Tin (needed with Copper for bronze) in Israel was from England, and other exotic trade routes in the larger Bronze age complex spread to quite far distances as well as the seeming religious ideas that spread with them
“The ancient civilizations in Mesopotamia didn’t have their own copper sources. Copper mined from mines in the hills around Wadi Jizzi near Sohar in Oman were exported at least as early as 2200 B.C. by the Magan to the Sumerian empire and Elam, another ancient civilization. As other copper sources were discovered and exploited, the influence of the Magan waned. The Bronze Age in Mesopotamia (roughly 3200 B.C. to 1000 B.C.) has been characterized as a time of vibrant economic expansion when the earliest Sumerian cities and the first great Mesopotamian empires grew and prospered. John Noble Wilford wrote in the New York Times, “After thousands of years in which copper was the only metal in regular use, the rising civilizations of Mesopotamia set off a revolution in metallurgy when they learned to combine tin with copper — in proportions of about 5 to 10 percent tin and the rest copper — to produce bronze.” ref
Cornish tin found in Israel is hard evidence of earliest trade links
“Tin ingots from Haifa with Cypro-Minoan inscriptions were assumed to have come from central Asia. Tin ingots found in Israel that are more than 3,000 years old are of Cornish origin and probably reached the Middle East by way of Greece, experts say. Chemical analysis done provided the first hard evidence for the trading of the metal, which is used in making bronze, between the west of Britain and the most famous Bronze Age civilizations — over networks covering thousands of miles.” ref
Ancient tin ingots found in Israel were mined in England. Seen in how tin ingots from Crete and Turkey have a different source.
“Tin deposits on the Eurasian continent and distribution of tin finds in the area studied dating from 2500-1000 BCE or 4,520-3,020 years ago. The arrow does not indicate the actual trade route but merely illustrates the assumed origin of the Israeli tin based on the data. The “age” of the tin is important for excluding other previous leading mine contenders — tin deposits in Anatolia, central Asia, and Egypt — “since they formed either much earlier or later,” write the authors. Tin is a moderately rare essential metal that is found sporadically in sites spread out around the globe. Having excluding the close-by sites through the tin’s age, with the new study of the tin isotope composition, the authors state that they were also able to exclude several of the European sources as the origin mine for the Israeli ingots. Interestingly, the tin ingots from coastal Crete and Turkey appear to have a different source.” ref
The Colour Palette of Antique Bronzes: An Experimental Archaeology Project
“Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin, with lead also added. Hellenistic and Roman bronze objects have a variable percentage of metals, and because of this, the color of the alloy will differ depending on the proportions. The color of the alloy can be maintained by polishing, but it is also possible to give a patina to the surface of bronze using a reagent. Other metals and alloys (copper, silver, gold, Corinthian bronze) can be inlaid by damascening, or by plating to create polychrome decorations. Unfortunately, copper alloy materials recovered from archaeological sites suffer from the effects of time and deposition, which may lead to corrosion and discoloring of the surface, often appearing green or brown. Archaeological bronzes also may suffer from overly aggressive restorations that scour original surfaces or cover them with a layer of paint imitating green corrosion. The collection of swatches I created gathers the spectrum of colors of antique bronzes and allows for a restoration of the original colors of the objects of my study: Greco-Roman bronze furniture. This study combines the processes of the lost wax method and the addition of polychrome bronze surfaces (patina, inlay, and gilding). Some platelet samples from this collection of swatches have also been analyzed to determine their elemental composition and their patina, so as to compare them to archaeological materials. Initial results suggest that the colors of bronze luxury furniture vary greatly and that the spectrum of colors is a product of bronze alloy composition, and of the techniques used in finishing the surface, either polishing or patina application. The initial results clearly show a spectrum of colors for bronze. Colors change depending on the composition of the alloy involved, but also in the creation of a patina. A polychromatic effect can be added by inlaying metals or gilding to accentuate some details. Greco-Roman bronze furniture was enriched with colors and shine. The present article is based on the various steps required for the manufacture and decoration of bronze platelet samples of the collection of color swatches.” ref
Tin sources and trade in ancient times
“Tin is an essential metal in the creation of tin bronzes, and its acquisition was an important part of ancient cultures from the Bronze Age onward. Its use began in the Middle East and the Balkans around 3000 BC. Tin is a relatively rare element in the Earth’s crust, with about two parts per million (ppm), compared to iron with 50,000 ppm, copper with 70 ppm, lead with 16 ppm, arsenic with 5 ppm, silver with 0.1 ppm, and gold with 0.005 ppm. Ancient sources of tin were therefore rare, and the metal usually had to be traded over very long distances to meet demand in areas that lacked tin deposits. Known sources of tin in ancient times include the southeastern tin belt that runs from Yunnan in China to the Malay Peninsula; Devon and Cornwall in England; Brittany in France; the border between Germany and the Czech Republic; Spain; Portugal; Italy; and central and South Africa. Syria and Egypt have been suggested as minor sources of tin, but the archaeological evidence is inconclusive.” ref
Tin Early use
“Tin extraction and use can be dated to the beginning of the Bronze Age around 3000 BCE or around 5,020 years ago, during which copper objects formed from polymetallic ores had different physical properties. The earliest bronze objects had tin or arsenic content of less than 2% and are therefore believed to be the result of unintentional alloying due to trace metal content in copper ores such as tennantite, which contains arsenic. The addition of a second metal to copper increases its hardness, lowers the melting temperature, and improves the casting process by producing a more fluid melt that cools to a denser, less spongy metal. This was an important innovation that allowed for the much more complex shapes cast in closed molds of the Bronze Age. Arsenical bronze objects appear first in the Middle East where arsenic is commonly found in association with copper ore, but the health risks were quickly realized and the quest for sources of the much less hazardous tin ores began early in the Bronze Age (Charles 1979, p. 30). This created the demand for rare tin metal and formed a trade network that linked the distant sources of tin to the markets of Bronze Age cultures.” ref
“Cassiterite (SnO2), oxidized tin, most likely was the original source of tin in ancient times. Other forms of tin ores are less abundant sulfides such as stannite that require a more involved smelting process. Cassiterite often accumulates in alluvial channels as placer deposits due to the fact that it is harder, heavier, and more chemically resistant than the granite in which it typically forms (Penhallurick 1986). These deposits can be easily seen in river banks, because cassiterite is usually black or purple or otherwise dark, a feature exploited by early Bronze Age prospectors. It is likely that the earliest deposits were alluvial and perhaps exploited by the same methods used for panning gold in placer deposits. The importance of tin to the success of Bronze Age cultures and the scarcity of the resource offers a glimpse into that time period’s trade and cultural interactions, and has therefore been the focus of intense archaeological studies. However, a number of problems have plagued the study of ancient tin such as the limited archaeological remains of placer mining, the destruction of ancient mines by modern mining operations, and the poor preservation of pure tin objects due to tin disease or tin pest. These problems are compounded by the difficulty in provenancing tin objects and ores to their geological deposits using isotopic or trace element analyses. The current archaeological debate is concerned with the origins of tin in the earliest Bronze Age cultures of the Near East.” ref
Mining in Cornwall and Devon
“Mining in Cornwall and Devon, in the southwest of England, began in the early Bronze Age, around 2150 BC, and ended with the closure of South Crofty tin mine in Cornwall in 1998. Tin, and later copper, were the most commonly extracted metals. Some tin mining continued long after the mining of other metals had become unprofitable. Historically, tin and copper as well as a few other metals (e.g. arsenic, silver, and zinc) have been mined in Cornwall and Devon. As of 2007, there are no active metalliferous mines remaining. However, tin deposits still exist in Cornwall, and there has been talk of reopening the South Crofty tin mine. In addition, work has begun on re-opening the Hemerdon tungsten and tin mine in south-west Devon. Tin is one of the earliest metals to have been exploited in Britain. Chalcolithic metal workers discovered that by putting a small proportion of tin (5 – 20%) in molten copper, the alloy bronze was produced. The alloy is harder than copper. The oldest production of tin-bronze is in Turkey about 3500 BCE or around 5,520 years ago, but exploitation of the tin resources in Britain is believed to have started before 2000 BC, with a thriving tin trade developing with the civilizations of the Mediterranean. The strategic importance of tin in forging bronze weapons brought the southwest of Britain into the Mediterranean economy at an early date. Later tin was also used in the production of pewter.” ref
“Mining in Cornwall has existed from the early Bronze Age Britain around 2150 BCE or 4,170 years ago. Cornwall was traditionally thought to have been visited by Phoenician metal traders from the eastern Mediterranean, but this view changed during the 20th century, and Timothy Champion observed in 2001 that “The direct archaeological evidence for the presence of Phoenician or Carthaginian traders as far north as Britain is non-existent”. Britain is one of the places proposed for the Cassiterides, that is “Tin Islands”, first mentioned by Herodotus. The tin content of the bronze from the Nebra Sky Disc dating from 1600 BCE, was found to be from Cornwall. Originally it is likely that alluvial deposits in the gravels of streams were exploited, but later underground mining took root. Shallow cuttings were then used to extract ore.” ref
Expansion of trade
“As demand for bronze grew in the Middle East, the accessible local supplies of tin ore (cassiterite) were exhausted and searches for new supplies were made over all the known world, including Britain. Control of the tin trade seems to have been in Phoenician hands, and they kept their sources secret. The Greeks understood that tin came from the Cassiterides, the “tin islands”, of which the geographical identity is debated. By 500 BC Hecataeus knew of islands beyond Gaul where tin was obtained. Pytheas of Massalia traveled to Britain in about 325 BC where he found a flourishing tin trade, according to the later report of his voyage. Posidonius referred to the tin trade with Britain around 90 BC but Strabo in about 18 AD did not list tin as one of Britain’s exports. This is likely to be because Rome was obtaining its tin from Hispania at the time.” ref
Diodorus Siculus’s account
“In his Bibliotheca historica, written in the 1st century BC, Diodorus Siculus described ancient tin mining in Britain. “They that inhabit the British promontory of Belerion by reason of their converse with strangers are more civilized and courteous to strangers than the rest are. These are the people that prepare the tin, which with a great deal of care and labor, they dig out of the ground, and that being done the metal is mixed with some veins of earth out of which they melt the metal and refine it. Then they cast it into regular blocks and carry it to a certain island near at hand called Ictis for at low tide, all being dry between there and the island, tin in large quantities is brought over in carts.” Pliny, whose text has survived in eroded condition, quotes Timaeus of Taormina in referring to “insulam Mictim“, “the island of Mictim” [sic], where the m of insulam has been repeated. Several locations for “Ictin” or “Ictis”, signifying “tin port” have been suggested, including St. Michael’s Mount, but, as a result of excavations, Barry Cunliffe has proposed that this was Mount Batten near Plymouth. A shipwreck site with ingots of tin was found at the mouth of the River Erme not far away, which may represent trade along this coast during the Bronze Age, although dating the site is very difficult. Strabo reported that British tin was shipped from Marseille.” ref
Iron Age archaeology
“There are few remains of prehistoric tin mining in Cornwall or Devon, probably because later workings have destroyed early ones. However, shallow cuttings used for extracting ore can be seen in some places such as Challacombe Down, Dartmoor. There are a few stone hammers, such as those in the Zennor Wayside Museum. It may well be that mining was mostly undertaken with shovels, antler picks, and wooden wedges. An excavation at Dean Moor on Dartmoor, at a site dated at 1400 – 900 BC from pottery, yielded a pebble of tin ore and tin slag. Rocks were used for crushing the ore and stones for this were found at Crift Farm. There have been finds of tin slag on the floors of Bronze Age houses, for example at Trevisker. Tin slag was found at Caerloges with a dagger of the Camerton-Snowhill type. In the Iron Age bronze continued to be used for ornaments though not for tools and weapons, so tin extraction seems to have continued. An ingot from Castle Dore is probably of Iron Age date.” ref
Panicum miliaceum from China
“A model for the domestication of Panicum miliaceum (common, proso, or broomcorn millet) in China. The location of the 43 sites used within this analysis. The inset shows sites of the Ying and Lou Valley in Henan.” ref
“Major Bronze Age translocations between South Asia, Arabia, and Africa including the distribution of archaeobotanical evidence of broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) of Chinese origin, suggesting dispersal from South Asia to Arabia and Nubia via the sea. Inset lower right: map of the distribution of sites in South Asia with archaeobotanical evidence for one or more crops of African origin.” ref
Across the Indian Ocean: The Prehistoric Movement of Plants and Animals
“Major research shows that is peopling the Indian Ocean with prehistoric seafarers exchanging native crops and stock between Africa and India. Not the least exciting part of the work is the authors’ contention that the prime movers of this maritime adventure were not the great empires but a multitude of small-scale entrepreneurs. The study of prehistory resembles a complex jigsaw and for much of the last half-century, Peter Bellwood has been at work finding and fitting pieces together, especially as they pertain to the island worlds of the western Pacific. His work has been pre-eminent in generating new understanding and fresh debate about the origins of Austronesian language speakers and the spread of agriculture and languages through Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific. Austronesian is the most geographically dispersed of any global language family in pre-modern times and the inclusion of the Malagasy language in it implies that — complementary to the eastward spread of Austronesian into the Pacific —a westward extension of Austronesian speaking seafarers was involved in the peopling of Madagascar. ” ref
“In this paper, researchers explore the wider Indian Ocean context of this western Austronesian expansion and highlight how current research, including our Sea links project, is helping to reveal processes of cultural contact, trade and biological translocations in the Indian Ocean in later prehistory, from what can be termed the Bronze Age (in western Asian chronologies) through to the Iron Age and later. This research is inherently interdisciplinary and thus follows in the footsteps of Peter Bellwood’s pioneering archaeology of island cultures. We also draw upon another strand of Bellwood’s work, namely his focus on small-scale societies as major forces of cultural history. The actors in the drama of Austronesian and Polynesian origins, who created new worlds in Island Southeast Asia and the Pacific, and seafaring technologies of unparalleled sophistication, were not the river valley civilizations or literate cities that so often capture the archaeological imagination, and dominate the public image of archaeology. Instead, it was small-scale, village or lineage groups of farmers and seafarers who played the key role in the peopling of the Pacific and the cultural transformation of Neolithic Island Southeast Asia.” ref
“Similarly, there is mounting evidence that small-scale coastal societies were often the pioneers in creating cross-cultural contacts and translocating plants and animals in the early Indian Ocean. In this paper, they sketch the emerging picture of a dynamic prehistoric Indian Ocean, in which links were created between societies in East Africa, Arabia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, all prior to the development of the better-documented trade of later periods, including the famous spice trade of the Roman and subsequent eras. This picture emerges from archaeological evidence, and particularly the evidence of translocated crop plants, as well as from historical linguistics, most notably relating to tree crops and boat technology, with a growing contribution from genetic studies of animals, including domesticated and commensal species.” ref
The Bronze Age inter-savannah translocations (c. 2000–1500 BC): north-east Africa, India, Arabia
“The connections between Africa and India, which constitute the first act of the narrative of transoceanic connections in the north-western part of Indian Ocean, took place as the hitherto separate trading spheres of the Persian/Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden became interlinked, probably at the end of the third millennium BC. Trade and contact in the southern part of the Red Sea began as early as the Neolithic, as indicated by the movement of obsidian from Ethiopia to Yemen, and from the fourth millennium BCE or around 6,020-5,020 years ago stretched northward to Egypt as well, when incense and other goods were no doubt also part of the increasing flow of commodities across the region. The much later expeditions of the Egyptian state southwards towards Punt, in search of incense and other exotica, were likely built on these earlier Neolithic contacts, which began in an era prior to local cereal agriculture, in which settlements are still mainly dominated by early to mid-Holocene shell middens. From c. 2000 BCE or 4,020 years ago, elements of the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden sphere appear to have been brought within the remit of an extended India-Gulf trading network, presumably through the activities of the coastal societies of southern Arabia and/or the agency of Gujarati seafarers, as well as the involvement of an undetermined source in Africa.” ref
Five African crops
Five African crops reached South Asia shortly thereafter. It has been known for many years that some of the major crops of the drier regions of India, such as sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) and finger millet (Eleusine coracana), originated in Africa and arrived in India at some point in prehistory. A popular argument has been that these crops arrived in the “Indus Vally” Harappan urban period (2600–2000 BCE or 4,620-4,020 years ago), brought by Harappan ‘seafarers’, but there is little firm evidence to support this. Recent re-assessments, of both botanical identifications and archaeological context, leave reason to doubt the few grains reported from the Harappan urban period; in contrast, there is now a large accumulation of evidence for these crops in India from the second millennium BC, including finds from 33 sites.” ref
“What the dating evidence currently suggests is that this transfer of African crops took place at the end of the Harappan era, perhaps as the urban Harappan civilization was undergoing its transformative de-urbanisation process. Given the lack of any other material evidence for Harappan or South Asian contacts with the Red Sea or Africa before 2000 BC, we have argued that this transfer took place primarily between north-east Africa and/or Yemen and western India, probably outside of the context of the Bronze Age trade between major civilizations. It is, of course, well documented that the Harappan civilization was involved in maritime trade with Oman, Bahrain, and Mesopotamia in the second half of the third millennium BCE or 5,020-4,020 years ago. But this trade was between urban actors, and increasingly appears to have been built on earlier regional contacts between small-scale coastal fishing and agropastoral societies.” ref
“Moving in the other direction was the Asian broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), ultimately of Chinese origin, which had left China on westward trade routes by c. 2200 BCE. Broomcorn millet is known from other central Asian sites from around 2000 BCE and is found in Pakistan at c. 1900 BCE, Yemen at around 2000 BC, and in Sudanese Nubia by c. 1700 BCE, while being absent from intervening regions such as Egypt and Mesopotamia. Zebu cattle may also have moved from India to Yemen and East Africa starting at this time, although this was presumably the first stage in an ongoing process of gene flow through introduced bulls which made the genetic landscape of south Arabian and African cattle one of hybridity between African taurine and Indian zebu stocks, with evidence for interbreeding most marked at the margins of the Indian Ocean. These zebu-hybrid cattle played an important role in the long-term success and southernmost spread of cattle pastoralists in eastern Africa.” ref
The Arabian Sea corridor, which led to early species exchange between the savannahs of Africa and India, was in some ways a precursor to the later pepper route of the spice trade. The first hint of this spice trade comes from the findings of valued black peppercorns that were used to fragrance the nostrils of the deceased Pharaoh Ramses II (c. 1200 BCE). This spice is endemic only to the wet forests of southern India, and in all likelihood was supplied by hunter-gatherer groups to coastal groups. At this date, it is unclear whether any farming was practiced along the coastal plains of southern India, with rice agriculture in the far south of India normally dated after 1000 BCE, and it may be the case that the earliest pepper was moved between coastal hunter-fisher groups into the emerging network of Arabian Sea voyaging and exchange.” ref
“In this link is a map detailing some of the active maritime trade routes in the Aegean during the Middle and Late Bronze Age.” ref
Exotic foods reveal contact between South Asia and the Near East during the second millennium BCE.
