desert cities on page 586). The entire complex spans an area of 1,000 meters x 500 meters for a total area of 500,000 m2. Historical accounts state that it was the capital of the Chesi Empire from about 108 BC to 450 AD. But in 2006, Chinese archaeologists dug deeper and uncovered a group of six much older tombs that are thought to date back to the Bronze Age, or 1,000 BC, making them 3,000 years old, or almost 1,000 years older than the Chesi empire. For five of the pyramidal structures, only parts of the foundations and first layers remain, but these still reveal their original shape and size. The largest pyramidal tomb has been clearly identified as a three-layered pyramid made of stones and earth. It has a square base of 50 meters x 30 meters and an oval platform of 15 meters x 10 meters at its apex, on which stood a stone sarcophagus covered with a granite plate and surrounded by four engraved stone tablets. This mysterious sarcophagus and the pyramidal tombs were attributed to the “king of an earlier tribe”. I am certain that this complex was built by the legendary Sand People.

Stone and earth Hongshan Pyramids near Sijiazi

In the autonomous province of Inner Mongolia in northeastern China, a 5,000-year-old, three-tiered pyramid was discovered on a shaped-hill pyramid north of the city of Sijiazi in Aohan County. Even Chinese archaeologists immediately recognized it as a man-made pyramid, specifically as a burial complex from the Hongshan Culture (4,500-2,250 BC). The tiered pyramid is said to be about 30 meters long and 15 meters wide, and an altar and seven graves were found on its platform. In the graves, besides the remains, were various vaults containing a bone flute, a stone ring and the stone statue of a goddess. The archaeologists also discovered clay fragments with small stars scratched into their interiors which they believed to indicate either an early culture’s astronomical knowledge or a mythology that indicated that they would one day return to the stars.

What is the oldest Chinese dynasty?

The Shang dynasty is the oldest Chinese dynasty whose existence is supported by archaeological finds, but more evidence for the existence of the Xia dynasty may yet emerge.^1 1 start superscript, 1, end superscript It’s estimated that the Shang ruled the Yellow River Valley of China for most of the second millennium BCE—so about 1766 to 1046 BCE. For centuries, people found what they called dragon bones—bones and shells with mysterious inscriptions—in many parts of China. Excavations of the ancient city of Anyang in the early twentieth century revealed tens of thousands of these bone fragments and bronze vessels, many of which had inscriptions in proto-Chinese characters.^2 2 start superscript, 2, end superscript These artifacts contained records dating back to the Shang dynasty, allowing scholars to learn much about Shang life, such as their agricultural methods, medical treatments, legal system, and craft making styles. The Shang built huge cities with strong social class divisions, expanded earlier irrigation systems, excelled in the use of bronze, and developed a writing system. Shang kings fulfilled a sacred, not political, role, while a council of chosen advisers and bureaucrats—official administrators—organized and ran the government. The oldest surviving form of Chinese writing is found as inscriptions of divination records on the bones or shells of animals, called oracle bones; oracle, from a similar Latin root as the English word orator, means holy messenger or speaker. The writing found on oracle bones shows complexity, indicating that this language had existed for a long time. Writing allowed science in the Shang dynasty to advance, as observations could be recorded more accurately. The Oracle Scripts are accounts of eclipses and other celestial events written by astronomers of the Shang period. Shang astronomers’ works also showed advances in mathematics, the development of odd and even numbers, and principles of accounting. The I-Ching—also known as The Book of Changes—was either written or compiled at this same time, around 3,250 to 3,150 years ago. The I-Ching is a book of divination with roots going back to the fortune tellers of the rural areas and their oracle bones. Musical instruments were also developed by the Shang. At Yin Xu, near Angyang, excavations have revealed instruments from the Shang period such as the ocarina—a wind instrument—drums, and cymbals. Bells, chimes, and bone flutes have been discovered elsewhere. The Shang created a lunar calendar, based on the cycles of the moon, that was used to predict and record important events, especially planting and harvesting of crops. Because lunar years are shorter than solar years, which are based on the Earth’s orbit of the sun, Shang kings employed specially-trained astronomers who made adjustments and maintained the precision of the calendar. Bronze, an alloy of copper and tin, was a hugely important metal during the Shang period. Shang metal workers developed a highly sophisticated method for casting bronze and used it to make ceremonial objects and weapons. Bronze swords and spearheads were stronger than other available metals, giving Shang soldiers an advantage in battle. The influence of the Early Shang extended hundreds of kilometers away from the capital, and many of the Shang bronze techniques diffused over large areas. The Shang in turn adopted skills, ideas, and even crops from some neighboring societies, such as wheat and axes, which may have come from Western Asia. However—because natural barriers like the ocean, mountain ranges, deserts, and steppes kept the Shang in relative isolation—the Shang dynasty as well as later dynasties evolved in unique and insular ways. The first Shang ruler supposedly founded a new capital for his dynasty at a town called Shang, near modern-day Zhengzhou on the Yellow River, is in east-central China Henan province notable as the ancient Shang dynasty capital, whose earthen walls still stand in the city center. Shang, along with other ancient Chinese cities, had two city walls—one inner and one outer wall. The common residents could live within the outer wall, but could not go past the inner wall, which enclosed a temple area, cemetery sites, bronze foundries, bronze casting areas, and bone workshops. The inner walls thus encircled an area of political elite and craft specialists, who together were the engineers of the important ritual performances. In this way, the architecture of these cities was designed to separate different social classes. However, it seems that there were many capitals aside from this one, and rulers may have moved from one to the other because of religious rituals, military strategy, or food requirements. That suggests that the power of the dynasty was concentrated in the king, whose political authority was reinforced by the Shang religion. Anyang, another Shang capital, also in modern-day Henan Province, is another important—but slightly later—Shang city that has been excavated. It was located at the intersection between lowland agricultural areas of the North China Plain and mountains which acted as a defensive border. This site yielded large numbers of oracle bones that describe the travels of eleven named kings. The names and timeframes of these kings match traditional lists of Shang kings. Anyang was a huge city, with an extensive cemetery of thousands of graves and 11 large tombs—evidence of the city’s labor force, which may have belonged to the 11 Shang kings. Cities were crucial to political and religious affairs, and they were the seats of administrative affairs, royal tombs, palaces, and shrines. Common people were concentrated in the agricultural areas outside the cities. The border territories of Shang rule were led by chieftains who gained the right to govern through connections with royalty. Shang relied heavily on neighboring fiefs for raw materials, much of which was devoted to ceremonial performances. The Shang enacted a feudal system, a system in which duties are tied to land ownership, with sharp class divisions based on clan birthright. The aristocracy were centered around Anyang, which was the seat of governmental affairs for the surrounding areas. Regional territories farther from the capital were also controlled by the wealthy. There were many local rulers who held hereditary titles. In this imperial system, elite classes benefitted from the production of peasants and large-scale projects under elite control, usually operated using various forms of unfree labor. There is also evidence of a class of proto-bureaucrats, many of whom were titled officials, who had managerial roles and kept extensive records. Shang religion was incredibly important, and it extended into the political and economic spheres. The Shang religion and state power were closely connected; state power was consolidated through a sense of reverence for royal Shang ancestors. Further, by the end of the Shang dynasty, the king was the only one who could interpret the oracle bones, thereby making him the head shaman. The Shang religion was characterized by a combination of animism, the idea that everything has a soul; shamanism, the belief in shamans who have the ability to communicate with the spiritual world; ancestor worship; and divination. Different gods represented natural and mythological symbols, such as the moon, the sun, the wind, the rain, the dragon, and the phoenix. Peasants prayed to these gods for bountiful harvests. Festivals to celebrate gods were also common. In particular, the Shang kings, who considered themselves divine rulers, consulted the great god Shangdi—the Supreme Being who ruled over humanity and nature—for advice and wisdom. The Shang believed that the ancestors could also confer good fortune; the Shang would consult ancestors through oracle bones in order to seek approval for any major decision, and to learn about future success in harvesting, hunting, or battle. It appears that there was belief in the afterlife during the Shang dynasty. Archaeologists have found Shang tombs surrounded by the skulls and bodies of human sacrifices. Some of these contain jade, which was thought to protect against decay and grant immortality. Archaeologists believe that Shang tombs were very similar to those found in the Egyptian pyramids in that they buried servants with them. Chinese archaeologists theorize that the Shang, like the ancient Egyptians, believed their servants would continue to serve them in the afterlife. Because of this belief, aristocrats’ servants would be killed and buried with them when they died. Another interpretation is that these were enemy warriors captured in battle. One elaborate tomb which has been unearthed was that of Lady Hao, a consort of a Shang king who reigned around 1200 BCE. The artifacts found in her tomb indicate that she had a high social status and a great deal of power in Shang society, which makes historians speculate about the role of women in the Shang dynasty. Based on the artifacts found in Lady Hao’s tomb, it seems that she had her own wealth and political influence, and it is possible that she also had a prominent role in the military, as many bronze weapons were found buried with her. The 16 other skeletons in Fu Hao’s tomb are believed to have been slaves, who were buried alive in order to serve her in the afterlife. The Chinese Bronze Age had begun by 3,700 years ago in the kingdom of the Shang dynasty and ancient DNA reveals a migration of the ancient Di-qiang populations into Xinjiang as early as the early Bronze Age. Moreover, in the Chinese Bronze Age it was believed the king’s right to rule was based on his good relations with the spirits of his ancestors who controlled the destiny of the domain. The king continually posed questions to his ancestors about policy. He did this by instructing his scribe to write the question on an “oracle bone” — that is, an animal shoulder blade or the breast bone of a turtle. A priest then held a hot rod to the bone until it cracked and interpreted the pattern of the cracks for the answer. It was also the king’s duty to please the great forces of nature — the sun and rain gods — who controlled the outcome of the harvest. So that these gods and his ancestor spirits would look favorably on his kingdom, the king made regular sacrifices of wine and cereals, which were placed in elaborate bronze vessels and heated over the fires on the temple altar. During the Shang dynasty bronze vessels were the symbol of royalty. At times the Shang kings make animal and human sacrifices as well; and when the king and powerful members of the royal court died, it was not unusual that their wives, servants, bodyguards, horses and dogs were killed and buried with them. During the Zhou Dynasty people gradually turned away from this custom and substituted clay figures for real people and animals. The Zhou Dynasty (Chinese folk religion, Ancestor worship, and Heaven worship) lasted longer than any other dynasty in Chinese history with capitals in Fenghao (3,046 to 2,771 years ago), Luoyang (2,510 to 314 years ago). The Zhou emulated extensively Shang cultural practices, perhaps to legitimize their own rule, and became the successors to Shang culture. At the same time, the Zhou may also have been connected to the Xirong, a broadly defined cultural group to the west of the Shang, which the Shang regarded as tributaries. In about 1050 BC the Shang dynasty was defeated in battle by armies from Zhou, a rival state to the west, which seems both to have inherited cultural traditions from the Neolithic cultures of the northwest and to have absorbed most of the material culture of the Shang.  The conquerors retained their homeland in the Wei River valley in present-day Shaanxi province and portioned out the rest of their territory among their relatives and local chiefs, creating a number of local courts or principalities. The culture of the early Zhou is known to us not solely through archaeological evidence, but also through transmitted texts, such as the Book of Documents (Shujing), which describes the Zhou conquest of the Shang as the victory of just and noble warriors over a decadent and dissolute king.  In these texts and bronze inscriptions alike, the rule of the Zhou kings was linked to heaven, conceived of as the sacred moral power of the cosmos.  A king and a dynasty could rule only so long as they retained heaven’s favor. Zhou rulers introduced what was to prove one of East Asia’s most enduring political doctrines. The concept of the “Mandate of Heaven”. They did this so by asserting that their moral superiority justified taking over Shang wealth and territories, also that heaven had imposed a moral mandate on them to replace the Shang and return good governance to the people. The Mandate of Heaven was presented as a religious compact between the Zhou people and their supreme god in heaven (literally the ‘sky god’). The Zhou agreed that since worldly affairs were supposed to align with those of the heavens, the heavens conferred legitimate power only one person, the Zhou ruler. In return, the ruler was duty-bound to uphold heaven’s principles of harmony and honor. Any ruler who failed in this duty, who let instability creep into earthly affairs, or who let his people suffer, would lose the mandate. Under this system, it was the prerogative of spiritual authority to withdraw support from any wayward ruler and to find another, more worthy one. ^[23]In this way, the Zhou sky god legitimated regime change. In using this ccreed, nthe Zhou rulers had to acknowledge that any group of rulers, even they themselves could be ousted if they lost the mandate of haven because of improper practices. The book of odes, written during the Zhou period clearly intoned this caution. The early Zhou kings contended that heaven favored their triumph because the last Shang kings had been evil men whose policies brought pain to the people through waste and corruption. After the Zhou came to power, the mandate became a political tool. Like in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus River valley, civilization in China developed around a great river. The Yellow River carried floodwater and sediment to the land around it, making the area incredibly fertile, and thus an excellent place for the Stone Age inhabitants of the area to experiment with agriculture. While the Yellow River was the main cradle of Chinese civilization, people also settled around other rivers, such as the Huai and the Yangtze. By around 4000 BC, villages began to appear. They cultivated a number of crops, but most important was a grain called millet (two types of millet: proso and foxtail millet). The Chinese, even up to modern times, revere the Wǔgǔ, the Five Sacred Grains, which are traditionally considered soybeans, wheat, hemp, and the two types of millet. Rice was also cultivated in this period, but it was not yet the important staple that it would later become in the Chinese diet. The Neolithic Chinese domesticated animals such as pigs, dogs, and chickens. Silk production, through the domestication of silk worms, probably also began in this early period. During the Neolithic period in China, there were multiple groups of people, mostly around the Yellow River, with separate emerging cultures. Some of these various cultures include the Yangshao culture (ca. 4800 – ca. 3000 BC), the Majiayao culture (ca. 3800 – ca. 2000 BC), the Dawenkou culture (ca. 4300 – ca. 2400 BC), the Qijia culture (ca. 2200 – ca. 1800 BC), and the Longshan culture (ca. 2600 – ca. 2000 BC). Over time, they influenced each other more and more, and pottery, art, and artifacts recovered by archaeologists show greater homogenization as time went on. By 2000 BC a more unified Chinese culture was developing, and there is also evidence of urbanism and the use of early writing among the Chinese. Archaeologists have discovered advanced Bronze Age culture in China, which they call the Erlitou culture. Its capital, Erlitou, was a huge city around 2000 BC, with two possible palaces, a drainage system, and what seems to have been a very high population. This may be the people referred to in Chinese mythology as the Xia. ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Access to milk and cheese has been linked to the spread of agriculture across Europe starting around 9,000 years ago. And there is Mediterranean Cheese Production dated to around 7,200 Years Ago from the analysis of fatty residue in pottery from two Neolithic archaeological sites in Croatia has revealed evidence of fermented dairy products (soft cheeses and yogurts). ref

