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Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

“There are a total of 204 war deities listed, with 58 goddesses and 146 gods.” ref

Many people think there has always been war. But that is not true. “Some sources claim that most Middle and Upper Paleolithic societies were possibly fundamentally egalitarian and may have rarely or never engaged in organized violence between groups (i.e. war). Evidence of violent conflict appears to increase during the Mesolithic period, from around 10,000 years ago onwards. But generally, indications of agriculture are taken as marking the transition into the Neolithic.”  ref

Prehistory violence and war; Morality and anarchism; Hierarchy power and deities of war (VIDEO)

Prevalence of cranial trauma in Eurasian Upper Paleolithic humans

“This study characterizes patterns of cranial trauma prevalence in a large sample of Upper Paleolithic fossil specimens (40,000–10,000 years ago). The sample comprised 234 individual crania (specimens), representing 1,28 cranial bones (skeletal elements), from 101 Eurasian Upper Paleolithic sites. We used generalized linear mixed models to assess trauma prevalence in relation to age-at-death, sex, anatomical distribution, and between pre- and post-Last Glacial Maximum samples, while accounting for skeletal preservation.” ref

“Models predicted a mean cranial trauma prevalence of 0.07 at the level of skeletal elements, and of 0.26 at the level of specimens, each when 76–100% complete. Trauma prevalence increased with skeletal preservation. Across specimen and skeletal element datasets, trauma prevalence tended to be higher for males, and was consistently higher in the old age group. We found no time-specific trauma prevalence patterns for the two sexes or age cohorts when comparing samples from before and after the Last Glacial Maximum. Samples showed higher trauma prevalence in the vault than in the face, with vault remains being affected predominantly in males.” ref

“Cranial trauma prevalence in Upper Paleolithic humans falls within the variation described for Mesolithic and Neolithic samples. According to our current dataset, Upper Paleolithic males and females were exposed to slightly different injury risks and trauma distributions, potentially due to different activities or behaviors, yet both sexes exhibit more trauma among the old. Environmental stressors associated with climatic changes of the Last Glacial Maximum are not reflected in cranial trauma prevalence. To analyze trauma in incomplete skeletal remains, we propose generalized linear mixed models as an informative alternative to crude frequency calculations.” ref

“It has been suggested that marked climatic and environmental fluctuations over the course of several millennia exposed anatomically modern humans to climate change-induced stresses, which prompted biocultural adaptations of survival strategies regarding subsistence, technology, and social life, buffering against environmental stressors. Frequent marked climate oscillations and a gradual temperature decline changed vegetation and habitats of prey mammals, the main subsistence resource of Paleolithic hunter-gatherers, thus affecting habitat suitability. At around 26,500–19,000 years ago, climate deteriorations culminated in the Last Glacial Maximum (26,500 and 19,000 years ago), when ice sheets reached their maximum extent and covered most of Northern and Central Europe. As a consequence, human populations in northern latitudes may have gone extinct or retreated to environmentally more favorable regions in southern glacial refugia. Local population extinctions, the fragmentation and reduction of suitable habitats, and limitations to maintain social networks, likely entailed high levels of demographic and environmental stress.” ref

“These scenarios of stress and adaptation mainly rest on archaeological evidence, such as site distributions, animal bone assemblages, and material culture. Another line of evidence derives directly from human fossil remains. For example, a variety of dental and skeletal stress markers (e.g., dental hypoplasia, Harris lines, periostitis, arthritis, and trauma) indicate some support for health deterioration from pre-Last Glacial Maximum to post-Last Glacial Maximum populations. Human groups before and after the Last Glacial Maximum differ markedly in their morphology in terms of body height, robusticity, and craniofacial and dental dimensions. These morphological features can result from changing levels of stress, but may also be associated with a large-scale population turnover during recolonization after the Last Glacial Maximum, as suggested by genetic evidence.” ref

“Trauma patterns can serve as an important measure of the lifestyle, organization, and stresses of past human populations, since traumatic injuries are directly linked to violent encounters, accidents, impairments, and care for the injured, and reflect the various injury risks resulting from occupational, environmental, or social conditions. Nevertheless, population-wide trauma patterns in Upper Paleolithic humans have barely been researched and analyzed trauma in larger samples of UP fossils from Eurasia. They compared their findings to those of Neanderthals and found similar distribution patterns and trauma prevalence in the two groups. However, these studies focused on the between-taxa comparison and not on a comprehensive characterization of the Upper Paleolithic period, neglecting large numbers of later Upper Paleolithic fossils postdating 20,000 years ago.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art 

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“The Wounded Man figure has been pierced by several spears. It is not certain what this is meant to represent, most likely – the ritual killing of a wrongdoer from the tribe (maybe one who violated a taboo) or, less likely, the result of a fight between neighbouring tribes?” ref

Projectile weapon injuries in the Riparo Tagliente burial (Veneto, Italy) provide early evidence of Late Upper Paleolithic intergroup conflict

“Evidence of interpersonal violence in the Paleolithic is rare but can shed light on the presence of ancient conflict in prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies. Projectile injuries suggest confrontations between groups and have primarily been identified through lithic elements embedded in bones. Recently, the study of projectile impact marks has allowed for the recognition of projectile injuries in the absence of embedded elements. We report here the discovery and study of one of the earliest evidence of projectile impact marks in the human paleobiological record, found in the burial from Riparo Tagliente (individual Tagliente 1, Veneto, Italy), directly dated to ca. 17,000–15,500 years ago. Analyses through SEM and 3D microscopy demonstrate that the femur and the tibia show clear evidence of projectile impact marks impacting the bone from different directions. This could be due to the presence of multiple attackers, or to the victim turning between impacts. No trace of healing is present; one projectile impact marks is close to the femoral artery, which can cause a rapid death if pierced. Evidence at Riparo Tagliente could be attributed to conflict between different groups of hunter-gatherers expanding in newly opened Alpine territories during climatic amelioration after the Last Glacial Maximum.” ref

“Prehistoric skeletal signs of interpersonal violence constitute the most direct evidence for our understanding of the nature of conflict in the past. Some scholars suggest that in certain prehistoric periods, such as in southern Europe around 11,700–8,000 years ago, or in southern Europe around 8,000-6,000 years ago, it is possible to detect an increase in the frequency or scale of conflict in the human bioarchaeological record, while others point out similar trauma prevalence since the Upper Paleolithic (between 50,000 and 12,000 years ago). In general, diachronic evaluations are likely to be biased by the skeletal record becoming increasingly fragmentary with greater temporal depth. Furthermore, the study of bony lesions is challenging due to technical and interpretative problems: evidence of trauma, when recognized, does not necessarily imply interpersonal violence, and even more difficult is demonstrating conflict between different groups.” ref

“Despite these challenges, certain occurrences allow evidence of violence to be more confidently attributed to external attacks, such as multiple contemporary burials resulting from massacres (e.g., wounds caused by projectile weapons – especially when multiple – are strongly suggestive of intergroup conflict. In fact, in small-scale, traditional societies, projectile weapons are most often used in raiding and formal warfare, with melee weapons usually employed to dispatch a wounded enemy. Traditionally, lesions found in the bioarchaeological record were unequivocally attributed to killing at a distance when the projectile remained embedded in the bone.” ref