Abstract
“Although the key role of long-distance trade in the transformation of cuisines worldwide has been well-documented since at least the Roman era, the prehistory of the Eurasian food trade is less visible. In order to shed light on the transformation of Eastern Mediterranean cuisines during the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age, we analyzed microremains and proteins preserved in the dental calculus of individuals who lived during the second millennium BCE in the Southern Levant. Our results provide clear evidence for the consumption of expected staple foods, such as cereals (Triticeae), sesame (Sesamum), and dates (Phoenix). We additionally report evidence for the consumption of soybean (Glycine), probable banana (Musa), and turmeric (Curcuma), which pushes back the earliest evidence of these foods in the Mediterranean by centuries (turmeric) or even millennia (soybean). We find that, from the early second millennium onwards, at least some people in the Eastern Mediterranean had access to food from distant locations, including South Asia, and such goods were likely consumed as oils, dried fruits, and spices. These insights force us to rethink the complexity and intensity of Indo-Mediterranean trade during the Bronze Age as well as the degree of globalization in early Eastern Mediterranean cuisine.” ref
‘Globalized’ early Bronze Age Levantines consumed exotic Asian nosh, study shows
“Analysis of dental tartar from skeletons excavated at Megiddo and Tel Erani shows first evidence in the region from the 2nd millennium BCE (4,020-3,020 years ago) of foods such as bananas, soybeans, turmeric. Proving a network of elusive Bronze Age trade routes is like pulling teeth for scholars. Taking that quite literally, the lead authors of a new scientific paper analyzed ancient Southern Levant dental tartar and uncovered a cornucopia of minuscule last suppers — the exotic ingredients of which shore up an increasingly recognized academic theory of a “globalized” 2nd millennium BCE Bronze Age. As part of a multi-year, interdisciplinary project, a team of researchers led by Harvard University Prof. Christina Warinner and University of Munich Prof. Philipp Stockhammer microscopically examined tooth tartar taken from 13 skeletal remains excavated at northern Israel’s Megiddo site, which was largely populated by Canaanites. Three more skeletal samples were taken from an Iron Age cemetery at Tel Erani, located near Kiryat Gat, which dates to circa 500 years after Megiddo and is thought to have been populated by Philistines.” ref
“With the microscopic remains that were preserved over the millennia by the “skin” of the skeletons’ teeth, the scientists discovered non-native, outlier foodstuffs such as soybeans, turmeric, and bananas, which were not previously known to exist in the Southern Levant at this time. Anyone who does not practice good dental hygiene will still be telling us, archaeologists, what they have been eating thousands of years from now,” said Stockhammer in a press release. The study, “Exotic foods reveal contact between South Asia and the Near East during the second millennium BCE,” was published this week in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal. It outlines compelling evidence of a wide-ranging trade route, spanning from South Asia to Egypt, and posits it was part of an even larger Bronze Age “globalized” network.” ref
“This increasingly studied idea of a connected ancient world led scholar Helle Vandkilde to coin the term “Bronzization” in a 2016 paper explaining how the pursuit of the components of bronze created a web of routes. A recently published example of a trade route in pursuit of bronze production is found in a study that concluded that ancient tin ingots discovered in Israel were mined in England. Now, say the PNAS authors, “Although named for a metal that is highly visible in the archaeological record, the process of Bronzization was likely a much broader phenomenon that also linked cuisines and economies across Eurasia.” Among the previously known exotic cuisine, evidence of vanilla, most likely collected from South Asia vanilla orchid pods, was already uncovered at Megiddo in a tomb dated to the later phase of the Middle Bronze Age (around 1700-1600 BCE). Likewise, the earliest citrus within the Mediterranean, dated to circa 2,500 years ago, probably came from Southeast Asia, according to a study by Tel Aviv University Prof. Dafna Langgut.” ref
“Tel Aviv University Prof. Israel Finkelstein, who is an author in the study, believes this new paper goes much farther to shore up the idea of an ancient spice route. “This is clear evidence of trade with southeast Asia as early as the 16th century BCE – much earlier than previously assumed,” said Finkelstein in a press release. Finkelstein has led excavations at Megiddo since 1994 and most of the samples in the present study came from tombs and other burials there. “Several years ago, we found similar evidence of long-distance trade: molecular traces of vanilla in ceramic vessels from the same period at Megiddo. Yet very little is known about the trade routes or how the goods were delivered,” said Finkelstein.” ref
Looking a gift horse in the mouth
“This issue of delivery is addressed by co-lead author Stockhammer in his massive collaborative project, “FoodTransforms: Transformations of Food in the Eastern Mediterranean Late Bronze Age.” As emphasized in the PNAS study, what makes its methodology notable is that unlike tried and true “macro-archaeological” methods such as digging and sifting, it drills down into the issue through micro-testing of dental calculus. “Although there are numerous ways to investigate the food and drink consumed in antiquity, perhaps the most powerful evidence is based on material obtained from inside the mouth,” reads Stockhammer’s project website. “One such material is dental calculus (tartar), a calcified microbial biofilm that builds up in layers over the years. HDC is an abundant, nearly ubiquitous, and long-term reservoir of the ancient oral microbiome, preserving not only microbial and host biomolecules but also dietary and environmental debris,” he writes.” ref
“According to his co-author, Harvard University’s Warinner, the ancient tooth tartar is “like a time capsule… It’s the single richest source of ancient DNA in the archaeological record. There are so many things we can learn from it — everything from pollution in the environment to people’s occupations to aspects of health. It’s all in there,” she said in a 2019 interview. When using these Palaeoproteomic methodologies to analyze the “microremains” and proteins preserved in the dental calculus of the 16 skeletons’ samples, the authors found examples of expected staple foods such as cereals, sesame, and dates, according to a PNAS press release. It was the unexpected edibles that bit into their intellectual curiosity and pushed back the clocks on these foodstuffs’ appearance in the Middle East.” ref
“Our results provide clear evidence for the consumption of expected staple foods, such as cereals (Triticeae), sesame (Sesamum), and dates (Phoenix). We additionally report evidence for the consumption of soybean (Glycine), probable banana (Musa), and turmeric (Curcuma), which pushes back the earliest evidence of these foods in the Mediterranean by centuries (turmeric) or even millennia (soybean),” they write. “In fact, we can now grasp the impact of globalization during the second millennium BCE on East Mediterranean cuisine,” said Stockhammer in a press release. “Mediterranean cuisine was characterized by intercultural exchange from an early stage.” ref
“The authors conclude that incredibly perishable bananas discovered in samples from at Tel Erani were likely either eaten by the male subject — perhaps a merchant — prior to his arrival and death, or were transported as a dried fruit. At Megiddo, the scholars discovered a plethora of soybean samples, which they conclude was transported there as oil. Oil was a highly desired commodity during this era and had uses ranging from embalming the dead to cooking and medicine to personal body care. The idea that the soybean remnants came in oil may explain the lack of soybeans in the archaeological record, although they were cultivated in China since at least the 7th century BCE. Soybean cultivation is only documented in Israel from the 20th century CE onwards. Unlike soybeans, the turmeric spice is known within the Near East since the 7th century BCE from Assyrian cuneiform medical texts in Nineveh. However, the first archaeological evidence is only from the Islamic period during the 11th to 13th centuries CE. From the Megiddo evidence, the authors surmise that the spice was already available in the Levant from the mid-2nd millennium BCE.” ref
“The broader body of evidence for exotic goods, which also includes zebu cattle, chickens, citron, melon, cloves, millet, vanillin, peppercorns, monkeys, and beetles, points to a pattern of established trade,” write the authors. The broader body of evidence for exotic goods, which also includes zebu cattle, chickens, citron, melon, cloves, millet, vanillin, peppercorns, monkeys, and beetles, points to a pattern of established trade. All of these perishable goods — and potentially many more — may have been trafficked through a widespread early spice route. But only through a consistent use of microscopic Palaeoproteomic methods will they continue to be detected, the authors emphasize. “The recovery and identification of diverse foodstuffs using molecular and microscopic techniques enables a new understanding of the complexity of early trade routes and nascent globalization in the ancient Near East and raises questions about the long-term maintenance and continuity of this trade system into later periods,” write the authors.” ref
Food trade with South Asia revealed by Near East food remains
“Exotic Asian spices such as turmeric and fruits like the banana had already reached the Mediterranean more than 3000 years ago, much earlier than previously thought. A team of researchers working alongside archaeologist Philipp Stockhammer at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich (LMU) has shown that even in the Bronze Age, long-distance trade in food was already connecting distant societies. Imagine this scene from a market in the city of Megiddo in the Levant 3700 years ago: The market traders are hawking not only wheat, millet or dates, which grow throughout the region, but also carafes of sesame oil and bowls of a bright yellow spice that has recently appeared among their wares. This is how Philipp Stockhammer imagines the bustle of the Bronze Age market in the eastern Mediterranean.” ref
“Working with an international team to analyze food residues in tooth tartar, the LMU archaeologist has found evidence that people in the Levant were already eating turmeric, bananas, and even soy in the Bronze and Early Iron Ages. “Exotic spices, fruits, and oils from Asia had thus reached the Mediterranean several centuries, in some cases even millennia, earlier than had been previously thought,” says Stockhammer. “This is the earliest direct evidence to date of turmeric, banana, and soy outside of South and East Asia.” It is also direct evidence that as early as the second millennium BCE there was already a flourishing long-distance trade in exotic fruits, spices, and oils, which is believed to have connected South Asia and the Levant via Mesopotamia or Egypt. While substantial trade across these regions is amply documented, later on, tracing the roots of this nascent globalization has proved to be a stubborn problem. The findings of this study confirm that long-distance trade in culinary goods has connected these distant societies since at least the Bronze Age. People obviously had a great interest in exotic foods from very early on.” ref
“For their analyses, Stockhammer’s international team examined 16 individuals from the Megiddo and Tel Erani excavations, which are located in present-day Israel. The region in the southern Levant served as an important bridge between the Mediterranean, Asia, and Egypt in the 2nd millennium BCE. The aim of the research was to investigate the cuisines of Bronze Age Levantine populations by analyzing traces of food remnants, including ancient proteins and plant microfossils, that have remained preserved in human dental calculus over thousands of years. The human mouth is full of bacteria, which continually petrify and form calculus. Tiny food particles become entrapped and preserved in the growing calculus, and it is these minute remnants that can now be accessed for scientific research thanks to cutting-edge methods. For the purposes of their analysis, the researchers took samples from a variety of individuals at the Bronze Age site of Megiddo and the Early Iron Age site of Tel Erani. They analyzed which food proteins and plant residues were preserved in the calculus on their teeth. “This enables us to find traces of what a person ate,” says Stockhammer. “Anyone who does not practice good dental hygiene will still be telling us, archaeologists, what they have been eating thousands of years from now.” ref
“Palaeoproteomics is the name of this growing new field of research. The method could develop into a standard procedure in archaeology, or so the researchers hope. “Our high-resolution study of ancient proteins and plant residues from human dental calculus is the first of its kind to study the cuisines of the ancient Near East,” says Christina Warinner, a molecular archaeologist at Harvard University and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and co-senior author of the article. “Our research demonstrates the great potential of these methods to detect foods that otherwise leave few archaeological traces. Dental calculus is such a valuable source of information about the lives of ancient peoples.” ref
“Our approach breaks new scientific ground,” explains LMU biochemist and lead author Ashley Scott. That is because assigning individual protein remnants to specific foodstuffs is no small task. Beyond the painstaking work of identification, the protein itself must also survive for thousands of years. “Interestingly, we find that allergy-associated proteins appear to be the most stable in human calculus”, says Scott, a finding she believes may be due to the known thermostability of many allergens. For instance, the researchers were able to detect wheat via wheat gluten proteins, says Stockhammer. The team was then able to independently confirm the presence of wheat using a type of plant microfossil known as phytoliths. Phytoliths were also used to identify millet and date palm in the Levant during the Bronze and Iron Ages, but phytoliths are not abundant or even present in many foods, which is why the new protein findings are so groundbreaking—paleoproteomics enables the identification of foods that have left few other traces, such as sesame. Sesame proteins were identified in dental calculus from both Megiddo and Tel Erani. “This suggests that sesame had become a staple food in the Levant by the 2nd millennium BCE,” says Stockhammer.” ref
Two additional protein findings are particularly remarkable, explains Stockhammer. In one individual’s dental calculus from Megiddo, turmeric and soy proteins were found, while in another individual from Tel Erani banana proteins were identified. All three foods are likely to have reached the Levant via South Asia. Bananas were originally domesticated in Southeast Asia, where they had been used since the 5th millennium BCE, and they arrived in West Africa 4000 years later, but little is known about their intervening trade or use. “Our analyses thus provide crucial information on the spread of the banana around the world. No archaeological or written evidence had previously suggested such an early spread into the Mediterranean region,” says Stockhammer, although the sudden appearance of banana in West Africa just a few centuries later has hinted that such a trade might have existed. “I find it spectacular that food was exchanged over long distances at such an early point in history.” ref
“Stockhammer notes that they cannot rule out the possibility, of course, that one of the individuals spent part of their life in South Asia and consumed the corresponding food only while they were there. Even if the extent to which spices, oils, and fruits were imported is not yet known, there is much to indicate that trade was indeed taking place, since there is also other evidence of exotic spices in the Eastern Mediterranean—Pharaoh Ramses II was buried with peppercorns from India in 1213 BCE. They were found in his nose. The results of the study have been published in the journal PNAS. The work is part of Stockhammer’s project “FoodTransforms—Transformations of Food in the Eastern Mediterranean Late Bronze Age,” which is funded by the European Research Council. The international team that produced the study encompasses scientists from LMU Munich, Harvard University, and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena. The fundamental question behind his project—and thus the starting point for the current study—was to clarify whether the early globalization of trade networks in the Bronze Age also concerned food. “In fact, we can now grasp the impact of globalization during the second millennium BCE on East Mediterranean cuisine,” says Stockhammer. “Mediterranean cuisine was characterized by intercultural exchange from an early stage.” ref
Sweet-toothed Canaanites imported exotic food to Israel 3,600-years ago
“Analysis of teeth of individuals who lived in Megiddo then shows that the Canaanites imported exotic food from India and Southeast Asia. Bronze Age cuisine in Israel included exotic foodstuffs, such as bananas, soybeans, and turmeric, according to a new study published in the journal PNAS. It pushes back the evidence for these foods by centuries. The conclusion is based on an analysis of micro-remains and proteins preserved in the tooth tartar of individuals who lived in Megiddo and Tel Erani during the Bronze Age and the Iron Age. The study was carried out by an international team of experts from LMU Munich, Harvard University, and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena, Germany. The authors show that in addition to Levantine plants, such as chickpeas, lentils, barley, wheat, grapes, figs, and dates, the Canaanite inhabitants also ate bananas, soybeans, sesame, turmeric, and other exotic spices – typical ingredients of Middle Eastern cuisine today (except for soybeans and bananas). The research proves that Mediterranean cuisine was diverse and that exotic foods from Asia had arrived several centuries, and sometimes millennia, earlier than had been previously thought.” ref
“The origin of the fruits and plants was proven by detailed analysis of the remains of 18 individuals found in Megiddo and Tel Erani excavations, including plant remains and proteins that have remained preserved in human dental calculus over thousands of years. The human mouth is full of bacteria that continually petrify and form calculus. Tiny food particles become entrapped and preserved in the growing calculus, and these remnants can be accessed for scientific research. “This enables us to find traces of what a person ate,” Stockhammer said. “Anyone who does not practice good dental hygiene will still be telling us, archaeologists, what they have been eating thousands of years from now.” ref
Turmeric in Megiddo
“Previously, researchers thought the Middle Eastern diet contained mostly bread. In fact, archaeologists excavating in Jericho found that the most abundant item in the destruction apart from pottery was grain. As a result, they concluded that Canaanites ate a lot of grain. Bread was such an important part of the diet that in Hebrew, the expression to “eat a meal” literally meant to “eat bread.” Cereals used to make bread, such as wheat, barley, oats, spelt, and millet, made up a large portion of the Bronze Age Canaanite diet. Researchers estimate that a person would consume some 200 kg. of cereals a year, providing about half of their needed calories. The international team of archaeologists and experts was surprised to find that sesame had become a staple food in the Levant by the second millennium BCE. Two additional protein findings were particularly remarkable. Turmeric and soy proteins were found in the dental calculus of one individual from Megiddo in the 16th-15th century BCE, while banana proteins were identified in another individual from Tel Erani 500 years later.” ref
“The Megiddo individual who revealed evidence for soybeans and turmeric was buried in an elaborate family burial, stone built, meaning that he was probably a member of the city’s elite,” said Prof. Israel Finkelstein, who is co-director of the Megiddo excavation along with Dr. Mario M. Martin of Tel Aviv University. In another recent study from Megiddo, evidence of vanilla was discovered in the elite tomb there. “These foods were clearly something special and priced as such,” Martin said. “The evidence for far-distance trade is not altogether unexpected. It is certainly exciting to be able to prove the actual existence of these foodstuffs in the southern Levant.” While the elites of Megiddo could afford luxury goods, such as turmeric, the individual from Tel Erani, where the banana proteins were identified, seemed to have belonged to the rural population.” ref
“The Erani individual was only buried in one flask, a standard vessel, nothing special with regard to the archaeological context and no indication for elevated status,” Stockhammer said. Other evidence, such as cinnamon, was verified several years ago and is found considerably later during the Iron Age, he said. Nonetheless, all three foods are likely to have reached the Levant via South Asia. Bananas were originally domesticated in Southeast Asia, where they had been used since the fifth millennium BCE, arriving in West Africa 4,000 years later. But little is known about their intervening trade or use. “Our analyses thus provide crucial information on the spread of the banana around the world,” Stockhammer said. “No archaeological or written evidence had previously suggested such an early spread into the Mediterranean region.” The sudden appearance of bananas in West Africa just a few centuries later indicated that such a trade might have existed, he added. “I find it spectacular that food was exchanged over long distances at such an early point in history,” Stockhammer said.” ref
Milk, Honey, and Bananas
Until now, there has been little evidence regarding these culinary descriptions painted in ancient sources. The variety of foods, such as grapes, pistachios, almonds, pomegranates, and figs, found in Canaan during the Bronze Age is highlighted in the Bible (Genesis 43:11, Numbers 13:23) and in second-millennium textual sources from the Near East. For instance, Assyrian cuneiform tablets record donkey caravans between the Mesopotamian city of Aššur and the Anatolian trade post of Kaneš in the 19th century BCE and in the 15th century BCE during the reign of Amenhotep IV, commonly referred to as Akhenaten. The flow of exotic goods, such as ivory, ostrich eggshells, ebony, and frankincense, flourished, as indicated by clay tablets from el-Amarna, Egypt, priceless letters that contain correspondence from the city kings of Canaan to the foreign office of the Pharaoh, which throw light on the conditions in Canaan in the 14th century BCE.” ref
“Among the most well-known of these accounts is an expedition initiated by Egypt’s Queen Hatshepsut to the land of Punt (probably located in the Horn of Africa region) in the 15th century BCE. In addition, seals, stone weights, lapis lazuli, and carnelian jewelry weights provide evidence for long-distance trade between the Near East and the Indian subcontinent. “In fact, we can now grasp the impact of globalization during the second millennium BCE on East Mediterranean cuisine,” Stockhammer said. “Mediterranean cuisine was characterized by intercultural exchange from an early stage,” The extent to which spices, oils, and fruits were imported is not yet known. But there is much to indicate that trade was taking place. There is other evidence of exotic spices in the Eastern Mediterranean. For example, Pharaoh Ramses II was buried with peppercorns from India in 1213 BCE. They were found in his nose.” ref
Glassmaking in Bronze-Age Egypt: Long trade links of Molds and Ingots with their Glassmaking Furnaces
“Glass production and trade around the Mediterranean in seen in the Late Bronze Age. Evidence presented by Rehren and Pusch strengthens the case for primary glass production in Egypt.” ref
“Ever since Sir Flinders Petrie[HN1] discovered evidence for Bronze-Age glass production in Tell el-Amarna, Egypt [HN2], in the late 19th century, controversy has surrounded his findings. Does the evidence represent primary glass production (raw materials were mixed to produce glass) or secondary working (ready-made glass was imported and reworked into artifacts)? The answer has important implications for understanding trade and exchange in the Mediterranean during the late second millennium B.C. On page 1756 of this issue, Rehren and Pusch [HN3] provide evidence in favor of primary production in Egypt. In the Late Bronze Age, glass [HN5] was a high-status commodity. Any group that controlled its production or consumption would have occupied a powerful position. Archaeological evidence of a rise in trade and consumption indicates that this was a period of political change throughout the Near and Middle East and the Mediterranean area. This transformation may be explained by the rise of elite groups who chose to express allegiances through competitive gift exchange of prestigious artifacts. Glass—being difficult to work, complicated to produce, and available in vivid, symbolically significant colors—was favored for use in such artifacts. Understanding the evidence from Amarna will help to define the role of prestige goods and how elites used them to enhance their position.” ref
“The first glass vessels found in Egypt were stylistically indistinguishable from the earlier Mesopotamian glasses. The only contemporary written accounts of glasses are from the Amarna tablets [HN6]. These small, sun-dried clay tablets document dispatches to and from the Egyptian courts and, in the case of glass, record a request by the pharaoh Akhenaten [HN7] (∼14th century BCE or 3,420 years ago) for glass to be brought to Egypt. These strands of evidence suggest that glass was not produced in Egypt, but only reworked there. However, stylistic analysis and analysis of textual accounts are not the only ways to understand the trade in, and manufacture of, glass. The composition of a glass [HN8] will vary when different raw materials and recipes are used, in principle allowing both technology and provenance to be investigated with chemical fingerprinting. Egyptian glasses were produced from silica (probably from quartz pebbles) and a sodarich plant ash flux, which should vary in composition depending on where the raw materials were procured. Therefore, glasses with similar compositions would suggest that they were produced with similar raw materials and technology and were made at the same production center. Ideally, we may expect to see different chemical fingerprints of glasses made at different factories, or at least differentiate glasses with respect to broad geographical areas such as Egypt and Mesopotamia.” ref
“This concept can be applied to the Amarna controversy. If the chemical fingerprint of glass production debris found by Petrie at Amarna differed from that of Mesopotamian glasses, then, with the support of secure archaeological evidence, we could suggest that Amarna was a primary production center. In practice, chemical analysis of artifacts has both expanded and complicated our knowledge in this area. For example, such analysis has shown that contemporary glasses from Egypt and Mesopotamia cannot be unequivocally distinguished on the basis of their chemistry, giving no real clue as to possible provenance. Rehren has attributed this finding to the method by which the glass was produced, rather than to the use of raw materials with a similar composition or adherence to a strict recipe. By only partially melting the glass, the glass composition with the lowest melting point would be obtained; any unfused raw material would be removed from the melt. This approach would produce glasses of similar compositions, irrespective of slight differences in the raw materials, because it depends on temperature rather than raw material composition.” ref
“This partial-melting model is not contradicted by compositional differences observed between glasses of differing colors. Different concentrations of potassium in cobalt- and copper-colored blue glasses are attributed to the use of different plant ashes in their production. This observation has led Rehren to propose that Egyptian glasses were made at a few large glassmaking centers, each specializing in a particular color. These ideas can only really be tested against archaeological evidence. In the 1990s, excavations were undertaken at Amarna, the royal city of Akhenaten, to locate Petrie’s glass-production site. Two large circular furnaces were discovered, and the associated vitrified mud-brick suggested that they had reached temperatures adequate for primary glass production from raw materials. This interpretation was confirmed by experimental reconstruction. [HN9] Supporting evidence that the furnaces were used for glassmaking rather than reworking comes in two forms: fragmentary lumps of deep-blue “frit,” currently thought to be the remains of an intermediate, low-temperature stage of the glassmaking process (5), and fragments of cylindrical ceramic vessels, coated on the outside with drips of dark-blue cobalt glass and on the inside with a calcareous liner.” ref
Our understanding of Egypt’s role in glass production and trade at this time hinges on the function of these ceramic vessels. It is assumed that they were used as ingot molds, in which glass, produced from raw materials, was cast into ingots and traded around the Mediterranean (see the figure). Support for this interpretation comes from cobalt blue glass ingots fitting the dimensions of the cylindrical vessels from Amarna, which have been found in a Late Bronze Age shipwreck off the coast of Turkey at Uluburun [HN10], near Kas. Such evidence argues against the stylistic and documentary evidence referred to earlier. This is where the report by Rehren and Pusch becomes highly significant. They present evidence for primary glassmaking from the 19th-dynasty Ramesside capital at Qantir [HN11] (∼13th century BCE or 3,320 years ago). This evidence is extremely important in two respects. First, it provides a key to glass technology at the site that is missing from other production centers. Evidence of cylindrical vessels filled with partially fused glasses and jars indicates a two-stage glassmaking process. The first stage involved heating the glass at low temperatures in ovoid jars. The resulting material was then removed from the jars, the non-fused insoluble material discarded, and more flux and a colorant added. The second stage involved melting these components to form glass ingots, in cylindrical molds similar to those found at Amarna.” ref
“Most of the glass found at Qantir is red, produced with copper in a reducing atmosphere. Red glasses are relatively difficult to produce, requiring a high level of technical know-how, whereas cobalt blue glasses, probably produced at Amarna, require no special regulation of redox conditions. Whether production of cobalt glasses follows a similar two-stage process remains to be seen, because evidence for filled ingot molds is absent from Amarna. Aside from the number of stages in glass production, both sites have yielded cylindrical vessels and semifused raw materials, implying that a similar technology was practiced at both centers. Second, these finds also address the question of provenance. Rehren and Pusch convincingly show that the Egyptians were making their own glass in large specialized facilities that were under royal control. At Qantir, production was linked specifically to the use of copper to color the glasses either red or blue, and glass was manufactured in the form of ingots to be reworked elsewhere.” ref
The production of ingots at Qantir, presumably for export, shows that at this period, Egypt exported rather than imported glass. The chemical composition of fully formed vessels, inlays, and plaques from other high-status sites throughout the Mediterranean and particularly the Aegean, at least in the case of cobalt blue glass, is indistinguishable from that of the ingots, indicating that it was produced from Egyptian glass. Hence, elites in other societies were supplied with raw glass from Egypt for reworking. The location of glass manufacturing at the royal sites of Amarna and Qantir suggests that it was a controlled activity, which is not surprising, because glass was a “royal” medium used to enhance power, status, and political allegiances. The evidence from Amarna and Qantir suggests that in the Late Bronze Age there was an Egyptian monopoly not just on the exchange of luxury glass but also on the diplomatic currency that the control of such technologies offered the elite. The evidence from Qantir presented by Rehren and Pusch reinforces and reappraises the role of glass both within Egyptian society and as an elite material that was exported from Egypt to the Mediterranean world.” ref
Mobile women were key to cultural exchange in Stone Age and Bronze Age Europe
“4,000 years ago, European women traveled far from their home villages to start their families, bringing with them new cultural objects and ideas. Credit: Stadtarchäologie Augsburg. At the end of the Stone Age and in the early Bronze Age, families were established in a surprising manner in the Lechtal, south of Augsburg, Germany. The majority of women came from outside the area, probably from Bohemia or Central Germany, while men usually remained in the region of their birth. This so-called patrilocal pattern combined with individual female mobility was not a temporary phenomenon, but persisted over a period of 800 years during the transition from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age.” ref
“The findings, published today in PNAS, result from a research collaboration headed by Philipp Stockhammer of the Institute of Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology and Archaeology of the Roman Provinces of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. In addition to archaeological examinations, the team conducted stable isotope and ancient DNA analyses. Corina Knipper of the Curt-Engelhorn-Centre for Archaeometry, as well as Alissa Mittnik and Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History in Jena and the University of Tuebingen jointly directed these scientific investigations. “Individual mobility was a major feature characterizing the lives of people in Central Europe even in the 3rd and early 2nd millennium,” states Philipp Stockhammer. The researchers suspect that it played a significant role in the exchange of cultural objects and ideas, which increased considerably in the Bronze Age, in turn promoting the development of new technologies.” ref
“For this study, the researchers examined the remains of 84 individuals using genetic and isotope analyses in conjunction with archeological evaluations. The individuals were buried between 2500 and 1650 BC in cemeteries that belonged to individual homesteads, and that contained between one and several dozen burials made over a period of several generations. “The settlements were located along a fertile loess ridge in the middle of the Lech valley. Larger villages did not exist in the Lechtal at this time,” states Stockhammer. 4,000 years ago, European women traveled far from their home villages to start their families, bringing with them new cultural objects and ideas.” ref
“We see a great diversity of different female lineages, which would occur if over time many women relocated to the Lech Valley from somewhere else,” remarks Alissa Mittnik on the genetic analyses and Corina Knipper explains, “Based on analysis of strontium isotope ratios in molars, which allows us to draw conclusions about the origin of people, we were able to ascertain that the majority of women did not originate from the region.” The burials of the women did not differ from that of the native population, indicating that the formerly foreign women were integrated into the local community. From an archaeological point of view, the new insights prove the importance of female mobility for cultural exchange in the Bronze Age. They also allow us to view the immense extent of early human mobility in a new light. “It appears that at least part of what was previously believed to be migration by groups is based on an institutionalized form of individual mobility,” declares Stockhammer.” ref
“Bronze is the defining metal of the European Bronze Age and has been at the center of archaeological and science-based research for well over a century. Archaeometallurgical studies have largely focused on determining the geological origin of the constituent metals, copper and tin, and their movement from producer to consumer sites. More recently, the effects of recycling, both temporal and spatial, on the composition of the circulating metal stock have received much attention. Also, discussions of the value and perception of bronze, both as individual objects and as hoarded material, continue to be the focus of scholarly debate. Here, we bring together the sometimes-diverging views of several research groups on these topics in an attempt to find common ground and set out the major directions of the debate, for the benefit of future research. The paper discusses how to determine and interpret the geological provenance of new metal entering the system; the circulation of extant metal across time and space, and how this is seen in changing compositional signatures; and some economic aspects of metal production. These include the role of metal-producing communities within larger economic settings, quantifying the amount of metal present at any one time within a society, and aspects of hoarding, a distinctive European phenomenon that is less prevalent in the Middle Eastern and Asian Bronze Age societies.” ref
Bronze Age bling!