• Megalithic structures and Dolmen orientation
• Dolmens of the Caucasus Russia Deciphered
• Ancient DNA and the rewriting of human history
• Europe is based on Migration

Funnelbeaker culture

The Funnel Beaker Culture – “First Farmers of Scandinavia” around 6,200-4,650 years ago marks the arrival of Megalithic structures in Scandinavia from western Europe. Megaliths seem to have originated in the Near East. The oldest ones in Europe were found in Sicily and southern Portugal and date from around 9,000 years ago. The Funnelbeaker culture marks the appearance of megalithic tombs at the coasts of the Baltic and of the North sea, an example of which are the Sieben Steinhäuser in northern Germany. At graves, the people sacrificed ceramic vessels that contained food along with amber jewelry and flint-axes. Flint-axes and vessels were also deposed in streams and lakes near the farmlands, and virtually all Sweden’s 10,000 flint axes that have been found from this culture were probably sacrificed in water. They also constructed large cult centres surrounded by pales, earthworks, and moats. The Atlantic Megalithic culture really started with the advent of farming and would have spread from Iberia to France, the British Isles, and the Low Countries before reaching Scandinavia. Considering the high Northwest African admixture in Funnelbeaker, there is a good chance that Iberian Megalithic people inherited genes from Northwest Africans, probably from the North African Neolithic route that brought R1b-V88, E-M78, J1 and T1a to Iberia. R1b-V88 and E-M78 (V13) have both been found in Early Neolithic Iberia, and are both found throughout western Europe today. The two samples below also carried about 3% of Southwest Asian admixture, which is perfectly consistent with a Neolithic dispersal from the southern Levant across North Africa until Iberia. ref, ref

• Funnelbeaker Culture (samples from Sweden) : H (x3), H1, H24, J1d5, J2b1a, K1a5, T2b
  • Baalberge group (c. 5,800 to 5,350 ybp ; central-east Germany): H (x3), H1e1a, H7d5, HV, J, K1a (x2), N1a1a, T1a1, T2b, T2c (x2), T2e1, U5b2a2, U8a1a, X, X2c
  • Walternienburg-Bernburg group (c. 5,100 to 4,700 ybp ; central-east Germany): H, H1e1a3, H5, K1, K1a (x2), T2b, U5a, U5b, U5b1c1, U5b2a1a, V, W, X
  • Salzmünde group (5,400 to 5,000 ybp : central-east Germany): H (x2), H3 (x2), H5, HV, HV0, J, J1c (x2), J2b1a, K1, K1a, K1a4a1a2, N1a1a1a3 (x2), T2b (x2), U3a, U3a1, U5b, V, X2b1’2’3’4’5’6
  • Outliers from Gotland, Sweden (5,300 to 4,700 ybp): H7d, HV0a, J1c5 (2x), J1c8a, K1a2b (2x), K2b1a, T2b8 ref

The presence of H1 was confirmed in remains from the Late Neolithic Funnel Beaker culture in Scandinavia, which can also be classified as a Megalithic culture. H1 and H3 lineages would have been some of the most prevalent mt-haplogroups among the Megalithic cultures of Western Europe, which spanned the whole Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, from the 5th millennium BCE until the arrival of the Proto-Celts (Y-DNA R1b) from 2200 BCE to 1800 BCE (or up to 1200 BCE in parts of Iberia). Megalithic people would have belonged essentially to Y-haplogroups I2, G2a and E1b1b, with the possible addition of J2 lineages during the Chalcolithic. From the Bronze Age, R1b male lineages replaced a large percentage of Megalithic Y-haplogroups, but female Megalithic lineages survived almost unchanged in frequency. Celtic culture was born from the fusion of Indo-European paternal lineages (R1b) with native Central and Western European maternal lineages (including H1, H3, H10, J1c, K1a, T2, U5, and X2). The first pottery produced in the Fertile Crescent appeared circa 6500 BCE. It is from this period that early agriculturalists began expanding towards western Anatolia and Greece. These Neolithic farmers potentially belonged to haplogroups H5, as well as J1c, K1a, N1a, T2 and X2, all of which have been found in ancient Neolithic samples from Europe and Anatolia, and are also found throughout the Middle East today. The mutation defining haplogroup H took place at least 25,000 years ago, and perhaps closer to 30,000 years ago. Its place of origin is unknown, but it was probably somewhere around the northeastern Mediterraean (Balkans, Anatolia or Levant), possibly even in Italy. ref

Journeys to the Sun: Heavenly Symbols in Shamanism and Rock Art of Siberia and Central Asia

7,000-year-old burial mound unearthed in Siberia (pre-kurgan?)

