Leda and the Swan: possibly relates back to 24,000–15,000 years old Mal’ta–Buret’ culture, Lake Baikal, Siberia?

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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In my main prehistory art, above in this blog, I offer my speculations relating to art with possible religious/supernatural thinking, which I think are loose speculations/conjectures.

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“There are thirteen or fourteen representations of stylized birds at Mal’ta, found in the ‘male habitat’ areas, to the right of the fireplaces. They are made of mammoth ivory and, although their dimensions are unequal – the largest measuring 150 mm, and the smallest 50 mm, they are, by their form and style, remarkably homogeneous. The head has an irregular rhomboid outline, pointed upward and reminiscent, both in its form and in how it connects to the neck, of a snake’s head. It carries no figurative detail. The neck is represented by an elongated, slender cylinder, and as for most of these statuettes, its length is greater than half the total length of the figurine. It is likely that these statues are representations of birds, perhaps shaped like flying birds, but it seems worth noting the aspect ratios that may exist between them and the female idols, violin-shaped, which have been encountered in the Neolithic deposits of the Eastern Mediterranean and in the Caucasus.” ref

“Observations of a regularity in the distribution of the artifacts, the division of items left and right of the fireplaces: “… the male equipment (hunting weapons and bird figurines) was found to the right of the fireplaces. The female equipment (knives, scrapers, needles, awls, ornaments, statuettes of women) was found on the left.” A similar observation was made during the excavation of the circular house number 5: “Along the walls, the objects were divided into two groups: a male group (knives, bifaces, bone daggers, bird figurines) and a female group (necklaces of ivory, decorated objects, needles, awls, scrapers, knives, female statuette).” This is the first time such a distribution has been observed within a Paleolithic habitat, and it is conceivable that such an observation may be of interest. Moreover, it is equally important to remember that, at least in Mal’ta, the female statuettes are part of the female objects, while the figures of birds belong to the masculine objects.” ref

Mal’ta–Buret’ culture

“The Mal’ta–Buret’ culture (also Maltinsko-buretskaya culture) is an archaeological culture of the Upper Paleolithic (generally dated to 24,000-23,000 years ago but also sometimes to 15,000 years ago). It is located roughly northwest of Lake Baikal, about 90 km to the northwest of Irkutsk, on the banks of the upper Angara River. The type sites are named for the villages of Mal’ta (Мальта́), Usolsky District, and Buret’ (Буре́ть), Bokhansky District (both in Irkutsk Oblast).” ref

“A boy whose remains were found near Mal’ta is usually known by the abbreviation MA-1 remains have been dated to 24,000 years old belonged to the population of Ancient North Eurasians, who were genetically “intermediate between modern western Eurasians and Native Americans, but distant from east Asians”, and partial genetic ancestors of Siberians, Native Americans, and Bronze Age Yamnaya and Botai people of the Eurasian steppe. In particular, modern-day Native Americans, Kets, Mansi, and Selkup have been found to harbor a significant amount of ancestry related to MA-1.” ref

“Mal’ta consists of semi-subterranean houses that were built using large animal bones to assemble the walls, and reindeer antlers covered with animal skins to construct a roof that would protect the inhabitants from the harsh elements of the Siberian weather. These dwellings built from mammoth bones were similar to those found in Upper Paleolithic Western Eurasia, such as in the areas of France, Czechoslovakia, and Ukraine. Evidence seems to indicate that Mal’ta is the most ancient known site in eastern Siberia, with the nearby site of Buret’. However, relative dating illustrates some irregularities. The use of flint flaking and the absence of pressure flaking used in the manufacture of tools, as well as the continued use of earlier forms of tools, seem to confirm the fact that the site belongs to the early Upper Paleolithic. Yet it lacks typical skreblos (large side scrapers) that are common in other Siberian Paleolithic sites. Additionally, other common characteristics such as pebble cores, wedge-shaped cores, burins, and composite tools have never been found. The lack of these features, combined with an art style found in only one other nearby site (the Venus of Buret’), make Mal’ta culture unique in Siberia.” ref

“There were two main types of art during the Upper Paleolithic: mural art, which was concentrated in Western Europe, and portable art. Portable art, typically some type of carving in ivory tusk or antler, spans the distance across Western Europe into Northern and Central Asia. Artistic remains of expertly carved bone, ivory, and antler objects depicting birds and human females are the most commonly found; these objects are, collectively, the primary source of Mal’ta’s acclaim. In addition to the female statuettes there are bird sculptures depicting swans, geese, and ducks. Through ethnographic analogy comparing the ivory objects and burials at Mal’ta with objects used by 19th and 20th-century Siberian shamans, it has been suggested that they are evidence of a fully developed shamanism. Also, there are engraved representations on slabs of mammoth tusk. One is the figure of a mammoth, easily recognizable by the trunk, tusks, and thick legs. Wool also seems to be etched, by the placement of straight lines along the body. Another drawing depicts three snakes with their heads puffed up and turned to the side. It is believed that they were similar to cobras.” ref

“Perhaps the best example of Paleolithic portable art is something referred to as “Venus figurines“. The Mal’ta boy (dated 24,000 years ago) was buried with various artifacts and a Venus figurine. Until they were discovered in Mal’ta, “Venus figurines” were previously found only in Europe. Carved from the ivory tusk of a mammoth, these images were typically highly stylized, and often involved embellished and disproportionate characteristics (typically the breasts or buttocks). It is widely believed that these emphasized features were meant to be symbols of fertility. Around thirty female statuettes of varying shapes have been found in Mal’ta. The wide variety of forms, combined with the realism of the sculptures and the lack of repetitiveness in detail, are definite signs of developed, albeit early, art. At first glance, what is obvious is that the Mal’ta Venus figurines are of two types: full-figured women with exaggerated forms, and women with a thin, delicate form. Some of the figures are nude, while others have etchings that seem to indicate fur or clothing. Conversely, unlike those found in Europe, some of the Venus figurines from Mal’ta were sculpted with faces. Most of the figurines were tapered at the bottom, and it is believed that this was done to enable them to be stuck into the ground or otherwise placed upright. Placed upright, they could have symbolized the spirits of the dead, akin to “spirit dolls” used nearly worldwide, including in Siberia, among contemporary people.” ref