“Examples of injuries of this kind in the Paleolithic human skeletal record are extremely rare, with the oldest cases dating to the end of the period, such as Grotte des Enfants 2 (ca. 13,200–12,800 years ago) and San Teodoro 4 (15,300–14,200 cal. years ago), both from the Late Epigravettian of Italy, Vasilyevka and Voloshskoye from the Epipaleolithic of Ukraine (ca. 12,000 years ago, although radiocarbon dates for these sites are strongly affected by freshwater reservoir effects and might in fact date considerably younger), and several individuals from the Epipaleolithic cemetery of Jebel Sahaba in Sudan (13,727–7,981 years ago). Earlier weapon injuries tentatively attributed to projectiles lack embedded elements, as seen in the wound on the first thoracic vertebra of Sunghir 1 from the Gravettian (Russia; 27,700–26,500 years ago), and in a rib of the Neanderthal Shanidar 3 (Iraq, 47,000–40,000 years ago).” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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“Jebel Sahaba, a 13,000-year-old cemetery in Sudan, provides evidence of the earliest known instances of warfare among human groups. Located on the east bank of the Nile, the site contains the remains of 61 individuals, many of whom bear signs of violent trauma, including wounds from projectiles like arrows. These findings suggest a long-lasting, possibly climate-change driven, conflict among these early hunter-gatherers. While the new paper states that although it’s not the oldest case of interpersonal violence in the Nile valley – that’s a partial male skeleton from roughly 20,000 years ago from Wadi Kubbaniya – the Jebel Sahaba cemetery is “the most emblematic and widely cited example of early widespread violence.” The researchers also note that with radiocarbon dates ranging from 13,400-18,200 years old, the cemetery is “the earliest funerary complex from the Nile Valley.” ref

“By using the latest anthropological and forensic methods the team has shown that there was repeated, brutal armed conflict taking place at the site 13,400 years ago. Evidence for the recurring violence at Jebel Sahaba primarily comes in the form of healed trauma found on the remains of several of the skeletons excavated at the site. The researchers write in their paper that they completed a “full reanalysis of the timing, nature, and extent of the violence” by using new microscopy techniques. Here’s a summary of what they found:

• 106 previously undocumented lesions and traumas on various individuals, regardless of their age or sex – including signs of injuries on children as young as 4 years old
• different injury types – injuries created by projectiles from arrows and spears, wounds caused by close combat, and damage to the remains that were caused by natural decay
• several lithic artifacts which were located “where the soft tissues would have once been, or directly embedded in the bones”
• 41 of the 61 people (67% of the individuals) buried at Jebel Sahaba died with at least one type of healed or unhealed injury
• of those 41 individuals, 92% had been harmed by projectiles and close combat trauma.” ref

“The researchers write that their findings “confirm for the first time the repetitive nature of the interpersonal acts of violence” at Jebel Sahaba and suggest that such conflicts “could occur several times during the life of an individual.” The study authors also write in their paper that the discovery of healed wounds in the remains of people buried at the Jebel Sahaba cemetery suggests that there were recurrent, but not always lethal, conflicts occurring between Nile valley groups. They think that different groups were likely raiding each other’s lands, ambushing each other, and skirmishing. The high number of puncture wounds, likely caused by spears and arrows, also suggests that the attacks came from a distance and were not domestic conflicts.” ref

“According to the researchers, the violence was “probably triggered by major climatic and environmental changes.” They believe that the people living in the area may have faced significant “environmental pressures and geographical constraints,” which incited the repeated conflicts against the people around them. Previous research has suggested that many of the victims of violence at Jebel Sahaba were phenotypically part of sub-Saharan populations, the ancestors of modern black Africans. Those researchers also found evidence of a group with a North African/ Levantine/European population phenotype nearby. The new research has shed important light on what happened at a site so significantly linked to early widespread violence, but the researchers still can’t say for certain if this is a burial ground for a specific set of people who were victims of violence or anyone who died in the community. They think that funerary rituals were also involved, at least in some cases. For example, while the team could identify cutmarks resulting from projectiles penetrating bone, they couldn’t say for certain if some cuts may have been deliberate acts taken after death – as some sort of “mortuary treatments.” ref

12,000 years of climate changes that coincided/influenced culture impacts: periods and events in climate history; affecting seeming changes in places, people movements/behaviors, and culture persuasions

* “12,800–11,500 years ago Younger Dryas sudden cold and dry period in Northern Hemisphere” ref

“The Younger Dryas (YD) was a period in Earth’s geologic history that occurred circa 12,900 to 11,700 years ago. The two earlier geologic periods where this flower was abundant in Europe are the Oldest Dryas (approx. 18,500-14,000 years ago) and Older Dryas (~14,050–13,900 years ago), respectively. Younger Dryas ended when the entire globe had warmed consistently, which marks the beginning of the current Holocene epoch. The Younger Dryas was globally synchronous or very nearly so. However, the magnitude of the drop in global mean surface temperature was modest; the Younger Dryas was not a global relapse into peak glacial conditions. A decline in evidence for Natufian hunter-gatherer permanent settlements in the Levant, suggesting a reversion to a more mobile way of life.” ref 

“Pre-Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) denotes the first stage of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic, in early Levantine and Anatolian Neolithic culture, dating to c. 12,000 – c. 10,800 years ago, that is, 10,000–8800 BCE. Archaeological remains are located in the Levantine and Upper Mesopotamian regions of the Fertile Crescent. Granaries were positioned in places between other buildings early on c. 11,500 years ago; however, beginning around 10,500 years ago, they were moved inside houses, and by 9,500 years ago, storage occurred in special rooms. This change might reflect changing systems of ownership and property as granaries shifted from communal use and ownership to becoming under the control of households or individuals.” ref

“As of 2013 Gesher, modern Israel, became the earliest known of all known Neolithic sites (PPNA), with a calibrated Carbon 14 date of 10,459 BCE or 12,459 years ago, analysis suggesting that it may have been the starting point of a Neolithic Revolution. A contemporary site is Mureybet in modern Syria. With more sites becoming known, archaeologists have defined a number of regional variants of Pre-Pottery Neolithic A:

• Mureybetian in the Northern Levant, defined by the finds from Mureybet IIIA, IIIB, typical: Helwan points, sickle-blades with base amenagée or short stem and terminal retouch. Other sites include Sheyk Hasan and Jerf el Ahmar.
• Sites in “Upper Mesopotamia” include Çayönü and Göbekli Tepe, with the latter possibly being the oldest ritual complex yet discovered.” ref

“11,500 years ago, agricultural development.”

“While humans started gathering grains at least 105,000 years ago, nascent farmers only began planting them around 11,500 years ago in the Fertile Crescent. Sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle were domesticated around 10,000 years ago. Sheep were domesticated in Mesopotamia between 13,000 and 11,000 years ago. Rice was domesticated in China between 11,500 years ago. Sheep, goats, pigs, and cattle were domesticated by around 10,000 years ago.” ref

“Agriculture is defined with varying scopes, in its broadest sense using natural resources to “produce commodities which maintain life, including food, fiber, forest products, horticultural crops, and their related services.” Thus defined, it includes arable farming, horticulture, animal husbandry, and forestry, but horticulture and forestry are, in practice, often excluded. It may also be broadly decomposed into plant agriculture, which concerns the cultivation of useful plants, and animal agriculture, the production of agricultural animals.” ref

“Karahan Tepe, an 11,400-year-old village, challenges ideas of when and why humans first settled down, including homes within a vast ritualistic complex that demonstrates that hunter-gatherers built permanent settlements long before the advent of agriculture 10,000 years ago. The findings change the perception, that settled life resulted from farming and animal husbandry. Karahan Tepe shows that it began when humans were still hunter-gatherers and that agriculture is not a cause, but the effect, of settled life. Sacred and secular spaces were built simultaneously at Karahan Tepe, where humans dwelled year-round for about 1,500 years, and no remnants of farmed vegetation have been found. Karahan Tepe is located around 35km from Göbekli Tepe, billed as home to the world’s oldest temple structures. Dating to 9600 BCE or 11,600 years ago, Göbekli Tepe reshaped ideas about early civilization. Previously thought to be a lone destination where nomadic people came to worship, Göbekli Tepe is now considered part of a constellation of contemporaneous settlements that extends over 100km and includes Karahan Tepe and at least 11 other unexcavated sites.” ref