“Was ‘Pompeii of the Fens’ a hub of international trade? Axes, textiles, and rings at 3,000-year-old settlement reveal treasures from the Middle East. Final finds from a 10-month excavation of the site in Cambridgeshire provide a rare glimpse into Bronze Age life. Artifacts from the site include bowls containing intact food, textiles, wild animal remains as well as weapons. Researchers say there are signs of how houses were constructed, what goods people had, and what they ate. The boggy marshland and waterways around Cambridgeshire were once home to a bustling, wealthy Bronze Age community, in what has become known as the ‘Pompeii of the Fens’, say archaeologists. While the community was destroyed in a fire 800-1,000 years ago, sinking beneath the water and into the thick mud, a 10-month excavation at the site has revealed phenomenal details of what life was like in Bronze Age Britain almost 3,000 years ago. Finds at the site give a sense of daily life, including how houses were constructed, what household goods the inhabitants had, what they ate, and how their clothes were made. But the findings also suggest the community had several international goods, from both Europe and the Middle East.” ref
“The team believes the buildings were set ablaze nearly a century after they were first built but have yet to discover if the fire was set deliberately or was an accident. They say it is possible the fire may have been started carried out by attackers +11. At least five houses were found at the Must Farm settlement, each one built very closely together for a small community of people. Archaeologists have spent 10 months excavating at least five ancient circular wooden houses that had been built on stilts in the East Anglian fens. The team working at the site, known as ‘Must Farm’ at Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire, has uncovered a collection of Bronze Age fabrics and one of the largest collections of Bronze Age glass ever found in Britain.” ref
“Known as Pompeii of the Fens, the Cambridgeshire site is the best-preserved Bronze Age settlement ever excavated in Britain, and is believed to have been destroyed by a major fire that caused the dwellings to collapse into a river. However, the river acted in a beneficial way, preserving many of the artifacts which would otherwise have been destroyed in the fire. Evidence, including tree-ring analysis of the oak structures, suggests that at the time of the fire, the structures were still new and had only been lived in for a few months, despite being well-equipped with household goods. Duncan Wilson, chief executive of Historic England, who joint-funded the excavation, said: ‘Over the past 10 months, Must Farm has given us an extraordinary window into how people lived 3,000 years ago.” ref
‘Now we know what this small but wealthy Bronze Age community ate, how they made their homes, and where they traded. ‘This has transformed our knowledge of Bronze Age Britain, and there is more to come as we enter a post-excavation phase of research.’ At least five houses were found at the Must Farm settlement, each one built very closely together for a small community of people. Every house seems to have been planned in the same way, with an area for storing meat and another area for cooking or preparing food. The roundhouses were built on stilts above a small river, with conical roofs built of long wooden rafters covered in turf, clay, and thatch, and floors and walls made of wickerwork.” ref
“Within the houses, a huge array of household goods were found, including complete sets of pots – some with food still inside – wooden buckets and platters, decorative textiles, tweezers and loom weights. Amazingly, it also seems that the settlers engaged in international trade, as suggested by the finding of decorative beads made from glass, jet, and amber from the Mediterranean Basin and the Middle East. These findings suggest a materialism and sophistication never before seen in a British Bronze Age settlement. Many of the objects were still relatively pristine which suggests that they had only been used for a very short time before the settlement was engulfed by fire. While it was previously known that textiles were common in the Bronze Age, it is very rare for them to survive today. However, the excavators found a range of textiles on site, including balls of thread, twining, and bundles of plant fibres, as well as loom weights which were used to weave threads together.” ref
“The findings also give us clues into what people ate in the Bronze Age. Wild animal remains found in rubbish dumps outside the houses show they were eating wild boar, red deer, and freshwater fish such as pike. Additionally, inside the houses themselves, the remains of young lambs and calves were found, revealing a mixed diet. Plants and cereals were also an important part of the Bronze Age diet and the remains of porridge-type foods were found preserved in amazing detail, sometimes still inside the bowls they were served in. Speaking about the findings, David Gibson, archaeological manager at the Cambridge Archaeological Unit at the University of Cambridge, said: ‘The exceptional site of Must Farm allows you visit in exquisite detail everyday life in the Bronze Age. ‘Domestic activity within structures is demonstrated from clothing to household objects, to furniture and diet.’ The excavation has now come to a close, but the archaeological findings may soon be displayed for the public.” ref
Bronze Age beads in Denmark are traced to EGYPT: Ancient Nordic jewelry matches the material used in Tutankhamun’s death mask
“Blue beads unearthed in an ancient Ølby grave, south of Copenhagen. They match material from Amarna in Egypt and Nippur in Mesopotamia. This suggests Egyptian glass was traded with amber 3,400 years ago. It also links the Egyptian sun cult with a Bronze Age Danish sun cult. Both civilizations valued material as the sun could penetrate its surface. Bronze Age beads found in Ølby, Denmark match the blue glass inlays found in Tutankhamun’s gold death mask, scientists claim. The discovery hints at some of the trade routes between Denmark and the ancient civilizations in Egypt and Mesopotamia 3,400 years ago. It also provides new details that could link the Egyptian cult of worshiping the sun with a similar sun cult that developed at the same time in Denmark. Twenty-three blue beads unearthed in an Ølby grave, south of Copenhagen, were analyzed using a technique known as plasma-spectrometry, according to a report in Science Nordic. The method allowed researchers to analyze the fragile bead and compare the chemical composition of trace elements with material from Amarna in Egypt and Nippur in Mesopotamia. The comparison showed that the chemicals matched exactly, marking the first time that Bronze Age Egyptian and Middle Eastern cobalt glass has been found outside the Mediterranean area. The blue beads were found in the grave of what is thought to have been a wealthy lady who lay in a hollowed-out oak trunk, wearing an overarm bracelet made of amber beads and other jewelry.” ref
4,000-year-old Bronze Age beads, and worth their weight in gold
“If you dug these up in your garden, you probably wouldn’t think twice about throwing them away. But the unassuming objects are 4,000-year-old Bronze Age beads and worth their weight in gold. Unearthed from a prehistoric burial chest on Dartmoor last year, they were heralded as one of the most significant historical finds in more than a century. Jane Marchand, the senior archaeologist from Dartmoor National Park, described the haul as one of the most important discoveries since the 19th century. She said: ‘The amber beads probably came from the Baltic – and meant they were long-distance trading 4,000 years ago. ‘These artifacts show Dartmoor wasn’t the isolated, hard-to-reach place we thought it was. This mystery is unfolding. ‘This has been fascinating to work on, but it’s just one piece in a puzzle. The story is only part-told.'” ref
“Scientists believe most of the beads were Mesopotamian and made from melted quartz sand and ash from Tigris river grass. Two of them came from Egypt. Previous studies had already shown that Bronze Age amber was exported from Nordic areas to Egypt, with Tutankhamun and other pharaohs burial chambers containing the material. Researchers from the National Museum in Denmark and the Institute of Archaeomaterials Research in France say the latest study shows that as well as amber, Denmark and Egypt traded glass 3,400 years ago. They also believe it links two ancient sun cults, based on the fact that sunlight is able to penetrate the surface of both amber and glass. The study claims that burying amber and glass may have constituted as a prayer to the sun, to ensure that the dead body would share its fate with the sun on an eternal journey.” ref
Ancient Egyptian Trade Routes
The ancient Egyptians most oftentimes visited the countries along the Mediterranean Sea and the Upper Nile River to the south because they were immediately connected to Egypt and contained materials that the Egyptians desired. At several times in their history, the ancient Egyptians set up trade paths to Cyprus, Crete, Greece, Syro-Palestine, Punt, and Nubia. Egyptian records as early as the Predynastic Period list some tokens that were worked into Egypt, taking leopard peels, giraffe tails, monkeys or baboons, cattle, ivory, ostrich plumes and eggs, and gold. Punt (whose location is variable) was a major source for incense, while Syro-Palestine provided cedar, oils and salves, and horses. Land travel was longitudinal and dangerous because of contingent attacks by nomadic peoples. Donkeys were the only transport and throng animals used by the Egyptians until horses were brought to Egypt in Dynasty XVIII (1539-1295 B.C.). Horses were valuable and used only for sitting or for pulling chariots. The domesticated camel was not enclosed in Egypt until after 500 BCE or around 2,520 years ago.” ref
Ancient Egyptian trade
“Ancient Egyptian trade consisted of the gradual creation of land and sea trade routes connecting the ancient Egyptian civilization with the ancient India, Fertile Crescent, Arabia, and Sub-Saharan Africa.” ref
Prehistoric transport and trade
“Epipaleolithic Natufians carried parthenocarpic figs from Africa to the southeastern corner of the Fertile Crescent, c. 10,000 BCE or 12,020 years ago. Later 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. 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.” ref
“By the 4th millennium BCE or around 6,020 to 5,020 years ago, 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.” ref
By the second half of the 4th millennium BCE, the gemstone lapis lazuli was being traded from its only known source in the ancient world—Badakhshan, in what is now northeastern Afghanistan—as far as Mesopotamia and Egypt. By the 3rd millennium BCE, the lapis lazuli trade was extended to Harappa, Lothal, and Mohenjo-daro in the Indus Valley Civilization of modern-day Pakistan and northwestern India. The Indus Valley was also known as Meluhha, the earliest maritime trading partner of the Sumerians and Akkadians in Mesopotamia. The ancient harbor constructed in Lothal, India, around 2400 BCE or 4,420 years ago is the oldest seafaring harbor known.” ref
Trans-Saharan trade
“The overland route through the Wadi Hammamat from the Nile to the Red Sea was known as early as predynastic times; drawings depicting Egyptian reed boats have been found along the path dating to 4000 BCE or 6,020 years ago. Ancient cities dating to the First Dynasty of Egypt arose along both its Nile and Red Sea junctions, testifying to the route’s ancient popularity. It became a major route from Thebes to the Red Sea port of Elim, where travelers then moved on to either Asia, Arabia, or the Horn of Africa. Records exist documenting knowledge of the route among Senusret I, Seti, Ramesses IV, and also, later, the Roman Empire, especially for mining. The Darb el-Arbain trade route, passing through Kharga in the south and Asyut in the north, was used from as early as the Old Kingdom of Egypt for the transport and trade of gold, ivory, spices, wheat, animals, and plants. Later, Ancient Romans would protect the route by lining it with varied forts and small outposts, some guarding large settlements complete with cultivation. Described by Herodotus as a road “traversed … in forty days,” it became by his time an important land route facilitating trade between Nubia and Egypt. Its maximum extent was northward from Kobbei, 25 miles north of al-Fashir, passing through the desert, through Bir Natrum and Wadi Howar, and ending in Egypt.” ref
Maritime trade
“Shipbuilding was known to the Ancient Egyptians as early as 3000 BCE 5,020 years ago, and perhaps earlier. Ancient Egyptians knew how to assemble planks of wood into a ship hull, with woven straps used to lash the planks together, and reeds or grass stuffed between the planks helped to seal the seams. The Archaeological Institute of America reports that the earliest dated ship—75 feet long, dating to 3000 BCE—may have possibly belonged to Pharaoh Aha. An Egyptian colony stationed in southern Canaan dates to slightly before the First Dynasty. Narmer had Egyptian pottery produced in Canaan—with his name stamped on vessels—and exported back to Egypt, from regions such as Arad, En Besor, Rafiah, and Tel Erani. In 1994, excavators discovered an incised ceramic shard with the serekh sign of Narmer, dating to c. 3000 BCE. Mineralogical studies reveal the shard to be a fragment of a wine jar exported from the Nile valley to Palestine. Due to Egypt’s climate, wine was very rare and nearly impossible to produce within the limits of Egypt. In order to obtain wine, Egyptians had to import it from Greece, Phoenicia, and Palestine. These early friendships played a key role in Egypt’s ability to conduct trade and acquire goods that were needed.” ref
“The Palermo stone mentions King Sneferu of the Fourth Dynasty sending ships to import high-quality cedar from Lebanon. In one scene in the pyramid of Pharaoh Sahure of the Fifth Dynasty, Egyptians are returning with huge cedar trees. Sahure’s name is found stamped on a thin piece of gold on a Lebanon chair, and 5th dynasty cartouches were found in Lebanon stone vessels. Other scenes in his temple depict Syrian bears. The Palermo stone also mentions expeditions to Sinai as well as to the diorite quarries northwest of Abu Simbel. The oldest known expedition to the Land of Punt was organized by Sahure, which apparently yielded a quantity of myrrh, along with malachite and electrum. Around 1950 BCE, in the reign of Mentuhotep III, an officer named Hennu made one or more voyages to Punt. In the 15th century BCE, Nehsi conducted a very famous expedition for Queen Hatshepsut to obtain myrrh; a report of that voyage survives on a relief in Hatshepsut’s funerary temple at Deir el-Bahri. Several of her successors, including Thutmoses III, also organized expeditions to Punt.” ref
Canal construction: Canal of the Pharaohs
“The legendary Sesostris (likely either Pharaoh Senusret II or Senusret III of the Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt) is said to have started work on an ancient “Suez” Canal joining the River Nile with the Red Sea. This ancient account is corroborated by Aristotle, Pliny the Elder, and Strabo. One of their kings tried to make a canal to it (for it would have been of no little advantage to them for the whole region to have become navigable; Sesostris is said to have been the first of the ancient kings to try), but he found that the sea was higher than the land. So he first, and Darius afterwards, stopped making the canal, lest the sea should mix with the river water and spoil it. 165. Next comes the Tyro tribe and, on the Red Sea, the harbor of the Daneoi, from which Sesostris, king of Egypt, intended to carry a ship-canal to where the Nile flows into what is known as the Delta; this is a distance of over 60 miles. Later the Persian king Darius had the same idea, and yet again Ptolemy II, who made a trench 100 feet wide, 30 feet deep, and about 35 miles long, as far as the Bitter Lakes.” ref
“Remnants of an ancient west-east canal, running through the ancient Egyptian cities of Bubastis, Pi-Ramesses, and Pithom were discovered by Napoleon Bonaparte and his cadre of engineers and cartographers in 1799. Other evidence seems to indicate the existence of an ancient canal around the 13th century BC, during the time of Ramesses II. Later construction efforts continued during the reigns of Necho II, Darius I of Persia, and Ptolemy II Philadelphus. Psammetichus left a son called Necos, who succeeded him upon the throne. This prince was the first to attempt the construction of the canal to the Red Sea—a work completed afterwards by Darius the Persian—the length of which is four days’ journey, and the width is such as to admit of two triremes being rowed along it abreast. The water is derived from the Nile, which the canal leaves a little above the city of Bubastis, near Patumus, the Arabian town, being continued thence until it joins the Red Sea.” ref
“This [the canal from the Nile to the Red Sea] was begun by Necho II [610 to 595 BCE or 2,630 to 2,615 years ago], and completed by Darius I, who set up stelae c. 490 BCE 2,420 years ago, … and later restored by Ptolemy II Philadelphus, Trajan and Hadrian, and Amr ibn el-‘Asi, the Muslim conqueror of Egypt. Its length from Tell el-Maskhuta to Suez was about 85 km (52.82 mi). Shipping over the Nile River and from Old Cairo and through Suez continued further through the efforts of either ‘Amr ibn al-‘As, Omar the Great, or Trajan. The Abbasid Caliph al-Mansur is said to have ordered this ancient canal closed so as to prevent supplies from reaching Arabian detractors.” ref
Bronze Age India
“The Bronze Age in the Indian subcontinent begins around 3000 BCE, and in the end gives rise to the Indus Valley Civilization, which had its (mature) period between 2600 BCE and 1900 BCE. It continues into the Rigvedic period, the early part of the Vedic period. It is succeeded by the Iron Age in India, beginning in around 1000 BCE. South India, by contrast, remains in the Mesolithic stage until about 2500 BCE. In the 2nd millennium BCE, there may have been cultural contact between North and South India, even though South India skips a Bronze Age proper and enters the Iron Age from the Chalcolithic stage directly. In February 2006, a school teacher in the village of Sembian-Kandiyur in Tamil Nadu discovered a stone celt with an inscription estimated to be up to 3,500 years old. Indian epigraphist Iravatham Mahadevan postulated that the writing was in Indus script and called the find “the greatest archaeological discovery of a century in Tamil Nadu”. Based on this evidence he goes on to suggest that the language used in the Indus Valley was of Tamizh (Tamil) origin. However, the absence of a Bronze Age in South India, contrasted with the knowledge of bronze making techniques in the Indus Valley cultures, questions the validity of this hypothesis.” ref
Karni Mata (rat) Temple
“Karni Mata Temple is a Hindu temple dedicated to Karni Mata at Deshnoke, 30 km from Bikaner, in Rajasthan, India. It is also known as the Temple of Rats. The temple is famous for the approximately 25,000 black rats that live, and are revered, in the temple. These holy rats are called kabbas, and many people travel great distances to pay their respects. The temple draws visitors from across the country for blessings, as well as curious tourists from around the world.” ref
The legend
“Legend has it that Laxman, son of Karni mata, drowned in a pond in Kapil Sarovar in Kolayat Tehsil while he was attempting to drink from it. Karni Mata implored Yama, the god of death, to revive him. First refusing, Yama eventually relented, permitting Laxman and all of Karni Mata’s male children to be reincarnated as rats. Eating food that has been nibbled on by the rats is considered to be a “high honor”. If one of them is killed, it must be replaced with another one made of solid silver.” ref
Ancient Mouse or Rat Traps
“Guimet identifies a rat trap, one of two similar ones found at the site. The sliding door on the left would have let a rat or perhaps another creature like a mouse in. Similar objects were found at Mohenjo-daro, also of terracotta; Mackay describes a similar one from there as “made on a wheel from the usual clay, with an admixture of lime and mica and it was cut off from it with a strong in the usual way, the edge of its open end showing clearly the marks left by the cord. The base was then flattened to prevent it from rolling; and holes were drilled in various parts of it after it had been baked” (E.J.H. Mackay, Further Excavations at Mohenjodaro: Being an Official Account of Archaeological Excavations at Mohenjo-daro). The holes seen here on the sides and top of the door were presumably used to lower a door, perhaps as part of a trap that drew the rat or mouse in (see Image 2 as Casal envisaged the trap working), as seen in other examples from ancient Iran and Egypt (D.C. Drummond, Pottery Rodent Traps A Preliminary List). E. Cortesi, M. Tosi, A. Lazzari, and M. Vidale see this in a similar light: “Two pottery mouse traps found at Mohenjo-Daro, in relatively recent occupation layers, can only be compared with two similar devices found at Mundigak, Period IV, 1 and one from Bampur. The technical principles of the traps found in the two protohistoric cities (Image 2) might have been different, perhaps involving the use of a knot at Mohenjo-Daro against a downward sliding pottery lid at Mundigak. Nonetheless, the overall similarity of the ceramic containers suggests a parallel adaptation, based upon shared know-how, for coping with common problems of rodent infestations in the “domestic universes” of the two civilizations. The specimens from Mundigak might be several centuries older than the Mohenjo-Daro ones, suggesting that such an adaptation was as widespread in time as in space.” (Cultural Relationships Beyond the Iranian Plateau: The Helmand Civilization, Baluchistan and the Indus Valley in the 3rd Millennium BCE).” ref
India and the Rat
“The rat is the centerpiece of a festival menu in one part of northern India, where the Adi tribe celebrates a holiday each year by feasting on a special rat stew. Found in the southern Himilayas, this stew is something that the people there love but that people in other parts of the world might struggle to consume. It contains many rat parts boiled in a big pot and includes the liver, stomach, testes, intestines, fetuses, legs, and tails. Ginger, salt, and chili are added for flavoring. Additionally, rat meat is part of their regular diet as brown rats, house mice or any small rodents they can trap are consumed regularly and roasted or smoked. People in this part of India claim this stew, and rat meat, in general, is some of the tastiest food one could imagine. They don’t eat it because they have to, they eat it because they want to. Apart from the festival time rat is also consumed by the Adis and by people in many parts of India as a good source of protein.” ref
“Rat is a common food in many places in the world and many Asian countries in particular. One reason for this is because they are plentiful and generally easy to come by, so they make a good source of protein for people of all economic levels. A specific reason for their popularity in Asia stems from the rat’s affection for rice. Rice is a mainstay food staple in a vast majority of east and southeast Asian countries, it is also grown agriculturally in large quantities. Rats love to get into the rice fields and eat as much as they can. This diet of rice and a relatively clean environment makes these rodents reasonably wholesome and safe to eat. According to many who eat them, this also makes them plump, tender, and delicious. The problem with buying rat meat from the market is that there is no way to tell just where it may have come from. It might be a nice, chubby rat from a clean rice field, but it might also be a rat that has grown fat on garbage while living in city sewers. It is up to the customer to try to determine just what they’re buying. So what countries eat rats? There are more than you would think as it is a viable and plentiful food source in places where a supermarket might not be right around the corner.” ref
Rat meat
“Rat meat is the meat of various species of rat: medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. It is a food that, while taboo in some cultures, is a dietary staple in others. Taboos include fears of disease or religious prohibition, but in many places, the high number of rats has led to their incorporation into the local diets. In some cultures, rats are or have been limited as an acceptable form of food to a particular social or economic class. In the Mishmi culture of India, rats are essential to the traditional diet, as Mishmi women may eat no meat except fish, pork, wild birds, and rats. Conversely, the Musahar community in north India has commercialized rat farming as an exotic delicacy. Ricefield rat (Rattus argentiventer) meat is eaten in Vietnamese, Taiwanese, Filipino, Cambodian, and Spanish cuisine. Rat-on-a-stick is a roasted rat dish consumed in Vietnam and Cambodia. Aborigines along the coast in southern Queensland, Australia, regularly included rats in their diet. A 2020 study on wildlife trade in three southern Vietnamese provinces found that 55 percent of the field rats sold in tested restaurants were carrying a coronavirus.” ref
Sacred Cattle
“Cattle are considered sacred in world religions such as Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and others. Cattle played other major roles in many religions, including those of ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, ancient Israel, ancient Rome, and ancient Germany.” ref
In Indian religions
“Legislation against cattle slaughter is in place throughout most states of India except Kerala, West Bengal, and parts of the North-East.” ref
Hinduism
If anybody said that I should die if I did not take beef tea or mutton, even on medical advice, I would prefer death. That is the basis of my vegetarianism. — Mahatma Gandhi, to the London Vegetarian Society on 20 November 1931. Respect for the lives of animals including cattle, diet in Hinduism, and vegetarianism in India are based on the Hindu ethics. The Hindu ethics are driven by the core concept of Ahimsa, i.e. non-violence towards all beings, as mentioned in the Chandogya Upanishad (~ 800 BCE or 2820 years ago). By mid 1st millennium BCE, all three major religions – Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism were championing non-violence as an ethical value, and something that impacted one’s rebirth. According to Harris, by about 200 CE, food and feasting on animal slaughter were widely considered as a form of violence against life forms, and became a religious and social taboo. India, which has 79.80% Hindu population as of (2011 census), had the lowest rate of meat consumption in the world according to the 2007 UN FAO statistics, and India has more vegetarians than the rest of the world put together.