It was thought by many, until now that such burial mounds, in Siberia, there is such a 7,000-year-old burial mound dating to the Neolithic Age from Novosibirsk region located in the southwestern part of Siberia on the banks of the Ob River adjacent to the Ob River Valley. In the mound were nine people, including women and children, and in the lower layer, they discovered a man with a stone axe and a horn tipped arrow. Dwellings of ancient people were also found close to the mound which may have contained a family grouping. ‘It is a fair assumption to say, as this fact proves, that the burial mounds emerged much earlier than the Bronze Age, in Neolithic times. 1 ‘ Unusual Artifacts Recovered in Russia  NOVOSIBIRSK, RUSSIA a figurine that appears to be wearing a feathered headdress at an approximately 5,000-year-old site near the Ob River in western Siberia. And this unusual artifact was found along with a bird carved from bone that was probably sewn onto clothing or worn as a pendant, and several anthropomorphic figurines, also equipped with holes, made of mammoth tusk, sandstone, birch burl, and an organic material that has not yet been identified. A moose figurine, made of shale, was also recovered. 1

Shahr-e Yeri, in northwest Iran, sometimes referred to as the “city of the mouthless” estimated to be more than 6,000 years old. Three prehistoric temples and 280 carved stones on which mouthless faces are depicted, all stretched across 1 1/2 miles on several small hills. It is thought these stones were used as totems, worshipped by the inhabitants of Shahr’e Yeri before the collapse of the city after it fell to the Urartians. The dead were buried in megalithic Dolman like tombs. Tombs of different sizes and other evidence expresses, rituals and religious beliefs. ref, ref

More than 5,000 years ago a nomadic group of shepherds rode out of the steppes of eastern Europe to conquer the rest of the continent. The Iberian peninsula was colonized by Neolithic migration wave 8,000 or 9,000 years ago then again 4,500 years ago, which brought with it a very different culture. War axes and carts with four wheels can be found in the layers of earth that date back 4,500 years. From then on, almost all men’s tombs were filled with weaponry, adornments, displays of wealth, reveals marked signs of a hierarchical society that broke with the old egalitarianism of the early Neolithic period. The group, today is known as the Yamna or Pit Grave culture, brought with them an innovative new technology, wheeled carts, which enabled them to quickly occupy new lands. More than 4,500 years ago, the descendants of these people reached the Iberian peninsula and wiped out the local men, according to new research by a team of international scientists. 1

A large number of religious casting in the style of the Scythian-Siberian was discovered in Birch island in the Kolyvan district of the Novosibirsk region for more than 2.5 thousand years, can indicate joint activities of the steppe nomads and hunting britainy tribes. In a small area, there was found figures of deer, horses, Scythian bow, small cooking kotelkina, they belong to the so-called Scythian – Siberian style and associated with the culture of nomads of the Kazakh Altai and the Baraba steppes. Such isolated figures found here before, but the mass appearance of these things in britainas area inhabited by tribes of hunters kulaika culture relates with possible joint activities of the ancient tribes he said. Perhaps the nomadic tribes came to petinou area for trade with the tribes of hunters. This is evidenced by found next to the Scythian-Siberian casting items kulaika culture – figures of moose, bear, birds of prey, and arrowheads belonging to the forest hunters. Moreover, could it be it was a joint magical rites tribes or evidence that representatives of different tribes joined together in marriage. The layer associated with the early iron age (3-2,5 thousand years ago) is not a settlement and not a burial: judging by the number of holes, animal bones, and objects found there, it seems like a sanctuary/(temple-like area?), where they celebrated secret rites. 1

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

• SREDNY STOG STAGE OF KURGAN CULTURE  In Search of the Indo-Europeans Language, Archaeology and Myth
• Yamna/Afanasevo elite males dominated by R1b-L23, Okunevo brings ancient Siberian/Asian population

Kurgan barrows were characteristic of Bronze Age peoples, and have been found from the Altay Mountains to the Caucasus, Ukraine, Romania, and Bulgaria. Kurgans were used in the Ukrainian and Russian steppes, their use spreading with migration into eastern, central, and northern Europe around 5,000 years ago. The tradition of kurgan burials was adopted by some neighboring peoples who did not have such a tradition. Various Thracian kings and chieftains were buried in elaborate mound tombs found in modern Bulgaria. Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, was buried in a magnificent kurgan in present Greece; and Midas, a king of ancient Phrygia, was buried in a kurgan near his ancient capital of Gordion. Burial mounds 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 structures of the earlier Neolithic period from the 6,000 to 5,000 years ago, and Bronze Age until the 3,000 years ago, display continuity of the archaic forming methods. They were inspired by common ritual-mythological ideas. The Ipatovo kurgan revealed a long sequence of burials from the Maykop culture 6,000 years ago, down to the burial of a Sarmatian princess of the 2,300 years ago. The Maikop kurgan dates to the 5,000 years ago. Kurgan 4 at Kutuluk near Samara, Russia, dated to 4,400 years ago, contains the skeleton of a man, estimated to have been 35 to 40 years old and about 152 cm tall. Resting on the skeleton’s bent left elbow was a copper object 65 cm long with a blade of a diamond-shaped cross-section and sharp edges, but no point, and a handle, originally probably wrapped in leather. No similar object is known from Bronze Age Eurasian steppe cultures. The Kostromskaya kurgan of the 2,700 years ago produced a famous Scythian gold stag, next to the iron shield it decorated. Apart from the principal male body with his accoutrements, the burial included thirteen humans with no adornment above him, and around the edges of the burial twenty-two horses were buried in pairs. Females were buried in about 20% of graves of the lower and middle Volga river region during the Yamna and Poltavka cultures. Two thousand years later, females dressed as warriors were buried in the same region. David Anthony notes, “About 20% of Scythian–Sarmatian “warrior graves” on the lower Don and lower Volga contained females dressed for battle as if they were men, a phenomenon that probably inspired the Greek tales about the Amazons.” A near-equal ratio of male-to-female graves was found in the eastern Manych steppes and Kuban–Azov steppes during the Yamna culture. In Ukraine, the ratio was intermediate between the other two regions. ref

Carved stone in Inner Mongolia said to be nearly 7,700 years old involving an image featuring two eyes, a mouth, and four vertical slits, perhaps meant to indicate teeth with possible comparisons to rock paintings and carvings discovered in Siberia and with other parts of Inner Mongolia. Moreover, such face-like rock paintings and carvings have been found in many areas of Inner Mongolia and have provided information related to studies of ancient human migration and culture. 1

Stone Shamans and Flying Deer of Northern Mongolia Mongolia’s Bronze Age Deer stones are one of the most striking expressions of early monumental art in Central Asia, yet their age, origins, relationships, and meaning remain obscure. Speculation about Scythian connections has stimulated recent research in Mongolia that has begun to peel away their mysteries and reveals connections to Scytho-Siberian and northern art. Radiocarbon-dated horse skulls indicate pre-Scythian ages of “classic Mongolian” deer stones as well as firm association with the Late Bronze Age khirigsuur [kurgan] burial mound complex. 1

Deer stones (to me, similar to a kind of Totem poles; also known as reindeer stones) are ancient megaliths carved with symbols found largely in Siberia and Mongolia. The name comes from their carved depictions of flying deer. Deer stones are usually constructed from granite or greenstone, depending on which is the most abundant in the surrounding area. They have varying heights; most are over 3 feet tall, but some reach a height of 15 feet. The tops of the stones can be flat, round or smashed, suggesting that perhaps the original top had been deliberately destroyed. The stones are usually oriented with the decorated face to the east. The carvings and designs were most usually completed before the stone was erected, though some stones show signs of being carved in place. The designs were pecked or ground into the stone surface. Deep-grooved cuts and right-angle surfaces indicate the presence of metal tools. Stone tools were used to smooth the harsh cuts of some designs. Nearly all the stones were hand carved, but some unusual stones show signs that they could have been cut with a primitive type of mechanical drill. Reindeer are depicted as flying through the air, rather than merely running on land. (could this relate to star or northern lights reference?; Northern Lights Folklore: In the Sami language, the northern lights are called guovssahasah “the sun glowing in the sky in the morning or in the evening,” as in Aurora, the Latin word for dawn. But this word could also be translated as “the fire lit by a bird, the Siberian Jay”. Most Eskimo groups have a myth of the northern lights as the spirits of the dead playing ball with a walrus head or skull. The Eskimos of Nunivak Island had the opposite idea, of walrus spirits playing with a human skull. The Salteaus Indians of eastern Canada and the Kwakiutl and Tlingit of Southeastern Alaska interpreted the northern lights as the dancing of human spirits. The Eskimos who lived on the lower Yukon River believed that the aurora was the dance of animal spirits, especially those of deer, seals, salmon, and beluga. ref “It is said that many of the early Chinese legends associated with dragons were a result of the Northern Lights. The belief is that the lights were viewed as a celestial battle between good and evil dragons who breathed fire across the firmament”ref) Particularly in the Sayan-Altai stones, a multitude of other animals are present in deer stone imagery. One can see depictions of tigers, pigs, cows, horse-like creatures, frogs, and birds. Unlike the reindeer, however, these animals are depicted in a more natural style. This lack of ornate detailing indicates the lack of supernatural importance of such animals, taking an obvious backseat against the reindeer. Weapons and tools can be seen throughout all the stones, though weapons make a strong appearance in the Sayan-Altai stones. Bows and daggers crop up frequently, as well as typical Bronze-Age implements, such as fire-starters or chariot reins. The appearance of these tools helps date the stones to the Bronze Age. Chevron patterns crop up occasionally, usually in the upper regions of the stone. These patterns can be likened to military shields, suggesting the stones’ connection to armed conflict. It has also been suggested that chevron patterns could be a shamanic emblem representing the skeleton. Human faces are a much rarer occurrence and are usually carved into the top of the stone. Similar to The ‘Urfa Man’ These faces are carved with an open mouth, as though singing. This also suggests a religious/shamanistic connection of the deer stone, as a vocal expression is a common and important theme in shamanism. Deer stones were probably originally erected by Bronze Age nomads around 3,000 years ago though further research into the Cimmerian stone stelae-Kurgan stelae should be taken into much consideration. Deer stones as clan ancestor totem like the wood one (11,000-year-old statue unearthed in Siberia, the journal Antiquity argues that the statue was crafted from a single Larchwood log 11,600 years ago, the so-called Shigir Idol resembles the stone sculptures of Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, which is often cited as the first monumental ritual structures. ref) Some stones include a circle at the top and stylised dagger and belt at the bottom, which has led some scholars, such as William Fitzhugh, to speculate that the stones could represent a spiritualized human body, particularly that of a prominent figure such as a warrior or leader. This theory is reinforced by the fact that the stones are all very different in construction and imagery, which could be because each stone tells a unique story for the individual it represents. Furthermore, drawings showed the highly stylized images of deer on the stones, as well as the settings in which they were placed. Radlov showed that in some instances the stones were set in patterns suggesting the walls of a grave, and in other instances, the deer stones were set in elaborate circular patterns, suggesting use in rituals. It identified two cultural conditions behind the deer stones. The eastern deer stones appear to be associated with cemeteries composed of above-ground slab graves. The other cultural tradition is associated with the circular structures suggesting use as the center of rituals. Deer stones will usually be found together with extraordinary monuments called khirgisuur, with slab burials or in some cases with petroglyphs forming a complex site. Deer stones are unique monuments dating to the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age that are found mostly in Mongolia and in some Central Asian countries. The Bronze Age funeral practice, sacrificial ritual and ideology and animal style art, which were spread among ancient nomads, are altogether represented through deer stones. 1, 2