“Slavery and power are connected, and predate written records and have existed in many cultures. Slavery is rare among hunter-gatherer populations because it requires economic surpluses and a substantial population density. Slavery became widespread only with the invention of agriculture during the Neolithic Revolution about 11,000 years ago. Slavery was practiced in almost every ancient civilization.” ref

“Mace heads and the rise of power: archaeological evidence available so far has revealed that the earliest mace heads first appeared in the Near East about 10,000 years ago. along with the early development and spread of agriculture. After that, mace heads began to spread throughout the ancient world: southward to the Ancient Egypt Kingdom in North Africa, northwest to Europe, and then to the Eurasian steppe of central Asia and Siberia. Eventually, this movement gradually arrived in the Northwestern region of China. The earliest mace head examples come from the Near East during the PPNA period. An early example is the stone mace head from the site of Hallan Cemi in Turkey, dated to 9500–8500 BCE or 11,500 to 10,500 years ago. Another contemporary example is the stone mace-head from Körtik Tepe, also a Pre-Pottery Neolithic A site in Turkey. In Mesopotamia, the earliest mace-heads can also be traced back to around this time, or equivalent to the PPN period (8300–6000 BCE or 10,300 to 8,000 years ago). They are mostly ball-shaped or pear-shaped.” ref

“Human violence is rooted in the rivalry that stems from imitation and archaeologists working at the Neolithic sites of Çatalhöyük and Göbekli Tepe in Turkey. At both sites there is evidence of religious practices that center on wild animals, often large and dangerous in form. Is it possible that these wild animals were ritually killed in the ways suggested by Girardian theorists? Were violence and the sacred intimately entwined, and were these the processes that made possible and even stimulated the origins of farming in the ancient Near East? Offering a perspective from Göbekli Tepe and related sites, our team contributed a paper (by Lee Clare, Oliver Dietrich, Julia Gresky, Jens Notroff, Joris Peters, Nadja Pöllath) on “Ritual Practices and Conflict Mitigation at Early Neolithic Körtik Tepe and Göbekli Tepe, Upper Mesopotamia” (pp. 96-128):

“The cognitive principles of the social brain have remained unaltered since their appearance in anatomically modern humans in Africa some 200,000 years ago. However, by the Early Holocene these capacities, were being challenged by the outcomes of newly emerging lifeways , commonly referred to as ‘Neolithic’. Growing levels of sedentism and new and expanding social networks, were prompting a unique series of behavioural and cultural responses. In recent years, research at the early Neolithic (PPNA) occupation site of Körtik Tepe has provided evidence for heightened levels of interpersonal violence and homicide; yet, at the same time, there are no indications in the present archaeological record for between-group fighting (‘warfare’). In this study, we investigate whether this scenario, at a time when we might expect to see a rise in inter community frictions in the wake of adjusting subsistence strategies and socio-political boundaries, can be at least partially explained by René Girard’s mimetic theory. To this end we consult the pictorial repertoire from the contemporaneous and extraordinary site of Göbekli Tepe.” ref

“From 10,000 years ago Holocene glacial retreat, the present Holocene or Postglacial period begins.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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“There were 21 adults and six children. Some still had stone weapons lodged in their bones. Their skulls were fractured by blunt force trauma. A pregnant woman appears to have been bound, her hands and feet tied together, and left to die. Another woman’s knees were broken, one of her feet fractured, and her hands bound. Her skeleton was surrounded by fish, as if her attackers decided to cover her in garbage.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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“Cave painting of a battle between archers, Cueva del Roure, Morella la Vella, Castellón, Valencia, Spain.” ref

“The earliest, limited evidence for war in Mesolithic Europe likewise dates to c. 10,000 years ago, and episodes of warfare appear to remain “localized and temporarily restricted” during the Late Mesolithic to Early Neolithic period in Europe. Iberian cave art of the Mesolithic shows explicit scenes of battle between groups of archers. Early war was influenced by the development of bows, maces, and slings. The bow seems to have been the most important weapon in early warfare, in that it enabled attacks to be launched with far less risk to the attacker when compared to the risk involved in melee combat. While there are no cave paintings of battles between men armed with clubs, the development of the bow is concurrent with the first known depictions of organized warfare, consisting of clear illustrations of two or more groups of men attacking each other.” ref

“The oldest representation of a slinger in art may be from Çatalhöyük, from c. 9,000 years ago, though it is the only such depiction at the site, despite numerous depictions of archers. Modified stones suggested to represent ammunition for slings (slingstones) have been reported from the Near East at least as early as the 6th millennium BCE (8,000 to 7,000 years ago), during the Pottery Neolithic, from cultures such as the Wadi Rabah culture in the southern Levant. The oldest-known surviving slings—radiocarbon dated to c. 2500 BCE (4,500 years ago)—were recovered from South American archaeological sites on the coast of Peru. The oldest-known surviving North American sling—radiocarbon dated to c. 1200 BCE (3,200 years ago)—was recovered from Lovelock Cave, Nevada. One of the oldest slings in the Near East is the “Manchester Sling” from the Twelfth Dynasty of ancient Egypt, c. 2000-1800 BCE (4,000 to 3,800 years ago), a completely preserved sling constructed entirely of plant fibre.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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My thoughts on Kurgan origins, migrations, and the links to Y-DNA “R” and mt-DNA “R” migrations (VIDEO)

I think the “Kurgan Origin” is found in “Stratified Ritual Mounds”

“From the later seventh-millennium cal BCE, in west Siberia, a new site type emerged in this period, the large, stratified mound (Russian kholm), with examples reaching 50m in diameter and up to 6m in height. These Mounds are characterized by unusual features such as groups of human skulls, clay figurines, bone and antler, hearths, and post-row structures, and are interpreted as ritual or sacrificial sites.”  ref

“A kurgan is a type of tumulus constructed over a grave, often characterized by containing a single human body along with grave vessels, weapons, and horses. Some scepter graves could have been covered with a tumulus, placing the first kurgans as early as the 5th millennium BCE in Eastern Europe. Within the burial chamber at the heart of the kurgan, elite individuals were buried with grave goods and sacrificial offerings, sometimes including horses and chariots. These structures are of the earlier Neolithic period from the 4th to the 3rd millenniums BCE.” ref

Ritual Mound Migrations: Kurgans, Dolmens, and later Pyramids likely all trace back to Siberia, helping show how Yeniseian languages, may have influenced Proto-Indo-European languages

“This 8000-year-old skeleton of a hunter-gatherer, found in a Spanish cave, is genetically similar to skeletons found in central and Eastern Europe. Europe’s first farmers carried out brutal acts against their neighbors. A mass grave in Germany underscores what some archaeologists have long suspected: The first farmers were far from peaceful tillers of the soil. In a newly discovered form of Neolithic violence, attackers 7000 years ago systematically broke the shinbones of their 26 victims, many of them children, before dumping their bodies in a pit. The first farmers, who spread west from Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) to arrive in central Europe 7500 years ago, lived more settled lives than the nomadic fishing and foraging peoples they displaced.” ref

“They built houses, cultivated plants, and decorated pottery. However, researchers have long debated whether these Neolithic farming communities also engaged in warfare and other types of systemized violence. The discovery of two Neolithic mass graves in Germany and Austria led many archaeologists to discount peaceful accounts of these early European farmers. The graves contained more than 100 bodies that bore the marks of a violent attack. Other researchers, however, continued to hold that violence among Neolithic people was rare, and they dismissed these massacre sites as peculiarities. The skulls showed signs of lethal blows, and more than 50% of the shin bones recovered from the grave were broken. “The fractures we found here were clearly fresh.” ref

“Torture focuses on the parts of the body with the most nerve cells—feet, [genitals], hands, and head.” He suspects instead that the assailants smashed the shins of the villagers after they’d killed them to disable their ghosts, preventing them from pursuing their killers. Aside from the trauma to the lower leg bones, the newest site closely resembles the two known mass graves from this period. In all three cases, whole villages—which usually numbered only 30 to 40 people—were apparently wiped out. Most of the inhabitants were killed, except young women, who were probably kidnapped. Once may be an accident, twice may be a coincidence, but thrice is a pattern. These newest findings are “another nail in the coffin” of those who have claimed that war was rare among Neolithic farming communities.” ref

“Systemic warfare appears to have been a direct consequence of the sedentism as it developed in the wake of the Neolithic Revolution. An important example is the massacre of Talheim Death Pit (near Heilbronn, Germany), dated right on the cusp of the beginning European Neolithic, at 5500 BCE or 7,000 years ago. Investigation of the Neolithic skeletons found in the Talheim Death pit in Germany suggests that prehistoric men from neighboring tribes were prepared to brutally fight and kill each other in order to capture and secure women. Researchers discovered that there were women among the immigrant skeletons, but within the local group of skeletons there were only men and children. They concluded that the absence of women among the local skeletons meant that they were regarded as somehow special, thus they were spared execution and captured instead. The capture of women may have indeed been the primary motive for the fierce conflict between the men.” ref

“Other speculations about the reasons for violence among Linear Pottery Culture settlements in Neolithic Europe include vengeance, conflicts over land and resources, and kidnapping of slaves. Some of these theories related to the lack of resources are supported by the discovery that various fortifications bordering indigenously inhabited areas appear to have not been in use for very long. A mass burial site at Schletz was also fortified, which serves as evidence of violent conflict among tribes and means that these fortifications were built as a form of defense against aggressors. The massacre of Schletz occurred at the same time as the massacre at Talheim and several other massacres. More than 200 Neolithic people were killed during the massacre in the Linear Pottery settlement area of Schletz 7,000 years ago.” ref

“More recently, a similar site was discovered at Schöneck-Kilianstädten, with the remains of the victims showing “a pattern of intentional mutilation”. While the presence of such massacre sites in the context of Early Neolithic Europe is undisputed, diverging definitions of “warfare proper” (i.e. planned campaigns sanctioned by society as opposed to spontaneous massacres) has led to scholarly debate on the existence of warfare in the narrow sense prior to the development of city states in 20th-century archaeology. In the summary of Heath (2017), accumulating archaeology has made it “increasingly harder” to argue for the absence of organised warfare in Neolithic Europe.” ref

“Bioarchaeologists have found from the skeletal remains of more than 2,300 early farmers from 180 sites in northwestern Europe between 8,000 and 4,000 years ago that more than one in ten suffered weapon injuries. During the period of expansion of hunter-gatherer groups associated with the Pitted Ware culture in southern Scandinavia, the Funnelbeaker farmers constructed a number of defensive palisades, which may mean that the two peoples were in conflict with each other. There is archaeological evidence of high levels of violence among the people of the Pitted Ware culture. The 8500-year-old Kennewick Man, a prehistoric Paleoamerican man, and Ötzi, who lived and died in the European Alps some 5,200 years ago, were probably killed in warfare.” ref

The worship of the Sumerian goddess Inanna is believed to have begun around 6,000 years ago, according to some historical interpretations. This timeframe aligns with the early Uruk period (c. 4000 – 3100 BCE or 6,000 to 5,100 years ago) in Mesopotamia, where Inanna’s worship is thought to have originated. 

Priest-Kings (at least by 6,000 to 5,000 they emerge)

“A sacred king, a monarch with prominent religious attributes. A theocrat, a sovereign high priest.” ref

“Mesopotamian king as Master of Animals on the Gebel el-Arak Knife, dated circa 3300-3200 BCE, Abydos, Egypt. This work of art suggests early Egypt-Mesopotamia relations, showing the influence of Mesopotamia on Egypt at an early date, and the state of Mesopotamian royal iconography during the Uruk period. A similar portrait of a probable Uruk King-Priest with a brimmed round hat and large beard, excavated in Uruk and dated to 3300 BCE or 5,300 years ago.” ref 

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Inanna/Ishtar

“Inanna is the ancient Mesopotamian goddess of war, love, and fertility. She is also associated with political power, divine law, sensuality, and procreation. Originally worshipped in Sumer, she was known by the Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians as Ishtar (and occasionally the logogram 𒌋𒁯). Her primary title is “the Queen of Heaven”. She was the patron goddess of the Eanna temple at the city of Uruk, her early main religious center. In archaic Uruk, she was worshipped in three forms: morning Inanna (Inana-UD/hud), evening Inanna (Inanna sig), and princely Inanna (Inanna NUN), the former two reflecting the phases of her associated planet Venus. Her most prominent symbols include the lion and the eight-pointed star. Her husband is the god Dumuzid (later known as Tammuz), and her sukkal (attendant) is the goddess Ninshubur, later conflated with the male deities Ilabrat and Papsukkal.” ref

“The Sumerians worshipped Inanna as the goddess of both warfare and love. Unlike other gods, whose roles were static and whose domains were limited, the stories of Inanna describe her as moving from conquest to conquest. She is portrayed as young and impetuous, constantly striving for more power than had been allotted to her. Inanna was also worshipped as one of the Sumerian war deities. One of the hymns dedicated to her declares: “She stirs confusion and chaos against those who are disobedient to her, speeding carnage and inciting the devastating flood, clothed in terrifying radiance. It is her game to speed conflict and battle, untiring, strapping on her sandals.” Battle itself was occasionally referred to as the “Dance of Inanna”. Epithets related to lions in particular were meant to highlight this aspect of her character. As a war goddess she was sometimes referred to with the name Irnina (“victory”), though this epithet could be applied to other deities as well, in addition to functioning as a distinct goddess linked to Ningishzida rather than to Ishtar. Another epithet highlighting this aspect of Ishtar’s nature was Anunitu (“the martial one”). Like Irnina, Anunitu could also be a separate deity, and as such she is first attested in documents from the Ur III period.” ref

Assyrian royal curse-formulas invoked both of Ishtar’s primary functions at once, invoking her to remove potency and martial valor alike. Mesopotamian texts indicate that traits perceived as heroic (such as a king’s ability to lead his troops and to triumph over enemies) and sexual prowess were regarded as interconnected. While generally classified as a goddess, Inanna/Ishtar could seem at times to have ambiguous gender. Gary Beckman states that “ambiguous gender identification” was a characteristic not just of Ishtar herself but of a category of deities he refers to as “Ishtar type” goddesses (such as Shaushka, Pinikir or Ninsianna). A late hymn contains the phrase “she [Ishtar] is Enlil, she is Ninil” which might be a reference to occasionally “dimorphic” character of Ishtar, in addition to serving as an exaltation. A hymn to Nanaya alludes to a male aspect of Ishtar from Babylon alongside a variety of more standard descriptions. However, Ilona Zsolnay only describes Ishtar as a “feminine figure who performed a masculine role” in certain contexts, for example as a war deity.” ref

“Inanna was worshipped in Sumer as early as the Uruk period (c. 4000 – 3100 BCE or around 6,000 to 5,100 years ago), and her worship was relatively localized before the conquest of Sargon of Akkad. During the post-Sargonic era, she became one of the most widely venerated deities in the Sumerian pantheon, with temples across Mesopotamia. Adoration of Inanna/Ishtar was continued by the East Semitic-speaking peoples (Akkadians, Assyrians, and Babylonians) who succeeded and absorbed the Sumerians in the region. She was especially beloved by the Assyrians, who elevated her to become the highest deity in their pantheon, ranking above their own national god Ashur. Inanna/Ishtar is alluded to in the Hebrew Bible, and she greatly influenced the Ugaritic goddess Ashtart and later the Phoenician goddess Astarte, who in turn possibly influenced the development of the Greek goddess Aphrodite. Her worship continued to flourish until its gradual decline between the first and sixth centuries CE in the wake of Christianity. Inanna appears in more myths than any other Sumerian deity. She also has a uniquely high number of epithets and alternate names, comparable only to Nergal.” ref

“Many of her myths involve her taking over the domains of other deities. She is believed to have been given the mes, which represent all positive and negative aspects of civilization, by Enki, the god of wisdom. She is also believed to have taken over the Eanna temple from An, the god of the sky. Alongside her twin brother Utu (later known as Shamash), Inanna is the enforcer of divine justice; she destroyed Mount Ebih for having challenged her authority, unleashed her fury upon the gardener Shukaletuda after he raped her in her sleep, and tracked down the bandit woman Bilulu and killed her in divine retribution for having murdered Dumuzid. In the standard Akkadian version of the Epic of Gilgamesh, Ishtar asks Gilgamesh to become her consort. When he disdainfully refuses, she unleashes the Bull of Heaven, resulting in the death of Enkidu and Gilgamesh’s subsequent grapple with his own mortality. Inanna’s most famous myth is the story of her descent into and return from the ancient Mesopotamian underworld, ruled by her older sister Ereshkigal. After she reaches Ereshkigal’s throne room, the seven judges of the underworld deem her guilty and strike her dead. Three days later, Ninshubur pleads with all the gods to bring Inanna back. All of them refuse her, except Enki, who sends two sexless beings to rescue Inanna. They escort Inanna out of the underworld but the galla, the guardians of the underworld, drag her husband Dumuzid down to the underworld as her replacement. Dumuzid is eventually permitted to return to heaven for half the year, while his sister Geshtinanna remains in the underworld for the other half, resulting in the cycle of the seasons.” ref

“Scholars believe that Inanna and Ishtar were originally separate, unrelated deities, but were conflated with one another during the reign of Sargon of Akkad and came to be regarded as effectively the same goddess under two different names. Inanna’s name may derive from the Sumerian phrase nin-an-ak, meaning “Lady of Heaven”, but the cuneiform sign for Inanna (𒈹) is not a ligature of the signs lady (Sumerian: nin; cuneiform: 𒊩𒌆 SAL.TUG₂) and sky (Sumerian: an; cuneiform: 𒀭 AN). These difficulties led some early Assyriologists to suggest that Inanna may have originally been a Proto-Euphratean goddess, who was only later accepted into the Sumerian pantheon. This idea was supported by Inanna’s youthfulness, as well as the fact that, unlike the other Sumerian divinities, she seems to have initially lacked a distinct sphere of responsibilities. The view that there was a Proto-Euphratean substrate language in Southern Iraq before Sumerian is not widely accepted by modern Assyriologists.” ref

“The name Ishtar occurs as an element in personal names from both the pre-Sargonic and post-Sargonic eras in Akkad, Assyria, and Babylonia. It is of Semitic derivation and is probably etymologically related to the name of the West Semitic god Attar, who is mentioned in later inscriptions from Ugarit and southern Arabia. The morning star may have been conceived as a male deity who presided over the arts of war, and the evening star may have been conceived as a female deity who presided over the arts of love. Among the Akkadians, Assyrians, and Babylonians, the name of the male god eventually supplanted the name of his female counterpart, but, due to extensive syncretism with Inanna, the deity remained as female, although her name was in the masculine form.” ref

“Inanna has posed a problem for many scholars of ancient Sumer due to the fact that her sphere of power contained more distinct and contradictory aspects than that of any other deity. Two major theories regarding her origins have been proposed. The first explanation holds that Inanna is the result of a syncretism between several previously unrelated Sumerian deities with totally different domains. The second explanation holds that Inanna was originally a Semitic deity who entered the Sumerian pantheon after it was already fully structured, and who took on all the roles that had not yet been assigned to other deities. As early as the Uruk period (c. 4000–3100 BCE or around 6,000 to 5,100 years ago), Inanna was already associated with the city of Uruk. During this period, the symbol of a ring-headed doorpost was closely associated with Inanna.” ref 

“The famous Uruk Vase (found in a deposit of cult objects of the Uruk III period) depicts a row of naked men carrying various objects, including bowls, vessels, and baskets of farm products, and bringing sheep and goats to a female figure facing the ruler. The female stands in front of Inanna’s symbol of the two twisted reeds of the doorpost, while the male figure holds a box and stack of bowls, the later cuneiform sign signifying the En, or high priest of the temple. Seal impressions from the Jemdet Nasr period (c. 3100–2900 BCE or around 5,100 to 4,900 years ago) show a fixed sequence of symbols representing various cities, including those of Ur, Larsa, Zabalam, Urum, Arina, and probably Kesh. This list probably reflects the report of contributions to Inanna at Uruk from cities supporting her cult. A large number of similar seals have been discovered from phase I of the Early Dynastic period (c. 2900–2350 BCE or around 4,900 to 4,350 years ago) at Ur, in a slightly different order, combined with the rosette symbol of Inanna. These seals were used to lock storerooms to preserve materials set aside for her cult.” ref

“During the Akkadian period (c.  2334–2154 BCE or around 4,334 to 5,154 years ago), following the conquests of Sargon of Akkad, Inanna and originally independent Ishtar became so extensively syncretized that they became regarded as effectively the same. The Akkadian poet Enheduanna, the daughter of Sargon, wrote numerous hymns to Inanna, identifying her with Ishtar. As a result of this, the popularity of Inanna/Ishtar’s cult skyrocketed. Alfonso Archi, who was involved in early excavations of Ebla, assumes Ishtar was originally a goddess venerated in the Euphrates valley, pointing out that an association between her and the desert poplar is attested in the most ancient texts from both Ebla and Mari. He considers her, a moon god (e.g., Sin) and a sun deity of varying gender (Shamash/Shapash) to be the only deities shared between various early Semitic peoples of Mesopotamia and ancient Syria, who otherwise had different not necessarily overlapping pantheons.” ref

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“Thumbing one’s nose, also known as cocking a snook, is a sign of derision, disrespect, contempt, or defiance, made by putting the thumb on the nose, holding the palm open and perpendicular to the face, and wiggling the remaining fingers.” ref

“The Assyrian created an enormous empire. They mastered the early art of war. Unfortunately for their enemies, the Assyrians also mastered torture techniques. And they bragged about it! The Assyrians depicted the torture in great detail on the walls of the imperial palaces. They created tablets containing every single punishment the Assyrian army carried out. They cut off the limbs, gouged out the eyes, and then left those poor victims to roam around. Those poor people serve as a living reminder of the Assyrians’ cruelty.” ref

“Hammurabi is best known for having issued the Code of Hammurabi, which he claimed to have received from Shamash, the Babylonian god of justice. Unlike earlier Sumerian law codes, such as the Code of Ur-Nammu, which had focused on compensating the victim of the crime, the Law of Hammurabi was one of the first law codes to place greater emphasis on the physical punishment of the perpetrator. It prescribed specific penalties for each crime and is among the first codes to establish the presumption of innocence. They were intended to limit what a wronged person was permitted to do in retribution. The Code of Hammurabi and the Law of Moses in the Torah contain numerous similarities.” ref

Noses Broken on So Many Ancient Egyptian Statues

“Striking Power’: the truth behind the broken noses of Ancient Egyptian sculptures. Numerous pieces, including headless statues of nobles and goddesses and busts of Egyptian kings with broken noses, are on display in the Striking Power.” ref

“Archaeologists continue to discover in situ statues that are missing their noses, indicating that this damage occurred centuries ago. Ancient texts give us clues about what may have happened. First, we know that the ancient Egyptians believed that a soul or a spirit could inhabit an image or object. An inscription about the goddess Hathor, found in the Dendera Temple complex—one of the most important religious sites in ancient times and home to an exquisitely preserved Temple of Hathor today—says, “She flies down into her body, she joins with her form.” Another inscription at the complex reads, “Osiris . . . comes as a spirit . . . He sees his mysterious form depicted in its place, his figure engraved on the wall; he enters into his mysterious form, alights on his image.” When the spirits of these deities entered their drawings and sculptures, they activated the objects (and the temple) as conduits for the living to communicate with the gods. It wasn’t only deities who could inhabit images. Statues of deceased people in tombs and temples were treated as if they were alive; they were given offerings of food, drink, clothing, and anything else that the soul might need to survive in the afterlife.” ref

Commentary on Isaiah 37:29

“I will put my hook in your nose and my bit in your mouth: These two parallel lines begin to describe Yahweh’s control and punishment of Sennacherib. He will lead him by force in the same way that someone leads an animal. I will put my hook in your nose pictures the custom of leading certain animals, such as bulls and camels, by hooks in their noses. It may also be an allusion to the way the Assyrians treated their defeated enemies, as is known from Assyrian texts and monuments. They would place a metal hook through a captive’s nose or lip, tie a rope through the hook, and lead the captive away by the rope.” ref

Rod-and-ring symbol

“The rod-and-ring symbol is a symbol that is depicted on Mesopotamian stelas, cylinder seals, and reliefs. It is held by a god or goddess and in most cases is being offered to a king who is standing, often making a sacrifice, or otherwise showing respect. The symbol dates from the Third Dynasty of Ur to the Neo-Assyrian period, and is commonly explained as a coil of measuring string and a yardstick. Other theories are that they are a shepherd’s crook and a nose rope, or that the ring is no rope at all. The best known example of the symbol is seen on the Code of Hammurabi stela. The symbol is also illustrated in the “Investiture Scene” painted at the palace of Mari. The most elaborate depiction is found on the Ur-Nammu-stela, where the winding of the cords has been detailed by the sculptor. This has also been described as a “staff and a chaplet of beads”. There is discussion whether the Ur-Nammu-stela is showing the same thing.” ref

“The myth of Inanna‘s descent to the nether world describes how the goddess dresses and prepares herself: “She held the lapis-lazuli measuring rod and measuring line in her hand.” In tablet IV of the Enuma Elish, the rod and ring symbol is referenced as: “They rejoiced, and they did homage unto him, saying, “Marduk is King!” They bestowed upon him the scepter, and the throne, and the ring. They gave him an invincible weaponry which overwhelmeth the foe.” ref

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“A falcon, representing Horus, perched above a set of papyrus flowers, the symbol of Lower Egypt. In his talons, he holds a rope-like object which appears to be attached to the nose of a man’s head that also emerges from the papyrus flowers.” ref

Horus

“Horus, also known as Heru, Har, Her, or Hor in Ancient Egyptian, is one of the most significant ancient Egyptian deities who served many functions, most notably as the god of kingship, healing, protection, the sun, and the sky. He was worshipped from at least the late prehistoric Egypt until the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Roman Egypt. Different forms of Horus are recorded in history, and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptologists. These various forms may be different manifestations of the same multi-layered deity in which certain attributes or syncretic relationships are emphasized, not necessarily in opposition but complementary to one another, consistent with how the Ancient Egyptians viewed the multiple facets of reality. He was most often depicted as a falcon, most likely a lanner falcon or peregrine falcon, or as a man with a falcon head.” ref

“The earliest recorded form of Horus is the tutelary deity of Nekhen in Upper Egypt, who is the first known national god, specifically related to the ruling pharaoh who in time came to be regarded as a manifestation of Horus in life and Osiris in death. The most commonly encountered family relationship describes Horus as the son of Isis and Osiris, and he plays a key role in the Osiris myth as Osiris’s heir and the rival to Set, the murderer and brother of Osiris. In another tradition, Hathor is regarded as his mother and sometimes as his wife. Claudius Aelianus wrote that Egyptians called the god Apollo “Horus” in their own language. However, Plutarch, elaborating further on the same tradition reported by the Greeks, specified that the one “Horus” whom the Egyptians equated with the Greek Apollo was in fact “Horus the Elder”, a primordial form of Horus whom Plutarch distinguishes from both Horus and Harpocrates.” ref

“The pharaoh was associated with many specific deities. He was identified directly with Horus, who represented kingship itself and was seen as a protector of the pharaoh, and he was seen as the son of Ra, who ruled and regulated nature as the pharaoh ruled and regulated society. The Pyramid Texts (c. 2400–2300 BCE) describe the nature of the pharaoh in different characters as both Horus and Osiris. The pharaoh as Horus in life became the pharaoh as Osiris in death, where he was united with the other gods. New incarnations of Horus succeeded the deceased pharaoh on earth in the form of new pharaohs. The lineage of Horus, the eventual product of unions between the children of Atum, may have been a means to explain and justify pharaonic power. The gods produced by Atum were all representative of cosmic and terrestrial forces in Egyptian life. By identifying Horus as the offspring of these forces, then identifying him with Atum himself, and finally identifying the Pharaoh with Horus, the Pharaoh theologically had dominion over all the world.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Myths and Folklore: “Trickster gods and goddesses”

Kutkh

“Kutkh (also Kutkha, Kootkha, Kutq, Kutcha, and other variants, Russian: Кутх) is a Raven spirit traditionally revered in various forms by various indigenous peoples of the Russian Far East. Kutkh appears in many legends: as a key figure in creation, as a fertile ancestor of mankind, as a mighty shaman, and as a trickster. He is a popular subject of the animist stories of the Chukchi people and plays a central role in the mythology of the Koryaks and Itelmens of Kamchatka. Many of the stories regarding Kutkh are similar to those of the Raven among the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, suggesting a long history of indirect cultural contact between Asian and North American peoples. Kutkh is known widely among the people that share a common Chukotko-Kamchatkan language family.” ref

“Regionally, he is known as Kúrkil among the Chukchi; as Kutq among the Itelmens; and as KútqI, KútqIy, or KúsqIy among the southeastern Koryaks and KúykIy or QúykIy among the northwestern Koryaks. In Koryak, the name is employed commonly in its augmentative form, (KutqÍnnaku, KusqÍnnaku, KuyÍnnaku) all meaning “Big Kutkh” and often translated simply as “God. Although Kutkh is supposed to have given mankind variously light, fire, language, fresh water and skills such as net-weaving and copulation, he is also often portrayed as a laughing-stock, hungry, thieving and selfish. In its contradictions, his character is similar that of other trickster gods, such as Coyote.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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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

Here is a Twitter conversation that inspired this blog: Link

Atheist commenter – “Bring back the Female gods” 

My response, I hear you, often better than the bigoty of male gods. lol

I see many of the women as gods as tutelary, “having the guardianship of a person or a thing.” ref

Atheist commenter – “They in my opinion are less likely to encourage neighbor conquest, probably why they died out.” 

My response, Yes. “A tutelary is a deity or a spirit who is a guardian, patron, or protector of a particular place, geographic feature, person, lineage, nation, culture, or occupation. “Tutelary” expresses the concept of safety and thus of guardianship.” ref

Atheist commenter – “Thanks, I am not all that versed in history and only play on my personal experience/intuition.”

My response, There are some violent women goddesses but that is not the norm. Even the ones that have violent features are almost never limited to violence or war and have many other aspects of nonviolence. Such as “Inanna/Ishtar: goddess of love, war, fertility, beauty, sex, justice, & political power.” ref

Atheist commenter – “She seemed to mold to the current elite/ruling class. Like any god since to be fair.”

My response, All gods and goddesses can and were used to justify all kinds of violence just as now I say go godless and support real equality in deity-free atheism. 🙂

Atheist commenter – “I followed you for a while, I would be a hard atheist if I could prove a negative.”

My response, Logically you can prove a negative, but I think you mean evidentially prove a negative.

You Can Prove a Negative

List of War Deities

“A war god in mythology associated with war, combat, or bloodshed. They occur commonly in both monotheistic and polytheistic religions. Unlike most gods and goddesses in polytheistic religions, monotheistic deities have traditionally been portrayed in their mythologies as commanding war in order to spread religion. (The intimate connection between “holy war” and the “one true god” belief of monotheism has been noted by many scholars, including Jonathan Kirsch in his book God Against The Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism and Joseph Campbell in The Masks of God, Vol. 3: Occidental Mythology.)” ref

There are a total of 204 war deities listed with 58 goddesses and 146 gods.

I am making the 58 goddesses pink to better see them among the 146 gods.

Africa

North Africa

Berber

• Gurzil, bull-headed warrior god.
• Ifri, war goddess
• Sinifere, war god

Egyptian

• Anhur, god of war, not a native god
• Bast, cat-headed goddess associated with war, protection of Lower Egypt and the pharaoh, the sun, perfumes, ointments, and embalming
• Horus, god of the king, the sky, war, and protection
• Maahes, lion-headed god of war
• Menhit, goddess of war, “she who massacres”
• Montu, falcon-headed god of war, valor, and the Sun
• Neith, goddess of war, hunting, and wisdom
• Pakhet, goddess of war
• Satis, deification of the floods of the Nile River and an early war, hunting, and fertility goddess
• Sekhmet, goddess of warfare, pestilence, and the desert
• Set, god of the desert and storms, associated with war
• Sobek, god of the Nile, the army, military, fertility, and crocodiles
• Sopdu, god of the scorching heat of the summer sun, associated with war
• Wepwawet, wolf-god of war and death who later became associated with Anubis and the afterlife

Sub-Sahara Africa

Nubian

• Apedemak, Nubian lion-headed warrior god.

Western African-Congo

Yoruba

• Kokou
• Ogoun
• Oya goddess

Eastern African-Congo

Igbo

• Amadioha
• Ekwensu

Ethiopian

• Maher, god of war.

Kenya

Kalenjin

• Boryet, Kipsigis Death-wielding god of war. Boryet (also luket) is the act of war. Death (Me’et) is observed as a consequence of war. War is thus personified as such.

Europe

Balto-Slavic

Baltic

• Kara Māte, Latvian goddess of war
• Kauriraris, Lithuanian god of war and war steeds
• Junda, Lithuanian goddess of war

Slavic

• Jarovit, god of vegetation, fertility, and spring, also associated with war and harvest
• Perun, god of thunder and lightning, associated with war
• Svetovid, god of war, fertility, and abundance
• Zorya Utrennyaya, goddess of the morning star, sometimes depicted as a warrior goddess who protected men in battle

Celtic

• Agrona, reconstructed Proto-Celtic name for the river Aeron in Wales, and possibly the name of an associated war goddess
• Alaisiagae, a pair of goddesses worshiped in Roman Britain, with parallel Celtic and Germanic titles
• Andarta, Brittonic goddess theorized to be associated with victory, overcoming enemies, war
• Andraste, Gaulish warrior goddess
• Anann, Irish goddess of war, death, predicting death in battle, cattle, prosperity, and fertility
• Badb, Irish goddess of war who took the form of a crow; member of the Morrígan
• Bandua, Gallaecian God of War
• Belatucadros, war god worshipped by soldiers and equated with the Roman war god Mars
• Camulus, god of war of the Belgic Remi and British Trinovantes
• Catubodua, Gaulish goddess assumed to be associated with victory
• Cicolluis, Gaulish and Irish god associated with war
• Cocidius, Romano-British god associated with war, hunting and forests
• Macha, Irish goddess associated with war, horses, and sovereignty; member of the Morrígan
• The Morrígan, Irish triple goddess associated with sovereignty, prophecy, war, and death on the battlefield
• Neit, Irish god of war, husband of Nemain of Badb
• Nemain, Irish goddess of the frenzied havoc of war; member of the Morrígan
• Rudianos, Gaulish god of war
• Segomo, Gaulish god of war
• Teutates, British and Gaulish god of war and the tribe

Lusitanian

• Neto, god believed to be associated with war, death, and weaponry

Norse-Germanic

Continental Germanic

• Baduhenna, a western Frisii goddess of warfare
• Idis (Germanic)/itis/ides, female being, the West Germanic cognates of North Germanic dís, they are connected with battle magic and fettering enemy armies
• Sandraudiga, goddess whose name may mean “she who dyes the sand red”, suggesting she is a war deity or at least has a warrior aspect
• Týr, god of war, single combat, law, justice, and the thing, who later lost much of his religious importance and mythical role to the god Wōden
• Wōden, god associated with wisdom, poetry, war, victory, and death

Norse

• Dís, a group of lesser goddesses who are sometimes connected with battle magic; valkyrie may be a kenning for them
• Freyja, goddess associated with love, beauty, fertility, gold, seiðr, war, and death
• Odin, god associated with wisdom, war, battle, and death
• Týr, god associated with law, justice, victory, and heroic glory
• Ullr, god associated with archery, skiing, bows, hunting, single combat, and glory
• Valkyries, choosers of the slain and connected to Odin, ruler of Valhalla; they may be the same as the dís above

Graeco-Roman

Greek / Hellenic

• Alala, spirit of the war cry
• Alke, spirit of courage and battle-strength
• Amphillogiai, goddesses of disputes
• Androktasiai, spirits of battlefield slaughter
• Ares, the main Greek god of war, despised by all the city-states except Sparta
• Athena, goddess of wisdom, war strategy, and weaving, more beloved by ancient Greeks than Ares and tutelary deity of Athens, Sparta’s rival
• Bia, spirit of force and compulsion
• Deimos, personification of terror
• Enyalius, god of war; in early periods apparently an epithet of Ares, they were differentiated later
• Enyo, goddess of war, sometimes appears to be identical to Eris
• Eris, goddess of discord and strife
• Hera, in the Illiad she has a martial character and fights (and wins) against Artemis; however, this warlike aspect of her appears nowhere else in the surviving corpus, suggesting it was dropped early on
• Homados, spirit of the din of battle
• Hysminai, female spirits of fighting and combat
• Ioke, spirit of onslaught, battle-tumult, and pursuit
• Keres, female spirits of violent or cruel death, including death in battle, by accident, murder, or ravaging disease
• Kratos, personification of strength and power
• Kydoimos, spirit of the din of battle
• Makhai, male spirits of fighting and combat
• Nike, spirit of victory
• Palioxis, spirit of backrush, flight, and retreat from battle
• Pallas, Titan god of war-craft and of the springtime campaign season
• Perses, the Titan of destruction
• Phobos, spirit of panic, fear, flight, and battlefield rout
• Phonoi, spirits of murder, killing, and slaughter
• Polemos, spirit of war
• Proioxis, spirit of onrush and battlefield pursuit

Roman

• Bellona, goddess of war
• Honos, god of chivalry, honor, and military justice
• Juno, has a consistent martial character and the patron goddess of Rome, the mother of Mars and Bellona
• Mars, god of war and agriculture, equivalent to Ares as far as being war gods; aside from this they have very little in common
• Minerva, goddess of wisdom, medicine, music, crafts, and war, while somewhat equivalent to the Greek Athena, the Romans did not emphasize her war aspect like the Greeks did
• Nerio, warrior goddess and personification of valor
• Victoria, personification of victory, equivalent to the Greek goddess Nike
• Virtus, god of bravery and military strength

Etruscan

• Laran, god of war.
• Menrva, goddess of war, art, wisdom, and health

Balkan

• Danubian Rider
• Sabazios
• Thracian Rider

Uralic

Hungarian

• Hadúr, god of war and the metalsmith of the gods

Asia

Turkic

• Kyzaghan, Turkic deity of war

Mongolian

• Begtse, originally a Mongolian war god, was later adopted into Tibetan Buddhism
• Dayisun Tngri

East Asia

Chinese

• Chiyou, god of war
• Di Qing, Star of Military Fortune, God of Valor
• Erlang Shen, a three-eyed warrior
• Guan Yu, Han dynasty general. God of loyalty, righteousness, and valor.
• Jinzha, marshal of the center altar
• Jiutian Xuannü, goddess of war, sex, and longevity
• Li Jing, Guardian of Celestial Palace
• Muzha, marshal of the center altar
• Nezha
• Wang Shan, Song dynasty general. Primordial Lord-General of Heaven. Guardian of Celestial Palace
• Wen Qiong 
• Yue Fei
• Zhao Lang (Zhao Gongming), God of Military Fortune, Guardian of Celestial Palace, Protector of Households
• Xue Rengui, Tang dynasty general.

Japanese

• Futsunushi, god of swords, martial arts, and conquest; god of the Mononobe clan
• Hachiman Daimyōjin, Shinto god of war (on land) and agriculture, divine protector of the Minamoto clan; mostly worshiped by samurai
• Sarutahiko, god of war and misogi; the deity who stands at the junction of Heaven and Earth; one of the main Kunitsukami; actively worshipped by Ueshiba Morihei
• Takemikazuchi, god of war, conquest, martial arts, sumo, and lightning; general of the Amatsukami; god of Kashima and Ujigami of Nakatomi clan
• Suwa Myōjin (Takeminakata-no-kami), god of valor and duty, protector of the Japanese religion
• Bishamonten, Buddhist god of war

Korean

• Yi Sun-sin, admiral of Joseon Dynasty. god of military, guardian of sea.
• Choe Yeong, general of Goryeo period, god of shamans, protector of humanity.
• Pagunseong, the star at the edge of the Big Dipper in Taoism, symbolizing swords.
• Baekmashinjang, god of war who rides a white horse.
• Dungapshinjang, god of war who has the ability of shapeshifting.
• Byeorakshinjang, god of war who uses thunder and lightning, sometimes punishes the evil.
• Damuncheonwang, Buddhist god of war.

Southeast Asia

Filipino

• Chacha’: the Bontok god of warriors
• Hipag: the Ifugao spirits of war that give soldiers courage on the field of war but are ferocious and cannibalistic
• Apolaqui: the Pangasinense war god
• Aring Sinukûan: the Kapampangan solar deity governing war and death. He taught early humans metallurgy, woodcutting, rice cultivation, and warfare
• Apolake: the Tagalog god of the sun and warriors
• Sidapa: another Tagalog god of war, he specifically settles conflicts among mortals
• Doce Pares: From the Spanish “Twelve Pairs”, they are a group of twelve young Tagalog men who went on a quest to retrieve the Golden Calf of Mount Banahaw, together with José Rizal as a culture hero. They are said to return as giants, bearing the Golden Calf, to aid mankind in war.
• Balangaw: a Hiligaynon and Bisaya god of the rainbow and war
• Inaginid: a Hiligaynon and Bisaya god of war.
• Makanduk: a Hiligaynon and Bisaya god of war.
• Lumalayag: the Tagbanwa spirits who challenge and fight the Salakap, spirits of plague and sickness.
• Talagbusao: the bloodthirsty Bukidnon god of war.
• Pamdiya: the Manobo gods who initiate and preside over war.
• Darago: the Bagobo god of warriors, whose consort is Mandarangan.
• Mandarangan: the Bagobo war deity married to Darago and resides at the top of Mount Apo. Human sacrifices made to him are rewarded with health, valour in war, and success in the pursuit of wealth.

Vietnamese

• Cao Lỗ, god of military innovations
• Độc Cước, the protector of coastal settlements. Legend has it that he split himself in two with his axe, each half guards coastal villages against sea ogres.
• Thần Đồng Cổ, the armored protector of the Lý dynasty
• Thánh Gióng, god of triumph over foreign invaders

South Asia

Hindu-Vedic-and-non-Vedic

• Kartikeya, god of war and victory
• Mangala, god of war and Mars
• Nirrti, goddess of strife
• Parvati, her forms Durga and Kali are known for fighting demons
• Shiva, god of destruction, time, and arts. several of his avatars are gods of destroying evil and avenging
• Vishnu, god of protection. Several of his avatars are associated with fighting and vanquishing evil.
• Indra, god of the weather, kingship, thunder, rains, electricity and the senses. He is also the king of Heaven.

Manipuri

• Marjing, god of war, polo, horse and sports.
• Panthoibi, goddess of war, love, courage and longevity.

West Asia

Armenian

• Anahit, goddess of healing, fertility, wisdom, and water; in early periods associated with war

Canaanite

• Anat, goddess of war
• Astarte, goddess of sex and war, western Semitic version of the Mesopotamian Ishtar and Inanna
• Resheph, god of plague and war
• Tanit, main Carthaginian goddess whose functions included war and the moon

Hebrew

• Yahweh, originally a warrior god

Hittite

• Wurrukatte, god of war

Hurrian

• Aštabi, a war god of Eblaite origin
• Nupatik, a god assumed to have warlike character
• Shaushka, goddess of love, war, and healing
• Ugur, a war god of Mesopotamian origin

Mesopotamian

• Adad, a weather god often portrayed as a warrior
• Erra, a god of war associated with Nergal, later syncretised with him
• Inanna, Sumerian goddess of love, sex and war
• Ishtar, Assyrian, Akkadian, and Babylonian counterpart of Inanna
• Nergal, god of war, the underworld, and pestilence
• Ninazu, a god of the underworld who could also be portrayed as a war deity
• Ningishzida, a god of the underworld who like his father Ninazu could be portrayed as a warrior
• Ninurta, warrior god
• Pabilsag, warrior god and husband of Ninisina
• Pap-nigin-gara, a war god syncretised with Ninurta
• Sebitti, group of minor Akkadian and Babylonian war gods
• Shara, minor Sumerian god of war
• Tishpak, a warrior god from Eshnunna
• Zababa, tutelary god of Kish and a war god

Nuristani

• Great Gish, god of war

Oceania

Polynesia

• ‘Oro, god of war
• Rongo, Mangaian god of war and taro

Hawaiian

• Kū, god of war and birds
• Pele, goddess of fire, lightning, dance, volcanoes, and violence

Māori

• Maru, god of war and fresh water
• Tūmatauenga, god of war and human activities

Americas

North America

Great Plains

• Morning Star, O-pi-ri-kus by one spelling; the god of war in Pawnee mythology

Pacific Northwest

• Qamaits, Nuxálk warrior goddess
• Winalagalis, Kwakwaka’wakw god of war

Central American and the Caribbean

Aztec

• Patterns of War
• Huitzilopochtli, god of will, patron of war, fire, and sun; lord of the south
  • Mixcoatl, god of war and hunting
  • Tlaloc, god of thunder, rain, and earthquakes
  • Xipe-Totec, god of force, patron of war, agriculture, vegetation, diseases, seasons, rebirth, hunting, trades, and spring; lord of the east
  • Xiuhtecuhtli, god of fire

Mayan

• Tohil, god associated with fire, the sun, rain, mountains, and war

Voodoo

• Ogoun, loa who presides over fire, iron, hunting, politics, and war

ref

I fully enjoy the value (axiology) of archaeology (empirical evidence from fact or artifacts at a site) is knowledge (epistemology) of the past, adding to our anthropology (evidence from cultures both the present and past) intellectual (rational) assumptions of the likely reality of actual events from time past.

I like learning prehistory!

I also hate: “Pseudo-science, Pseudo-history, and Pseudo-morality.”

So yeah, history is fun, but one must weed through the sometimes added mythology, half-truths, or outright lies. This is even more important when reading religion-related information.