“The Mal’ta figurines garner interest in the western world because they seem to be of the same basic form as European female figurines of roughly the same time period, suggesting some cultural and cultic connection. This similarity between Mal’ta and Upper Paleolithic Europe coincides with other suggested similarities between the two, such as in their tools and dwelling structures. Genomic study shows that the Mal’ta people have no genetic connections to the Dolní Věstonice people from the Gravettian culture. The researchers conclude that the similarity between the figurines may be either due to cultural diffusion or to a coincidence, but not to common ancestry between the populations.” ref

“My thinking on Leda and the Swan: possibly relates back to 24,000–15,000 years old Mal’ta–Buret’ culture is me wondering if they have a 20,000-15,000-year belief connection. I think the phallic nature and their connection to men could give some rationale to speculations, though without a clearer reference, it may be just loose speculations/conjectures.”

My thoughts on speculations/conjectures:

Unreasoned speculations/conjectures

Wild speculations/conjectures

Loose speculations/conjectures

Justified speculations/conjectures

Reasoned speculations/conjectures

Sound/proven speculations/conjectures

It is known that DNA from Siberian R1b at 22,000 and R1a at 12,300 entered the Middle East and thus could have spread such thinking, and there is a 12,000-year-old artifact found in Israel that seems to depict a naked woman possibly being symbolically “mounted” from behind by a Swan/Goose? This seems somewhat clearer as a reference that points to a connection to later myths about Leda and the Swan. Thus, this added fact makes it seem more like a justified speculation/conjecture.

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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A 12,000-year-old Natufian Clay Figurine Artifact from Nahal Ein Gev II in Israel 

“Among thousands of small clay fragments excavated at the 12,000-year-old village site of Nahal Ein Gev II in northern Israel, around a mile east of the Sea of Galilee. The Natufian artifact was just 1.5 inches tall, but he could see that it had been expertly molded to depict a crouching woman with a bird perched on her back. They had not yet learned to farm, but they told stories. Archaeologists found one clay figurine that’s a very early representation of a narrative. But of what?” ref, ref

Geese and Swans of Israel:

• Graylag goose, Anser anser
• Greater white-fronted goose, Anser albifrons
• Lesser white-fronted goose, Anser erythropus (A)
• Taiga bean-goose, Anser fabalis (A)
• Tundra bean-goose, Anser serrirostris (A)
• Barnacle goose, Branta leucopsis (A)
• Red-breasted goose, Branta ruficollis (A
• Egyptian goose, Alopochen aegyptiacus (I)

• Mute swan, Cygnus olor
• Tundra swan, Cygnus columbianus (A)
• Whooper swan, Cygnus cygnus (A)

Nahal Ein Gev II

“Nahal Ein Gev II is a prehistoric archaeological site in northern Israel, where a village of the late Natufian culture was discovered. The site is located on the northern terrace of Ein Gev Stream (Hebrew: “Nahal Ein Gev”), about two kilometers east of the Sea of Galilee, on the southern slopes of the Golan Heights. The excavations at the site revealed a Natufian village, which includes a large and complex cemetery, a large number of stone buildings, and unique facilities. According to three carbon-14 dates, the site dates to a period between 12,550 and 12,000 years before our time (calibrated dates). This dating indicates the association of the site with the late Natufian culture of the Epipaleolithic period, as also appears from the study of the flint tools and other characteristics of the material culture at the site.” ref

“The site is important because of its archaeological findings and geographical location. The findings uncovered at the site have distinctly Natufian characteristics, but also have elements reminiscent of the later cultures of the early Neolithic period of the Levant. In the Jordan Valley, along the river’s upper and lower course, there are other Natufian sites from the same period, which may reflect a local population in the valley towards the end of the Natufian and the beginning of the Neolithic period. Because of this, Nahal Ein Gev II is a key site for studying the transition from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering that characterizes the Epipaleolithic period, to a life of agriculture and animal husbandry that represents the Neolithic period.” ref

“The excavations at the site revealed multiple architectural remains that reflect a complex settlement plan. The architectural remains are mostly large, rounded buildings, reaching about 5 meters in diameter and built from a combination of limestone and basalt. In many cases, the buildings were built with two parallel outer walls, and in some cases, flat stones were placed horizontally on top of the inner wall to form a bench. So far, 6 buildings have been excavated, and more than 10 are known on the site. The flint assemblage includes evidence of all the stages of chipping. Most of the fracturing products on the site are lithic flakes, something that characterizes the Natufian culture and the cultures of the Pre-Ceramic Neolithic A period (PPNA) in the region. The percentages of blades and flints are equal in frequency, a characteristic more typical of the Pre-Ceramic Neolithic A industries than of the Epipaleolithic.” ref

“The excavations at Nahal Ein Gev II revealed an early instance of innovative technological development: the production of high-quality lime plaster in large quantities. Lime plaster, in different qualities and production methods, is generally known from the Pre-Ceramic Neolithic period in the Levant. After research the production sequence of the plaster at the site was reconstructed. Remains of spindle whorls found at the from 12,000 years ago might be the oldest spindle whorls found to date. Over 20 intact and broken pieces of art were discovered at the site. The collection of art items includes bone items with engravings, stone items with unique engravings, as well as a rare find: a human face sculpted in a pebble.^[4] The jewelry and art pieces discovered in Nahal Ein Gav II reflect local styles, with aspects unique to the site. The pieces of art share many characteristics with findings from the early Natufian culture, but they also have stylistic characteristics in common with the art of the early Neolithic cultures.” ref