The ‘Urfa Man’ found during construction work in the area of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic site at Urfa-Yeni Mahalle / Yeni Yol, broken in four nearly equal pieces. The settlement was largely destroyed, it featured a small T-shaped pillar, similar to those from Göbekli Tepe’s Layer II.  This speaks for a PPN B date, as does the archaeological material recovered. It is the oldest known statue of a man, slightly larger than life-size. In contrast to the cubic and faceless T-shaped pillars, the ‘Urfa man’ has a face, eyes originally emphasized by segments of black obsidian sunk into deep holes, and ears ; a mouth, however, is not depicted. The statue seems to be naked with the exception of a V-shaped necklace. Legs are not depicted; below the body, there is only a conical plug, which allows the statue to be set into the ground. Both hands seem to grab his penis. There are several fragments, especially heads, of similar sculptures from Göbekli Tepe. At this site, statues like the ‘Urfa Man’ seem to have been part of a complex hierarchical system of imagery directly related to the functions of the circular enclosures. You can find a longer text about this here. The presence of a sculpture like the ‘Urfa Man’ and of T-shaped pillars are strong evidence for the presence of a special building inside the settlement at Urfa-Yeni Yol. It may have been comparable to the PPN B ‘cult buildings’ of Nevalı Çori (Hauptmann 1993), but this will remain pure speculation. 1

Understanding Religion Evolution

Scythian-Saka-Siberian Kurgan monuments

The monuments of these cultures coincide with Scythian–Saka–Siberian monuments. Scythian-Saka-Siberian monuments have common features, and sometimes common genetic roots. Also associated with these spectacular burial mounds are the Pazyryk, an ancient people who lived in the Altai Mountains lying in Siberian Russia on the Ukok Plateau, near the borders with China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. The archaeological site on the Ukok Plateau associated with the Pazyryk culture is included in the Golden Mountains of Altai. Scythian-Saka-Siberian classification includes monuments from the 8th to the 2,300 years ago. This period is called the Early or Ancient Nomads epoch. “Hunnic” monuments date from the 2,300 to the 6th century AD, and other Turkic ones from the 6th century AD to the 13th century AD, leading up to the Mongolian epoch. The Scythians (/ˈsɪθiən, –ˈsɪð-/; from Greek Σκύθης, Σκύθοι), also known as Scyth, Saka, Sakae, Sai, Iskuzai, or Askuzai, were Eurasian nomads, probably mostly using Eastern Iranian languages, who were mentioned by the literate peoples surrounding them as inhabiting large areas in the central Eurasian steppes from about the 2,900 up until the 4th century AD. Saka, is the name used in Middle Persian and Sanskrit sources for the Scythians, a large group of Eurasian nomads on the Eurasian Steppe speaking Eastern Iranian languages. Modern scholars usually use the term Saka to refer to Iranians of the Eastern Steppe and the Tarim Basin. René Grousset wrote that they formed a particular branch of the “Scytho-Sarmatian family” originating from nomadic Iranian peoples of the northwestern steppe in Eurasia. They migrated into Sogdia and Bactria in Central Asia and then to the northwest of the Indian subcontinent where they were known as the Indo-Scythians. In the Tarim Basin and Taklamakan Desert region of Northwest China, they settled in Khotan and Kashgar which were at various times vassals to greater powers, such as Han China and Tang China. ref, ref, ref

Pre-Scythian-Saka-Sibirian kurgans (Bronze Age)

The Bronze Pre-Scythian-Saka-Sibirian culture developed in close similarity with the cultures of Yenisei, Altai, Kazakhstan, southern, and southeast Amur regions. In the 2nd millennium BC appeared so-called “kurgans-maidans”. On a prepared platform were installed earthen images of a swan, a turtle, a snake, or other image, with and without burials. Similar structures have been found in Ukraine, India and South America. Some kurgans had facing or tiling. One tomb in Ukraine has 29 large limestone slabs set on end in a circle underground. They were decorated with carved geometrical ornamentation of rhombuses, triangles, crosses, and on one slab, figures of people. Another example has an earthen kurgan under a wooden cone of thick logs topped by an ornamented cornice up to 2 m in height. In the Bronze Age, kurgans were built with stone reinforcements. Some of them are believed to be Scythian burials with built-up soil, and embankments reinforced with stone. Pre-Scythian-Saka-Sibirian kurgans were surface kurgans. Underground wooden or stone tombs were constructed on the surface or underground and then covered with a kurgan. The kurgans of Bronze culture across Europe and Asia were similar to housing; the methods of house construction were applied to the construction of the tombs. Kurgan Ak-su – Aüly (2,120– 2,110 years ago) with a tomb covered by a pyramidal timber roof under a kurgan has space surrounded by double walls serving as a bypass corridor. This design has analogies with Begazy, Sanguyr, Begasar, and Dandybay kurgans. These building traditions survived into the early Middle Ages, to the 8th-10th centuries AD. ref

Kurgan hypothesis

The Kurgan hypothesis postulates that the Proto-Indo-Europeans were the bearers of the Kurgan culture of the Black Sea and the Caucasus and west of the Urals. The hypothesis combined kurgan archaeology with linguistics to locate the origins of the Proto-Indo-European (PIE)-speaking peoples, named the culture “Kurgan” after their distinctive burial mounds and traced its diffusion into Europe. This hypothesis has had a significant impact on Indo-European studies. Three genetic studies in 2015 gave partial support to Gimbutas’s Kurgan theory regarding the Indo-European Urheimat. According to those studies, haplogroups R1b and R1a, now the most common in Europe (R1a is also common in South Asia) would have expanded from the Russian and Ukrainian steppes, along with the Indo-European languages; they also detected an autosomal component present in modern Europeans which was not present in Neolithic Europeans, which would have been introduced with paternal lineages R1b and R1a, as well as Indo-European languages. The Kurgan model of Indo-European origins identifies the Pontic–Caspian steppe as the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) urheimat, and a variety of late PIE dialects are assumed to have been spoken across the region. According to this model, the Kurgan culture gradually expanded until it encompassed the entire Pontic–Caspian steppe, Kurgan IV being identified with the Yamna culture of around 5,000 years ago. The mobility of the Kurgan culture facilitated its expansion over the entire region, and is attributed to the domestication of the horse and later the use of early chariots. The first strong archaeological evidence for the domestication of the horse comes from the Sredny Stog culture north of the Azov Sea in Ukraine, and would correspond to an early PIE or pre-PIE nucleus of the 7,000 years ago. ref

Cultures 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)
• Yamna (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

Kurgan hypothesis Timeline

• 6,500–6,000: Early PIE. Sredny Stog, Dnieper–Donets and Samara cultures, domestication of the horse(Wave 1).
• 6,000–5,500: The Pit Grave culture (a.k.a. Yamna culture), the prototypical kurgan builders, emerges in the steppe, and the Maykop culture in the northern Caucasus. Indo-Hittite models postulate the separation of Proto-Anatolian before this time.
• 5,500–5,000: Middle PIE. The Pit Grave culture is at its peak, representing the classical reconstructed Proto-Indo-European society with stone idols, predominantly practicing animal husbandry in permanent settlements protected by hillforts, subsisting on agriculture, and fishing along rivers. Contact of the Pit Grave culture with late Neolithic Europe cultures results in the “kurganized” Globular Amphora and Baden cultures (Wave 2). The Maykop culture shows the earliest evidence of the beginning Bronze Age, and Bronze weapons and artifacts are introduced to Pit Grave territory. Probable early Satemization.
• 5,000–4,500: Late PIE. The Pit Grave culture extends over the entire Pontic steppe (Wave 3). The Corded Ware culture extends from the Rhine to the Volga, corresponding to the latest phase of Indo-European unity, the vast “kurganized” area disintegrating into various independent languages and cultures, still in loose contact enabling the spread of technology and early loans between the groups, except for the Anatolian and Tocharian branches, which are already isolated from these processes. The centum–satem break is probably complete, but the phonetic trends of Satemization remain active. ref

Thousands of horsemen may have swept into Bronze Age Europe, transforming the local population

 Early Bronze Age men from the vast grasslands of the Eurasian steppe swept into Europe on horseback about 5000 years ago—and may have left most women behind. This mostly male migration may have persisted for several generations, sending men into the arms of European women who interbred with them, and leaving a lasting impact on the genomes of living Europeans. It looks like males migrating in war, with horses and wagons. Europeans are the descendants of at least three major migrations of prehistoric people. First, a group of hunter-gatherers arrived in Europe about 37,000 years ago. Then, farmers began migrating from Anatolia (a region including present-day Turkey) into Europe 9000 years ago, but they initially didn’t intermingle much with the local hunter-gatherers because they brought their own families with them. Finally, 5000 to 4800 years ago, nomadic herders known as the Yamnaya swept into Europe. They were an early Bronze Age culture that came from the grasslands, or steppes, of modern-day Russia and Ukraine, bringing with them metallurgy and animal herding skills and, possibly, Proto-Indo-European, the mysterious ancestral tongue from which all of today’s 400 Indo-European languages spring. They immediately interbred with local Europeans, who were descendants of both the farmers and hunter-gatherers. Within a few hundred years, the Yamnaya contributed to at least half of central Europeans’ genetic ancestry. ref