Vegetarianism in ancient India
“India is a strange country. People do not kill any living creatures, do not keep pigs and fowl, and do not sell live cattle. —Faxian, 4th/5th century CE Chinese pilgrim to India. According to Ludwig Alsdorf, “Indian vegetarianism is unequivocally based on ahimsa (non-violence)” as evidenced by ancient smritis and other ancient texts of Hinduism.” He adds that the endearment and respect for cattle in Hinduism is more than a commitment to vegetarianism and has become integral to its theology. The respect for cattle is widespread but not universal. According to Christopher Fuller, animal sacrifices have been rare among the Hindus outside a few eastern states. To the majority of modern Indians, states Alsdorf, respect for cattle and disrespect for slaughter is a part of their ethos and there is “no ahimsa without renunciation of meat consumption”. Several scholars explain the veneration for cows among Hindus in economic terms, including the importance of dairy in the diet, the use of cow dung as fuel and fertilizer, and the importance that cattle have historically played in agriculture. Ancient texts such as Rig Veda, Puranas highlight the importance of cattle. The scope, extent, and status of cows throughout ancient India is a subject of debate. According to D. N. Jha, cattle, including cows, were neither inviolable nor as revered in ancient times as they were later. A Gryhasutra recommends that beef be eaten by the mourners after a funeral ceremony as a ritual rite of passage. In contrast, according to Marvin Harris, the Vedic literature is contradictory, with some suggesting ritual slaughter and meat consumption, while others suggesting a taboo on meat-eating.” ref
Sacred status of cow
“Many ancient and medieval Hindu texts debate the rationale for a voluntary stop to cow slaughter and the pursuit of vegetarianism as a part of a general abstention from violence against others and all killing of animals. The interdiction of the meat of the bounteous cow as food was regarded as the first step to total vegetarianism. Dairy cows are called aghnya “that which may not be slaughtered” in Rigveda. Yaska, the early commentator of the Rigveda, gives nine names for cow, the first being “aghnya”. According to Harris, the literature relating to cow veneration became common in 1st millennium CE, and by about 1000 CE vegetarianism, along with a taboo against beef, became a well accepted mainstream Hindu tradition. This practice was inspired by the beliefs in Hinduism that a soul is present in all living beings, life in all its forms is interconnected, and non-violence towards all creatures is the highest ethical value. Vegetarianism is a part of the Hindu culture. The god Krishna and his Yadav kinsmen are associated with cows, adding to its endearment. According to Nanditha Krishna the cow veneration in ancient India during the Vedic era, the religious texts written during this period called for non-violence towards all bipeds and quadrupeds, and often equated killing of a cow with the killing of a human being specifically a Brahmin. Nanditha Krishna stated that the hymn 8.3.25 of the Hindu scripture Atharvaveda (~1200–1500 BCE) condemns all killings of men, cattle, and horses, and prays to god Agni to punish those who kill.” ref
“Prithu chasing Prithvi, who is in the form of a cow. Prithu milked the cow to generate crops for humans. In Puranas, which are part of the Hindu texts, the earth-goddess Prithvi was in the form of a cow, successively milked of beneficent substances for the benefit of humans, by deities starting with the first sovereign: Prithu milked the cow to generate crops for humans to end a famine.[23] Kamadhenu, the miraculous “cow of plenty” and the “mother of cows” in certain versions of the Hindu mythology, is believed to represent the generic sacred cow, regarded as the source of all prosperity. In the 19th century, a form of Kamadhenu was depicted in poster-art that depicted all major gods and goddesses in it. Govatsa Dwadashi which marks the first day of Diwali celebrations, is the main festival connected to the veneration and worship of cows as chief source of livelihood and religious sanctity in India, wherein the symbolism of motherhood is most apparent with the sacred cows Kamadhenu and her daughter Nandini.” ref
4,620-3,920 years old Indus Valley Seal with a Zebu Bull
“A zebu, sometimes known as indicine cattle or humped cattle, is a species or subspecies of domestic cattle originating in South Asia. Zebu are characterized by a fatty hump on their shoulders, a large dewlap, and sometimes drooping ears. They are well adapted to withstanding high temperatures, and are farmed throughout the tropical countries, both as pure zebu and as hybrids with taurine cattle, the other main type of domestic cattle. Zebu are used as draught and riding animals, dairy cattle, and beef cattle, as well as for byproducts such as hides and dung for fuel and manure. Zebu, namely miniature zebu, are kept as companion animals. In 1999, researchers at Texas A&M University successfully cloned a zebu. The scientific name of zebu cattle was originally Bos indicus, but they are now more commonly classified within the species Bos taurus as B. t. indicus, together with taurine cattle (B. t. taurus) and the extinct ancestor of both of them, the aurochs (B. primigenius). Taurine (“European”) cattle are descended from the Eurasian aurochs, while zebu are descended from the Indian aurochs. “Zebu” may be either singular or plural, but “zebus” is also an acceptable plural form. The Spanish name, cebu or cebú, is also present in a few English works.” ref
“Zebu cattle are thought to be derived from Indian aurochs, sometimes regarded as a subspecies, B. p. namadicus. Wild Asian aurochs disappeared during the time of the Indus Valley Civilisation from its range in the Indus River basin and other parts of the South Asian region possibly due to interbreeding with domestic zebu and resultant fragmentation of wild populations due to loss of habitat. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that all the zebu Y-chromosome haplotypes groups are found in three different lineages: Y3A, the most predominant and cosmopolitan lineage; Y3B, only observed in West Africa; and Y3C, predominant in South and Northeast India. Archaeological evidence including depictions on pottery and rocks suggests that the species was present in Egypt around 2000 BC and thought to be imported from the Near East or south. Bos indicus is believed to have first appeared in sub-Saharan Africa between 700 and 1500 and was introduced to the Horn of Africa around 1000.” ref
“Some 75 breeds of zebu are known, split about evenly between African breeds and Indian ones. The major zebu cattle breeds of the world include Gyr, Kankrej and Guzerat, Indo-Brazilian, Brahman, Sibi Bhagnari, White Nukra[7], Acchai[8], Cholistani, Dhanni, Lohani, Nelore, Ongole, Sahiwal, Red Sindhi, Butana and Kenana, Baggara, Tharparkar, Kangayam, Southern Yellow, Kedah-Kelantan and Local Indian Dairy (LID). Kedah-Kelantan and LID originated from Malaysia. Other breeds of zebu are quite local, like the Hariana of Haryana and eastern Punjab[9] or the Rath of Alwar in eastern Rajasthan. From the 1960s onwards, Nelore which is a off breed of Ongole Cattle became the primary breed of cattle in Brazil because of its hardiness, heat-resistance, and because it thrives on poor-quality forage and breeds easily, with the calves rarely requiring human intervention to survive. Currently more than 80% of beef cattle in Brazil (approximately 167,000,000 animals) are either purebred or hybrid Ongole Cattle which is originated from Ongle region of Andhra Pradesh.” ref
“The African sanga cattle breeds originated from hybridization of zebu with indigenous African humpless cattle; they include the Afrikaner, Red Fulani, Ankole-Watusi, Boran, and many other breeds of central and southern Africa. Sanga cattle can be distinguished from pure zebu by their having smaller humps located farther forward on the animals. Zebu were imported to Africa over many hundreds of years, and interbred with taurine cattle there. Genetic analysis of African cattle has found higher concentrations of zebu genes all along the east coast of Africa, with especially pure cattle on the island of Madagascar, either implying that the method of dispersal was cattle transported by ship or alternatively, the zebu may have reached East Africa via the coastal route (Pakistan, Iran, Southern Arabian coast) much earlier and crossed over to Madagascar. Partial resistance to rinderpest led to another increase in the frequency of zebu in Africa.” ref
Zebu, which can tolerate extreme heat, were imported into Brazil in the early 20th century. Their importation marked a change in cattle ranching in Brazil, where feral cattle had grazed freely on extensive pasturage, and bred without animal husbandry. Zebu were considered “ecological” since they could graze on natural grasses and their meat was lean and without chemical residues. Zebu crossbred with Charolais cattle, a European taurine breed. The resulting breed, 63% Charolais and 37% zebu, is called the Canchim. It has a better meat quality than the zebu and better heat resistance than European cattle. The zebu breeds used were primarily Indo-Brazilian with some Nelore and Guzerat. Another Charolais cross-breed with Brahmans is called Australian Charbray and is recognized as a breed in some countries. Many breeds are complex mixtures of the zebu and various taurine types, and some also have yak, gaur, or banteng genes.[citation needed] Zebu are very common in much of Asia, including China, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, and almost all countries in Southeast Asia. In Asia, taurine cattle are only found in the northern regions such as Japan, Korea, and Mongolia, possibly domesticated separately from the other taurine cattle originating from Europe and Africa). Other species of cattle domesticated in parts of Asia include yak, gaur, banteng, and water buffalo.” ref
Archaeologists uncover treasure-filled ‘princely’ tombs in Greece
“Archaeologists in Greece have discovered two “princely” Bronze Age tombs containing engraved gold jewelry and other artifacts. The discovery of the beehive-shaped tombs, which date from 3,500 years ago, sheds new light on life in ancient Greece, the team behind the excavation said. Archaeologists from the University of Cincinnati (UC) announced their findings at the site in Pylos, southwestern Greece, in Athens on Tuesday. During an 18-month excavation, the archaeologists unearthed objects such as a gold ring engraved with two bulls surrounded by sheaves of grain, as well as a gold pendant depicting an Egyptian goddess who protected the dead. The ring’s engraving is “an interesting scene of animal husbandry — cattle mixed with grain production. It’s the foundation of agriculture,” said Jack Davis, head of the classics department at UC. “As far as we know, it’s the only representation of grain in the art of Crete or Minoan civilization.” ref
“The archaeologists discovered two Bronze Age tombs near the grave of the “Griffin Warrior” in Pylos, Greece. The wealth and status of the tombs’ occupants is also shown by flakes of gold, found on the floor, which would have once covered the walls. Davis and fellow UC archaeologist Sharon Stocker first found the tombs last year while investigating an area around the grave of the “Griffin Warrior,” which they uncovered back in 2015. The “Griffin Warrior” is named after the mythological animal – half-eagle, half-lion – engraved on an ivory plaque discovered in the grave alongside gold jewelry, armor, and weaponry. Davis said that early into the more recent excavation it “became clear…that lightning had struck again.” Speaking about the importance of their latest findings, Davis said: “It has been 50 years since any substantial tombs of this sort have been found at any Bronze Age palatial site. That makes this extraordinary.” The tombs also contained amber and amethyst from the Baltic and Egypt, respectively, showing that Pylos was an “important place on the Bronze Age trade route,” according to Stocker, who supervised the excavation.” ref
“The site was difficult to excavate because of the need to remove an estimated 40,000 stones, caused by the collapse of the tombs’ domes in antiquity – a factor that helped to protect it from looters, according to a statement from the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports. Stocker said the excavation “was like going back to the Mycenaean Period,” the era from which the tombs date. The team from UC used photogrammetry and digital mapping to help document and locate the objects in the tomb. The tombs lie close to the Palace of Nestor – named after the Greek king mentioned in Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey” – which was discovered in 1939 by Carl Blegen, a classics professor at UC. Blegen had wanted to continue his work in the field where the princely tombs were found, but he was unable to gain permission from the property owner at the time. This plot was acquired by the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports in 2018 and made available for excavation, according to a statement from the ministry.” ref
The ancient Greek masterpiece etched on a tiny gemstone
“A miniature gemstone discovered in a 3,500-year-old tomb is challenging our understanding of ancient Greek art. Now, nearly three years after it was originally discovered, experts are still trying to fathom how it was crafted. The limestone-encrusted gem was one of 1,400 treasures found buried alongside a mysterious Bronze Age man – dubbed the Griffin Warrior – in Pylos, southwest Greece. Husband-and-wife team Jack Davis and Sharon Stocker from the University of Cincinnati led the excavation near the ancient Palace of Nestor – a site mentioned in Homer’s epic poems – in 2015. Today experts are still poring over the jewels, weapons, and armor, searching for clues about the ancient world at the dawn of European civilization. One tiny object measuring just 3.6 centimeters (1.4 inches) was initially overlooked and mistaken for a bead. But, beneath the limestone was a meticulously carved gemstone, now considered one of the greatest prehistoric Greek artworks ever discovered. It is so tiny that a microscope is needed to fully appreciate the mastery of the engraving, as some details are just half a millimeter (0.0197 inches) in size. However, no such magnifying tool is known to have existed in the ancient Greek world. “The amount of skill that was required to execute such an intricate design on such a small surface is unbelievable,” Stocker states. It shows a detailed understanding of the human body and movement which, until now, was thought far beyond the ability of Bronze Age artisans, she says.” ref
Devil in the detail
This particular gem – called the Pylos Combat Agate – is one of 11,000 known sealstones from the Minoan and Mycenean civilizations (2,600 – 1,100 B.C.). Sealstones could be stamped into clay or wax as a means of marking identity. Some were even attached to bands and worn as bracelets. “They’re used to mark ownership in what is not totally a preliterate society, but not a fully literate society,” Davis states. The Pylos Combat Agate depicts a dramatic scene of a near-naked warrior driving a sword into his opponent, while a third warrior lies on the ground. “We think it references some narrative that was circulating in this period,” says Davis. “It evokes Homer to us,” adds Stocker, referring to his epic works “Iliad” and “Odyssey,” which scholars believe were written down in the 8th century B.C. – hundreds of years after the sealstone was crafted. While it is impossible know for sure, one theory presented by scholars speculates that the warrior image stems from earlier oral versions of Homer’s works, explains Davis.” ref
Amber
“Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects. Amber is used in jewelry. It has also been used as a healing agent in folk medicine. There are five classes of amber, defined on the basis of their chemical constituents. Because it originates as a soft, sticky tree resin, amber sometimes contains animal and plant material as inclusions. Amber occurring in coal seams is also called resinite, and the term ambrite is applied to that found specifically within New Zealand coal seams. The classical names for amber, Latin electrum and Ancient Greek ἤλεκτρον (ēlektron), are connected to a term ἠλέκτωρ (ēlektōr) meaning “beaming Sun“. According to myth, when Phaëton son of Helios (the Sun) was killed, his mourning sisters became poplar trees, and their tears became elektron, amber. The word elektron gave rise to the words electric, electricity, and their relatives because of amber’s ability to bear a charge of static electricity.” ref
“Theophrastus discussed amber in the 4th century BCE, as did Pytheas (c. 330 BCE), whose work “On the Ocean” is lost, but was referenced by Pliny the Elder (23 to 79 CE), according to whose The Natural History (in what is also the earliest known mention of the name Germania):
Pytheas says that the Gutones, a people of Germany, inhabit the shores of an estuary of the Ocean called Mentonomon, their territory extending a distance of six thousand stadia; that, at one day’s sail from this territory, is the Isle of Abalus, upon the shores of which, amber is thrown up by the waves in spring, it being an excretion of the sea in a concrete form; as, also, that the inhabitants use this amber by way of fuel, and sell it to their neighbors, the Teutones.” ref
“Earlier Pliny says that Pytheas refers to a large island—three days’ sail from the Scythian coast and called Balcia by Xenophon of Lampsacus (author of a fanciful travel book in Greek)—as Basilia—a name generally equated with Abalus. Given the presence of amber, the island could have been Heligoland, Zealand, the shores of Bay of Gdańsk, the Sambia Peninsula, or the Curonian Lagoon, which were historically the richest sources of amber in northern Europe.[citation needed] It is assumed that there were well-established trade routes for amber connecting the Baltic with the Mediterranean (known as the “Amber Road“). Pliny states explicitly that the Germans exported amber to Pannonia, from where the Veneti distributed it onwards. The ancient Italic peoples of southern Italy used to work amber; the National Archaeological Museum of Siritide (Museo Archeologico Nazionale della Siritide) at Policoro in the province of Matera (Basilicata) displays important surviving examples. Amber used in antiquity as at Mycenae and in the prehistory of the Mediterranean comes from deposits of Sicily.” ref
“Pliny also cites the opinion of Nicias (c. 470–413 BCE), according to whom amber is a liquid produced by the rays of the sun; and that these rays, at the moment of the sun’s setting, striking with the greatest force upon the surface of the soil, leave upon it an unctuous sweat, which is carried off by the tides of the Ocean, and thrown up upon the shores of Germany.” ref
“Besides the fanciful explanations according to which amber is “produced by the Sun”, Pliny cites opinions that are well aware of its origin in tree resin, citing the native Latin name of succinum (sūcinum, from sucus “juice”). In Book 37, section XI of Natural History, Pliny wrote:
Amber is produced from a marrow discharged by trees belonging to the pine genus, like gum from the cherry, and resin from the ordinary pine. It is a liquid at first, which issues forth in considerable quantities, and is gradually hardened […] Our forefathers, too, were of opinion that it is the juice of a tree, and for this reason gave it the name of “succinum” and one great proof that it is the produce of a tree of the pine genus, is the fact that it emits a pine-like smell when rubbed, and that it burns, when ignited, with the odour and appearance of torch-pine wood.” ref
“He also states that amber is also found in Egypt and in India, and he even refers to the electrostatic properties of amber, by saying that “in Syria the women make the whorls of their spindles of this substance, and give it the name of harpax [from ἁρπάζω, “to drag”] from the circumstance that it attracts leaves towards it, chaff, and the light fringe of tissues”. Pliny says that the German name of amber was glæsum, “for which reason the Romans, when Germanicus Caesar commanded the fleet in those parts, gave to one of these islands the name of Glæsaria, which by the barbarians was known as Austeravia”. This is confirmed by the recorded Old High German word glas and by the Old English word glær for “amber” (compare glass). In Middle Low German, amber was known as berne-, barn-, börnstēn (with etymological roots related to “burn” and to “stone”). The Low German term became dominant also in High German by the 18th century, thus modern German Bernstein besides Dutch barnsteen. In the Baltic languages, the Lithuanian term for amber is gintaras and the Latvian dzintars. These words, and the Slavic jantar and Hungarian gyanta (‘resin’), are thought to originate from Phoenician jainitar (“sea-resin”). Amber has a long history of use in China, with the first written record from 200 BCE. Early in the nineteenth century, the first reports of amber found in North America came from discoveries in New Jersey along Crosswicks Creek near Trenton, at Camden, and near Woodbury.” ref
Bronze Age woman in Scotland was an early immigrant, DNA analysis reveals
“Archeologists examining the remains of a woman who died more than 4,250 years ago have discovered surprising new information, thanks to DNA analysis. The remains were discovered at Achavanich in Caithness, Scotland, in 1987, and now researchers are able to paint a detailed picture of the woman and her life. Lead study author Maya Hoole said that Ava, as the woman is known, had black hair, brown eyes, and a complexion similar to that of people who currently live in southern Europe. She had previously been depicted with red hair and blue eyes, but forensic artist Hew Morrison produced a more accurate reconstruction of Ava’s face. “We have found some really quite incredible information about this individual,” Hoole said, pointing out that Ava did not share genetic information with the local Neolithic population.” ref
“DNA analysis by scientists from Harvard Medical School and the Natural History Museum in London shows that Ava suffered illness when she was young but recovered to lead an active life. She was quite tall, and the fact that she was buried with a cow bone suggests that she was involved in cattle farming. Ava lived during the Early Bronze Age, slightly earlier than previously thought, and was 18 to 25 years old when she died. She was buried in an unusual grave carved out of bedrock, which would have taken two people a couple of days to dig, Hoole said. The archaeologist said that only a handful of such burial sites have been discovered in Scotland, suggesting that a small minority of people were buried this way, but it is not known why Ava would have received such special attention.” ref
“The new research, published in the journal Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, reveals that Ava’s family probably moved to the area a few generations before she was born as part of an important migration movement from Northern Europe to Scotland. “Our previous work looking at ancient DNA from hundreds of prehistoric British skeletons had already established that there was an influential movement of people from mainland Europe around 2500 BCE or 4,520 years ago which transformed the local population and their cultures,” study co-author Tom Booth of the Natural History Museum said in a statement.” ref
“However, the reconstruction of Ava brings a sense of humanity to a story which can often appear as an abstract mass of bones, genes, and artifacts.” Hoole says archeologists could learn huge amounts by applying new research methods to existing material as well as new digs. “What I think is especially important about our research and our findings is that it demonstrates how much we can learn from existing archaeological material that we already have in our archives and our museums,” Hoole said. “Even in the last few decades, technological advances have developed drastically, and we could learn so much more from existing collections if there were the resources and the will to do so.” ref
Also at the same time and similar metal use in the Americas?