“Rich assemblages of unique art and craft items were discovered at the site, for example jewelry, limestone tools as well as stone and bone tools with engravings. The amount of beads, together with the assemblage of drilling tools and other drilled items, show an extensive jewelry manufacturing industry. Many of the jewelry are disk beads or cylindrical-shaped beads made of a wide variety of materials, but mostly seashells. The disk beads are usually made of Cardium oysters that originate from the Mediterranean Sea and a geological outcrop near the site. Production waste and beads in various stages of production and processing were discovered on the site, which indicates that the beads were produced locally. Similar assemblages of disc beads were discovered in Eynan and Huzuk Musa, also late Natufian sites in the Jordan Valley (the former north of NEG II and the Sea of Galilee, and the latter about halfway down toward the Dead Sea).” ref

“The assemblage of animal bones in Nahal Ein Gev II reflects increased exploitation of the natural environments in the Jordan Valley and the southern Golan. The intensive hunting methods are reflected in the exploitation of a wide variety of species, an abundance of small animal species (turtles and rabbits), and an emphasis on hunting young antelopes. On the site, there is also plenty of evidence of the exploitation of animals from the nearby water sources (fish and waterfowl).” ref

“Burials in close proximity to living spaces, and in particular associated with ruined and abandoned houses, is a new development and a peculiarity of the Natufian culture, interpreted as showing a lack of separation between the living and the dead in a society that gave up on much of its mobility and set roots in a specific territory. Burials were found in several areas of the site, but the most significant concentration is in building 5, to the north of the site. In building 3, a single burial of a woman was found under the wall of the building, which was probably already abandoned at the time of her burial. The burial place was carefully chosen and included dismantling the stone wall, placing the body, and rebuilding the wall. The woman’s burial position was very compressed, which raises the possibility that the body was bound or wrapped in organic material during the burial.” ref

“A large and complex cemetery was discovered in building 5. At least four burials were uncovered in a burial pit excavated in the test section. At the base of the pit, a young woman was buried in a contracted position. Around her whole body, and especially under her head, there was a hard white substance, which indicates that when she was buried she was covered with lime plaster. The bones of two other burials were found scattered around the burial. Many other burials were found in burial pits dug into the layer of plaster that covers the entire area of the cemetery. These pits constitute the second stage of burials in the structure. So far, the excavations have made it possible to define the boundaries of the plaster layer that covers the entire burial area and approaches the monumental wall of Building 5. The full extent of the cemetery and the depth of the layers in it are not yet fully known.” ref

Leda and the Swan

“Zeus, disguised as a swan, seduces Leda, the Queen of Sparta. A sixteenth-century copy of the lost original by Michelangelo.” ref

“Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces or rapes Leda. According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus, while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband Tyndareus, the King of Sparta.” ref

“In the W. B. Yeats version, it is subtly suggested that Clytemnestra, although being the daughter of Tyndareus, has somehow been traumatized by what the swan has done to her mother (see below). According to many versions of the story, Zeus took the form of a swan and raped Leda on the same night she slept with her husband King Tyndareus. In some versions, she laid two eggs from which the children hatched. In other versions, Helen is a daughter of Nemesis, the goddess who personified the disaster that awaited those suffering from the pride of Hubris.” ref

“The subject was rarely seen in the large-scale sculpture of antiquity, although a representation of Leda in sculpture has been attributed in modern times to Timotheus (compare illustration, below left); small-scale sculptures survive showing both reclining and standing poses, in cameos and engraved gems, rings, and terracotta oil lamps. Thanks to the literary renditions of Ovid and Fulgentius it was a well-known myth through the Middle Ages, but emerged more prominently as a classicizing theme, with erotic overtones, in the Italian Renaissance.” ref

Greek mythology

“Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the ancient Greeks, and a genre of Ancient Greek folklore. These stories concern the origin and nature of the world, the lives and activities of deities, heroes, and mythological creatures, and the origins and significance of the ancient Greeks’ own cult and ritual practices. Modern scholars study the myths to shed light on the religious and political institutions of ancient Greece, and to better understand the nature of myth-making itself.” ref

“The Greek myths were initially propagated in an oral-poetic tradition most likely by Minoan and Mycenaean singers starting in the 18th century BCE; eventually the myths of the heroes of the Trojan War and its aftermath became part of the oral tradition of Homer‘s epic poems, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Two poems by Homer’s near contemporary Hesiod, the Theogony and the Works and Days, contain accounts of the genesis of the world, the succession of divine rulers, the succession of human ages, the origin of human woes, and the origin of sacrificial practices. Myths are also preserved in the Homeric Hymns, in fragments of epic poems of the Epic Cycle, in lyric poems, in the works of the tragedians and comedians of the fifth century BCE, in writings of scholars and poets of the Hellenistic Age, and in texts from the time of the Roman Empire by writers such as Plutarch and Pausanias.” ref

“Aside from this narrative deposit in ancient Greek literature, pictorial representations of gods, heroes, and mythic episodes featured prominently in ancient vase paintings and the decoration of votive gifts and many other artifacts. Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth century BCE depict scenes from the Trojan cycle as well as the adventures of Heracles. In the succeeding Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence.” ref

“Greek mythology has had an extensive influence on the culture, arts, and literature of Western civilization and remains part of Western heritage and language. Poets and artists from ancient times to the present have derived inspiration from Greek mythology and have discovered contemporary significance and relevance in the themes.” ref

“The discovery of the Mycenaean civilization by the German amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in the nineteenth century, and the discovery of the Minoan civilization in Crete by the British archaeologist Arthur Evans in the twentieth century, helped to explain many existing questions about Homer’s epics and provided archaeological evidence for many of the mythological details about gods and heroes.” ref

“Unfortunately, the evidence about myths and rituals at Mycenaean and Minoan sites is entirely monumental, as the Linear B script (an ancient form of Greek found in both Crete and mainland Greece) was used mainly to record inventories, although certain names of gods and heroes have been tentatively identified.” ref

“Geometric designs on pottery of the eighth-century  BCE depict scenes from the Trojan cycle, as well as the adventures of Heracles. These visual representations of myths are important for two reasons. Firstly, many Greek myths are attested on vases earlier than in literary sources: of the twelve labors of Heracles, for example, only the Cerberus adventure occurs in a contemporary literary text.” ref

“Secondly, visual sources sometimes represent myths or mythical scenes that are not attested in any extant literary source. In some cases, the first known representation of a myth in geometric art predates its first known representation in late archaic poetry, by several centuries. In the Archaic (c. 750 – c. 500 BCE), Classical (c. 480–323 BCE), and Hellenistic (323–146 BCE) periods, Homeric and various other mythological scenes appear, supplementing the existing literary evidence.” ref

“Greek mythology has changed over time to accommodate the evolution of their culture, of which mythology, both overtly and in its unspoken assumptions, is an index of the changes. In Greek mythology’s surviving literary forms, as found mostly at the end of the progressive changes, it is inherently political, as Gilbert Cuthbertson (1975) has argued.” ref

“It is believed that the earlier inhabitants of the Balkan Peninsula were an agricultural people who, using animism, assigned a spirit to every aspect of nature. Eventually, these vague spirits assumed human forms and entered the local mythology as gods.  When tribes from the north of the Balkan Peninsula invaded, they brought with them a new pantheon of gods, based on conquest, force, prowess in battle, and violent heroism. Other older gods of the agricultural world fused with those of the more powerful invaders or else faded into insignificance.” ref

“After the middle of the Archaic period, myths about relationships between male gods and male heroes became more and more frequent, indicating the parallel development of pedagogic pederasty (παιδικὸς ἔρως, eros paidikos), thought to have been introduced around 630 BCE. By the end of the fifth-century  BCE, poets had assigned at least one eromenos, an adolescent boy who was their sexual companion, to every important god except Ares and many legendary figures. Previously existing myths, such as those of Achilles and Patroclus, also then were cast in a pederastic light.  Alexandrian poets at first, then more generally literary mythographers in the early Roman Empire, often re-adapted stories of Greek mythological characters in this fashion.” ref

“The achievement of epic poetry was to create story-cycles and, as a result, to develop a new sense of mythological chronology. Thus Greek mythology unfolds as a phase in the development of the world and of humans.  While self-contradictions in these stories make an absolute timeline impossible, an approximate chronology may be discerned.” ref

“The resulting mythological “history of the world” may be divided into three or four broader periods:

1. The myths of origin or age of gods (Theogonies, “births of gods”): myths about the origins of the world, the gods, and the human race.
2. The age when gods and mortals mingled freely: stories of the early interactions between gods, demigods, and mortals.
3. The age of heroes (heroic age), where divine activity was more limited. The last and greatest of the heroic legends is the story of the Trojan War and after (which is regarded by some researchers as a separate, fourth period).” ref

“While the age of gods often has been of more interest to contemporary students of myth, the Greek authors of the archaic and classical eras had a clear preference for the age of heroes, establishing a chronology and record of human accomplishments after the questions of how the world came into being were explained. For example, the heroic Iliad and Odyssey dwarfed the divine-focused Theogony and Homeric Hymns in both size and popularity. Under the influence of Homer the “hero cult” leads to a restructuring in spiritual life, expressed in the separation of the realm of the gods from the realm of the dead (heroes), of the Chthonic from the Olympian.” ref

“In the Works and Days, Hesiod makes use of a scheme of Four Ages of Man (or Races): Golden, Silver, Bronze, and Iron. These races or ages are separate creations of the gods, the Golden Age belonging to the reign of Cronos, the subsequent races to the creation of Zeus. The presence of evil was explained by the myth of Pandora, when all of the best of human capabilities, save hope, had been spilled out of her overturned jar. In Metamorphoses, Ovid follows Hesiod’s concept of the four ages.” ref

“According to Classical-era mythology, after the overthrow of the Titans, the new pantheon of gods and goddesses was confirmed. Among the principal Greek gods were the Olympians, residing on Mount Olympus under the eye of Zeus. (The limitation of their number to twelve seems to have been a comparatively modern idea.) Besides the Olympians, the Greeks worshipped various gods of the countryside, the satyr-god Pan, Nymphs (spirits of rivers), Naiads (who dwelled in springs), Dryads (who were spirits of the trees), Nereids (who inhabited the sea), river gods, Satyrs, and others.” ref

“In addition, there were the dark powers of the underworld, such as the Erinyes (or Furies), said to pursue those guilty of crimes against blood-relatives. In order to honor the Ancient Greek pantheon, poets composed the Homeric Hymns (a group of thirty-three songs). Gregory Nagy (1992) regards “the larger Homeric Hymns as simple preludes (compared with Theogony), each of which invokes one god.” ref

“The gods of Greek mythology are described as having essentially corporeal but ideal bodies. According to Walter Burkert, the defining characteristic of Greek anthropomorphism is that “the Greek gods are persons, not abstractions, ideas or concepts.”  Regardless of their underlying forms, the Ancient Greek gods have many fantastic abilities; most significantly, the gods are not affected by disease, and can be wounded only under highly unusual circumstances. The Greeks considered immortality as the distinctive characteristic of their gods; this immortality, as well as unfading youth, was insured by the constant use of nectar and ambrosia, by which the divine blood was renewed in their veins.” ref

“Each god descends from his or her own genealogy, pursues differing interests, has a certain area of expertise, and is governed by a unique personality; however, these descriptions arise from a multiplicity of archaic local variants, which do not always agree with one another. When these gods are called upon in poetry, prayer, or cult, they are referred to by a combination of their name and epithets, that identify them by these distinctions from other manifestations of themselves (e.g., Apollo Musagetes is “Apollo, [as] leader of the Muses“). Alternatively, the epithet may identify a particular and localized aspect of the god, sometimes thought to be already ancient during the classical epoch of Greece.” ref

“Most gods were associated with specific aspects of life. For example, Aphrodite was the goddess of love and beauty, Ares was the god of war, Hades the ruler of the underworld, and Athena the goddess of wisdom and courage. Some gods, such as Apollo and Dionysus, revealed complex personalities and mixtures of functions, while others, such as Hestia (literally “hearth”) and Helios (literally “sun”), were little more than personifications.” ref