Some had thought there was a male shaman in China in Tomb M45 at Puyang, Xishuipo, Henan, which date to between circa 4,500 and 3,000 BC arrangement of Tomb M45 to reflect shamanic practices, no particular evidence supports or even suggests this interpretation. On the other hand, Feng Shi and others have argued that this tomb configuration represents certain asterisms. In fact, it appears that the burial was situated in a way that mirrored certain circumpolar and non-circumpolar asterisms. Four human bodies lie in the tomb that is shaped overall like a turtle plastron, while the center skeleton, that of a young man, represents the “owner” of the tomb. At least one of the other bodies, prior to being interred in the tomb, had been sacrificed or otherwise killed with blade applied to the throat. The owner’s head faces south and his feet north, and at each of his sides lies an animal figure, head positioned toward the north and lying at the feet of the grave owner. The animal figures were constructed from cowrie shells. The figures appear to be guarding the tomb owner. Strikingly, they very obviously take the forms of a dragon and a tiger. It is well known that during and after the Warring States period the dragon and tiger became spirit protectors / mythical creatures of the directions of east and west, respectively. Indeed, by as early as the 5th century BC their respective positions and apparent roles as helper spirits (shen 神) were already established: on a lacquer clothes chest dating to 433 BC, the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng in Hubei province the dragon and tiger appear in precisely the same arrangement surrounding the pole star as they do in M45 at Puyang. The Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng was made around 433 BC, either at the end of the Spring and Autumn period or the start of the Warring States period. The tomb comes from the end of the thousand-year-long period of the burial of large sets of Chinese ritual bronzes in elite tombs and is also unusual in containing large numbers of musical instruments, including the great set of bells for which it is most famous. Along with the Late Shang dynasty tomb of Fu Hao, the tomb represents one of the largest sets of ritual bronze vessels, seeming clear that most pieces would have originally come from large groups deposited in an elite tomb not a spiritual religious shaman. This tomb is important in the history of Ancient Chinese glass, as it contains 173 eye beads that were made in a western Asian style, similar to some found in Gilan, Iran. In Han and later correlative cosmology, and therefore in traditions of internal alchemy, as well, the dragon and tiger, together with the tortoise/snake (north) and Vermilion bird/Phoenix (south), became the Four Spirits (si shen 四神) of the four directions. In fact, yet another of the later Four Spirits seems to lie in tomb M45, in a position directly north of the owner’s feet. This figure, consisting of a head and stem, is constructed of cowrie shells (head) placed in contact with two human femurs (stem) taken from another skeleton interred nearby. Ancient Yangshao culture at Puyang appears to have looked to the night sky to establish a sense of security, and that already in the 5th–4th millennia BC ancient people of China seemingly observed the northern celestial pole and considered it central in their religion. It might be that the stellar configurations in the night sky centering on the stellar pole were thought to provide, likely sympathetically, the dead with protection by or communion with the high stellar powers of the pole. Furthermore, their religious recognition and sympathetic imitation of the pole also would have provided those who remained alive with the assurance that some form of life continued after death, for otherwise the living would not have incurred the enormous expense and taken such remarkable care to bury someone so elaborately to conform to nocturnal stellar patterns, especially considering that they placed the center of the corpse of the deceased precisely where the northern celestial pole would be in relation to the stellar dragon and tiger. Indeed, the presence of the three other skeletons lying in the tomb with the tomb owner, at least one of which was apparently a sacrificial victim, and placed as they were in special niches carved into the walls of the tomb as if in shrines to gods of the north, east, and west, appears to confirm that the grave layout was not merely imitative but also religious in meaning. Thus, in this Neolithic culture of China of the 5th and 4th millennia BC, human death, and therefore most
certainly also life, seemingly were locked intimately into the mysteries of the night sky’s pivot, the northern celestial pole. 1, 2

2,500 years old mummified remains of the “Ice Maiden,” a Scytho-Siberian woman a representative of the Pazyryk culture that thrived between the 2,600 and 2,200 years ago in the Siberian steppe and who lived on the Eurasian Steppes in the 2,500 years ago, were found undisturbed in a subterranean burial chamber. The Ice Maiden’s tomb was found on the Ukok Plateau near the border of China, in what is now the Autonomous Republic of Altai. The plateau, part of the Eurasian Steppes, is characterized by a harsh, arid climate. Discovery was among a group of kurgans located in a strip of territory disputed between Russia and China. A kurgan is a burial mound filled in with smaller sediment and covered with a pile of rocks; typically, the mound covered a tomb chamber, which contained a burial inside a log coffin, with accompanying grave goods. Such burial chambers were built from notched wood logs to form a small cabin, which may have resembled the semi-nomads’ winter shelters. The Ice Maiden’s tomb chamber was constructed in this way, and the wood and other organic materials present have allowed her burial to be dated. A core sample from the logs of her chamber was analyzed by a dendrochronologist, and samples of organic matter from the horses’ stomachs were examined as well, indicating that the Ice Maiden was buried in the spring, at some point during the 2,500 years ago. Before Polosmak and her crew reached the Ice Maiden’s chamber, they hit upon a second later burial in the same kurgan positioned on top of the Maiden’s wooden tomb chamber. The contents included a stone and wood coffin containing a skeleton, along with three horses. Polosmak believes that this secondary burial was that of an outside group, perhaps of subordinate peoples, who considered it honorable to bury their dead in Pazyryk kurgans. A shaft dug into the kurgan indicated that this later grave had been robbed, another means by which water and snow entered and seeped into the Ice Maiden’s hollow burial chamber. The water collected, froze, and formed an ice block within the chamber which never fully thawed because of the steppe climate, permafrost, and the rocks piled on top of the mound which deflected the sun’s rays. The finding of cannabis in a container near the body led to the supposition that the drug was used to relieve the chronic pain that the woman would have suffered. She may have had the elevated status of a priestess in her community based upon the items found in her chamber. The Ice Maiden’s preserved skin has the mark of an animal-style deer tattoo on one of her shoulders, and another on her wrist and thumb. She was buried in a yellow silk tussah blouse, a crimson-and-white striped wool skirt with a tassel belt, thigh-high white felt leggings, with a marten fur, a small mirror made from polished metal and wood with carved deer figures, and a headdress that stood nearly three feet tall. The size of the headdress necessitated a coffin that was eight feet long. The headdress had a wooden substructure with a molded felt covering and eight carved feline figures covered in gold. There were remains of coriander seeds in a stone dish that may have been provided for the Maiden’s medicinal use. ref

The Pazyryk burials are a number of Scythian Iron Age tombs found in the Pazyryk Valley of the Ukok plateau in the Altai Mountains, Siberia, south of the modern city of Novosibirsk, Russia; the site is close to the borders with China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia. Craniological studies of samples from the Pazyryk burials determined that skulls were generally of Europoid type, with some showing Mongoloid features. Numerous comparable burials have been found in neighboring western Mongolia. The tombs are Scythian-type kurgans, barrow-like tomb mounds containing wooden chambers covered over by large cairns of boulders and stones, dated to the 2,400 – 2,300 years ago. The spectacular burials at Pazyryk are responsible for the introduction of the term kurgan, a Russian word of Turkic origin, into general usage to describe these tombs. The region of the Pazyryk kurgans is considered the type site of the wider Pazyryk culture. Certain geometric designs and sun symbols, such as the circle and rosette, recur at Pazyryk but are completely outnumbered by animal motifs. Such specifically Scythian features as zoomorphic junctures, i.e. the addition of a part of one animal to the body of another, are rarer in the Altaic region than in southern Russia. The stag and its relatives, however, figure as prominently in Altaic as in Scythian art. Pazyryk kurgans were tattooed. No instruments specifically designed for tattooing were found, but the Pazyryks had extremely fine needles with which they did miniature embroidery, and these were probably used for tattooing. The chief was elaborately decorated with an interlocking series of striking designs representing a variety of fantastic beasts. The best-preserved tattoos were images of a donkey, a mountain ram, two highly stylized deer with long antlers and an imaginary carnivore on the right arm. Two monsters resembling griffins decorate the chest, and on the left arm are three partially obliterated images which seem to represent two deer and a mountain goat. On the front of the right leg a fish extends from the foot to the knee. A monster crawls over the right foot, and on the inside of the shin is a series of four running rams which touch each other to form a single design. The left leg also bears tattoos, but these designs could not be clearly distinguished. In addition, the chief’s back is tattooed with a series of small circles in line with the vertebral column. This tattooing was probably done for therapeutic reasons. Contemporary Siberian tribesmen still practice tattooing of this kind to relieve back pain. The Pazyryk culture has been connected to the Scythians whose similar tombs have been found across the steppes. The Siberian animal style tattooing is characteristic of the Scythians. Trading routes between Central Asia, China, and the Near East passed through the oases on the plateau and these ancient Altai nomads profited from the rich trade and culture passing through. There is evidence that Pazyryk trade routes were vast and connected with large areas of Asia including India, perhaps Pazyryk merchants largely trading in high-quality horses. ref

Several kurgan burial mounds, where found in the Uyuk Valley in Tuva, a Russian republic, just northwest of Mongolia. The area is sometimes called the Siberian “Valley of the Kings,” referring to the place where pharaohs were buried for 500 years in ancient Egypt. ref

Mysterious Indo-European homeland may have been in the steppes of Ukraine and Russia

Ever since the mid-17th century, scholars have noted such similarities among the so-called Indo-European languages, which span the world and number more than 400 if dialects are included. Researchers agree that they can probably all be traced back to one ancestral language, called Proto-Indo-European (PIE). But for nearly 20 years, scholars have debated vehemently when and where PIE arose. Two long-awaited studies, one described online this week in a preprint and another scheduled for publication later this month, have now used different methods to support one leading hypothesis: that PIE was first spoken by pastoral herders who lived in the vast steppe lands north of the Black Sea beginning about 6000 years ago. One study points out that these steppe land herders have left their genetic mark on most Europeans living today. The studies’ conclusions emerge from state-of-the-art ancient DNA and linguistic analyses, but the debate over PIE’s origins is likely to continue. A rival hypothesis—that early farmers living in Anatolia (modern Turkey) about 8000 years ago were the original PIE speakers—is not ruled out by the new analyses, most agree. Although the steppe hypothesis has now received a major boost, “I would not say the Anatolian hypothesis has been killed,” says Carles Lalueza-Fox, a geneticist at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, Spain, who participated in neither of the new studies. ref