“Old Copper Complex or Old Copper Culture were ancient Native North American societies known to have extensively produced and used copper for weaponry and tools. The archeological evidence of smelting or alloying is subject to some dispute, and it is commonly believed that objects were cold-worked into shape. Artifacts from some of these sites have been dated from 4000 to 1000 BCE. Furthermore, some archaeologists are convinced by the artifactual and structural evidence for metal casting by Hopewellian and Mississippian peoples. The Old Copper Complex of the Western Great Lakes is the best known, and can be dated as far back as 6,000 years ago. Great Lakes natives of the Archaic tradition located 99% pure copper near Lake Superior, in veins touching the surface and in nuggets from gravel beds. Major quarries were located on Isle Royale, the Keweenaw Peninsula, and the Brule River, and copper was deposited elsewhere by glaciation as well. Evidence of mining, deep holes chipped into the rock, can be found in Ontario, Manitoba, and around Lake Superior.” ref
“Eventually, these cultures learned to hammer the copper and produce a variety of spearpoints, tools, and decorative objects. In addition to their own use, the Copper Complex peoples traded copper goods for other exotic materials. By about 3,000 years ago copper was increasingly restricted to jewelry and other status-related items, rather than tools. This is thought to represent the development of more complex social hierarchies in the area. The Copper Culture State Park, in Oconto, northeastern Wisconsin contains an ancient burial ground used by the Old Copper Complex Culture between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago. It was rediscovered in June 1952 by a 13-year-old boy who unearthed human bones while playing in an old quarry. By July the first archaeological dig was started by the Wisconsin Archaeological Survey.” ref
“Copper is known to have been traded from the Great Lakes region to other parts of North America. However, there were also other sources of copper, including in the Appalachian Mountains near the Etowah Site in Georgia. The Mississippian copper plates were made by a process of annealing. Ancient copper artifacts are found over a very wide range, all around the Great Lakes region, and far south into what is now the USA.” ref
Metallurgy in pre-Columbian America
“Metallurgy in pre-Columbian America is the extraction, purification and alloying of metals and metal crafting by Indigenous peoples of the Americas prior to European contact in the late 15th century. Indigenous Americans have been using native metals from ancient times, with recent finds of gold artifacts in the Andean region dated to 2155–1936 BCE, and North American copper finds dated to approximately 5000 BCE or 7,020 years ago. The metal would have been found in nature without need for smelting, and shaped into the desired form using hot and cold hammering without chemical alteration or alloying. To date “no one has found evidence that points to the use of melting, smelting and casting in prehistoric eastern North America.” In South America the case is quite different. Indigenous South Americans had full metallurgy with smelting and various metals being purposely alloyed. Metallurgy in Mesoamerica and Western Mexico may have developed following contact with South America through Ecuadorian marine traders.” ref
South America
“South American metalworking seems to have developed in the Andean region of modern Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Chile, and Argentina with gold and copper being hammered and shaped into intricate objects, particularly ornaments. Recent finds date the earliest gold work to 2155–1936 BCE. and the earliest copper work to 1432–1132 BCE. Ice core studies in Bolivia however suggest copper smelting may have begun as early as 2000 BCE. Further evidence for this type of metalwork comes from the sites at Waywaka (near es: Andahuaylas, Lugares de interés, southern Peru), Chavín, and Kotosh, and it seems to have been spread throughout Andean societies by the Early horizon (1000–200 BCE). Unlike other metallurgy traditions where metals gained importance through practical use in weaponry and everyday utensils, metals in South America (and later Central America) were mainly valued as adornments and status objects (though some functional objects might have been[original research?] produced). During the Early horizon, advances in metalworking produced spectacular and characteristic Andean gold objects made by the joining of smaller metal sheets, and also gold-silver alloy appeared.” ref
“Two traditions seem to have developed alongside each other – one in northern Peru and Ecuador, and another in the Altiplano region of southern Peru, Bolivia, and Chile. There is evidence for smelting of copper sulphide in the Altiplano region around the Early horizon. Evidence for this comes from copper slag recovered at several sites, with the ore itself possibly coming from the south Chilean-Bolivian border. Near Puma Punku, Bolivia, and at three additional sites in Peru and Bolivia, “portable” smelting kilns were used to manufacture I-beams in situ, to join large stone blocks during construction. Their chemical analysis shows 95.15% copper, 2.05% arsenic, 1.70% nickel, .84% silicon and .26% iron. The estimated date of these pours lies between 800 –500 BCE. Evidence for fully developed smelting, however, only appears with the Moche culture (northern coast, 200 BCE–600 CE). The ores were extracted from shallow deposits in the Andean foothills. They were probably smelted nearby, as pictorially depicted on the metal artifacts themselves and on ceramic vessels. Smelting was done in adobe brick furnaces with at least three blowpipes to provide the airflow needed to reach the high temperatures. The resulting ingots would then have been moved to coastal centers for shaping in specialized workshops. Two workshops found and studied near the administrative sections of their towns, again showing the prestige of metal.” ref
“The objects themselves were still mainly adornments, now often being attached to beads. Some functional objects were fashioned, but they were elaborately decorated and often found in high-status burials, seemingly still used more for symbolic than for practical purposes. The appearance of gold or silver seems to have been important, with a high number of gilded or silvered objects as well as the appearance of Tumbaga, a alloy of copper and gold, and sometimes also silver. Arsenic bronze was also smelted from sulphidic ores, a practice either independently developed or learned from the southern tradition. The earliest known powder metallurgy, and earliest working of platinum in the world, was apparently developed by the cultures of Esmeraldas (NW Ecuador) before the Spanish Conquest. Beginning with the La Tolita culture (600 bc – 200 ad), Ecuadorian cultures mastered the soldering of platinum grains through alloying with copper, gold, and silver, producing platinum-surfaced rings, handles, ornaments, and utensils. This technology was eventually noticed and adopted by the Spanish c.1730.” ref
“Metallurgy gradually spread north into Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica, reaching Guatemala and Belize by 800 CE. By c.100-700 CE, ‘depletion gilding’ was developed by the Nahuange culture of Colombia to produce ornamental variations such as ‘rose gold’. Only with the Incas did metals really come into practical use. Nonetheless, they remained materials through which to display wealth and status. The characteristic importance placed on color, which had led to some of the earlier developments, was still present (sun/moon association with gold/silver). Metals other than gold also had an intrinsic value, with ax pieces being of particular note in this regard. With the spread of metal tools by the Incas, it is thought possible that a more Old World use of metals would have become more common. In any case, as Bruhns notes, “Bronze can be seen as an expensive substitute for the equally efficient stone”.” ref
Central America and the Caribbean
Gold, copper, and tumbaga objects started being produced in Panama and Costa Rica between 300–500 CE. Open-molded casting with oxidation gilding and cast filigrees were in use. By 700–800 CE, small metal sculptures were common and an extensive range of gold and tumbaga ornaments comprised the usual regalia of persons of high status in Panama and Costa Rica. The earliest specimen of metalwork from the Caribbean is a gold-alloy sheet carbon-dated to 70-374 CE. Most Caribbean metallurgy has been dated to between 1200 and 1500 CE and consists of simple, small pieces such as sheets, pendants, beads, and bells. These are mostly gold or a gold alloy (with copper or silver) and have been found to be largely cold hammered and sand-polished alluvial nuggets, although a few items seem to have been produced by lost wax casting. It is presumed that at least some of these items were acquired by trade from Colombia.” ref
Mesoamerica
“Metallurgy only appears in Mesoamerica in 800 CE with the best evidence from West Mexico. Much like in South America, fine metals were seen as a material for the elite. Metal’s special qualities of colour and resonance seemed to have appealed most and then led to the particular technological developments seen in the region. Exchange of ideas and goods with peoples from the Ecuador and Colombia region (likely via a maritime route) seems to have fueled early interest and development. Similar metal artifact types are found in West Mexico and the two regions: copper rings, needles, and tweezers being fabricated in the same ways as in Ecuador and also found in similar archaeological contexts. A multitude of bells were also found, but in this case they were cast using the same lost-wax casting method as seen in Colombia. During this period, copper was being used almost exclusively.” ref
“Continual contact kept the flow of ideas from that same region and later, coinciding with the development of Andean long-distance maritime trade, influence from further south seems to have reached the region and led to a second period (1200–1300 CE to the Spanish arrival). By this time, copper alloys were being explored by West Mexican metallurgists, partly because the different mechanical properties were needed to fashion specific artifacts, particularly ax-monies – further evidence for contact with the Andean region. However, in general, the new properties such alloys introduced were developed to meet regional needs, especially wirework bells, which at times had such high tin content in the bronze that it was irrelevant for its mechanical properties but gave the bells a golden color.” ref
“The actual artifacts and then techniques were imported from the south, but west Mexican metallurgists worked ores from the abundant local deposits; the metal was not being imported. Even when the technology spread from West into north-eastern, central and southern Mexico, artifacts that can be traced back to West Mexican ores are abundant, if not exclusive. It is not always clear if the metal reached its final destination as an ingot, an ore, or a finished artifact. Provenance studies on metal artifacts from southern Mesoamerica cast with the lost-wax technique and dissimilar to west Mexican artifacts have shown that there might have been a second point of emergence of metallurgy into Mesoamerica there since no known source could be identified.” ref
Northern America
“Archaeological evidence has not revealed metal smelting or alloying of metals by pre-Columbian native peoples north of the Rio Grande; however, they did use native copper extensively. As widely accepted as this statement might be it should not be considered synonymous with a lack of metal objects, as it points out native copper was relatively abundant, particularly in the Great Lakes region. The latest glacial period had resulted in the scouring of copper bearing rocks. Once the ice retreated, these were readily available for use in a variety of sizes.[23] Copper was shaped via cold hammering into objects from very early dates (Archaic period in the Great Lakes region: 8000–1000 BCE). There is also evidence of actual mining of copper veins (Old Copper Complex), but disagreement exists as to the dates.” ref
“The copper could then be cold-hammered into shape, which would make it brittle, or hammered and heated in an annealing process to avoid this. The final object would then have to be ground and sharpened using local sandstone. Numerous bars have also been found, possibly indicative of trade for which their shaping into a bar would also serve as proof of quality. Great Lake artifacts found in the Eastern Woodlands of North America seem to indicate there were widespread trading networks by 1000 BCE. Progressively the usage of copper for tools decreases with more jewelry and adornments being found. This is believed to be indicative of social changes to a more hierarchical society. Thousands of copper mining pits have been found along the lake shore of Lake Superior, and on Isle Royale. These pits may have been in use as far back as 8,000 years ago. This copper was mined and then made into objects such as heavy spear points and tools of all kinds. It was also made into mysterious crescent objects that some archaeologists believe were religious or ceremonial items. The crescents were too fragile for utilitarian use, and many have 28 or 29 notches along the inner edge, the approximate number of days in a lunar month.” ref
“However, this Great Lake model as a unique source of copper and of copper technologies remaining somewhat static for over 6,000 years has recently come into some level of criticism, particularly since other deposits seem to have been available to ancient North Americans, even if a lot smaller. The Old Copper Culture mainly flourished in Ontario and Minnesota. However, at least 50 Old Copper items, including spear points and ceremonial crescents have been discovered in Manitoba. A few more in Saskatchewan, and at least one, a crescent, has turned up in Alberta, 2,000 kilometers from its homeland in Ontario. It is most likely that these copper items arrived in the plains as trade goods rather than people of the Old Copper Culture moving into these new places. However, from one excavated site in eastern Manitoba, we can see that at least some people were moving northwest. At a site near Bissett archaeologists have found copper tools, weapons, and waste material of manufacture, along with a large nugget of raw copper. This site however was dated to around 4,000 years ago, a time of cooler climate when the boreal forest’s treeline moved much further south. Though if these migrants moved with their metallurgy up the Winnipeg River at this time they may have continued onward, into Lake Winnipeg, and the Saskatchewan River system.” ref
“This Old Copper Culture never became particularity advanced, and never discovered the principle of creating alloys. This means that many, though they could make metal objects and weapons, continued to use their flint tools, which could maintain a sharper edge for much longer. The unalloyed copper could simply not compete, and in the latter days of the Old Copper Culture, the metal was almost exclusively used for ceremonial items. During the Mississippian period (800–1600 CE, varying locally), elites at major political and religious centers throughout the midwestern and southeastern United States used copper ornamentation as a sign of their status by crafting the sacred material into representations connected with the Chiefly Warrior cult of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex (S.E.C.C.). This ornamentation includes Mississippian copper plates, repousséd plates of beaten copper now found as far afield as Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Tennessee. Some of the more famous of the plates are of raptorial birds and avian-themed dancing warriors. These plates, such as the Rogan plates from Etowah, the Spiro plates from the Spiro in Oklahoma, and the Wulfing cache from southeast Missouri, were instrumental in the development of the archaeological concept known as the S.E.C.C.” ref
“The only Mississippian culture site where a copper workshop has been located by archaeologists is Cahokia in western Illinois, where a copper workshop dating to the Moorehead Phase (c. 1200 CE) was identified at Mound 34. Gregory Perino identified the site in 1956 and archaeologists subsequently excavated it. Numerous copper fragments were found at the site; metallographic analysis indicated that Mississippian copper workers worked copper into thin sheet through repeated hammering and annealing, a process that could be successful over open-pit wood fires. After the collapse of the Mississippian way of life in the 1500s with the advent of European colonization, copper still retained a place in Native American religious life as a special material. Copper was traditionally regarded as sacred by many historic period Eastern tribes. Copper nuggets are included in medicine bundles among Great Lakes tribes. Among 19th century Muscogee Creeks, a group of copper plates carried along the Trail of Tears are regarded as some of the tribe’s most sacred items.” ref
Iron in the Pacific Northwest
“Native ironwork in the Northwest Coast has been found in places like the Ozette Indian Village Archeological Site, where iron chisels and knives were discovered. These artifacts seem to have been crafted around 1613, based on the dendrochronological analysis of associated pieces of wood in the site, and were made out of drift iron from Asian (specifically Japanese) shipwrecks, which were swept by the Kuroshio Current towards the coast of North America. The tradition of working with Asian drift iron was well-developed in the Northwest before European contact, and was present among several native peoples from the region, including the Chinookan peoples and the Tlingit, who seem to have had their own specific word for the metallic material, which was transcribed by Frederica De Laguna as gayES. The wrecking of Japanese vessels in the North Pacific basin was fairly common, and the iron tools and weaponry they carried provided the necessary materials for the development of the local ironwork traditions among the Northwestern Pacific Coast peoples, although there were also other sources of iron, like that from meteorites, which was occasionally worked using stone anvils.” ref
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“The shaman is, above all, a connecting figure, bridging several worlds for his people, traveling between this world, the underworld, and the heavens. He transforms himself into an animal and talks with ghosts, the dead, the deities, and the ancestors. He dies and revives. He brings back knowledge from the shadow realm, thus linking his people to the spirits and places which were once mythically accessible to all.–anthropologist Barbara Meyerhoff” ref
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Bronze Age migrants, the Kura-Araxes cultural 5,520 to 4,470 years ago, their DNA from the Caucasus Mountains traces to the Canaanites and then lives on in modern Arabs and Jews. A Study found most Arab and Jewish groups in the region owe more than half of their DNA to Canaanites and other peoples of the ancient Near East—an area encompassing much of the modern Levant, Caucasus, Turkey, and Iran. Before the Kura-Araxes period of cultural traditions, horse bones were not found in Transcaucasia/South Caucasus a geographical region of the southern Caucasus Mountains on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia.
“The Kura–Araxes culture, also named Kur–Araz culture, or the Early Transcaucasian culture was a civilization that existed from about 4000 BCE until about 2000 BCE or around 6,020 to 4,020 years ago, which has traditionally been regarded as the date of its end; in some locations, it may have disappeared as early as 2600 or 2700 BCE or around 4,620 to 4,720 years ago. The earliest evidence for this culture is found on the Ararat plain; it spread northward in Caucasus by 3000 BCE or around 5,020 years ago). Altogether, the early Transcaucasian culture enveloped a vast area and mostly encompassed, on modern-day territories, the Southern Caucasus (except western Georgia), northwestern Iran, the northeastern Caucasus, eastern Turkey, and as far as Syria. The name of the culture is derived from the Kura and Araxes river valleys. Kura–Araxes culture is sometimes known as Shengavitian, Karaz (Erzurum), Pulur, and Yanik Tepe (Iranian Azerbaijan, near Lake Urmia) cultures. Furthermore, it gave rise to the later Khirbet Kerak-ware culture found in Syria and Canaan after the fall of the Akkadian Empire. While it is unknown what cultures and languages were present in Kura-Araxes, the two most widespread theories suggest a connection with Hurro-Urartian and/or Anatolian languages.” ref
“The Kura-Araxes cultural tradition existed in the highlands of the South Caucasus from 3500 to 2450 BCE or 5,520 to 4,470 years ago. This tradition represented an adaptive regime and a symbolically encoded common identity spread over a broad area of patchy mountain environments. By 3000 BCE or around 5,020 years ago, groups bearing this identity had migrated southwest across a wide area from the Taurus Mountains down into the southern Levant, southeast along the Zagros Mountains, and north across the Caucasus Mountains. In these new places, they became effectively ethnic groups amid already heterogeneous societies. This paper addresses the place of migrants among local populations as ethnicities and the reasons for their disappearance in the diaspora after 2450 BCE.” ref
“DNA from the Bible’s Canaanites lives on in modern Arabs and Jews: A new study of ancient DNA traces the surprising heritage of these mysterious Bronze Age people. Tel Megiddo was an important Canaanite city-state during the Bronze Age, approximately 3500 to 1200 B.CE or 5,520 to 3,220 years ago. DNA analysis reveals that the city’s population included migrants from the distant Caucasus Mountains. They are best known as the people who lived “in a land flowing with milk and honey” until they were vanquished by the ancient Israelites and disappeared from history. But a scientific report published today reveals that the genetic heritage of the Canaanites survives in many modern-day Jews and Arabs. The study in Cell also shows that migrants from the distant Caucasus Mountains combined with the indigenous population to forge the unique Canaanite culture that dominated the area between Egypt and Mesopotamia during the Bronze Age. The team extracted ancient DNA from the bones of 73 individuals buried over the course of 1,500 years at five Canaanite sites scattered across Israel and Jordan. They also factored in data from an additional 20 individuals from four sites previously reported. “Individuals from all sites are highly genetically similar,” says co-author and molecular evolutionist Liran Carmel of Jerusalem’s Hebrew University.” ref
“So while the Canaanites lived in far-flung city-states, and never coalesced into an empire, they shared genes as well as a common culture. The researchers also compared the ancient DNA with that of modern populations and found that most Arab and Jewish groups in the region owe more than half of their DNA to Canaanites and other peoples who inhabited the ancient Near East—an area encompassing much of the modern Levant, Caucasus, and Iran. The study—a collaborative effort between Carmel’s lab, the ancient DNA lab at Harvard University headed by geneticist David Reich, and other groups—was by far the largest of its type in the region. Its findings are the latest in a series of recent breakthroughs in our understanding of this mysterious people who left behind few written records. Marc Haber, a geneticist at the Wellcome Trust’s Sanger Institute in Hinxton, United Kingdom, co-led a 2017 study of five Canaanite individuals from the coastal town of Sidon. The results showed that modern Lebanese can trace more than 90 percent of their genetic ancestry to Canaanites.” ref
“As Egyptians built pyramids and Mesopotamians constructed ziggurats some 4,500 years ago, the Canaanites began to develop towns and cities between these great powers. They first appear in the historical record around 1800 B.C., when the king of the city-state of Mari in today’s eastern Syria complained about “thieves and Canaanites.” Diplomatic correspondence written five centuries later mentions several Canaanite kings, who often struggled to maintain independence from Egypt. “The land of Canaan is your land and its kings are your servants,” acknowledged one Babylonian monarch in a letter to the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten. Biblical texts, written many centuries later, insist that Yahweh promised the land of Canaan to the Israelites after their escape from Egypt. Jewish scripture says the newcomers eventually triumphed, but archaeological evidence doesn’t show widespread destruction of Canaanite populations. Instead, they appear to have been gradually overpowered by later invaders such as the Philistines, Greeks, and Romans.” ref
“Red and black pottery circa 2500 BCE or around 4,520 years old was found in the Caucasus Mountains, as well as at Canaanite sites far to the southwest. The Canaanites spoke a Semitic language and were long thought to derive from earlier populations that settled in the region thousands of years before. But archaeologists have puzzled over red-and-black pottery discovered at Canaanite sites that closely resembles ceramics found in the Caucasus Mountains, some 750 miles to the northwest. Historians also have noted that many Canaanite names derive from Hurrian, a non-Semitic language originating in the Caucasus. Whether this resulted from long-distance trade or migration was uncertain. The new study demonstrates that significant numbers of people, and not just goods, were moving around during humanity’s first era of cities and empires. The genes of Canaanite individuals proved to be a mix of local Neolithic people and the Caucasus migrants, who began showing up in the region around the start of the Bronze Age. Carmel adds that the migration appears to have been more than a one-time event, and “could have involved multiple waves throughout the Bronze Age.” One brother and sister who lived around 1500 B.C. in Megiddo, in what is now northern Israel, were from a family that had migrated relatively recently from the northeast. The team also noted that individuals at two coastal sites—Ashkelon in Israel and Sidon in Lebanon—show slightly more genetic diversity. That may be the result of broader trade links in Mediterranean port towns than inland settlements.” ref
“Glenn Schwartz, an archaeologist at Johns Hopkins University who was not involved in the study, said that the biological data provides important insight into how Canaanites shared a notable number of genes as well as cultural traits. And Haber from the Wellcome Trust noted that the quantity of DNA results is particularly impressive, given the difficulty of extracting samples from old bones buried in such a warm climate that can quickly degrade genetic material. Both Israeli and Palestinian politicians claim the region of Israel and the Palestinian territories is the ancestral home of their people, and maintain that the other group was a late arrival. “We are the Canaanites,” asserted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last year. “This land is for its people…who were here 5,000 years ago.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, said recently that the ancestors of modern Palestinians “came from the Arabian peninsula to the Land of Israel thousands of years” after the Israelites. The new study suggests that despite tumultuous changes in the area since the Bronze Age, “the present-day inhabitants of the region are, to a large extent, descended from its ancient residents,” concludes Schwartz—although Carmel adds that there are hints of later demographic shifts. Carmel hopes to soon expand the findings by collecting DNA from the remains of those who can be identified as Judean, Moabite, Ammonite, and other groups mentioned in the Bible and other texts. “One could analyze ‘Canaanite’ as opposed to ‘Israelite’ individuals,” adds archaeologist Mary Ellen Buck, who wrote a book on the Canaanites. “The Bible claims that these are distinct and mutually antagonistic groups, yet there’s reason to believe that they were very closely related.” ref
“As reported from genome-wide DNA data for 73 individuals from five archaeological sites across the Bronze and Iron Ages Southern Levant. These individuals, who share the “Canaanite” material culture, can be modeled as descending from two sources: (1) earlier local Neolithic populations and (2) populations related to the Chalcolithic Zagros (mountain range in Iran, northern Iraq, and southeastern Turkey) or the Bronze Age Caucasus (mountain range in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia). The non-local contribution increased over time, as evinced by three outliers who can be modeled as descendants of recent migrants. We show evidence that different “Canaanite” groups genetically resemble each other more than other populations. We find that Levant-related modern populations typically have substantial ancestry coming from populations related to the Chalcolithic Zagros and the Bronze Age Southern Levant. These groups also harbor ancestry from sources we cannot fully model with the available data, highlighting the critical role of post-Bronze-Age migrations into the region over the past 3,000 years.” ref
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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.