“The most impressive temples tended to be dedicated to a limited number of gods, who were the focus of large pan-Hellenic cults. It was, however, common for individual regions and villages to devote their own cults to minor gods. Many cities also honored the more well-known gods with unusual local rites and associated strange myths with them that were unknown elsewhere. During the heroic age, the cult of heroes (or demigods) supplemented that of the gods.” ref

Mythology Origin Theories

“Max Müller attempted to understand an Indo-European religious form by tracing it back to its Indo-European (or, in Müller’s time, “Aryan“) “original” manifestation. In 1891, he claimed that “the most important discovery which has been made during the nineteenth century concerning the ancient history of mankind … was this sample equation: Sanskrit Dyaus-pitar = Greek Zeus = Latin Jupiter = Old Norse Tyr. ” ref

“The question of Greek mythology’s place in Indo-European studies has generated much scholarship since Müller’s time. For example, philologist Georges Dumézil draws a comparison between the Greek Uranus and the Sanskrit Varuna, although there is no hint that he believes them to be originally connected. In other cases, close parallels in character and function suggest a common heritage, yet lack of linguistic evidence makes it difficult to prove, as in the case of the Greek Moirai and the Norns of Norse mythology.” ref

It appears that the Mycenaean religion was the mother of the Greek religion and its pantheon already included many divinities that can be found in classical Greece. However, Greek mythology is generally seen as having heavy influence of Pre-Greek and Near Eastern cultures, and as such contains few important elements for the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European religion. Consequently, Greek mythology received minimal scholarly attention in the context of Indo-European comparative mythology until the mid 2000s.” ref

“Archaeology and mythography have revealed influence from Asia Minor and the Near East. Adonis seems to be the Greek counterpart—more clearly in cult than in myth—of a Near Eastern “dying god”. Cybele is rooted in Anatolian culture while much of Aphrodite’s iconography may spring from Semitic goddesses. There are also possible parallels between the earliest divine generations (Chaos and its children) and Tiamat in the Enuma Elish. According to Meyer Reinhold, “near Eastern theogonic concepts, involving divine succession through violence and generational conflicts for power, found their way…into Greek mythology.” ref

“In addition to Indo-European and Near Eastern origins, some scholars have speculated on the debts of Greek mythology to the indigenous pre-Greek societies: Crete, Mycenae, Pylos, Thebes, and Orchomenus.  Historians of religion were fascinated by a number of apparently ancient configurations of myth connected with Crete (the god as bull, Zeus and Europa, Pasiphaë who yields to the bull and gives birth to the Minotaur, etc.). Martin P. Nilsson asserts, based on the representations and general function of the gods, that a lot of Minoan gods and religious conceptions were fused in the Mycenaean religion. and concluded that all great classical Greek myths were tied to Mycenaean centers and anchored in prehistoric times. Nevertheless, according to Burkert, the iconography of the Cretan Palace Period has provided almost no confirmation for these theories.” ref

Proto-Indo-European Mythology

“Proto-Indo-European mythology is the body of myths and deities associated with the Proto-Indo-Europeans, the hypothetical speakers of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European language. Although the mythological motifs are not directly attested – since Proto-Indo-European speakers lived in preliterate societies – scholars of comparative mythology have reconstructed details from inherited similarities found among Indo-European languages, based on the assumption that parts of the Proto-Indo-Europeans’ original belief systems survived in the daughter traditions.” ref

“The Proto-Indo-European pantheon includes a number of securely reconstructed deities, since they are both cognates – linguistic siblings from a common origin –, and associated with similar attributes and body of myths: such as *Dyḗws Ph₂tḗr, the daylight-sky god; his consort *Dʰéǵʰōm, the earth mother; his daughter *H₂éwsōs, the dawn goddess; his sons the Divine Twins; and *Seh₂ul, a solar goddess. Some deities, like the weather god *Perkʷunos or the herding-god *Péh₂usōn, are only attested in a limited number of traditions – Western (European) and Graeco-Aryan, respectively – and could therefore represent late additions that did not spread throughout the various Indo-European dialects.” ref

“Some myths are also securely dated to Proto-Indo-European times, since they feature both linguistic and thematic evidence of an inherited motif: a story portraying a mythical figure associated with thunder and slaying a multi-headed serpent to release torrents of water that had previously been pent up; a creation myth involving two brothers, one of whom sacrifices the other in order to create the world; and probably the belief that the Otherworld was guarded by a watchdog and could only be reached by crossing a river.” ref

“Various schools of thought exist regarding possible interpretations of the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European mythology. The main mythologies used in comparative reconstruction are Indo-Iranian, Baltic, Roman, and Norse, often supported with evidence from the Celtic, Greek, Slavic, Hittite, Armenian, Illyrian, and Albanian traditions as well.” ref

Mal’ta–Buret’ Culture

“The Mal’ta–Buret’ culture is an archaeological culture of c. 24,000 to 15,000 BP / 22’050 to 13’050 BC in the Upper Paleolithic on the upper Angara River in the area west of Lake Baikal in the Irkutsk Oblast, Siberia, Russian Federation. The type sites are named for the villages of Mal’ta (Мальта́), Usolsky District and Buret’ (Буре́ть), Bokhansky District (both in Irkutsk Oblast).” ref

“A boy whose remains were found near Mal’ta is usually known by the abbreviation MA-1 (or MA1). Discovered in the 1920s, the remains have been dated to 24,000 BP. According to research published since 2013, MA-1 belonged to a population related to the genetic ancestors of Siberians, American Indians, and Bronze Age Yamnaya and Botai people of the Eurasian steppe. In particular, modern-day Native Americans, Kets, Mansi, and Selkup have been found to harbour a significant amount of ancestry related to MA-1.” ref

“MA-1 is the only known example of basal Y-DNA R* (R-M207*) – that is, the only member of haplogroup R* that did not belong to haplogroups R1, R2 or secondary subclades of these. The mitochondrial DNA of MA-1 belonged to an unresolved subclade of haplogroup U.” ref

“The term Ancient North Eurasian (ANE) has been given in genetic literature to an ancestral component that represents descent from the people similar to the Mal’ta–Buret’ culture or a population closely related to them. The ANE population is considered to have been “basal to modern-day western Eurasians” but not especially related to east Asians, and suggested to have perhaps originally lived in Europe or Western Asia. According to Lazaridis et al. 2014, the common ancestor of ANEs and WHGs (western European hunter-gatherers) separated from eastern Eurasians around 40,000 BCE, and ANEs split from WHGs around 22,000 BCE.” ref

“(ANE is also described as a lineage “which is deeply related to Paleolithic/Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in Europe…”). Genomic studies by Raghavan et al. (2014) and Fu et al. (2016) found Mal’ta Buret boy had brown eyes, dark hair, and dark skin. According to a study by Kanazawa-Kiriyama et al. (2017), MA-1/Mal’ta may have also carried an East Eurasian/ Native American-related (Karitiana) component (around 21% of his ancestry), with the rest being West Eurasian-related.” ref

“A people similar to MA1 and Afontova Gora were important genetic contributors to Native Americans, Siberians, Europeans, Caucasians, Central Asians, with smaller contributions to Middle Easterners and some East Asians. Lazaridis et al. (2016) notes “a cline of ANE ancestry across the east-west extent of Eurasia.” A 2016 study found that the global maximum of ANE ancestry occurs in modern-day Kets, Mansi, Native Americans, and Selkups. Additionally, it has been reported in ancient Bronze-age-steppe Yamnaya and Afanasevo cultures.” ref

“Between 14 and 38 percent of Native American ancestry may originate from gene flow from the Mal’ta–Buret’ people, while the other gene flow in Native Americans appears to have an Eastern Eurasian origin. MA1 is also related to two older Upper Paleolithic Siberian individuals found near the Yana river called Ancient North Siberians (ANS) and to Tianyuan man from Upper Paleolithic China.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Male “King/Ruler/Chief” was likely the first ritual sex with the sacred horse completing the ceremony then it changed to chief queen likely having sex with the horse then only as a symbolic act of chief queen laying down with a suffocated horse beneath a linen blanket and mimicked sex.

“Man/god with horse-sized penis participating in royal/fertility ritual? Indo-European horse-sacrifice is one of the world’s most ancient and widespread traditions. The great Indo-European tradition of horse sacrifice in a 4000-year historic context, from the Sintashta culture in Russia in the east to historical Scandinavia in the west. In a brief history of Indo-European studies on the great horse sacrifices, we will present Indian, Irish, Greek, and Roman sacrificial traditions and
discuss how similarities across time and space have, for over a century, led different scholars to retrace these traditions to a common ‘Proto-Indo-European’ origin.” ref

Mythology: Horse worship and White horse (mythology)

“The reconstructed myth involves the coupling of a king with a divine mare which produced the divine twins. A related myth is that of a hero magically twinned with a horse foaled at the time of his birth (for example Cuchulainn, Pryderi), suggested to be fundamentally the same myth as that of the divine twin horsemen by the mytheme of a “mare-suckled” hero from Greek and medieval Serbian evidence, or mythical horses with human traits (Xanthos), suggesting totemic identity of the hero or king with the horse.” ref

Vedic (Indian): Ashvamedha

“Ashvamedha was a political ritual that was focused on the king’s right to rule. The horse had to be a stallion and it would be permitted to wander for a year, accompanied by people of the king. If the horse roamed off into lands of an enemy then that territory would be taken by the king, and if the horse’s attendants were killed in a fight by a challenger then the king would lose the right to rule. But if the horse stayed alive for a year then it was taken back to the king’s court where it was bathed, consecrated with butter, decorated with golden ornaments, and then sacrificed. After the completion of this ritual, the king would be considered as the undisputed ruler of the land which was covered by the horse.” ref

1. “the sacrifice is connected with the elevation or inauguration of a member of the Kshatriya warrior caste
2. the ceremony took place in spring or early summer
3. the horse sacrificed was a stallion which won a race at the right side of the chariot
4. the horse sacrificed was white-colored with dark circular spots, or with a dark front part, or with a tuft of dark blue hair
5. it was bathed in water, in which mustard and sesame are mixed
6. it was suffocated alongside a hornless ram and a he-goat, among other animals
7. the chief queen lay down with the suffocated horse beneath a linen blanket and mimicked sexual intercourse with it, while the other queens perambulated the scene, slapping their thighs and fanning themselves
8. the stallion was dissected along the “knife-paths” — with three knives made from gold, copper, and iron — and its portions awarded to various deities, symbolically invoking sky, atmosphere, and earth, while other priests started reciting the verses of Vedas, seeking healing and rejuvenation for the horse.” ref

History of Zoophilia

“The history of zoophilia and bestiality begins in the prehistoric era, where depictions of humans and animals in a sexual context appear infrequently in European rock art. Bestiality remained a theme in mythology and folklore through the classical period and into the Middle Ages (e.g. the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan) and several ancient authors purported to document it as a regular, accepted practice—albeit usually in “other” cultures.” ref

“Explicit legal prohibition of human sexual contact with animals is a legacy of the Abrahamic religions: the Hebrew Bible imposes the death penalty on both the person and animal involved in an act of bestiality. There are several examples known from medieval Europe of people and animals executed for committing bestiality. With the Age of Enlightenment, bestiality was subsumed with other sexual “crimes against nature” into civil sodomy laws, usually remaining a capital crime.” ref

“Bestiality remains illegal in most countries. Arguments used to justify this include: it is against religion, it is a “crime against nature,” and that non-human animals cannot give consent and that sex with animals is inherently abusive. In common with many paraphilias, the internet has provided a connective platform for the zoophile community, which has lobbied for the recognition of zoophilia or zoosexuality as an alternative sexuality, and advocated for the legalisation of animal sexual abuse.” ref

“Depictions of human sexual activity with animals appear infrequently in prehistoric art. Possibly the oldest depiction, and the only known example from the Palaeolithic (prior to the domestication of animals), is found in the Vale do Côa in Portugal. It shows a man with an exaggerated, erect penis juxtaposed with a goat. However, there is some doubt that the two figures are contemporary; while the goat is depicted in characteristic palaeolithic style, the scene may have been altered in a later period with the insertion of the human figure.” ref

“From the Neolithic onwards, images of zoophilia are slightly more common. Examples are found at Coren del Valento, a cave in Val Camonica, Italy, containing rock art dating from 10,000 BCE to as late as the Middle Ages, one depicting a man penetrating a horse, and Sagaholm, a Bronze Age cairn in Sweden where several petroglyphs have been found with similar scenes.” ref

“Several Greek myths include the God Zeus seducing or abducting favored mortals while in the form of an animal: Europa and the bull, Ganymede and the eagle, and Leda and the Swan. Only the latter legend includes actual copulation between Leda and Zeus in his animal form, but depictions of this act, fairly uncommon in antiquity, became a popular motif in classicizing Renaissance art, contributing to a lasting prominence in Western culture. There is a Zoophilia carving on Rock with Old Kannada script engraved at Kedareshvara Temple, Balligavi.” ref

‘Various classical writers recorded that bestiality was common in other cultures. Herodotus was followed by Pindar, Strabo, and Plutarch in alleging that Egyptian women engaged in sexual relations with goats for religious and magical purposes – the animal aspects of Egyptian deities being particularly alien to the Greco-Roman world. Conversely, Plutarch and Virgil make similar accusations of the Greeks, with Plutarch writing in his Discourse on the Reason of Beasts that they committed “very frequently and in many places great outrages, disorders, and scandals against nature, in the matter of this pleasure of love; for there are men who have loved she-goats, sows, and mares.” ref

“Despite their place in mythology and literature, actual acts of bestiality were probably as uncommon in antiquity as they are today. Roman civil law, however, made no mention of it. The explicit prohibition of and strict penalties for zoophilia universal in later European legal systems were derived from Jewish and Christian tradition. The Hebrew Bible imposes the death penalty on both the human and animal parties involved in an act of bestiality: “if a man has sexual relations with an animal, he shall be put to death; and you shall kill the animal.” ref

“The Synod of Ancyra in 313–316 discussed the position of the church with regard to bestiality at length and two of the resulting twenty-five canons addressed it: the sixteenth canon described the penance and level of restrictions to be applied to various age groups for committing bestiality; the seventeenth canon prohibited all lepers from praying inside church if they had committed bestiality while they suffered from leprosy. Hittite law mandated the death penalty for intercourse with animals, excluding horses and mules (violators were instead barred from the priesthood and from approaching the king).” ref

Horse Worship/Sacrifice: mythical union of Ruling Elite/Kingship and the Horse

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Groups partially derived from the Ancient North Eurasians

“The ANE lineage is defined by association with the MA-1, or “Mal’ta boy”, remains of 24,000 years ago in central Siberia Mal’ta-Buret’ culture 24,000-15,000 years ago. The Ancient North Eurasians (ANE) samples (Afontova Gora 3, Mal’ta 1, and Yana-RHS) show evidence for minor gene flow from an East Asian-related group (simplified by the Amis, Han, or Tianyuan) but no evidence for ANE-related geneflow into East Asians (Amis, Han, Tianyuan), except the Ainu, of North Japan.” ref 

“The ANE lineage is defined by association with the MA-1, or “Mal’ta boy”, remains of 24,000 years ago in central Siberia Mal’ta-Buret’ culture 24,000-15,000 years ago “basal to modern-day Europeans”. Some Ancient North Eurasians also carried East Asian populations, such as Tianyuan Man.” ref

“Bronze-age-steppe Yamnaya and Afanasevo cultures were ANE at around 50% and Eastern Hunter-Gatherer (EHG) at around 75% ANE. Karelia culture: Y-DNA R1a-M417 8,400 years ago, Y-DNA J, 7,200 years ago, and Samara, of Y-haplogroup R1b-P297 7,600 years ago is closely related to ANE from Afontova Gora, 18,000 years ago around the time of blond hair first seen there.” ref 

Ancient North Eurasian

“In archaeogenetics, the term Ancient North Eurasian (often abbreviated as ANE) is the name given to an ancestral West Eurasian component that represents descent from the people similar to the Mal’ta–Buret’ culture and populations closely related to them, such as from Afontova Gora and the Yana Rhinoceros Horn Site. Significant ANE ancestry are found in some modern populations, including Europeans and Native Americans.” ref 

“The ANE lineage is defined by association with the MA-1, or “Mal’ta boy“, the remains of an individual who lived during the Last Glacial Maximum, 24,000 years ago in central Siberia, Ancient North Eurasians are described as a lineage “which is deeply related to Paleolithic/Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in Europe,” meaning that they diverged from Paleolithic Europeans a long time ago.” ref

“The ANE population has also been described as having been “basal to modern-day Europeans” but not especially related to East Asians, and is suggested to have perhaps originated in Europe or Western Asia or the Eurasian Steppe of Central Asia. However, some samples associated with Ancient North Eurasians also carried ancestry from an ancient East Asian population, such as Tianyuan Man. Sikora et al. (2019) found that the Yana RHS sample (31,600 BP) in Northern Siberia “can be modeled as early West Eurasian with an approximately 22% contribution from early East Asians.” ref

“Populations genetically similar to MA-1 were an important genetic contributor to Native Americans, Europeans, Central Asians, South Asians, and some East Asian groups, in order of significance. Lazaridis et al. (2016:10) note “a cline of ANE ancestry across the east-west extent of Eurasia.” The ancient Bronze-age-steppe Yamnaya and Afanasevo cultures were found to have a noteworthy ANE component at ~50%.” ref

“According to Moreno-Mayar et al. 2018 between 14% and 38% of Native American ancestry may originate from gene flow from the Mal’ta–Buret’ people (ANE). This difference is caused by the penetration of posterior Siberian migrations into the Americas, with the lowest percentages of ANE ancestry found in Eskimos and Alaskan Natives, as these groups are the result of migrations into the Americas roughly 5,000 years ago.” ref 

“Estimates for ANE ancestry among first wave Native Americans show higher percentages, such as 42% for those belonging to the Andean region in South America. The other gene flow in Native Americans (the remainder of their ancestry) was of East Asian origin. Gene sequencing of another south-central Siberian people (Afontova Gora-2) dating to approximately 17,000 years ago, revealed similar autosomal genetic signatures to that of Mal’ta boy-1, suggesting that the region was continuously occupied by humans throughout the Last Glacial Maximum.” ref

“The earliest known individual with a genetic mutation associated with blonde hair in modern Europeans is an Ancient North Eurasian female dating to around 16000 BCE from the Afontova Gora 3 site in Siberia. It has been suggested that their mythology may have included a narrative, found in both Indo-European and some Native American fables, in which a dog guards the path to the afterlife.” ref

“Genomic studies also indicate that the ANE component was introduced to Western Europe by people related to the Yamnaya culture, long after the Paleolithic. It is reported in modern-day Europeans (7%–25%), but not of Europeans before the Bronze Age. Additional ANE ancestry is found in European populations through paleolithic interactions with Eastern Hunter-Gatherers, which resulted in populations such as Scandinavian Hunter-Gatherers.” ref

“The Ancient North Eurasians (ANE) split from the ancestors of European peoples somewhere in the Middle East or South-central Asia, and used a northern dispersal route through Central Asia into Northern Asia and Siberia. Genetic analyses show that all ANE samples (Afontova Gora 3, Mal’ta 1, and Yana-RHS) show evidence for minor gene flow from an East Asian-related group (simplified by the Amis, Han, or Tianyuan). In contrast, no evidence for ANE-related geneflow into East Asians (Amis, Han, Tianyuan), except the Ainu, was found.” ref

“Genetic data suggests that the ANE formed during the Terminal Upper-Paleolithic (36+-1,5ka) period from a deeply European-related population, which was once widespread in Northern Eurasia, and from an early East Asian-related group, which migrated northwards into Central Asia and Siberia, merging with this deeply European-related population. These population dynamics and constant northwards geneflow of East Asian-related ancestry would later gave rise to the “Ancestral Native Americans” and Paleosiberians, which replaced the ANE as dominant population of Siberia.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Chauvet cave

“The Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave in the Ardèche department of southeastern France is a cave that contains some of the best-preserved figurative cave paintings in the world, as well as other evidence of Upper Paleolithic life. It is located near the commune of Vallon-Pont-d’Arc on a limestone cliff above the former bed of the river Ardèche, in the Gorges de l’Ardèche. The dates have been a matter of dispute but a study published in 2012 supports placing the art in the Aurignacian period, approximately 32,000–30,000 years ago. A study published in 2016 using additional 88 radiocarbon dates showed two periods of habitation, one from 37,000 to 33,500 years ago and the second from 31,000 to 28,000 years ago, with most of the black drawings dating to the earlier period.” ref

“Hundreds of animal paintings have been cataloged, depicting at least 13 different species, including some rarely or never found in other ice age paintings. Rather than depicting only the familiar herbivores that predominate in Paleolithic cave art, i.e. horses, aurochs, mammoths, etc., the walls of the Chauvet Cave feature many predatory animals, e.g., cave lions, leopards, bears, and cave hyenas. There are also paintings of rhinoceroses. Typical of most cave art, there are no paintings of complete human figures, although there is one partial “Venus” figure composed of what appears to be a vulva attached to an incomplete pair of legs. Above the Venus, and in contact with it, is a bison head, which has led some to describe the composite drawing as a Minotaur. There are a few panels of red ochre hand prints and hand stencils made by blowing pigment over hands pressed against the cave surface. Abstract markings—lines and dots—are found throughout the cave. There are also two unidentifiable images that have a vaguely butterfly or avian shape to them. This combination of subjects has led some students of prehistoric art and cultures to believe that there was a ritual, shamanic, or magical aspect to these paintings.” ref

“One drawing, later overlaid with a sketch of a deer, is reminiscent of a volcano spewing lava, similar to the regional volcanoes that were active at the time. If confirmed, this would represent the earliest known drawing of a volcanic eruption. The artists who produced these paintings used techniques rarely found in other cave art. Many of the paintings appear to have been made only after the walls were scraped clear of debris and concretions, leaving a smoother and noticeably lighter area upon which the artists worked. Similarly, a three-dimensional quality and the suggestion of movement are achieved by incising or etching around the outlines of certain figures. The art is also exceptional for its time for including “scenes”, e.g., animals interacting with each other; a pair of woolly rhinoceroses, for example, are seen butting horns in an apparent contest for territory or mating rights.” ref

Aurignacian burials (around 37,000-30,000 years ago) belong to the early phase of this period in Europe. Examples have been excavated at Cave of Cavillon, Liguria – a burial wearing a cap of netted whelk shells with a border of deer’s teeth, red ochre around the face, and a bone awl at the side. ref

Aurignacian in the Zagros region dates back to about 35,500 years ago at Yafteh Cave, Lorestan, Iran. ref 

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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1. Kebaran culture 23,022-16,522 Years Ago, 2. Kortik Tepe 12,422-11,722 Years Ago, 3. Jerf el-Ahmar 11,222 -10,722 Years Ago, 4. Gobekli Tepe 11,152-9,392 Years Ago, 5. Tell Al-‘abrUbaid and Uruk Periods, 6. Nevali Cori 10,422 -10,122 Years Ago, 7. Catal Hoyuk 9,522-7,722 Years Ago

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24,000 Years Old Proto-North Eurasian Language (Ancient North Eurasian) migrations? Became: Proto-Afroasiatic, Proto-Sino-Tibetan, Proto-Transeurasian, Proto-Indo-European, Proto-Yeniseian, Proto-Na-Dene, Proto-Caucasian, Sumerian, Proto-Austronesian, and the Basque language