DNA of Bronze Age Proto-Indo-Europeans

The so-called Kurgan hypothesis, which postulates that the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language arose in the Pontic steppe. During the Yamna period, one of the world’s first Bronze Age cultures, Proto-Indo-European speakers migrated west towards Europe and east towards Central Asia, then South Asia, spreading with them the Indo-European languages spoken today in most of Europe, Iran and a big part of the Indian subcontinent. The Kurgan model is the most widely accepted scenario of Indo-European origins. Most linguists agree that PIE may have been spoken as a single language (before divergence began) around 3500 BCE, which coincides with the beginning of the Yamna culture in the Pontic-Caspian steppe, and of the related Maykop culture in the northwest Caucasus. There is now compelling genetic evidence that haplogroups R1a and R1b, the most common paternal lineages in Europe, Central Asia and parts of South Asia, were mainly propagated by the Indo-European migrations during the Bronze Age. A sizeable part of European maternal lineages also seem to be of Indo-European origin, although the proportion varies a lot across Europe, but generally correlating to a large extent with the proportion of Y-haplogroups R1a and R1b. Other paternal lineages, such as G2a3b, J2b2, and T1a, are thought to have spread the Copper Age from the Balkans to modern Ukraine, then to have been absorbed by the expansion of R1a and R1b people respectively from central Russia (Volga basin) and southern Russia (Kuban, northwest Caucasus). The first PIE expansion into Europe was the Corded Ware culture, which so far have yielded only R1a samples. R1b is thought to have invaded the Balkans, then followed the Danube until Germany, from where it spread to western Europe and Scandinavia. The Asian branch originated around the Volga basin, then expanded across the Urals with the Sintashta culture, then over most of Central Asia and southern Siberia. ref

5000 years of migrations from the Eurasian steppes to Europe

The Pontic-Caspian steppe, extending from the Danube estuary to the Ural mountains, has played a crucial part in European and Asian history. This is where the horse was domesticated, chariots invented, and one of the earliest place where the Bronze Age flourished and from which it expanded. From approximately 6,000 years ago steppe people moved westwards to establish themselves around the Danube valley and the Carpathian basin, then little by little deeper into Europe. Here is a summary of this long series of migrations that is thought to have brought Indo-European languages and culture to Europe and contributed significantly to the modern European gene pool. Nowadays, approximately two-thirds of European men belong to the Y-chromosomal haplogroups R1a or R1b, two patrilineal lineages that have now been confirmed by ancient DNA tests to have arrived in Europe with the Indo-European migrations from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe during the Bronze Age. Yet, long after the Bronze Age ended, nomadic Steppe people frequently led more incursions into Europe. Not all of them were Indo-European speakers and, by the Late Bronze Age, even those that were, like the Scythians, had become admixed with a variety of non-Indo-European peoples from the Caucasus, Central Asia, Siberia or even the Middle East. You can visualize here the maps of Bronze Age migrations into Europe and read more at this (link). ref

Historical summary of the migrations from the Pontic-Caspian Steppe to other parts of Europe

• 6,200-5,900 years ago: Late Copper Age horse riders invade the old Balkanese tell settlements of eastern Romania and Bulgaria. Most of the towns and villages of the Gumelnita, Varna and Karanovo VI cultures are abandoned. A new hybrid culture emerge, the Suvorovo-Cernavodă culture (6,000-5,200 years ago), which will expand further south to the Aegean during the Ezero period (3300-2700 BCE).
• 5,500 years ago: Other advances from the steppe into the Cucuteni-Tripolye culture lead to the formation of the hybrid Coţofeni culture, also known as Usatovo culture, in north-eastern Romania.
• 5,200-4,800 years ago: First north-west expansion of the Yamna culture from the western steppe to modern Poland, Germany, Scandinavia and Baltic countries. Creation of the Corded-Ware (or Single Grave, or Battle-Axe) culture (3200-1800 BCE).
• 4,800-4,500 years ago: Hybrid people from the Cotsofeni and Ezero cultures start moving up the Danube and settle in mass in the Hungarian plain. The southward expansion of the Abashevo, Poltakva and Catacomb cultures from the Volga-Ural to the Black Sea shores pushed more pastoralists of the late Yamna culture to Europe.
• 4,500-4,2300 years ago: Indo-Europeans expand from the Hungarian plain to Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, southern Poland and southern Germany and start the most important Central European Bronze Age culture: Unetice (or Aunjetitz).
• 4,300-4,000 years ago: The Indo-Europeans continue their advance to Western and Northern Europe, spreading the Bronze Age and the single grave tradition with them.
• 4,000-3,100 years ago: The Sea Peoples invade the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean from the north (probably from the Black Sea). This is one of the most controversial part of ancient history due to the lack of clear evidence about the origin of the Sea Peoples. The Indo-Europeans from the steppe or from Europe itself were the only warriors with sufficiently advanced weapons and knowledge of seafaring to have destroyed the powerful palace-states of Greece, Anatolia, the Levant and Egypt. It also fits the 1000-year interval otherwise lacking any major migration from the steppes, at the time when the eastern Indo-Europeans were conquering Pakistan and India from Central Asia.
• 2,800-2,550 years ago: The Cimmerians are ousted from the Pontic steppe by their cousins the Scythians coming from the Volga-Ural region and Central Asia. The Cimmerians settle in Anatolia and around modern Romania around 800 BCE. The Cimmerian culture commenced circa 1200 BCE. Some archaeologists place their origins in the North Caucasus. Some accounts have it that the Cimmerians moved to northern Germany and the Netherlands and became the ancestors of some Germanic tribes, like the Sicambri (ancestors of the Franks). The Scythians followed between 650 and 550 BCE in Transylvania, Hungary and southern Slovakia. They kept trade routes with the steppes until the Roman conquest of Pannonia and Dacia.
• 100-500 CE : The Huns from southern Siberia invade Eastern Europe, pushing the Alans (a Samartian-descended tribe) westward. The Goths, Vandals, Franks, Angles, Saxons, Jutes and others cross into the Roman Empire under pressure from the new steppe migrants, which caused the collapse of the Western Roman Empire.
• 550-1000 CE : The next invaders from the steppe were the Avars, who entered the lower Danube region in 562. The Avars established their dominion over the Danube basin, from central Romania to eastern Austria, from the late 6th to early 9th century.In the 4th century, some Bulgars had crossed the Caucasus into Armenia while others had already followed the Huns, then the Avars to Central Europe. The Pontic steppe and North Caucasus was ruled by the Bulgars during the Old Great Bulgaria period in the 7th century. Under pressure from the Khazars, the Bulgars split in two groups; one migrating north to Volga Bulgaria, and the other to the Carpathians founding the First Bulgarian Empire (680–1018 CE) around modern Romania and Bulgaria.The Magyars and Khazars migrated from the Ural-Volga region to modern Ukraine around 830, raided their way across the Carpathians as far as Bavaria, where they were stopped in 956, then established themselves permanently in Hungary in the 10th century and founding the Kingdom of Hungary in 1001.
• 1235-1300 CE : The Mongol Empire reached Europe around 1235 and the Mongols invaded relentlessly Bulgaria, Poland, Bohemia, Hungary, Austria, Croatia, Serbia and Byzantine Thrace. They were eventually defeated and expelled from Europe, but may have left some genetic traces (although very minor ones based on current evidence).
• 1350-1550 CE : The last people from Central Asia to come to Europe were the Turks, who conquered the Balkans from 1359 to 1481, then the Carpathians and Hungary from 1520 to 1566. They were not technically from the Pontic-Caspian steppe, but from areas of Central Asia settled over 4000 years ago by the Indo-Europeans from the Volga-Ural steppe. Like other Turkic peoples (Huns, Avars, Bulgars, Khazars, Tatars) the Turks supposedly brought a lot of R1a lineages with them (+ a little R1b). ref

The Greeks really do have near-mythical origins, ancient DNA reveals

Ever since the days of Homer, Greeks have long idealized their Mycenaean “ancestors” in epic poems and classic tragedies that glorify the exploits of Odysseus, King Agamemnon, and other heroes who went in and out of favor with the Greek gods. Although these Mycenaeans were fictitious, scholars have debated whether today’s Greeks descend from the actual Mycenaeans, who created a famous civilization that dominated mainland Greece and the Aegean Sea from about 3,600 to 3,200 years ago, or whether the ancient Mycenaeans simply vanished from the region. Now, ancient DNA suggests that living Greeks are indeed the descendants of Mycenaeans, with only a small proportion of DNA from later migrations to Greece. And the Mycenaeans themselves were closely related to the earlier Minoans, the study reveals, another great civilization that flourished on the island of Crete from 4,600 to 3,400 years ago (named for the mythical King Minos). The ancient DNA comes from the teeth of 19 people, including 10 Minoans from Crete dating to 4,900 to 3,700 years ago, four Mycenaeans from the archaeological site at Mycenae and other cemeteries on the Greek mainland dating from 3,700 to 3,200 years ago, and five people from other early farming or Bronze Age (7,400 to 3,340 years ago) cultures in Greece and Turkey. By comparing 1.2 million letters of genetic code across these genomes to those of 334 other ancient people from around the world and 30 modern Greeks, the researchers were able to plot how the individuals were related to each other. The ancient Mycenaeans and Minoans were most closely related to each other, and they both got three-quarters of their DNA from early farmers who lived in Greece and southwestern Anatolia, which is now part of Turkey, the team reports today in Nature. Both cultures additionally inherited DNA from people from the eastern Caucasus, near modern-day Iran, suggesting an early migration of people from the east after the early farmers settled there but before Mycenaeans split from Minoans. The Mycenaeans did have an important difference: They had some DNA—4% to 16%—from northern ancestors who came from Eastern Europe or Siberia. This suggests that a second wave of people from the Eurasian steppe came to mainland Greece by way of Eastern Europe or Armenia, but didn’t reach Crete, says Iosif Lazaridis, a population geneticist at Harvard University who co-led the study. ref

Afghanistan’s Ethnic Groups Share a Y-Chromosomal Heritage Structured by Historical Events, around Neolithic Revolution (12,000-5,000 years ago) and Bronze Age (5,000-3,000 years ago), probably driven by the formation of the first civilizations in the region. Later migrations and invasions into the region have been assimilated differentially among the ethnic groups, increasing inter-population genetic differences, and giving the Afghans a unique genetic diversity in Central Asia.