Volcano deity
“A volcano deity is a deification of a volcano, including:
- Vulcan, in ancient Roman religion and myth, the god of fire including the fire of volcanoes, deserts, metalworking, and the forge.
- Volos, Slavic god of earth, waters, and the underworld.
- Rūaumoko, in Māori mythology, god of earthquakes, volcanoes, and seasons.
- Pele, in the Hawaiian religion, goddess of volcanoes and fire and the creator of the Hawaiian Islands.
- Lalahon, in Philippine mythology, Goddess of fire, volcanoes, and harvest.
- Kan-Laon, Visayan god of time associated with the volcano Kanlaon
- Hephaestus, Greek god of blacksmiths, metalworking, carpenters, craftsmen, artisans, sculptors, metallurgy, fire, and volcanoes.
- Gugurang, in Philippine mythology, Bicolano god of fire and volcanoes who lives inside Mayon Volcano which erupts whenever he’s enraged
- Guayota, Guanche, malignant deity which lived inside the Teide volcano.
- Aganjú, Yoruban deity, Orisha of volcanoes, the wilderness, and rivers.
- Aganju, in Cuba, is a volcano deity for the practitioners of the Lucumi, Santeria religion.” ref
New DNA tech traces origins of Yiddish to… Turkey
“Genetic data shows speakers of Jewish language came from ancient Silk Road crossroads and may have been traders, Israeli researcher says. DNA shows that Yiddish, the historic language of Ashkenazi Jews, may have originated in northeastern Turkey, according to a study by an Israeli-born researcher. The study by the University of Sheffield’s Dr. Eran Elhaik, which was published recently in scientific journal Genome Biology, used a Geographic Population Structure (GPS) tool to locate the origins of Yiddish speakers’ DNA.” ref
“We identified 367 people who claim they have two parents who are Ashkenazic Jews and we divided them into people whose parents only speak Yiddish and then everyone else,” Elhaik told WIRED. The researchers then used the GPS algorithms to analyze participants’ DNA and predict their most likely geographical origin. The results, Elhaik said, showed that many of them came from the vicinity of four ancient villages in northern Turkey whose names are conspicuously similar to “Ashkenaz” — Askenaz, Eskenaz, Ashanaz, and Ashkuz — and which are all located near a crossroads of the ancient Silk Road trade route.” ref
“The researchers have surmised that the language may have been invented by Iranian and Slavic Jews who traded on the Silk Road around the 9th century. “We were able to predict the possible ancestral location where Yiddish originated over 1,000 years ago — a question which linguists have debated over for many years,” Elhaik said. “Northeast Turkey is the only place in the world where these place names exist — which strongly implies that Yiddish was established around the first millennium at a time when Jewish traders who were plying the Silk Road moved goods from Asia to Europe wanted to keep their monopoly on trade.” ref
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpwmqUnj7vc
“They did this by inventing Yiddish — a secret language that very few can speak or understand other than Jews. Our findings are in agreement with an alternative theory that suggests Yiddish has Iranian, Turkish, and Slavic origins and explains why Yiddish contains 251 words for the terms ‘buy’ and ‘sell’. This is what we can expect from a language of experienced merchants.” ref
The study suggests that as Jews spread throughout Europe, their language acquired words from other languages in the continent, mainly German. “Yiddish is such a wonderful and complex language, which was inappropriately called ‘bad German’ by both its native and non-native speakers because the language consists of made-up German words and a non-German grammar,” Elhaik said. “Yiddish is truly a combination of familiar and adapted German words using Slavic grammar.” Elhaik told WIRED he hoped to be able to refine and improve the technology, which can currently analyze data from the last millennium or so. “We’re probably going to do a really good job for 2,000 to 10,000 years ago due to the availability of the DNA from these time periods,” he said.” ref
Scientists reveal Jewish history’s forgotten Turkish roots
Israeli-born geneticist believes the Turkish villages of Iskenaz, Eskenaz, and Ashanaz were part of the original homeland for Ashkenazic Jews
“Research suggests that the majority of the world’s modern Jewish population is descended mainly from people from ancient Turkey, rather than predominantly from elsewhere in the Middle East. The new research suggests that most of the Jewish population of northern and eastern Europe – normally known as Ashkenazic Jews – are the descendants of Greeks, Iranians, and others who colonized what is now northern Turkey more than 2000 years ago and were then converted to Judaism, probably in the first few centuries AD by Jews from Persia. At that stage, the Persian Empire was home to the world’s largest Jewish communities. According to research carried out by the geneticist, Dr Eran Elhaik of the University of Sheffield, over 90 percent of Ashkenazic ancestors come from that converted partially Greek-originating ancient community in north-east Turkey.” ref
“His research is based on genetic, historical, and place-name evidence. For his geographic genetic research, Dr Elhaik used a Geographic Population Structure computer modeling system to convert Ashkenazic Jewish DNA data into geographical information. Dr Elhaik, an Israeli-born geneticist who gained his doctorate in molecular evolution from the University of Houston, believes that three still-surviving Turkish villages – Iskenaz, Eskenaz, and Ashanaz – on the western part of an ancient Silk Road route were part of the original Ashkenazic homeland. He believes that the word Ashkenaz originally comes from Ashguza – the ancient Assyrian and Babylonian name for the Iron Age Eurasian steppe-land people, the Scythians. Referring to the names of the three Turkish villages, Dr Elhaik points out that “north-east Turkey is the only place in the world where these place-names exist”.” ref
“From the 690s AD onwards, anti-Jewish persecution by the Christian Byzantine Empire seems to have played a part in forcing large numbers of Jews to flee across the Black Sea to a more friendly state – the Turkic-ruled Khazar Empire with its large Slav and other populations. Some analyses of Yiddish suggests that it was originally a Slavic language, and Dr Elhaik and others believe that it was developed, probably in the 8th and 9th centuries AD, by Jewish merchants trading along some of the more northerly Silk Roads linking China and Europe. By the 730s, the Khazar Empire had begun to convert to Judaism – and more people converted to the faith.” ref
“But when the Khazar Empire declined in or around the 11th century, some of the Jewish population almost certainly migrated west into Central Europe. There, as Yiddish-speaking Jewish merchants came into contact with central European, often German-speaking, peoples, they began to replace the Slav words in Yiddish with large numbers of German and German-derived words, while retaining some of its Slav-originating grammar. Many Hebrew words also appear to have been added by that stage. The genetic modeling used in the research was based on DNA data from 367 Jews of northern and eastern European origin and more than 600 non-Jewish people mainly from Europe and western Asia. Dr Elhaik says it is the largest genomic study ever carried out on Ashkenazic Jews. His research will be published in the UK-based scientific journal, Genome Biology, and Evolution. Further research is planned to try to measure the precise size of the Semitic genetic input into Jewish and non-Jewish genomes.” ref
“The presence of dolmens are found in a few areas of Israel, with most dolmens known to the public found in the Golan Heights. Gamla is part of the Golan
There is a gigantic dolmen, with a 50-ton capstone over 4,000 years old with unique artistic carvings in its ceiling has been found in the Golan Heights. What makes this dolmen so unique is its huge dimensions, the structure surrounding it, and most importantly the artistic decorations engraved in its ceiling. ref, ref
“The Galilee dolmens date from roughly the same time as other mysterious, monumental structures discovered nearby in the Golan, most notably the extraordinary circular megalithic monument called Rujm el-Hiri, in the middle of a large plateau also covered with hundreds of dolmen shown above.” ref
“Gilgal Rephaim (Hebrew for “Circle of the Giants”) is a large megalithic monument that is just three miles east of the site of Gamla in the Golan. This area is known as the land of Bashan, where King Og lived and is located east of the Jordan River, and the Sea of Galilee in what would be the land of the tribe Mannaseh. King Og of Bashan, who according to Deuteronomy 3:11, “was the last of the Rephaim (giants), whose bed was decorated with iron and was more than nine cubits long (13 1/2 feet) and four cubits wide (six feet).” The structure has been dated by archaeologists to the Early Bronze Age (3000 – 2700 BCE), thus would have existed prior to the flood of Noah.” ref
“There is over 42,000 tons of boulders, partly worked, and stacked up to 2 meters (nearly 7 feet) high. The outermost circle is 520 feet in diameter. In order to see the entire structure, an aerial view is required. It is possible that the ancient inhabitants of this area practiced excarnation, that is the burial practice of removing the flesh from the bones of the deceased, perhaps leaving the body exposed for scavengers such as vultures. It is interesting that just three miles from this location is the Gamla Nature Reserve, at the site of ancient Gamla, which hosts one of the world’s largest known populations of Griffon vultures, and other birds of prey. Certainly, the later inhabitants of Gamla were very familiar with this site as it is a mere 3 mile walk up the Daliyot Stream. An interesting fact about Gamla is that, although thousands were have said to have died there during the Jewish Revolt in what is called “The Masada of the North”, unlike at Masada, no bodies have ever been found.” ref
Creation myths: From chaos, Ex nihilo, Earth-diver, Emergence, World egg, and World parent
“A creation myth (or cosmogonic myth) is a symbolic narrative of how the world began and how people first came to inhabit it. While in popular usage the term myth often refers to false or fanciful stories, members of cultures often ascribe varying degrees of truth to their creation myths. In the society in which it is told, a creation myth is usually regarded as conveying profound truths – metaphorically, symbolically, historically, or literally. They are commonly, although not always, considered cosmogonical myths – that is, they describe the ordering of the cosmos from a state of chaos or amorphousness.” ref
“Creation myths often share a number of features. They often are considered sacred accounts and can be found in nearly all known religious traditions. They are all stories with a plot and characters who are either deities, human-like figures, or animals, who often speak and transform easily. They are often set in a dim and nonspecific past that historian of religion Mircea Eliade termed in illo tempore (‘at that time’). Creation myths address questions deeply meaningful to the society that shares them, revealing their central worldview and the framework for the self-identity of the culture and individual in a universal context. Creation myths develop in oral traditions and therefore typically have multiple versions; found throughout human culture, they are the most common form of myth.” ref
Creation myth definitions from modern references:
- “A “symbolic narrative of the beginning of the world as understood in a particular tradition and community. Creation myths are of central importance for the valuation of the world, for the orientation of humans in the universe, and for the basic patterns of life and culture.”
- “Creation myths tell us how things began. All cultures have creation myths; they are our primary myths, the first stage in what might be called the psychic life of the species. As cultures, we identify ourselves through the collective dreams we call creation myths, or cosmogonies. … Creation myths explain in metaphorical terms our sense of who we are in the context of the world, and in so doing they reveal our real priorities, as well as our real prejudices. Our images of creation say a great deal about who we are.”
- A “philosophical and theological elaboration of the primal myth of creation within a religious community. The term myth here refers to the imaginative expression in narrative form of what is experienced or apprehended as basic reality … The term creation refers to the beginning of things, whether by the will and act of a transcendent being, by emanation from some ultimate source, or in any other way.” ref
Religion professor Mircea Eliade defined the word myth in terms of creation:
“Myth narrates a sacred history; it relates an event that took place in primordial Time, the fabled time of the “beginnings.” In other words, myth tells how, through the deeds of Supernatural Beings, a reality came into existence, be it the whole of reality, the Cosmos, or only a fragment of reality – an island, a species of plant, a particular kind of human behavior, an institution.” ref
“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.” ref
“Some Ethnologists and anthropologists who study origin myths say that in the modern context theologians try to discern humanity’s meaning from revealed truths and scientists investigate cosmology with the tools of empiricism and rationality, but creation myths define human reality in very different terms. In the past, historians of religion and other students of myth thought of such stories as forms of primitive or early-stage science or religion and analyzed them in a literal or logical sense. Today, however, they are seen as symbolic narratives which must be understood in terms of their own cultural context. Charles Long writes: “The beings referred to in the myth – gods, animals, plants – are forms of power grasped existentially. The myths should not be understood as attempts to work out a rational explanation of deity.” ref
“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
Historian David Christian has summarised issues common to multiple creation myths:
“Each beginning seems to presuppose an earlier beginning. … Instead of meeting a single starting point, we encounter an infinity of them, each of which poses the same problem. … There are no entirely satisfactory solutions to this dilemma. What we have to find is not a solution but some way of dealing with the mystery …. And we have to do so using words. The words we reach for, from God to gravity, are inadequate to the task. So we have to use language poetically or symbolically; and such language, whether used by a scientist, a poet, or a shaman, can easily be misunderstood.” 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: Brahmā, the Hindu deva of creation, emerges from a lotus risen from the navel of Viṣņu, who lies with Lakshmi on the serpent Ananta Shesha.” ref
- “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.” ref
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
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
My thoughts on Religion Evolution with external links for more info:
- (Pre-Animism Africa mainly, but also Europe, and Asia at least 300,000 years ago), (Pre-Animism – Oxford Dictionaries)
- (Animism Africa around 100,000 years ago), (Animism – Britannica.com)
- (Totemism Europe around 50,000 years ago), (Totemism – Anthropology)
- (Shamanism Siberia around 30,000 years ago), (Shamanism – Britannica.com)
- (Paganism Turkey around 12,000 years ago), (Paganism – BBC Religion)
- (Progressed Organized Religion “Institutional Religion” Egypt around 5,000 years ago), (Ancient Egyptian Religion – Britannica.com)
- (CURRENT “World” RELIGIONS after 4,000 years ago) (Origin of Major Religions – Sacred Texts)
- (Early Atheistic Doubting at least by 2,600 years ago) (History of Atheism – Wikipedia)
“Religion is an Evolved Product” and Yes, Religion is Like Fear Given Wings…
Atheists talk about gods and religions for the same reason doctors talk about cancer, they are looking for a cure, or a firefighter talks about fires because they burn people and they care to stop them. We atheists too often feel a need to help the victims of mental slavery, held in the bondage that is the false beliefs of gods and the conspiracy theories of reality found in religions.
Understanding Religion Evolution:
- Pre-Animism (at least 300,000 years ago)
- Animism (Africa: 100,000 years ago)
- Totemism (Europe: 50,000 years ago)
- Shamanism (Siberia: 30,000 years ago)
- Paganism (Turkey: 12,000 years ago)
- Progressed organized religion (Egypt: 5,000 years ago), (Egypt, the First Dynasty 5,150 years ago)
- CURRENT “World” RELIGIONS (after 4,000 years ago)
- Early Atheistic Doubting (at least by 2,600 years ago)
“An Archaeological/Anthropological Understanding of Religion Evolution”
It seems ancient peoples had to survived amazing threats in a “dangerous universe (by superstition perceived as good and evil),” and human “immorality or imperfection of the soul” which was thought to affect the still living, leading to ancestor worship. This ancestor worship presumably led to the belief in supernatural beings, and then some of these were turned into the belief in gods. This feeble myth called gods were just a human conceived “made from nothing into something over and over, changing, again and again, taking on more as they evolve, all the while they are thought to be special,” but it is just supernatural animistic spirit-belief perceived as sacred.
Quick Evolution of Religion?
Pre-Animism (at least 300,000 years ago) pre-religion is a beginning that evolves into later Animism. So, Religion as we think of it, to me, all starts in a general way with Animism (Africa: 100,000 years ago) (theoretical belief in supernatural powers/spirits), then this is physically expressed in or with Totemism (Europe: 50,000 years ago) (theoretical belief in mythical relationship with powers/spirits through a totem item), which then enlists a full-time specific person to do this worship and believed interacting Shamanism (Siberia/Russia: 30,000 years ago) (theoretical belief in access and influence with spirits through ritual), and then there is the further employment of myths and gods added to all the above giving you Paganism (Turkey: 12,000 years ago) (often a lot more nature-based than most current top world religions, thus hinting to their close link to more ancient religious thinking it stems from). My hypothesis is expressed with an explanation of the building of a theatrical house (modern religions development). Progressed organized religion (Egypt: 5,000 years ago) with CURRENT “World” RELIGIONS (after 4,000 years ago).
Historically, in large city-state societies (such as Egypt or Iraq) starting around 5,000 years ago culminated to make religion something kind of new, a sociocultural-governmental-religious monarchy, where all or at least many of the people of such large city-state societies seem familiar with and committed to the existence of “religion” as the integrated life identity package of control dynamics with a fixed closed magical doctrine, but this juggernaut integrated religion identity package of Dogmatic-Propaganda certainly did not exist or if developed to an extent it was highly limited in most smaller prehistoric societies as they seem to lack most of the strong control dynamics with a fixed closed magical doctrine (magical beliefs could be at times be added or removed). Many people just want to see developed religious dynamics everywhere even if it is not. Instead, all that is found is largely fragments until the domestication of religion.
Religions, as we think of them today, are a new fad, even if they go back to around 6,000 years in the timeline of human existence, this amounts to almost nothing when seen in the long slow evolution of religion at least around 70,000 years ago with one of the oldest ritual worship. Stone Snake of South Africa: “first human worship” 70,000 years ago. This message of how religion and gods among them are clearly a man-made thing that was developed slowly as it was invented and then implemented peace by peace discrediting them all. Which seems to be a simple point some are just not grasping how devastating to any claims of truth when we can see the lie clearly in the archeological sites.
I wish people fought as hard for the actual values as they fight for the group/clan names political or otherwise they think support values. Every amount spent on war is theft to children in need of food or the homeless kept from shelter.
Here are several of my blog posts on history:
- To Find Truth You Must First Look
- (Magdalenian/Iberomaurusian) Connections to the First Paganists of the early Neolithic Near East Dating from around 17,000 to 12,000 Years Ago
- Natufians: an Ancient People at the Origins of Agriculture and Sedentary Life
- Possible Clan Leader/Special “MALE” Ancestor Totem Poles At Least 13,500 years ago?
- Jewish People with DNA at least 13,200 years old, Judaism, and the Origins of Some of its Ideas
- Baltic Reindeer Hunters: Swiderian, Lyngby, Ahrensburgian, and Krasnosillya cultures 12,020 to 11,020 years ago are evidence of powerful migratory waves during the last 13,000 years and a genetic link to Saami and the Finno-Ugric peoples.
- The Rise of Inequality: patriarchy and state hierarchy inequality
- Fertile Crescent 12,500 – 9,500 Years Ago: fertility and death cult belief system?
- 12,400 – 11,700 Years Ago – Kortik Tepe (Turkey) Pre/early-Agriculture Cultic Ritualism
- Ritualistic Bird Symbolism at Gobekli Tepe and its “Ancestor Cult”
- Male-Homosexual (female-like) / Trans-woman (female) Seated Figurine from Gobekli Tepe
- Could a 12,000-year-old Bull Geoglyph at Göbekli Tepe relate to older Bull and Female Art 25,000 years ago and Later Goddess and the Bull cults like Catal Huyuk?
- Sedentism and the Creation of goddesses around 12,000 years ago as well as male gods after 7,000 years ago.
- Alcohol, where Agriculture and Religion Become one? Such as Gobekli Tepe’s Ritualistic use of Grain as Food and Ritual Drink
- Neolithic Ritual Sites with T-Pillars and other Cultic Pillars
- Paganism: Goddesses around 12,000 years ago then Male Gods after 7,000 years ago
- First Patriarchy: Split of Women’s Status around 12,000 years ago & First Hierarchy: fall of Women’s Status around 5,000 years ago.
- Natufians: an Ancient People at the Origins of Agriculture and Sedentary Life
- J DNA and the Spread of Agricultural Religion (paganism)
- Paganism: an approximately 12,000-year-old belief system
- Paganism 12,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Pre-Capitalism)
- Shaman burial in Israel 12,000 years ago and the Shamanism Phenomena
- Need to Mythicized: gods and goddesses
- 12,000 – 7,000 Years Ago – Paleo-Indian Culture (The Americas)
- 12,000 – 2,000 Years Ago – Indigenous-Scandinavians (Nordic)
- Norse did not wear helmets with horns?
- Pre-Pottery Neolithic Skull Cult around 11,500 to 8,400 Years Ago?
- 10,400 – 10,100 Years Ago, in Turkey the Nevail Cori Religious Settlement
- 9,000-6,500 Years Old Submerged Pre-Pottery/Pottery Neolithic Ritual Settlements off Israel’s Coast
- Catal Huyuk “first religious designed city” around 9,500 to 7,700 years ago (Turkey)
- Cultic Hunting at Catal Huyuk “first religious designed city”
- Special Items and Art as well as Special Elite Burials at Catal Huyuk
- New Rituals and Violence with the appearance of Pottery and People?
- Haplogroup N and its related Uralic Languages and Cultures
- Ainu people, Sámi people, Native Americans, the Ancient North Eurasians, and Paganistic-Shamanism with Totemism
- Ideas, Technology and People from Turkey, Europe, to China and Back again 9,000 to 5,000 years ago?
- First Pottery of Europe and the Related Cultures
- 9,000 years old Neolithic Artifacts Judean Desert and Hills Israel
- 9,000-7,000 years-old Sex and Death Rituals: Cult Sites in Israel, Jordan, and the Sinai
- 9,000-8500 year old Horned Female shaman Bad Dürrenberg Germany
- Neolithic Jewelry and the Spread of Farming in Europe Emerging out of West Turkey
- 8,600-year-old Tortoise Shells in Neolithic graves in central China have Early Writing and Shamanism
- Swing of the Mace: the rise of Elite, Forced Authority, and Inequality begin to Emerge 8,500 years ago?
- Migrations and Changing Europeans Beginning around 8,000 Years Ago
- My “Steppe-Anatolian-Kurgan hypothesis” 8,000/7,000 years ago
- Around 8,000-year-old Shared Idea of the Mistress of Animals, “Ritual” Motif
- Pre-Columbian Red-Paint (red ochre) Maritime Archaic Culture 8,000-3,000 years ago
- 7,522-6,522 years ago Linear Pottery culture which I think relates to Arcane Capitalism’s origins
- Arcane Capitalism: Primitive socialism, Primitive capital, Private ownership, Means of production, Market capitalism, Class discrimination, and Petite bourgeoisie (smaller capitalists)
- 7,500-4,750 years old Ritualistic Cucuteni-Trypillian culture of Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine
- Roots of a changing early society 7,200-6,700 years ago Jordan and Israel
- 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
- My Thoughts on Possible Migrations of “R” DNA and Proto-Indo-European?
- “Millet” Spreading from China 7,022 years ago to Europe and related Language may have Spread with it leading to Proto-Indo-European
- Proto-Indo-European (PIE), ancestor of Indo-European languages: DNA, Society, Language, and Mythology
- The Dnieper–Donets culture and Asian varieties of Millet from China to the Black Sea region of Europe by 7,022 years ago
- Kurgan 6,000 years ago/dolmens 7,000 years ago: funeral, ritual, and other?
- 7,020 to 6,020-year-old Proto-Indo-European Homeland of Urheimat or proposed home of their Language and Religion
- Ancient Megaliths: Kurgan, Ziggurat, Pyramid, Menhir, Trilithon, Dolman, Kromlech, and Kromlech of Trilithons
- The Mytheme of Ancient North Eurasian Sacred-Dog belief and similar motifs are found in Indo-European, Native American, and Siberian comparative mythology
- Elite Power Accumulation: Ancient Trade, Tokens, Writing, Wealth, Merchants, and Priest-Kings
- Sacred Mounds, Mountains, Kurgans, and Pyramids may hold deep connections?
- 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 & their slaves
- Hell and Underworld mythologies starting maybe as far back as 7,000 to 5,000 years ago with the Proto-Indo-Europeans?
- The First Expression of the Male God around 7,000 years ago?
- White (light complexion skin) Bigotry and Sexism started 7,000 years ago?
- Around 7,000-year-old Shared Idea of the Divine Bird (Tutelary and/or Trickster spirit/deity), “Ritual” Motif
- Nekhbet an Ancient Egyptian Vulture Goddess and Tutelary Deity
- 6,720 to 4,920 years old Ritualistic Hongshan Culture of Inner Mongolia with 5,000-year-old Pyramid Mounds and Temples
- First proto-king in the Balkans, Varna culture around 6,500 years ago?
- 6,500–5,800 years ago in Israel Late Chalcolithic (Copper Age) Period in the Southern Levant Seems to Express Northern Levant Migrations, Cultural and Religious Transfer
- KING OF BEASTS: Master of Animals “Ritual” Motif, around 6,000 years old or older…
- Around 6000-year-old Shared Idea of the Solid Wheel & the Spoked Wheel-Shaped Ritual Motif
- “The Ghassulian Star,” a mysterious 6,000-year-old mural from Jordan; a Proto-Star of Ishtar, Star of Inanna or Star of Venus?
- Religious/Ritual Ideas, including goddesses and gods as well as ritual mounds or pyramids from Northeastern Asia at least 6,000 years old, seemingly filtering to Iran, Iraq, the Mediterranean, Europe, Egypt, and the Americas?
- Maykop (5,720–5,020 years ago) Caucasus region Bronze Age culture-related to Copper Age farmers from the south, influenced by the Ubaid period and Leyla-Tepe culture, as well as influencing the Kura-Araxes culture
- 5-600-year-old Tomb, Mummy, and First Bearded Male Figurine in a Grave
- Kura-Araxes Cultural 5,520 to 4,470 years old DNA traces to the Canaanites, Arabs, and Jews
- Minoan/Cretan (Keftiu) Civilization and Religion around 5,520 to 3,120 years ago
- Evolution Of Science at least by 5,500 years ago
- 5,500 Years old birth of the State, the rise of Hierarchy, and the fall of Women’s status
- “Jiroft culture” 5,100 – 4,200 years ago and the History of Iran
- Stonehenge: Paganistic Burial and Astrological Ritual Complex, England (5,100-3,600 years ago)
- Around 5,000-year-old Shared Idea of the “Tree of Life” Ritual Motif
- Complex rituals for elite, seen from China to Egypt, at least by 5,000 years ago
- Around 5,000 years ago: “Birth of the State” where Religion gets Military Power and Influence
- The Center of the World “Axis Mundi” and/or “Sacred Mountains” Mythology Could Relate to the Altai Mountains, Heart of the Steppe
- Progressed organized religion starts, an approximately 5,000-year-old belief system
- China’s Civilization between 5,000-3,000 years ago, was a time of war and class struggle, violent transition from free clans to a Slave or Elite society
- Origin of Logics is Naturalistic Observation at least by around 5,000 years ago.
- Paganism 5,000 years old: progressed organized religion and the state: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Kings and the Rise of the State)
- Ziggurats (multi-platform temples: 4,900 years old) to Pyramids (multi-platform tombs: 4,700 years old)
- Did a 4,520–4,420-year-old Volcano In Turkey Inspire the Bible God?
- Finland’s Horned Shaman and Pre-Horned-God at least 4,500 years ago?
- 4,000-year-Old Dolmens in Israel: A Connected Dolmen Religious Phenomenon?
- Creation myths: From chaos, Ex nihilo, Earth-diver, Emergence, World egg, and World parent
- Bronze Age “Ritual” connections of the Bell Beaker culture with the Corded Ware/Single Grave culture, which were related to the Yamnaya culture and Proto-Indo-European Languages/Religions
- Low Gods (Earth/ Tutelary deity), High Gods (Sky/Supreme deity), and Moralistic Gods (Deity enforcement/divine order)
- The exchange of people, ideas, and material-culture including, to me, the new god (Sky Father) and goddess (Earth Mother) religion between the Cucuteni-Trypillians and others which is then spread far and wide
- Koryaks: Indigenous People of the Russian Far East and Big Raven myths also found in Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and other Indigenous People of North America
- 42 Principles Of Maat (Egyptian Goddess of the justice) around 4,400 years ago, 2000 Years Before Ten Commandments
- “Happy Easter” Well Happy Eostre/Ishter
- 4,320-3,820 years old “Shimao” (North China) site with Totemistic-Shamanistic Paganism and a Stepped Pyramid
- 4,250 to 3,400 Year old Stonehenge from Russia: Arkaim?
- 4,100-year-old beaker with medicinal & flowering plants in a grave of a woman in Scotland
- Early European Farmer ancestry, Kelif el Boroud people with the Cardial Ware culture, and the Bell Beaker culture Paganists too, spread into North Africa, then to the Canary Islands off West Africa
- Flood Accounts: Gilgamesh epic (4,100 years ago) Noah in Genesis (2,600 years ago)
- Paganism 4,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (First Moralistic gods, then the Origin time of Monotheism)
- When was the beginning: TIMELINE OF CURRENT RELIGIONS, which start around 4,000 years ago.
- Early Religions Thought to Express Proto-Monotheistic Systems around 4,000 years ago
- Kultepe? An archaeological site with a 4,000 years old women’s rights document.
- Single God Religions (Monotheism) = “Man-o-theism” started around 4,000 years ago with the Great Sky Spirit/God Tiān (天)?
- Confucianism’s Tiān (Shangdi god 4,000 years old): Supernaturalism, Pantheism or Theism?
- Yes, Your Male God is Ridiculous
- Mythology, a Lunar Deity is a Goddess or God of the Moon
- Sacred Land, Hills, and Mountains: Sami Mythology (Paganistic Shamanism)
- Horse Worship/Sacrifice: mythical union of Ruling Elite/Kingship and the Horse
- The Amorite/Amurru people’s God Amurru “Lord of the Steppe”, relates to the Origins of the Bible God?
- Bronze Age Exotic Trade Routes Spread Quite Far as well as Spread Religious Ideas with Them
- Sami and the Northern Indigenous Peoples Landscape, Language, and its Connection to Religion
- Prototype of Ancient Analemmatic Sundials around 3,900-3,150 years ago and a Possible Solar Connection to gods?
- Judaism is around 3,450 or 3,250 years old. (“Paleo-Hebrew” 3,000 years ago and Torah 2,500 years ago)
- The Weakening of Ancient Trade and the Strengthening of Religions around 3000 years ago?
- Are you aware that there are religions that worship women gods, explain now religion tears women down?
- Animistic, Totemistic, and Paganistic Superstition Origins of bible god and the bible’s Religion.
- Myths and Folklore: “Trickster gods and goddesses”
- Jews, Judaism, and the Origins of Some of its Ideas
- An Old Branch of Religion Still Giving Fruit: Sacred Trees
- Dating the BIBLE: naming names and telling times (written less than 3,000 years ago, provable to 2,200 years ago)
- Did a Volcano Inspire the bible god?
- The Amorite/Amurru people’s God Amurru “Lord of the Steppe”, relates to the Origins of the Bible God?
- Dené–Yeniseian language, Old Copper Complex, and Pre-Columbian Mound Builders?
- No “dinosaurs and humans didn’t exist together just because some think they are in the bible itself”
- Sacred Shit and Sacred Animals?
- Everyone Killed in the Bible Flood? “Nephilim” (giants)?
- Hey, Damien dude, I have a question for you regarding “the bible” Exodus.
- Archaeology Disproves the Bible
- Bible Battle, Just More, Bible Babble
- The Jericho Conquest lie?
- Canaanites and Israelites?
- Accurate Account on how did Christianity Began?
- Let’s talk about Christianity.
- So the 10 commandments isn’t anything to go by either right?
- Misinformed christian
- Debunking Jesus?
- Paulism vs Jesus
- Ok, you seem confused so let’s talk about Buddhism.
- Unacknowledged Buddhism: Gods, Savior, Demons, Rebirth, Heavens, Hells, and Terrorism
- His Foolishness The Dalai Lama
- Yin and Yang is sexist with an ORIGIN around 2,300 years ago?
- I Believe Archaeology, not Myths & Why Not, as the Religious Myths Already Violate Reason!
- Archaeological, Scientific, & Philosophic evidence shows the god myth is man-made nonsense.
- Aquatic Ape Theory/Hypothesis? As Always, Just Pseudoscience.
- Ancient Aliens Conspiracy Theorists are Pseudohistorians
- The Pseudohistoric and Pseudoscientific claims about “Bakoni Ruins” of South Africa
- Why do people think Religion is much more than supernaturalism and superstitionism?
- Religion is an Evolved Product
- Was the Value of Ancient Women Different?
- 1000 to 1100 CE, human sacrifice Cahokia Mounds a pre-Columbian Native American site
- Feminist atheists as far back as the 1800s?
- Promoting Religion as Real is Mentally Harmful to a Flourishing Humanity
- Screw All Religions and Their Toxic lies, they are all fraud
- Forget Religions’ Unfounded Myths, I Have Substantiated “Archaeology Facts.”
- Religion Dispersal throughout the World
- I Hate Religion Just as I Hate all Pseudoscience
- Exposing Scientology, Eckankar, Wicca and Other Nonsense?
- Main deity or religious belief systems
- Quit Trying to Invent Your God From the Scraps of Science.
- Archaeological, Scientific, & Philosophic evidence shows the god myth is man-made nonsense.
- Ancient Alien Conspiracy Theorists: Misunderstanding, Rhetoric, Misinformation, Fabrications, and Lies
- Misinformation, Distortion, and Pseudoscience in Talking with a Christian Creationist
- Judging the Lack of Goodness in Gods, Even the Norse God Odin
- Challenging the Belief in God-like Aliens and Gods in General
- A Challenge to Christian use of Torture Devices?
- Yes, Hinduism is a Religion
- Trump is One of the Most Reactionary Forces of Far-right Christian Extremism
- Was the Bull Head a Symbol of God? Yes!
- Primate Death Rituals
- Christian – “God and Christianity are objectively true”
- Australopithecus afarensis Death Ritual?
- You Claim Global Warming is a Hoax?
- Doubter of Science and Defamer of Atheists?
- I think that sounds like the Bible?
- History of the Antifa (“anti-fascist”) Movements
- Indianapolis Anti-Blasphemy Laws #Free Soheil Rally
- Damien, you repeat the golden rule in so many forms then you say religion is dogmatic?
- Science is a Trustable Methodology whereas Faith is not Trustable at all!
- Was I ever a believer, before I was an atheist?
- Atheists rise in reason
- Mistrust of science?
- Open to Talking About the Definition of ‘God’? But first, we address Faith.
- ‘United Monarchy’ full of splendor and power – Saul, David, and Solomon? Most likely not.
- Is there EXODUS ARCHAEOLOGY? The short answer is “no.”
- Lacking Proof of Bigfoots, Unicorns, and Gods is Just a Lack of Research?
- Religion and Politics: Faith Beliefs vs. Rational Thinking
- Hammer of Truth that lying pig RELIGION: challenged by an archaeologist
- “The Hammer of Truth” -ontology question- What do You Mean by That?
- Navigation of a bad argument: Ad Hominem vs. Attack
- Why is it Often Claimed that Gods have a Gender?
- Why are basically all monotheistic religions ones that have a male god?
- Shifting through the Claims in support of Faith
- Dear Mr. AtHope, The 20th Century is an Indictment of Secularism and a Failed Atheist Century
- An Understanding of the Worldwide Statistics and Dynamics of Terrorist Incidents and Suicide Attacks
- Intoxication and Evolution? Addressing and Assessing the “Stoned Ape” or “Drunken Monkey” Theories as Catalysts in Human Evolution
- Sacred Menstrual cloth? Inanna’s knot, Isis knot, and maybe Ma’at’s feather?
- Damien, why don’t the Hebrews accept the bible stories?
- Dealing with a Troll and Arguing Over Word Meaning
- Knowledge without Belief? Justified beliefs or disbeliefs worthy of Knowledge?
- Afrocentrism and African Religions
- Crecganford @crecganford offers history & stories of the people, places, gods, & culture
- Empiricism-Denier?
I am not an academic. I am a revolutionary that teaches in public, in places like social media, and in the streets. I am not a leader by some title given but from my commanding leadership style of simply to start teaching everywhere to everyone, all manner of positive education.
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Low Gods “Earth” or Tutelary deity and High Gods “Sky” or Supreme deity
“An Earth goddess is a deification of the Earth. Earth goddesses are often associated with the “chthonic” deities of the underworld. Ki and Ninhursag are Mesopotamian earth goddesses. In Greek mythology, the Earth is personified as Gaia, corresponding to Roman Terra, Indic Prithvi/Bhūmi, etc. traced to an “Earth Mother” complementary to the “Sky Father” in Proto-Indo-European religion. Egyptian mythology exceptionally has a sky goddess and an Earth god.” ref
“A mother goddess is a goddess who represents or is a personification of nature, motherhood, fertility, creation, destruction or who embodies the bounty of the Earth. When equated with the Earth or the natural world, such goddesses are sometimes referred to as Mother Earth or as the Earth Mother. In some religious traditions or movements, Heavenly Mother (also referred to as Mother in Heaven or Sky Mother) is the wife or feminine counterpart of the Sky father or God the Father.” ref
“Any masculine sky god is often also king of the gods, taking the position of patriarch within a pantheon. Such king gods are collectively categorized as “sky father” deities, with a polarity between sky and earth often being expressed by pairing a “sky father” god with an “earth mother” goddess (pairings of a sky mother with an earth father are less frequent). A main sky goddess is often the queen of the gods and may be an air/sky goddess in her own right, though she usually has other functions as well with “sky” not being her main. In antiquity, several sky goddesses in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Near East were called Queen of Heaven. Neopagans often apply it with impunity to sky goddesses from other regions who were never associated with the term historically. The sky often has important religious significance. Many religions, both polytheistic and monotheistic, have deities associated with the sky.” ref
“In comparative mythology, sky father is a term for a recurring concept in polytheistic religions of a sky god who is addressed as a “father”, often the father of a pantheon and is often either a reigning or former King of the Gods. The concept of “sky father” may also be taken to include Sun gods with similar characteristics, such as Ra. The concept is complementary to an “earth mother“. “Sky Father” is a direct translation of the Vedic Dyaus Pita, etymologically descended from the same Proto-Indo-European deity name as the Greek Zeûs Pater and Roman Jupiter and Germanic Týr, Tir or Tiwaz, all of which are reflexes of the same Proto-Indo-European deity’s name, *Dyēus Ph₂tḗr. While there are numerous parallels adduced from outside of Indo-European mythology, there are exceptions (e.g. In Egyptian mythology, Nut is the sky mother and Geb is the earth father).” ref
Tutelary deity
“A tutelary (also tutelar) is a deity or spirit who is a guardian, patron, or protector of a particular place, geographic feature, person, lineage, nation, culture, or occupation. The etymology of “tutelary” expresses the concept of safety and thus of guardianship. In late Greek and Roman religion, one type of tutelary deity, the genius, functions as the personal deity or daimon of an individual from birth to death. Another form of personal tutelary spirit is the familiar spirit of European folklore.” ref
“A tutelary (also tutelar) in Korean shamanism, jangseung and sotdae were placed at the edge of villages to frighten off demons. They were also worshiped as deities. Seonangshin is the patron deity of the village in Korean tradition and was believed to embody the Seonangdang. In Philippine animism, Diwata or Lambana are deities or spirits that inhabit sacred places like mountains and mounds and serve as guardians. Such as: Maria Makiling is the deity who guards Mt. Makiling and Maria Cacao and Maria Sinukuan. In Shinto, the spirits, or kami, which give life to human bodies come from nature and return to it after death. Ancestors are therefore themselves tutelaries to be worshiped. And similarly, Native American beliefs such as Tonás, tutelary animal spirit among the Zapotec and Totems, familial or clan spirits among the Ojibwe, can be animals.” ref
“A tutelary (also tutelar) in Austronesian beliefs such as: Atua (gods and spirits of the Polynesian peoples such as the Māori or the Hawaiians), Hanitu (Bunun of Taiwan‘s term for spirit), Hyang (Kawi, Sundanese, Javanese, and Balinese Supreme Being, in ancient Java and Bali mythology and this spiritual entity, can be either divine or ancestral), Kaitiaki (New Zealand Māori term used for the concept of guardianship, for the sky, the sea, and the land), Kawas (mythology) (divided into 6 groups: gods, ancestors, souls of the living, spirits of living things, spirits of lifeless objects, and ghosts), Tiki (Māori mythology, Tiki is the first man created by either Tūmatauenga or Tāne and represents deified ancestors found in most Polynesian cultures). ” ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref
Mesopotamian Tutelary Deities can be seen as ones related to City-States
“Historical city-states included Sumerian cities such as Uruk and Ur; Ancient Egyptian city-states, such as Thebes and Memphis; the Phoenician cities (such as Tyre and Sidon); the five Philistine city-states; the Berber city-states of the Garamantes; the city-states of ancient Greece (the poleis such as Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and Corinth); the Roman Republic (which grew from a city-state into a vast empire); the Italian city-states from the Middle Ages to the early modern period, such as Florence, Siena, Ferrara, Milan (which as they grew in power began to dominate neighboring cities) and Genoa and Venice, which became powerful thalassocracies; the Mayan and other cultures of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica (including cities such as Chichen Itza, Tikal, Copán and Monte Albán); the central Asian cities along the Silk Road; the city-states of the Swahili coast; Ragusa; states of the medieval Russian lands such as Novgorod and Pskov; and many others.” ref
“The Uruk period (ca. 4000 to 3100 BCE; also known as Protoliterate period) of Mesopotamia, named after the Sumerian city of Uruk, this period saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia and the Sumerian civilization. City-States like Uruk and others had a patron tutelary City Deity along with a Priest-King.” ref
“Chinese folk religion, both past, and present, includes myriad tutelary deities. Exceptional individuals, highly cultivated sages, and prominent ancestors can be deified and honored after death. Lord Guan is the patron of military personnel and police, while Mazu is the patron of fishermen and sailors. Such as Tu Di Gong (Earth Deity) is the tutelary deity of a locality, and each individual locality has its own Earth Deity and Cheng Huang Gong (City God) is the guardian deity of an individual city, worshipped by local officials and locals since imperial times.” ref
“A tutelary (also tutelar) in Hinduism, personal tutelary deities are known as ishta-devata, while family tutelary deities are known as Kuladevata. Gramadevata are guardian deities of villages. Devas can also be seen as tutelary. Shiva is the patron of yogis and renunciants. City goddesses include: Mumbadevi (Mumbai), Sachchika (Osian); Kuladevis include: Ambika (Porwad), and Mahalakshmi. In NorthEast India Meitei mythology and religion (Sanamahism) of Manipur, there are various types of tutelary deities, among which Lam Lais are the most predominant ones. Tibetan Buddhism has Yidam as a tutelary deity. Dakini is the patron of those who seek knowledge.” ref
“A tutelary (also tutelar) The Greeks also thought deities guarded specific places: for instance, Athena was the patron goddess of the city of Athens. Socrates spoke of hearing the voice of his personal spirit or daimonion:
You have often heard me speak of an oracle or sign which comes to me … . This sign I have had ever since I was a child. The sign is a voice which comes to me and always forbids me to do something which I am going to do, but never commands me to do anything, and this is what stands in the way of my being a politician.” ref
“Tutelary deities who guard and preserve a place or a person are fundamental to ancient Roman religion. The tutelary deity of a man was his Genius, that of a woman her Juno. In the Imperial era, the Genius of the Emperor was a focus of Imperial cult. An emperor might also adopt a major deity as his personal patron or tutelary, as Augustus did Apollo. Precedents for claiming the personal protection of a deity were established in the Republican era, when for instance the Roman dictator Sulla advertised the goddess Victory as his tutelary by holding public games (ludi) in her honor.” ref
“Each town or city had one or more tutelary deities, whose protection was considered particularly vital in time of war and siege. Rome itself was protected by a goddess whose name was to be kept ritually secret on pain of death (for a supposed case, see Quintus Valerius Soranus). The Capitoline Triad of Juno, Jupiter, and Minerva were also tutelaries of Rome. The Italic towns had their own tutelary deities. Juno often had this function, as at the Latin town of Lanuvium and the Etruscan city of Veii, and was often housed in an especially grand temple on the arx (citadel) or other prominent or central location. The tutelary deity of Praeneste was Fortuna, whose oracle was renowned.” ref
“The Roman ritual of evocatio was premised on the belief that a town could be made vulnerable to military defeat if the power of its tutelary deity were diverted outside the city, perhaps by the offer of superior cult at Rome. The depiction of some goddesses such as the Magna Mater (Great Mother, or Cybele) as “tower-crowned” represents their capacity to preserve the city. A town in the provinces might adopt a deity from within the Roman religious sphere to serve as its guardian, or syncretize its own tutelary with such; for instance, a community within the civitas of the Remi in Gaul adopted Apollo as its tutelary, and at the capital of the Remi (present-day Rheims), the tutelary was Mars Camulus.” ref
Household deity (a kind of or related to a Tutelary deity)
“A household deity is a deity or spirit that protects the home, looking after the entire household or certain key members. It has been a common belief in paganism as well as in folklore across many parts of the world. Household deities fit into two types; firstly, a specific deity – typically a goddess – often referred to as a hearth goddess or domestic goddess who is associated with the home and hearth, such as the ancient Greek Hestia.” ref
“The second type of household deities are those that are not one singular deity, but a type, or species of animistic deity, who usually have lesser powers than major deities. This type was common in the religions of antiquity, such as the Lares of ancient Roman religion, the Gashin of Korean shamanism, and Cofgodas of Anglo-Saxon paganism. These survived Christianisation as fairy-like creatures existing in folklore, such as the Anglo-Scottish Brownie and Slavic Domovoy.” ref
“Household deities were usually worshipped not in temples but in the home, where they would be represented by small idols (such as the teraphim of the Bible, often translated as “household gods” in Genesis 31:19 for example), amulets, paintings, or reliefs. They could also be found on domestic objects, such as cosmetic articles in the case of Tawaret. The more prosperous houses might have a small shrine to the household god(s); the lararium served this purpose in the case of the Romans. The gods would be treated as members of the family and invited to join in meals, or be given offerings of food and drink.” ref
“In many religions, both ancient and modern, a god would preside over the home. Certain species, or types, of household deities, existed. An example of this was the Roman Lares. Many European cultures retained house spirits into the modern period. Some examples of these include:
- Brownie (Scotland and England) or Hob (England) / Kobold (Germany) / Goblin / Hobgoblin
- Domovoy (Slavic)
- Nisse (Norwegian or Danish) / Tomte (Swedish) / Tonttu (Finnish)
- Húsvættir (Norse)” ref
“Although the cosmic status of household deities was not as lofty as that of the Twelve Olympians or the Aesir, they were also jealous of their dignity and also had to be appeased with shrines and offerings, however humble. Because of their immediacy they had arguably more influence on the day-to-day affairs of men than the remote gods did. Vestiges of their worship persisted long after Christianity and other major religions extirpated nearly every trace of the major pagan pantheons. Elements of the practice can be seen even today, with Christian accretions, where statues to various saints (such as St. Francis) protect gardens and grottos. Even the gargoyles found on older churches, could be viewed as guardians partitioning a sacred space.” ref
“For centuries, Christianity fought a mop-up war against these lingering minor pagan deities, but they proved tenacious. For example, Martin Luther‘s Tischreden have numerous – quite serious – references to dealing with kobolds. Eventually, rationalism and the Industrial Revolution threatened to erase most of these minor deities, until the advent of romantic nationalism rehabilitated them and embellished them into objects of literary curiosity in the 19th century. Since the 20th century this literature has been mined for characters for role-playing games, video games, and other fantasy personae, not infrequently invested with invented traits and hierarchies somewhat different from their mythological and folkloric roots.” ref
“In contradistinction to both Herbert Spencer and Edward Burnett Tylor, who defended theories of animistic origins of ancestor worship, Émile Durkheim saw its origin in totemism. In reality, this distinction is somewhat academic, since totemism may be regarded as a particularized manifestation of animism, and something of a synthesis of the two positions was attempted by Sigmund Freud. In Freud’s Totem and Taboo, both totem and taboo are outward expressions or manifestations of the same psychological tendency, a concept which is complementary to, or which rather reconciles, the apparent conflict. Freud preferred to emphasize the psychoanalytic implications of the reification of metaphysical forces, but with particular emphasis on its familial nature. This emphasis underscores, rather than weakens, the ancestral component.” ref
“William Edward Hearn, a noted classicist, and jurist, traced the origin of domestic deities from the earliest stages as an expression of animism, a belief system thought to have existed also in the neolithic, and the forerunner of Indo-European religion. In his analysis of the Indo-European household, in Chapter II “The House Spirit”, Section 1, he states:
The belief which guided the conduct of our forefathers was … the spirit rule of dead ancestors.” ref
“In Section 2 he proceeds to elaborate:
It is thus certain that the worship of deceased ancestors is a vera causa, and not a mere hypothesis. …
In the other European nations, the Slavs, the Teutons, and the Kelts, the House Spirit appears with no less distinctness. … [T]he existence of that worship does not admit of doubt. … The House Spirits had a multitude of other names which it is needless here to enumerate, but all of which are more or less expressive of their friendly relations with man. … In [England] … [h]e is the Brownie. … In Scotland this same Brownie is well known. He is usually described as attached to particular families, with whom he has been known to reside for centuries, threshing the corn, cleaning the house, and performing similar household tasks. His favorite gratification was milk and honey.” ref
Hinduism around 3,700 to 3,500 years old. ref
Judaism around 3,450 or 3,250 years old. (The first writing in the bible was “Paleo-Hebrew” dated to around 3,000 years ago Khirbet Qeiyafa is the site of an ancient fortress city overlooking the Elah Valley. And many believe the religious Jewish texts were completed around 2,500) ref, ref
Judaism is around 3,450 or 3,250 years old. (“Paleo-Hebrew” 3,000 years ago and Torah 2,500 years ago)
“Judaism is an Abrahamic, its roots as an organized religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Some scholars argue that modern Judaism evolved from Yahwism, the religion of ancient Israel and Judah, by the late 6th century BCE, and is thus considered to be one of the oldest monotheistic religions.” ref
“Yahwism is the name given by modern scholars to the religion of ancient Israel, essentially polytheistic, with a plethora of gods and goddesses. Heading the pantheon was Yahweh, the national god of the Israelite kingdoms of Israel and Judah, with his consort, the goddess Asherah; below them were second-tier gods and goddesses such as Baal, Shamash, Yarikh, Mot, and Astarte, all of whom had their own priests and prophets and numbered royalty among their devotees, and a third and fourth tier of minor divine beings, including the mal’ak, the messengers of the higher gods, who in later times became the angels of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Yahweh, however, was not the ‘original’ god of Israel “Isra-El”; it is El, the head of the Canaanite pantheon, whose name forms the basis of the name “Israel”, and none of the Old Testament patriarchs, the tribes of Israel, the Judges, or the earliest monarchs, have a Yahwistic theophoric name (i.e., one incorporating the name of Yahweh).” ref
“El is a Northwest Semitic word meaning “god” or “deity“, or referring (as a proper name) to any one of multiple major ancient Near Eastern deities. A rarer form, ‘ila, represents the predicate form in Old Akkadian and in Amorite. The word is derived from the Proto-Semitic *ʔil-, meaning “god”. Specific deities known as ‘El or ‘Il include the supreme god of the ancient Canaanite religion and the supreme god of East Semitic speakers in Mesopotamia’s Early Dynastic Period. ʼĒl is listed at the head of many pantheons. In some Canaanite and Ugaritic sources, ʼĒl played a role as father of the gods, of creation, or both. For example, in the Ugaritic texts, ʾil mlk is understood to mean “ʼĒl the King” but ʾil hd as “the god Hadad“. The Semitic root ʾlh (Arabic ʾilāh, Aramaic ʾAlāh, ʾElāh, Hebrew ʾelōah) may be ʾl with a parasitic h, and ʾl may be an abbreviated form of ʾlh. In Ugaritic the plural form meaning “gods” is ʾilhm, equivalent to Hebrew ʾelōhîm “powers”. In the Hebrew texts this word is interpreted as being semantically singular for “god” by biblical commentators. However the documentary hypothesis for the Old Testament (corresponds to the Jewish Torah) developed originally in the 1870s, identifies these that different authors – the Jahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist, and the Priestly source – were responsible for editing stories from a polytheistic religion into those of a monotheistic religion. Inconsistencies that arise between monotheism and polytheism in the texts are reflective of this hypothesis.” ref
Jainism around 2,599 – 2,527 years old. ref
Confucianism around 2,600 – 2,551 years old. ref
Buddhism around 2,563/2,480 – 2,483/2,400 years old. ref
Christianity around 2,o00 years old. ref
Shinto around 1,305 years old. ref
Islam around 1407–1385 years old. ref
Knowledge to Ponder:
Stars/Astrology:
- Possibly, around 30,000 years ago (in simpler form) to 6,000 years ago, Stars/Astrology are connected to Ancestors, Spirit Animals, and Deities.
- The star also seems to be a possible proto-star for Star of Ishtar, Star of Inanna, or Star of Venus.
- Around 7,000 to 6,000 years ago, Star Constellations/Astrology have connections to the “Kurgan phenomenon” of below-ground “mound” stone/wood burial structures and “Dolmen phenomenon” of above-ground stone burial structures.
- Around 6,500–5,800 years ago, The Northern Levant migrations into Jordon and Israel in the Southern Levant brought new cultural and religious transfer from Turkey and Iran.
- “The Ghassulian Star,” a mysterious 6,000-year-old mural from Jordan may have connections to the European paganstic kurgan/dolmens phenomenon.
“Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Different cultures have employed forms of astrology since at least the 2nd millennium BCE, these practices having originated in calendrical systems used to predict seasonal shifts and to interpret celestial cycles as signs of divine communications. Most, if not all, cultures have attached importance to what they observed in the sky, and some—such as the Hindus, Chinese, and the Maya—developed elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from celestial observations. Western astrology, one of the oldest astrological systems still in use, can trace its roots to 19th–17th century BCE Mesopotamia, from where it spread to Ancient Greece, Rome, the Islamicate world and eventually Central and Western Europe. Contemporary Western astrology is often associated with systems of horoscopes that purport to explain aspects of a person’s personality and predict significant events in their lives based on the positions of celestial objects; the majority of professional astrologers rely on such systems.” ref
Around 5,500 years ago, Science evolves, The first evidence of science was 5,500 years ago and was demonstrated by a body of empirical, theoretical, and practical knowledge about the natural world. ref
Around 5,000 years ago, Origin of Logics is a Naturalistic Observation (principles of valid reasoning, inference, & demonstration) ref
Around 4,150 to 4,000 years ago: The earliest surviving versions of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, which was originally titled “He who Saw the Deep” (Sha naqba īmuru) or “Surpassing All Other Kings” (Shūtur eli sharrī) were written. ref
Hinduism:
- 3,700 years ago or so, the oldest of the Hindu Vedas (scriptures), the Rig Veda was composed.
- 3,500 years ago or so, the Vedic Age began in India after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization.
Judaism:
- around 3,000 years ago, the first writing in the bible was “Paleo-Hebrew”
- around 2,500 years ago, many believe the religious Jewish texts were completed
Myths: The bible inspired religion is not just one religion or one myth but a grouping of several religions and myths
- Around 3,450 or 3,250 years ago, according to legend, is the traditionally accepted period in which the Israelite lawgiver, Moses, provided the Ten Commandments.
- Around 2,500 to 2,400 years ago, a collection of ancient religious writings by the Israelites based primarily upon the Hebrew Bible, Tanakh, or Old Testament is the first part of Christianity’s bible.
- Around 2,400 years ago, the most accepted hypothesis is that the canon was formed in stages, first the Pentateuch (Torah).
- Around 2,140 to 2,116 years ago, the Prophets was written during the Hasmonean dynasty, and finally the remaining books.
- Christians traditionally divide the Old Testament into four sections:
- The first five books or Pentateuch (Torah).
- The proposed history books telling the history of the Israelites from their conquest of Canaan to their defeat and exile in Babylon.
- The poetic and proposed “Wisdom books” dealing, in various forms, with questions of good and evil in the world.
- The books of the biblical prophets, warning of the consequences of turning away from God:
- Henotheism:
- Exodus 20:23 “You shall not make other gods besides Me (not saying there are no other gods just not to worship them); gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves.”
- Polytheism:
- Judges 10:6 “Then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the sons of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; thus they forsook the LORD and did not serve Him.”
- 1 Corinthians 8:5 “For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords.”
- Monotheism:
- Isaiah 43:10 “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.
Around 2,570 to 2,270 Years Ago, there is a confirmation of atheistic doubting as well as atheistic thinking, mainly by Greek philosophers. However, doubting gods is likely as old as the invention of gods and should destroy the thinking that belief in god(s) is the “default belief”. The Greek word is apistos (a “not” and pistos “faithful,”), thus not faithful or faithless because one is unpersuaded and unconvinced by a god(s) claim. Short Definition: unbelieving, unbeliever, or unbelief.
Expressions of Atheistic Thinking:
- Around 2,600 years ago, Ajita Kesakambali, ancient Indian philosopher, who is the first known proponent of Indian materialism. ref
- Around 2,535 to 2,475 years ago, Heraclitus, Greek pre-Socratic philosopher, a native of the Greek city Ephesus, Ionia, on the coast of Anatolia, also known as Asia Minor or modern Turkey. ref
- Around 2,500 to 2,400 years ago, according to The Story of Civilization book series certain African pygmy tribes have no identifiable gods, spirits, or religious beliefs or rituals, and even what burials accrue are without ceremony. ref
- Around 2,490 to 2,430 years ago, Empedocles, Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of Agrigentum, a Greek city in Sicily. ref
- Around 2,460 to 2,370 years ago, Democritus, Greek pre-Socratic philosopher considered to be the “father of modern science” possibly had some disbelief amounting to atheism. ref
- Around 2,399 years ago or so, Socrates, a famous Greek philosopher was tried for sinfulness by teaching doubt of state gods. ref
- Around 2,341 to 2,270 years ago, Epicurus, a Greek philosopher known for composing atheistic critics and famously stated, “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him god?” ref
This last expression by Epicurus, seems to be an expression of Axiological Atheism. To understand and utilize value or actually possess “Value Conscious/Consciousness” to both give a strong moral “axiological” argument (the problem of evil) as well as use it to fortify humanism and positive ethical persuasion of human helping and care responsibilities. Because value-blindness gives rise to sociopathic/psychopathic evil.
While hallucinogens are associated with shamanism, it is alcohol that is associated with paganism.
The Atheist-Humanist-Leftist Revolutionaries Shows in the prehistory series:
Show two: Pre-animism 300,000 years old and animism 100,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”
Show tree: Totemism 50,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”
Show four: Shamanism 30,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”
Show five: Paganism 12,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”
Show six: Emergence of hierarchy, sexism, slavery, and the new male god dominance: Paganism 7,000-5,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Capitalism) (World War 0) Elite and their slaves!
Prehistory: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” the division of labor, power, rights, and recourses: VIDEO
Pre-animism 300,000 years old and animism 100,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”: VIDEO
Totemism 50,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”: VIDEO
Shamanism 30,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”: VIDEO
Paganism 12,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Pre-Capitalism): VIDEO
Paganism 7,000-5,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Capitalism) (World War 0) Elite and their slaves: VIEDO
Paganism 5,000 years old: progressed organized religion and the state: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Kings and the Rise of the State): VIEDO
Paganism 4,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (First Moralistic gods, then the Origin time of Monotheism): VIEDO
I do not hate simply because I challenge and expose myths or lies any more than others being thought of as loving simply because of the protection and hiding from challenge their favored myths or lies.
The truth is best championed in the sunlight of challenge.
An archaeologist once said to me “Damien religion and culture are very different”
My response, So are you saying that was always that way, such as would you say Native Americans’ cultures are separate from their religions? And do you think it always was the way you believe?
I had said that religion was a cultural product. That is still how I see it and there are other archaeologists that think close to me as well. Gods too are the myths of cultures that did not understand science or the world around them, seeing magic/supernatural everywhere.
I personally think there is a goddess and not enough evidence to support a male god at Çatalhöyük but if there was both a male and female god and goddess then I know the kind of gods they were like Proto-Indo-European mythology.
This series idea was addressed in, Anarchist Teaching as Free Public Education or Free Education in the Public: VIDEO
Our 12 video series: Organized Oppression: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of power (9,000-4,000 years ago), is adapted from: The Complete and Concise History of the Sumerians and Early Bronze Age Mesopotamia (7000-2000 BC): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szFjxmY7jQA by “History with Cy“
Show #1: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Samarra, Halaf, Ubaid)
Show #2: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power
Show #3: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Uruk and the First Cities)
Show #4: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (First Kings)
Show #5: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Early Dynastic Period)
Show #6: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power
Show #7: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Sargon and Akkadian Rule)
Show #9: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Gudea of Lagash and Utu-hegal)
Show #12: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Aftermath and Legacy of Sumer)
The “Atheist-Humanist-Leftist Revolutionaries”
Cory Johnston ☭ Ⓐ Atheist Leftist @Skepticallefty & I (Damien Marie AtHope) @AthopeMarie (my YouTube & related blog) are working jointly in atheist, antitheist, antireligionist, antifascist, anarchist, socialist, and humanist endeavors in our videos together, generally, every other Saturday.
Why Does Power Bring Responsibility?
Think, how often is it the powerless that start wars, oppress others, or commit genocide? So, I guess the question is to us all, to ask, how can power not carry responsibility in a humanity concept? I know I see the deep ethical responsibility that if there is power their must be a humanistic responsibility of ethical and empathic stewardship of that power. Will I be brave enough to be kind? Will I possess enough courage to be compassionate? Will my valor reach its height of empathy? I as everyone, earns our justified respect by our actions, that are good, ethical, just, protecting, and kind. Do I have enough self-respect to put my love for humanity’s flushing, over being brought down by some of its bad actors? May we all be the ones doing good actions in the world, to help human flourishing.
I create the world I want to live in, striving for flourishing. Which is not a place but a positive potential involvement and promotion; a life of humanist goal precision. To master oneself, also means mastering positive prosocial behaviors needed for human flourishing. I may have lost a god myth as an atheist, but I am happy to tell you, my friend, it is exactly because of that, leaving the mental terrorizer, god belief, that I truly regained my connected ethical as well as kind humanity.
Cory and I will talk about prehistory and theism, addressing the relevance to atheism, anarchism, and socialism.
At the same time as the rise of the male god, 7,000 years ago, there was also the very time there was the rise of violence, war, and clans to kingdoms, then empires, then states. It is all connected back to 7,000 years ago, and it moved across the world.
Cory Johnston: https://damienmarieathope.com/2021/04/cory-johnston-mind-of-a-skeptical-leftist/?v=32aec8db952d
The Mind of a Skeptical Leftist (YouTube)
Cory Johnston: Mind of a Skeptical Leftist @Skepticallefty
The Mind of a Skeptical Leftist By Cory Johnston: “Promoting critical thinking, social justice, and left-wing politics by covering current events and talking to a variety of people. Cory Johnston has been thoughtfully talking to people and attempting to promote critical thinking, social justice, and left-wing politics.” http://anchor.fm/skepticalleft
Cory needs our support. We rise by helping each other.
Cory Johnston ☭ Ⓐ @Skepticallefty Evidence-based atheist leftist (he/him) Producer, host, and co-host of 4 podcasts @skeptarchy @skpoliticspod and @AthopeMarie
Damien Marie AtHope (“At Hope”) Axiological Atheist, Anti-theist, Anti-religionist, Secular Humanist. Rationalist, Writer, Artist, Poet, Philosopher, Advocate, Activist, Psychology, and Armchair Archaeology/Anthropology/Historian.
Damien is interested in: Freedom, Liberty, Justice, Equality, Ethics, Humanism, Science, Atheism, Antiteism, Antireligionism, Ignosticism, Left-Libertarianism, Anarchism, Socialism, Mutualism, Axiology, Metaphysics, LGBTQI, Philosophy, Advocacy, Activism, Mental Health, Psychology, Archaeology, Social Work, Sexual Rights, Marriage Rights, Woman’s Rights, Gender Rights, Child Rights, Secular Rights, Race Equality, Ageism/Disability Equality, Etc. And a far-leftist, “Anarcho-Humanist.”
I am not a good fit in the atheist movement that is mostly pro-capitalist, I am anti-capitalist. Mostly pro-skeptic, I am a rationalist not valuing skepticism. Mostly pro-agnostic, I am anti-agnostic. Mostly limited to anti-Abrahamic religions, I am an anti-religionist.
To me, the “male god” seems to have either emerged or become prominent around 7,000 years ago, whereas the now favored monotheism “male god” is more like 4,000 years ago or so. To me, the “female goddess” seems to have either emerged or become prominent around 11,000-10,000 years ago or so, losing the majority of its once prominence around 2,000 years ago due largely to the now favored monotheism “male god” that grow in prominence after 4,000 years ago or so.
My Thought on the Evolution of Gods?
Animal protector deities from old totems/spirit animal beliefs come first to me, 13,000/12,000 years ago, then women as deities 11,000/10,000 years ago, then male gods around 7,000/8,000 years ago. Moralistic gods around 5,000/4,000 years ago, and monotheistic gods around 4,000/3,000 years ago.
Damien Marie AtHope (Said as “At” “Hope”)/(Autodidact Polymath but not good at math):
Axiological Atheist, Anti-theist, Anti-religionist, Secular Humanist, Rationalist, Writer, Artist, Jeweler, Poet, “autodidact” Philosopher, schooled in Psychology, and “autodidact” Armchair Archaeology/Anthropology/Pre-Historian (Knowledgeable in the range of: 1 million to 5,000/4,000 years ago). I am an anarchist socialist politically. Reasons for or Types of Atheism
My Website, My Blog, & Short-writing or Quotes, My YouTube, Twitter: @AthopeMarie, and My Email: damien.marie.athope@gmail.com