One wave of migration from Siberia populated the Americas, DNA shows

Native American ancestors reached the new world in a single, initial migration from Siberia at most 23,000 years ago, only later differentiating into today’s distinct groups, DNA research revealed. ref

12,000 – 7,000 Years Ago – Paleo-Indian Culture (The Americas)

Early Shamanism around 30,000 years ago: Sungar (Russia) and Dolni Vestonice (Czech Republic)

Black, White, and Yellow Shamanism?

Shamanism: an approximately 30,000-year-old belief system

Sky Burials: Animism, Totemism, Shamanism, and Paganism

Similarity in Shamanism?

‘Sky Burial’ theory and its possible origins at least 12,000 years ago to likely 30,000 years ago or older.

Out of Africa: “the evolution of religion seems tied to the movement of people”

J DNA and the Spread of Agricultural Religion (paganism)

The info below is from the book Megalithism: Sacred and Pagan Architecture in Prehistory

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

5,000-Year-Old Kurgan-Style Tumulus Discovered in Istanbul

In the Silivri district of Istanbul have uncovered the oldest kurgan-style tumulus (5,000 years old) ever found in Turkey. Researchers believe the tumulus belongs to a prominent warrior or soldier from the Bronze Age given the spearhead that was found buried with him. A tumulus is a mound of stones and earth that has been built over a grave (or graves), and although they were used almost universally during the Neolithic era they vary in structure, size, and usage in individual cultures (kurgan is the Russian word for tumulus). Often categorized by their apparent shape, a tumulus can be described as either a long barrow: a tumulus typically constructed on top of several graves, or a round barrow, which is of course a round tumulus. The architecture and internal structure of both barrows can vary widely, the categorization refers just to the apparent external shape. Kurgan style tumuli were originally used in the Russian Steppes and later spread into central, northern, and eastern Europe during the 5,000 years ago. They were often structurally complex, with internal rooms and a centralized burial chamber, which was likely to contain funerary goods, weapons and sacrificial offerings, and for members of the elite class; horses and even chariots. Thrace, a historical as well as a geographic region, is centered (generally) on the borders of modern-day Bulgaria, Turkey, and Greece. In antiquity it was referred to as Europe, before the term was extended to describe the entire continent. The areas it comprises are in the southeastern region of Bulgaria, the northeastern region of Greece, and the European region of Turkey. The largest part of Thrace is within modern-day Bulgaria. The indigenous people of Thrace (Thracians) were divided into multiple tribal groups. Thracian soldiers were known to fight with the Persian armies while the Persian Empire controlled the region, later, they sided with Alexander the Great when he fought the Persians. Divided as they were into separate tribes, the Thracians didn’t have any permanent political organization until the Odrysian state was founded in the fourth century BCE, before then the mountainous tribes kept with a warrior tradition while the tribes living across the plains lived, supposedly, more peacefully. ref

Mapping the trail of ziggurats chronologically, from the oldest to the newest, would show the direction these people have arrived from! 

Goddess of war and love Inanna’s descent into the netherworld is the earliest of the Sumerian myths that we know from cuneiform tablets.

The verses regarding mountains define them as reaching high heaven, as written by the late American Sumerologist Samuel Noah Kramer, who not only provided a major contribution to research but also introduced Sumer civilization to a greater audience. Via Japanese scholar Toshikazu Kuwabara’s paper (A Study of Terminology of the Netherworld in Sumero-Akkadian Literature), we may see some aspects of Sumerian mythology: “My house which stands from the very heavens upon the earth.” In Sumerian language, Ki denotes earth and An denotes sky and sky god. Ki is the basis of the word geo as in geography and “an” (which also means sky in Sumerian) is the probable basis of the word sun in English. Other very important verses from Sumerian myths: “Man the tallest, cannot stretch to heaven Man the widest, cannot cover the wider world” The above lines from Gilgamesh and the Land of the Living Sumerian myth clearly show what height means for the Sumerians: a way to reach heaven above! Pyramids are tall and wide, just like the mountains. The word Kurgal: the great mountain is an epithet of Enlil, the god of air. In the below sentence, the great land is actually the great mountain (in Sumerian the word is Kurgal)!  “Sumer, the great land, the country of heaven and earth.” In Sumer, the cosmic mountain signified a united heaven and earth, the base being the earth and the netherworld and the top reaching the heaven. All this centers around the belief in the sky god An and the sky heavens, central to a Sumerian belief system and mythology. What do ziggurats, Sumerian step pyramids, and Egyptian pyramids look like? Man-made mountains! Moreover, pyramids, like mountains, rise towards the sky, as high as their technology allowed. Pyramids are the representation of the aforementioned beliefs found in Sumerian myths written in cuneiform. The reason for Sumerians building the pyramids—and step pyramids prior to them—is right there in their myths, and in writing, no less! Mountains were, in fact, central to Sumerian mythology, and there are no mountains in Sumer or Egypt where the pyramids were built. ref

Mountains in Turkish Mythology of Siberia and Central Asia

According to Siberian Turks, mountains were sacred. Turks thought that the higher they were, the closer they were to gods, just like the Sumerians did. In fact, Tengriism is the Turkish religious belief in a sky god/Kok Tengri. The cosmic mountain is central to Turkish mythology too. In Central Asia, many mountains and mountain ranges were named after gods, such as the current Tanri mountain—which is the same word as Dingir in Sumerian—the highest Sumerian god whose Sumerian sign looks like a star. So, we find the name of the highest god of Sumer civilization in Central Asia today with the same word and meaning. There are uch-Sumer peaks in the Altai mountains. As an interesting side note, Sumeru/Sumerula is the highest Buddhist mountain. Once more, we see a mountain is named after the highest god and with Sumer/Subar names. For many Turkic people, mountains were also grounds for sacrificial rituals. Shamans would—and in some Altay tribes they still do—pray to the mountains. They would lay food, and sometimes sacrifice animals during rituals. Some mountains were seen as layers reaching the heaven of Ulgen, one of the primordial Turkic gods in Turkish mythology in Siberia. One should also note that Siberian Turkic mythology is extremely vast, probably dwarfing any other ancient mythologies. Muazzez Ilmiye Cig wrote in her 2013 book “Sumer are Turkish” that Turks could not spell out the name of the mountains out of fear of retribution/reprisal, so they gave the same mountains many names. Some Turkic tribes in Altai region would whisper around the mountains to avoid angering the spirits. They were scared of the power of mountains and offered sacrifices to them, such as white horses in some Hunnic tribes some two thousand years ago. These sacrifices were made to heal their sick and to revere their ancestors, and they did other ritualistic acts to show their respect to the mountains. In a Sumerian tale, the war goddess Ninurta gives a mountain as a gift to her mother. The word “orta” (war) is still used in Turkish as Ordu/army and is the source of the English word “horde” as well as the Pakistani language Urdu. For Sumerians, ziggurat must have been the mountain of underworld spirits. Zi means spirit, and gur/kur have two meanings—the underworld and the earth. Ziggurats/Egyptian pyramids are the image of the cosmic mountain depicted in shamanistic rituals and Turkic people’s beliefs, whose ancestral home is Siberia. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref

1. From a Gerzeh/Naqada II Late Predynastic Egyptian palette with a goddess “Bat/Hathor” cow-head sun/stars motif.
2. From a Hierakonpolis late Gerzeh/Naqada II Predynastic or early Naqada III Proto-Dynastic Egyptian porphyry fluted bowl with two reliefs on the rim, one of which was a goddess “Hathor/Bat” cow-head sun/stars motif.
3. From an Abydos tomb, u-210 which held a small seal with a goddess “Bat/Hathor” sun/stars motif from the Gerzeh/Naqada II Late Predynastic Egyptian period.
4. A Mongolian Copper Age bull sun/star shamanism petroglyph
5. A Mongolian Bronze Age deer sun/star shamanism petroglyph symbol.
6. A Kyrgyzstan Saimaly-Tash possibly Bronze Age shamanism cow-sun person symbol petroglyph.
7. Similar X-ray style images among different peoples of the North from Siberia to Central Asia with shamanism petroglyphs of horned animals with sun symbols from possibly as old as the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art 

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Symbolism: Star of the Sumerian Goddesses Ishtar/Inanna and the Star/Sun-symbol of the Mesopotamian God Shamash as well as Gilgamesh Slaying the Bull of Heaven for Ishtar

1. The “Burney Relief,” believed to represent either Ishtar or her older sister Ereshkigal (1900 or 1800 BCE) 

2. Babylonian relief of Ishtar from Eshnunna (early second millennium BCE) 

3. Akkadian cylinder seal depicting Inanna resting her foot on the back of a lion (2334 – 2154 BCE) 

4. Depiction of Inanna/Ishtar from the Ishtar Vase (early second millennium BCE) 

5. Ishtar on the Anubanini rock relief (2300-2000 BCE) 

6. The Star of the Sumerian goddess Inanna was her symbol and that of her East Semitic counterpart goddess Ishtar. Because Ishtar was associated with the planet Venus, the star is also known as the Star of Venus. 

7. From a plaque from the Sumerian temple of Inanna plaque at Nippur (2500 BCE) 

8. Akkadian cylinder seal with the deities Inanna, Utu, Enki, and Isimud (2300 BCE) 

9. 1125-1100 BCE Kudurru stone document boundary stone with an Ishtar/Inanna star as part of a sky triad shown left to right along with the god Sin crescent moon symbol and Shamash star/sun symbol. 

10. The star of Inanna-Ishtar alongside the star/solar disk of her brother Shamash (Sumerian Utu) and the crescent moon of her father Sin (Sumerian Nanna) on a boundary stone of Meli-Shipak II (1200 BCE) 

11. Star of Ishtar and Shamash 

12. Assyrian Democratic Movement Brand Identity (Logo) 

13. Star of Shamash 

14. Mesopotamian relief of Gilgamesh slaying the Bull of Heaven, having been sent by Ishtar in Tablet VI of the Epic of Gilgamesh after he spurns her amorous advances. 

15. Tablet of Shamash relief ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref

“The Ghassulian Star,” a mysterious 6,000-year-old mural from Jordan. “The Ghassulian Star” was made before people could write, back when everyone either hunted and gathered or lived in small farming villages. The figures were painted with black, brown, red, white and yellow natural mineral paints; mud and lime walls were the canvas. The painting features a giant star, animals and masked figures sporting what look a lot like googly eyes. ref

Ghassulian refers to a culture and an archaeological stage dating to the Middle and Late Chalcolithic Period in the Southern Levant (6,400 – 5,500 years ago). Its type-site, Teleilat Ghassul (Teleilat el-Ghassul, Tulaylat al-Ghassul), is located in the eastern Jordan Valley near the northern edge of the Dead Sea, in modern Jordan.

The Ghassulian stage was characterized by small hamlet settlements of mixed farming peoples, who had immigrated from the north and settled in the southern Levant – today’s Jordan, Israel and Palestine.  People of the Beersheba Culture (a Ghassulian subculture) lived in underground dwellings – a unique phenomenon in the archaeological history of the region – or in houses that were trapezoid-shaped and built of mud-brick. Those were often built partially underground (on top of collapsed underground dwellings) and were covered with remarkable polychrome wall paintings. Their pottery was highly elaborate, including footed bowls and horn-shaped drinking goblets, indicating the cultivation of wine. Several samples display the use of sculptural decoration or of a reserved slip (a clay and water coating partially wiped away while still wet). The Ghassulians were a Chalcolithic culture as they used stone tools but also smelted copper. Funerary customs show evidence that they buried their dead in stone dolmens and also practiced Secondary burial. Settlements belonging to the Ghassulian culture have been identified at numerous other sites in what is today southern Israel, especially in the region of Beersheba, where elaborate underground dwellings have been excavated. The Ghassulian culture correlates closely with the Amratian of Egypt and also seems to have affinities (e.g., the distinctive churns, or “bird vases”) with early Minoan culture in Crete. ref

Between 5,800 – 5,350 years ago, the Ghassulian culture emerged based on an economy specializing in smelting the copper that Sumerian (Uruk) cities imported from the Southern Levant and the Upper Euphrates. The Ghassulians also erected dolmen monuments, similar to megalithic burial structures found not only in Western Europe, but also in the Western Caucasus. An unexpected link with the Uruk dispersions of the Caucasus has been suggested for the Nahal Mishmar “Cave of the Treasure” discovered in the Judean Desert. The fine metalwork discovered in this desert cache includes pieces crafted in a long period 7,000 – 5,500 years ago, as if this cache was buried to protect valuable cultural artifacts (possibly from temple sites) from robbers during the Ubaid-Uruk transition period. Adding to the archaeological mystery, the only comparable metalwork from this period has been discovered far away in the Maykop burial north of the Black Sea. Archaeologists have also suggested Ghassulian contacts with the Aegean and Upper Egypt (Amratian culture), suggesting that these East Mediterranean copper smelters played a dynamic role connecting far-flung cultures. Notably, the Ghassulian culture flourished at the time and location some linguists have suggested the Proto-Semitic languages first emerged (approximately 5,750 years ago, probably in the East Mediterranean).5 These later developed to become the Ugaritic, Phoenician, and Hebrew languages spoken not only in Canaan, but also throughout the Mediterranean, Arabian Peninsula, and Horn of Africa. In Europe, this period was less favorable. The “Old European” civilization of the CBMP dissolved between 5,500 – 5,200 years ago, partly regrouping near the Aegean Sea (preserving the foundations for the seagoing Minoan-Mycenaean civilizations), and some adapting to new pastoral lifeways near the Black Sea (such as the Usatovo culture. Despite the centrality of ancient Sumer, early Mesopotamia has rarely been discussed in the context of human genetic structure, and the effects of Sumerian expansions in reshaping the world genetic landscape remain to be discovered. However, the potential of urban centers using new technological toolkits (fueling population growth and giving an early demographic advantage over neighboring Mesolithic societies) suggests that Sumer might have played a formative role in West Eurasian demographic history. To help establish a historical foundation for examining the multi-layered genetic structure of the Middle East, this article will outline three phases of Sumerian civilization: (1) Founding of urban settlements during the Ubaid period; (2) Dispersion of Sumerian populations to the Caucasus Mountains and Asia during the Uruk period (including related Kura-Araxes migrations, possibly related to the spread of satem IE languages); and (3) Back-migrations to the Fertile Crescent (in response to events at the periphery of the Sumerian world) during the Middle Bronze Age. Ubaid Period Foundations (8,500 – 5,800 years ago). The foundations of Sumerian civilization were laid during the Ubaid Period (8,500 – 5,800 years ago). In this period, the first Mesopotamian cities were founded, starting with the world’s first capital, Eridu. Probably under the guidance of a priestly bureaucratic elite, these settlements were organized in a tripartite hereditary social structure: integrating farm laborers, nomadic pastoralists (animal herders), and hunting-fishing peoples as urban citizens. This urban culture spread outwards to establish a vast “Ubaid horizon” (2,000 km across) between the Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf. The flow of Ubaid material culture stimulated developments in more distant regions. In the Northern Levant, the Ubaid civilization absorbed neighboring Halaf dry farming (nonirrigation) settlements (perhaps Afroasiatic speaking predecessors of the Akkadians and Assyrians). Reaching even further beyond these rivers, Ubaid related (Hassuna-Samarra) pottery types and clay artwork have been found throughout the Aegean, Anatolia, and East Mediterranean. According to the archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, these shared craft forms appeared simultaneously in Southeastern Europe and West Asia around 8,700 – 8,500 years ago. Map of West Eurasian cultures during the Ubaid period. Sumer (the Ubaid heartland) is highlighted in red. Possible language families in neighboring areas are listed in italics. In Europe, this Ubaid related material culture was the basis of what Gimbutas dubbed the “Old European” civilization of the Balkan Peninsula and Central Europe, later splitting into local variant traditions around 7,000 years ago. More recently, Evgeny Chernykh has documented evidence for a large Carpatho-Balkan Metallurgical Province composed of densely settled communities (of up to 15,000 people each) connected by shared copper technology. This network of settlements flourished between 7,500 – 5,500 years ago, before dissolving around 5,200 years ago. In the later part of the Ubaid period, another peripheral Copper Age culture emerged in South Asia: the Mehrgarh III or Togau Phase (6,300 – 5,800 years ago) that brought an influx of new collective burial customs, ceramic styles, and copper technology (possibly from West Asia). Other cultural centers that emerged during the Ubaid period included Nabta Playa in Africa, possibly constructed by early populations of the “Green Sahara” (Neolithic Subpluvial; 9,000 – 5,500 years ago), when the landscape of Northern Africa resembled the ecologically rich savannahs of present-day Kenya, and the Badarian and Amratian (Predynastic Upper Egyptian) cultures emerged along the Nile River. Because of their “early adopter” status, these dense Ubaid period settlements in Mesopotamia, Southeastern Europe, and South Asia potentially played a key role in shaping later demographic history. The Kurgan Culture and the Indo-Europeanization of Europe considered the Chalcolithic “Old European” civilization pre-IE and suggested that the Proto-Indo-European (IE) languages emerged only later with “Kurgan” culture of the Eurasian steppe. However, this article suggests instead that the Proto-Indo-European language emerged in Ubaid period Southeastern Europe (possibly derived from older West Asian Indo-Hittite languages), later diverging into Eurasian satem and Mediterranean centum IE varieties after the collapse of the CBMP around 5,200 years ago. This would be consistent with linguistic evidence for PIE origins around 6,000 years ago and early contacts with the Uralic (North Eurasian), Caucasian (West Asian), and Afroasiatic (East Mediterranean) languages in West Eurasia. However, it is probable that no modern culture fully represents these ancestral founding populations. Nevertheless, traces of this ancestral population structure might to some extent be preserved in West Asian populations with a tradition of endogamy (such as Assyrian Christians, Druze, etc.). However, ancient DNA would be needed to examine these relationships in more detail. ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

People don’t commonly teach religious history, even that of their own claimed religion. No, rather they teach a limited “pro their religion” history of their religion from a religious perspective favorable to the religion of choice. 

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Do you truly think “Religious Belief” is only a matter of some personal choice?

Do you not see how coercive one’s world of choice is limited to the obvious hereditary belief, in most religious choices available to the child of religious parents or caregivers? Religion is more commonly like a family, culture, society, etc. available belief that limits the belief choices of the child and that is when “Religious Belief” is not only a matter of some personal choice and when it becomes hereditary faith, not because of the quality of its alleged facts or proposed truths but because everyone else important to the child believes similarly so they do as well simply mimicking authority beliefs handed to them. Because children are raised in religion rather than being presented all possible choices but rather one limited dogmatic brand of “Religious Belief” where children only have a choice of following the belief as instructed, and then personally claim the faith hereditary belief seen in the confirming to the belief they have held themselves all their lives. This is obvious in statements asked and answered by children claiming a faith they barely understand but they do understand that their family believes “this or that” faith, so they feel obligated to believe it too. While I do agree that “Religious Belief” should only be a matter of some personal choice, it rarely is… End Hereditary Religion!

Opposition to Imposed Hereditary Religion

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref 

Animism: Respecting the Living World by Graham Harvey 

“How have human cultures engaged with and thought about animals, plants, rocks, clouds, and other elements in their natural surroundings? Do animals and other natural objects have a spirit or soul? What is their relationship to humans? In this new study, Graham Harvey explores current and past animistic beliefs and practices of Native Americans, Maori, Aboriginal Australians, and eco-pagans. He considers the varieties of animism found in these cultures as well as their shared desire to live respectfully within larger natural communities. Drawing on his extensive casework, Harvey also considers the linguistic, performative, ecological, and activist implications of these different animisms.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

We are like believing machines we vacuum up ideas, like Velcro sticks to almost everything. We accumulate beliefs that we allow to negatively influence our lives, often without realizing it. Our willingness must be to alter skewed beliefs that impend our balance or reason, which allows us to achieve new positive thinking and accurate outcomes.

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref 

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref