My thoughts on the Origin and Evolution of Ziggurats and Pyramids, Mountain/Hill/Axis Mundi Mythology and the Mound of Creation

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Mastaba

Ziggurat

Step Pyramid

Pyramid

“Before the ziggurats there were raised platforms (Mastaba-like Structure) that date from the Ubaid period during the sixth millennium BCE. The ziggurats began as platforms (oval, rectangular, or square). The ziggurat was a Mastaba-like structure. The first tomb structure the Egyptians developed was the Mastaba, which is a type of ancient Egyptian tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular structure. Historians speculate that the Egyptians may have borrowed architectural ideas from Mesopotamia since, at the time, they were both building similar structures.” ref, ref

“A mastaba is a type of ancient Egyptian tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular structure with inward sloping sides, constructed out of mudbricks or limestone. These edifices marked the burial sites of many eminent Egyptians during Egypt’s Early Dynastic Period and Old Kingdom. Non-royal use of mastabas continued for over a thousand years. The Ancient Egyptian name was pr-Djt, meaning “house of stability,” “house of eternity,” or “eternal house.” The afterlife was centralized in the religion of ancient Egyptians. Their architecture reflects this, most prominently by the enormous amounts of time and labor involved in building tombs. Ancient Egyptians believed that the needs from the world of the living would be continued in the afterlife; it was therefore necessary to build tombs that would fulfill them, and be sturdy enough to last for an eternity. These needs would also have to be attended to by the living.” ref

“Starting in the Predynastic era (before 3100 BCE or around 5,100 years ago) and continuing into later dynasties, the ancient Egyptians developed increasingly complex and effective methods for preserving and protecting the bodies of the dead. They first buried their dead in pit graves dug from the sand with the body placed on a mat, usually along with some items believed to help them in the afterlife. The first tomb structure the Egyptians developed was the mastaba, composed of earthen bricks made from soil along the Nile. It provided better protection from scavenging animals and grave robbers. The origins of the mastaba can be seen in Tarkhan, where tombs would be split into two distinct portions. One side would contain a body, oriented in a north-south position, and the other would be open for the living to deliver offerings. As the remains were not in contact with the dry desert sand, natural mummification could not take place; therefore, the Egyptians devised a system of artificial mummification. Until at least the Old Period or First Intermediate Period, only high officials and royalty were buried in these mastabas.” ref

“The above-ground structure of a mastaba is rectangular in shape with inward-sloping sides and a flat roof. The exterior building materials were initially bricks made of the sun-dried mud readily available from the Nile River. Even after more durable materials such as stone came into use, the majority were built from mudbricks. Monumental mastabas, such as those at Saqqara, were often constructed out of limestone. Mastabas were often about four times as long as they were wide, and many rose to at least 10 meters (30 ft) in height. They were oriented north–south, which the Egyptians believed was essential for access to the afterlife. The roofs of the mastabas were of slatted wood or slabs of limestone, with skylights illuminating the tomb. The above-ground structure had space for a small offering chapel equipped with a false door. Priests and family members brought food and other offerings for the soul, or ba, of the deceased, which had to be maintained in order to continue to exist in the afterlife. The construction of mastabas was standardized, with several treatments being common for masonry.” ref

“Mastabas were highly decorated, both with paintings on the walls and ceilings, and carvings of organic elements such as palm trees out of limestone. Due to the spiritual significance of the color, it was preferable to construct mastabas from white limestone. If this was not available, the yellow limestone or mudbrick of the tomb would be whitewashed and plastered. Mastabas for royalty were especially extravagant on the exterior, meant to resemble a palace. The mastaba was the standard type of tomb in pre-dynastic and early dynastic Egypt for both the pharaoh and the social elite. The ancient city of Abydos was the location chosen for many of the cenotaphs. The royal cemetery was at Saqqara, overlooking the capital of early times, Memphis. Mastabas evolved over the early dynastic period (c. 3100–2686 BCE). During the 1st Dynasty, a mastaba was constructed simulating house plans of several rooms, a central one containing the sarcophagus and others surrounding it to receive the abundant funerary offerings. The whole was built in a shallow pit above which a brick superstructure covering a broad area.” ref

“The typical 2nd and 3rd Dynasty (c. 2686–2313) mastabas was the ‘stairway mastaba’, the tomb chamber of which sank deeper than before and was connected to the top with an inclined shaft and stairs. Many of the features of mastabas grew into those of the pyramids, indicating their importance as a transitory construction of tombs. This notably includes the exterior appearance of the tombs, as the sloped sides of the mastabas extended to form a pyramid. The first and most striking example of this was Djoser’s step pyramid, which combined many traditional features of mastabas with a more monumental stone construction. Even after pyramids became more prevalent for pharaohs in the 3rd and 4th Dynasties, members of the nobility continued to be buried in mastaba tombs. This is especially evident on the Giza Plateau, where at least 150 mastaba tombs have been constructed alongside the pyramids.” ref

“A ziggurat (/ˈzɪɡʊˌræt/; Cuneiform: 𒅆𒂍𒉪, Akkadian: ziqqurratum, D-stem of zaqārum ‘to protrude, to build high’, cognate with other Semitic languages like Hebrew zaqar (זָקַר) ‘protrude’) is a type of massive structure built in ancient Mesopotamia. It has the form of a terraced compound of successively receding stories or levels. Notable ziggurats include the Great Ziggurat of Ur near Nasiriyah, the Ziggurat of Aqar Quf near Baghdad, the no longer extant Etemenanki in Babylon, Chogha Zanbil in Khūzestān and Sialk. The Sumerians believed that the gods lived in the temple at the top of the ziggurats, so only priests and other highly-respected individuals could enter. Sumerian society offered these individuals such gifts as music, harvested produce, and the creation of devotional statues to entice them to live in the temple. The word ziggurat comes from ziqqurratum (height, pinnacle), in ancient Assyrian. From zaqārum, to be high up. The Ziggurat of Ur is a Neo-Sumerian ziggurat built by King Ur-Nammu, who dedicated it in honor of Nanna/Sîn in approximately the 21st century BCE during the Third Dynasty of Ur.” ref

“Ziggurats were built by ancient Sumerians, Akkadians, Elamites, Eblaites, and Babylonians for local religions. Each ziggurat was part of a temple complex with other buildings. Before the ziggurats there were raised platforms that date from the Ubaid period during the sixth millennium BCE. The ziggurats began as platforms (usually oval, rectangular or square). The ziggurat was a mastaba-like structure with a flat top. The sun-baked bricks made up the core of the ziggurat with facings of fired bricks on the outside. Each step was slightly smaller than the step below it. The facings were often glazed in different colors and may have had astrological significance. Kings sometimes had their names engraved on these glazed bricks. The number of floors ranged from two to seven.” ref

“Access to the shrine would have been by a series of ramps on one side of the ziggurat or by a spiral ramp from base to summit. The Mesopotamian ziggurats were not places for public worship or ceremonies. They were believed to be dwelling places for the gods, and each city had its own patron god. Only priests were permitted on the ziggurat or in the rooms at its base, and it was their responsibility to care for the gods and attend to their needs. The priests were very powerful members of Sumerian and Assyro-Babylonian society. One of the best-preserved ziggurats is Chogha Zanbil in western Iran. The Sialk ziggurat, in Kashan, Iran, is the oldest known ziggurat, dating to the early 3rd millennium BCE. Ziggurat designs ranged from simple bases upon which a temple sat, to marvels of mathematics and construction which spanned several terraced stories and were topped with a temple.” ref

“An example of a simple ziggurat is the White Temple of Uruk, in ancient Sumer. The ziggurat itself is the base on which the White Temple is set. Its purpose is to get the temple closer to the heavens, and provide access from the ground to it via steps. The Mesopotamians believed that these pyramid temples connected heaven and earth. In fact, the ziggurat at Babylon was known as Etemenanki, which means “House of the foundation of heaven and earth” in Sumerian. The date of its original construction is unknown, with suggested dates ranging from the fourteenth to the ninth century BCE, with textual evidence suggesting it existed in the second millennium. Unfortunately, not much of even the base is left of this massive structure, yet archeological findings and historical accounts put this tower at seven multicolored tiers, topped with a temple of exquisite proportions. The temple is thought to have been painted and maintained an indigo color, matching the tops of the tiers. It is known that there were three staircases leading to the temple, two of which (side flanked) were thought to have only ascended half the ziggurat’s height.” ref

“According to Herodotus, at the top of each ziggurat was a shrine, although none of these shrines has survived. Functionally, ziggurats offered a high place on which priests could escape rising water that annually inundated lowlands and occasionally flooded for hundreds of kilometres. They also offered security; since the shrine was accessible only by way of three stairways, a small number of guards could prevent non-priests from spying on the rituals at the shrine on top of the ziggurat, such as initiation rituals like the Eleusinian mysteries, cooking of sacrificial food and burning of sacrificial animals. Each ziggurat was part of a temple complex that included a courtyard, storage rooms, bathrooms, and living quarters, around which a city spread, as well as a place for the people to worship. It was also a sacred structure.” ref

“According to archaeologist Harriet Crawford,

It is usually assumed that the ziggurats supported a shrine, though the only evidence for this comes fromHerodotus, and physical evidence is non-existent … The likelihood of such a shrine ever being found is remote. Erosion has usually reduced the surviving ziggurats to a fraction of their original height, but textual evidence may yet provide more facts about the purpose of these shrines. In the present state of our knowledge it seems reasonable to adopt as a working hypothesis the suggestion that the ziggurats developed out of the earlier temples on platforms and that small shrines stood on the highest stages …” ref

“The biblical account of the Tower of Babel has been associated by modern scholars to the massive construction undertakings of the ziggurats of Mesopotamia, and in particular to the ziggurat of Etemenanki in Babylon in light of the Tower of Babel Stele describing its restoration by Nebuchadnezzar II. According to some historians, the design of Egyptian pyramids, especially the stepped designs of the oldest pyramids (Pyramid of Zoser at Saqqara, 2600 BCE or around 4,600 years ago), may have been an evolution from the ziggurats built in Mesopotamia. Others say the Pyramid of Zoser and the earliest Egyptian pyramids may have been derived locally from the bench-shaped mastaba tomb. A mound is a heaped pile of earth, gravel, sand, rocks, or debris. Most commonly, mounds are earthen formations such as hills and mountains, particularly if they appear artificial. A mound may be any rounded area of topographically higher elevation on any surface. Artificial mounds have been created for a variety of reasons throughout history, including habitation (see Tell and Terp), ceremonial (platform mound), burial (tumulus), and commemorative purposes (e.g. Kościuszko Mound).” ref, ref

“In the archaeology of the United States and Canada, a mound is a deliberately constructed elevated earthen structure or earthwork, intended for a range of potential uses. In European and Asian archaeology, the word “tumulus” may be used as a synonym for an artificial hill, particularly if the hill is related to particular burial customs. While the term “mound” may be applied to historic constructions, most mounds in the United States are pre-Columbian earthworks, built by Native American peoples. Native Americans built a variety of mounds, including flat-topped pyramids or cones known as platform mounds, rounded cones, and ridge or loaf-shaped mounds. Some mounds took on unusual shapes, such as the outline of cosmologically significant animals. These are known as effigy mounds. Some mounds, such as a few in Wisconsin, have rock formations, or petroforms within them, on them, or near them.” ref

“While these mounds are perhaps not as famous as burial mounds, like their European analogs, Native American mounds also have a variety of other uses. While some prehistoric cultures, like the Adena culture, used mounds preferentially for burial, others used mounds for other ritual and sacred acts, as well as for secular functions. The platform mounds of the Mississippian culture, for example, may have supported temples, the houses of chiefs, council houses, and may have also acted as a platform for public speaking. Other mounds would have been part of defensive walls to protect a certain area. The Hopewell culture used mounds as markers of complex astronomical alignments related to ceremonies. Mounds and related earthworks are the only significant monumental construction in pre-Columbian Eastern and Central North America. peoples. Mounds are given different names depending on which culture they strive from. They can be located all across the world in spots such as Asia, Europe and the Americas. “Mound builders” have more commonly been associated with the mounds in the Americas. They all have different meanings and sometimes are constructed as animals and can be clearly seen from aerial views.” ref

“A step pyramid or stepped pyramid is an architectural structure that uses flat platforms, or steps, receding from the ground up, to achieve a completed shape similar to a geometric pyramid. Step pyramids are structures that characterized several cultures throughout history in several locations throughout the world. These pyramids typically are large and made of several layers of stone. The term refers to pyramids of similar design that emerged separately from one another, as there are no firmly established connections between the different civilizations that built them:

• Mesopotamia
• Ancient Egypt
• Africa
• Europe
• Mesoamerica
• South America
• North America
• Cambodia
• Indonesia
• Japan
• Kazakhstan” ref

Pyramids are found in Mesopotamia, Africa, Egypt, Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Oceania

“A pyramid (from Ancient Greek πυραμίς (puramís) ‘pyramid’) is a structure whose visible surfaces are triangular in broad outline and converge toward the top, making the appearance roughly a pyramid in the geometric sense. The base of a pyramid can be of any polygon shape, such as triangular or quadrilateral, and its lines either filled or step. A pyramid has the majority of its mass closer to the ground with less mass towards the pyramidion at the apex. This is due to the gradual decrease in the cross-sectional area along the vertical axis with increasing elevation. This offers a weight distribution that allowed early civilizations to create monumental structures. Civilizations in many parts of the world have built pyramids. The largest pyramid by volume is the Mesoamerican Great Pyramid of Cholula, in the Mexican state of Puebla. For millennia, the largest structures on Earth were pyramids—first the Red Pyramid in the Dashur Necropolis and then the Great Pyramid of Khufu, both in Egypt—the latter is the only extant example of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.” ref

“The most famous African pyramids are in Egypt — huge structures built of bricks or stones, primarily limestone, some of which are among the world’s largest constructions. They are shaped in reference to the sun’s rays. Most had a smoothed white limestone surface. Many of the facing stones have fallen or were removed and used for construction in Cairo. The capstone was usually made of limestone, granite, or basalt, and some were plated with electrum. Ancient Egyptians built pyramids from 2700 BCE until around 1700 BCE. The first pyramid was erected during the Third Dynasty by the Pharaoh Djoser and his architect Imhotep. This step pyramid consisted of six stacked mastabas. Early kings such as Snefru built pyramids, with subsequent kings adding to the number until the end of the Middle Kingdom. The age of the pyramids reached its zenith at Giza in 2575–2150 BCE.” ref 

“The last king to build royal pyramids was Ahmose, with later kings hiding their tombs in the hills, such as those in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor’s West Bank. In Medinat Habu and Deir el-Medina, smaller pyramids were built by individuals. Smaller pyramids with steeper sides were built by the Nubians who ruled Egypt in the Late Period. The Great Pyramid of Giza is the largest in Egypt and one of the largest in the world. At 146.6 metres (481 ft) it was the tallest structure in the world until the Lincoln Cathedral was finished in 1311 CE. Its base covers an area of around 53,000 square metres (570,000 sq ft). The Great Pyramid is the only extant one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Ancient Egyptian pyramids were, in most cases, placed west of the river Nile because the divine pharaoh’s soul was meant to join with the sun during its descent before continuing with the sun in its eternal round. As of 2008, some 135 pyramids had been discovered in Egypt, most located near Cairo.” ref

“Andean cultures used pyramids in various architectural structures, such as the ones in Caral, Túcume, and Chavín de Huantar, constructed around the same time as early Egyptian pyramids. Several Mesoamerican cultures built pyramid-shaped structures. Mesoamerican pyramids were usually stepped, with temples on top, more similar to the Mesopotamian ziggurat than the Egyptian pyramid. The largest by volume is the Great Pyramid of Cholula, in the Mexican state of Puebla. Constructed from the 3rd century BCE to the 9th century CE, this pyramid is the world’s largest monument, and is still not fully excavated. The third largest pyramid in the world, the Pyramid of the Sun, at Teotihuacan, is also located in Mexico. An unusual pyramid with a circular plan survives at the site of Cuicuilco, now inside Mexico City and mostly covered with lava from an eruption of the Xitle Volcano in the 1st century BCE. Several circular stepped pyramids called Guachimontones survive in Teuchitlán, Jalisco.” ref

“Pyramids in Mexico were often used for human sacrifice. Harner stated that for the dedication of the Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, “one source states 20,000, another 72,344, and several give 80,400” as the number of humans sacrificed. Many pre-Columbian Native American societies of ancient North America built large pyramidal earth structures known as platform mounds. Among the largest and best-known of these structures is Monks Mound at the site of Cahokia in what became Illinois, completed around 1100 CE. It has a base larger than that of the Great Pyramid. Many mounds underwent repeated episodes of expansion. They are believed to have played a central role in the mound-building peoples’ religious life. Documented uses include semi-public chief‘s house platforms, public temple platforms, mortuary platforms, charnel house platforms, earth lodge/town house platforms, residence platforms, square ground and rotunda platforms, and dance platforms. Cultures that built substructure mounds include the Troyville culture, Coles Creek culture, Plaquemine culture, and Mississippian cultures.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Tell el-‘Oueili 

Eridu Sumerian City

The Enki Temple at Eridu

“Mesopotamian buildings of the Ubaid and Uruk periods (fifth–fourth millennia BCE). a: The reconstruction of a large tripartite house from Tell Oueili, Ubaid phase 0; b: Eridu, plan of the level VII ‘temple’; c: Part of the Tell Abada village.” ref 

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“Diagrammatic section through the archaic layers of Uruk (E-Anna) Successive temples on 3 levels. Reconstruction by the author based on H. Lenzen’s plans in Zeitschrift für Assyriologie, XLIX, 1949.” ref 

“Before the ziggurats there were raised platforms that date from the Ubaid period during the sixth millennium BCE. The ziggurats began as platforms (usually oval, rectangular, or square). The ziggurat was a mastaba-like structure with a flat top. The sun-baked bricks made up the core of the ziggurat, with facings of fired bricks on the outside. Each step was slightly smaller than the step below it. The facings were often glazed in different colors and may have had astrological significance. Kings sometimes had their names engraved on these glazed bricks. The number of floors ranged from two to seven.” ref 

“Tell el ‘Oueili provided the oldest archaeological levels known to date in Lower Mesopotamia, around 6200 BCE or around 8,200 years ago.  The village societies inhabiting ‘Oueili, fully neolithized, will develop an art, an architecture and a craft production characteristic of the culture of Obeid. They master irrigation and cultivate cereals which they store in vast community granaries. They harvest reeds in the marshes, used in architecture. The inhabitants of ‘Oueili practice livestock breeding and fish abundantly. They know the technique of molded brick which allows them to build large houses. During the period, which lasts more than two millennia, until around 4000 BCE, a dominant class gradually emerges. The hierarchization of society is illustrated by the appearance of monumental architecture.” ref

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The Ubaid Period in The Urbanization Process; The Birth of Urbanism in The Near East (5500-3800 BCE)

The Ubaid culture, which takes its name from Tell-al Ubaid, plays a crucial role in the process of urbanization in the Near East. Surviving for more than 1500 years (5500-3800 BC), it was characterized by important social, economic, and political developments that influenced the development of urban polities in both the Near East and the East and Southeastern Anatolia Regions. With this culture, certain radical structural changes peculiar to complex societies, urban societies, such as political and economic centralization based on control over product, production, and labor organization with sealing practices, socio-economic differences, a high degree of economic specialization and technological development, indicate that a complex economy, and organized trade had begun to take place in the social, political and economical organizations of the societies of the Near East. This paper is concerned with enlightening the role of the Ubaid Culture in the development of urban societies in the Near East. With this aim, this culture will be analyzed from the viewpoint of those characteristics peculiar to urban societies mentioned above.” ref 

“The Ubaid period (c. 5500–3700 BCE or around 7,500 to 5,700 years ago) is a prehistoric period of Mesopotamia. The name derives from Tell al-‘Ubaid where the earliest large excavation of Ubaid period material. In South Mesopotamia the period is the earliest known period on the alluvial plain although it is likely earlier periods exist obscured under the alluvium. In the south it has a very long duration between about 5500 and 3800 BCE when it is replaced by the Uruk period.  In Northern Mesopotamia the period runs only between about 5300 and 4300 BCE. It is preceded by the Halaf period and the Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period and succeeded by the Late Chalcolithic period. The excavators of Eridu and Tell al-‘Ubaid found Ubaid pottery. The Eridu and Hajji Muhammed pottery styles were not distinct at all. Instead, they were part of the greater Ubaid phenomenon. The excavation at Tell el-‘Oueili in the 1980s revealed occupation layers that were older than those from Eridu. This discovery pushed back the date for the earliest human occupation of southern Mesopotamia. In the south, corresponding to the area that would later be known as Sumer, the entire Ubaid spans an immense period from ca. 6500 to 3800 BCE. It is here that the oldest known Ubaid site – Tell el-‘Oueili – was found. In southern Iraq, no archaeological site has yet yielded remains older than Ubaid, However, this might be more a result of the fact that such ancient settlements are now buried deep under alluvial sediments. This was the case, for example, of the site of Hadji Muhammed, which was discovered only by accident.” ref

“Humans could have lived south of Uruk as early as the eighth millennium BCE. This is much earlier than the oldest evidence of human occupation in this area. The oldest known site in southern Mesopotamia (Tell el-‘Oueili) dates to the Ubaid 0 period. Archaeobotanical research in the Ubaid 0 levels at ‘Oueili (6500-6000 BCE) has indicated the presence of Euphrates poplar and sea clubrush, both indicative of a wetland environment. As a result of changes in sea-level, the shoreline of the Persian Gulf during the Ubaid was different from that of today. At the beginning of the Ubaid, around 6500 BCE or around 8,500 years ago, the shoreline at Kuwait may have run slightly further south. During the subsequent 2.5 millennia, the shoreline moved further northward, up to the ancient city of Ur around 4000 BCE or around 6,000 years ago. Date palms were present in southern Mesopotamia since at least the eleventh millennium BCE, predating the earliest evidence for domesticated dates from Eridu by several millennia. Date palms require a perennial water source, again indicating that this period may have been wetter than today. Similarly, oak was present from the eighth millennium, but disappeared at around the same time that Ubaid material culture spread outward from southern Mesopotamia during the sixth millennium BCE. It has been suggested that acquisition of high-quality wood may have played a role in this expansion. Ubaid and Ubaid-like material culture has been found over an immense area. Ubaid ceramics have shown up from Turkey Mersin in the west to Tepe Ghabristan in the east, as well as from Norşuntepe, and Arslantepe in the north,  to Dosariyah in the south along the Gulf coast of Saudi Arabia. In this area, researchers have discerned considerable regional variation, indicating that the Ubaid was not a monolithic culture through time and space.” ref

“Evidence for metallurgy comes from several sites in Upper Mesopotamia, all dating to the final stages of the Ubaid period. At Mersin, Level XVI (5000-4900 BCE), unalloyed copper pins and chisels were found. At southeastern Anatolian sites like Değirmentepe and Norşuntepe, metallurgical production was practiced during the Ubaid 3, as evidenced by furnaces, and related finds. At late fifth millennium Tell Nader , northern Iraq, kilns were excavated that may have been used for the production of both pottery and metal. The Ubaid period provides the first evidence for boating in the ancient Near East. Ceramic boat models have been recovered from numerous sites across Mesopotamia, from Zeidan and Tell Mashnaqa in modern-day northern Syria to Eridu and ‘Oueili in the south and Abada in the Hamrin. These models date from Ubaid 1-4 but become more common from Ubaid 3 onwards. The models indicate that different boat types may have been in use, including reed boats, and boats with masts. It has been noted that no evidence for boats has been recovered from Halaf sites in northern Mesopotamia, and that Ubaid 3, from which more boat models have been recovered, coincides with the expansion of the Ubaid towards the north and into the Persian Gulf.  Stamp seals had been in use in Upper Mesopotamia since the 7th millennium BC. By the time of the Ubaid period, a wide range of motifs had developed, including geometric patterns and depictions of animals and occasional humans. The Ubaid period saw the first depictions of ibex-headed and bird-headed humans.” ref

“The most common burial practice during the Ubaid seems to have been primary inhumation; i.e. burial of the complete body. During Ubaid 4, some 80% (adults) and 94% (infants) of the burials consisted of primary inhumations. The dead were often accompanied by personal adornments such as beads, necklaces, and headdresses. Pots (presumably) containing foodstuffs were also common. Pieces of red ochre have also been recovered from graves. Burials have been excavated at many Ubaid sites, with exceptionally large numbers coming from Tell Abada (127 infant burials) and Eridu (193 burials). By the fifth millennium BC, children and adults were given differential treatment in death. The available evidence indicates that infants were primarily buried inside the settlement, often near larger, presumably more important dwellings, and often in pots. The association of children’s burials with larger buildings is well-illustrated at the sites of Tell Abada and Tepe Gawra. It has been suggested that this pattern of children’s burials near larger dwellings was related to increasing social differentiation between kin groups. Adults, on the other hand, were buried at the edge of the settlement in communal burial grounds in pit burials or inside clay boxes. Such burial grounds have, for example, been excavated at Eridu. These burial practices represent a clear break from those of the preceding Late Neolithic period. During the Late Neolithic, burials were often secondary and burial treatment was very diverse. The Ubaid witnessed a marked shift toward primary burial, less diverse burial customs, and less diversity in burial gifts. This shift has been interpreted as a reflection of changing perceptions of personhood.” ref

“Evidence for cranial modification, i.e. deliberate headshaping, among both men and women, has come from many archaeological sites throughout wider Mesopotamia. Where headshaping was detected, it was all of the same type, i.e. one- or two-band circumferential headshaping, which results in an elongated shape of the head. Different types of headshaping were practiced prior to and after the Ubaid period across the Near East, but it seems that the specific technique of circumferential headshaping may have originated in Iran, east of the area of Ubaid influence, and reached its peak during the Ubaid period. It has been interpreted as a marker for socio-cultural group affiliation during the Ubaid. Labrets and/or ear-spools were likewise recovered from many archaeological Ubaid sites across Mesopotamia and its border regions. In at least one case from southwestern Iran, a labret was found in situ in a burial, located at the mandible of the buried individual and with associated tooth wear indicating that it had been worn.  Labrets were absent from Halaf sites in northern Mesopotamia, again indicating that they may have been important markers of socio-cultural identity during the Ubaid. Their use seems to have declined again during the Uruk period.” ref

“Ubaid culture is characterized by large unwalled village settlements, multi-roomed rectangular mud-brick houses and the appearance of the first temples of public architecture in Mesopotamia, with a growth of a two tier settlement hierarchy of centralized large sites of more than 10 hectares surrounded by smaller village sites of less than 1 hectare. Domestic equipment included a distinctive fine quality buff or greenish colored pottery decorated with geometric designs in brown or black paint. Tools such as sickles were often made of hard fired clay in the south, while in the north stone and sometimes metal were used. Villages thus contained specialised craftspeople, potters, weavers and metalworkers, although the bulk of the population were agricultural labourers, farmers and seasonal pastoralists. During the Ubaid Period (5000–4000 BC), the movement towards urbanization began. “Agriculture and animal husbandry [domestication] were widely practiced in sedentary communities”. There were also tribes that practiced domesticating animals as far north as Turkey, and as far south as the Zagros Mountains. The Ubaid period in the south was associated with intensive irrigated hydraulic agriculture, and the use of the plough, both introduced from the north, possibly through the earlier Choga Mami, Hadji Muhammed, and Samarra cultures.” ref

“The Ubaid period as a whole, based upon the analysis of grave goods, was one of increasingly polarized social stratification and decreasing egalitarianism. Bogucki describes this as a phase of “Trans-egalitarian” competitive households, in which some fall behind as a result of downward social mobility. Morton Fried and Elman Service have hypothesized that Ubaid culture saw the rise of an elite class of hereditary chieftains, perhaps heads of kin groups linked in some way to the administration of the temple shrines and their granaries, responsible for mediating intra-group conflict and maintaining social order. It would seem that various collective methods, perhaps instances of what Thorkild Jacobsen called primitive democracy, in which disputes were previously resolved through a council of one’s peers, were no longer sufficient for the needs of the local community. Ubaid culture originated in the south, but still has clear connections to earlier cultures in the region of middle Iraq. The appearance of the Ubaid folk has sometimes been linked to the so-called Sumerian problem, related to the origins of Sumerian civilisation. Whatever the ethnic origins of this group, this culture saw for the first time a clear tripartite social division between intensive subsistence peasant farmers, with crops and animals coming from the north, tent-dwelling nomadic pastoralists dependent upon their herds, and hunter-fisher folk of the Arabian littoral, living in reed huts.” ref

“Stein and Özbal describe the Near East oecumene that resulted from Ubaid expansion, contrasting it to the colonial expansionism of the later Uruk period. “A contextual analysis comparing different regions shows that the Ubaid expansion took place largely through the peaceful spread of an ideology, leading to the formation of numerous new indigenous identities that appropriated and transformed superficial elements of Ubaid material culture into locally distinct expressions.” There is some evidence of warfare during the Ubaid period although it is extremely rare. The “Burnt Village” at Tell Sabi Abyad could be suggestive of destruction during war but it could also have been due to other causes, such as wildfire or accident. Ritual burning is also possible since the bodies inside were already dead by the time they were burned. A mass grave at Tepe Gawra contained 24 bodies apparently buried without any funeral rituals, possibly indicating it was a mass grave from violence. Copper weapons were also present in the form of arrow heads and sling bullets, although these could have been used for other purpose; two clay pots recovered from the era have decorations showing arrows used for the purpose of hunting. A copper axe head was made in the late Ubaid period, which could have been a tool or a weapon. During the late Ubaid period, around 4500–4000 BCE or around 6,500 to 6,000 years ago, there was some increase in social polarization, with central houses in the settlements becoming bigger. But there were no real cities until the later Uruk period.” ref 

“Tell al-‘Ubaid (Arabic: العبيد) is a low, relatively small tell (settlement mound) west of nearby Ur in southern Iraq‘s Dhi Qar Governorate. Most of the remains are from the Chalcolithic Ubaid period, for which Tell al-‘Ubaid is the type site, with an Early Dynastic temple and cemetery at the highest point. It was a cult center for the goddess Ninhursag. The excavated Early Dynastic temple of Ninḫursaĝ, A-Ane-pada, is located on the northern edge of the site. Finds included a copper framed frieze of limestone birds set in a black shale background. The temple was also worked on in the Ur III period. A cemetery was also found with 96 graves, mostly from the Early Dynastic Period. The lower level of the site featured large amounts of Ubaid pottery and associated kilns. Evidence for Ubaid period pottery manufacture has also been observed on the surface of the site. The size of the surface scatter indicates that pottery production was a specialized craft, and this confirms finds from other Ubaid sites like Eridu. The site also yielded a cemetery and some finds from the Jemdet Nasr period. The temple of Ninhursag at the summit was on a cleared oval similar to that at Khafajah. The wall surrounding the temple was built by Shulgi of the Ur III Empire.” ref

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

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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My Speculations are in Comparative Mythologies?

For instance, the mytheme of an ancient belief that is seemingly shared though changed and adapted, a fundamental generic unit of narrative structure seems to be shared a common relation with mountains/ancestors/gods or sacred animals with Sacred Mounds, Mountains, Kurgans, and Pyramids. 

Sacred Mounds, Mountains, Kurgans, and Pyramids may hold deep Mythology connections?

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Mountain Gods

“Mountain Gods (山神) are Asian tutelary deities associated with mountains. They are related to landlord deities and tudigongs, and City Gods.” ref

“Mountain goddesses“

“Artemis, Bà Chúa Xứ. Cybele, Cyllene (nymph), Dali, Konohanasakuya-hime, Kukurihime, Lelluri, Ma (Sumerian), Maia, Maria Cacao, Maria Makiling, Maria Sinukuan, Mẫu Thượng Ngàn, Ninhursag, Ninkurra, Oread, Parvati, Rhea, Saso, Skaði, Tenma, and Zana.” ref

“In Greek mythology, the Ourea (Ancient Greek: Οὔρεα, romanized: Oúrea, lit. ’mountains’, plural of Οὖρος, or ‘Oûros’) were the parthenogenetic offspring of Gaia (Earth), produced alongside Uranus (Sky), and Pontus (Sea).” ref

Why do I champion truth?

I don’t do it to offend but to educate. If others fear education, then maybe what they believe is fragile to the truth. My offering education for free is an example of my deep humanity. I explain the evolution of religion, starting in animism in southern Africa, then some people speads out of Afraca, one branch goes to western Europe evolving into totemism, and another goes to Siberia evolving into shamanism, Shamanism and totemism next mix in central Europe, and some people head to Lake Baikal in southern Siberia. It is from there that shamanism heads to Turkey, evolving into paganism.

Milky Way (mythology/axis mundi)

“Milky Way mythology is seen in Armenian, Australian Aboriginal, Americas, Eastern Asia, Egyptian, Finno-Ugric, Greek, Hungarian, Indian, Irish, Māori, Mesopotamian, San (Southern AFRICA), Roman, and Welsh.” ref

“There are many myths and legends about the origin of the Milky Way, the crowd of stars that makes a distinctive bright streak across the night sky. In Egyptian mythology, the Milky Way was considered a pool of cow’s milk. The Milky Way was deified as a fertility cow-goddess by the name of Bat (later on syncretized with the sky goddess Hathor). The astronomer Or Graur has suggested that the Egyptians may have seen the Milky Way as a celestial depiction of the sky goddess Nut. In Hungarian mythology, Csaba, the mythical son of Attila the Hun and ancestor of the Hungarians, is supposed to ride down the Milky Way when the Székelys (ethnic Hungarians living in Transylvania) are threatened. Thus the Milky Way is called “The Road of the Warriors” (lit. “Road of Armies”) Hungarian: Hadak Útja. The stars are sparks from their horseshoes.” ref

“In the Babylonian epic poem Enûma Eliš, the Milky Way is created from the severed tail of the primeval salt water dragoness Tiamat, set in the sky by Marduk, the Babylonian national god, after slaying her. This story was once thought to have been based on an older Sumerian version in which Tiamat is instead slain by Enlil of Nippur, but is now thought to be purely an invention of Babylonian propagandists with the intention to show Marduk as superior to the Sumerian deities. Another myth about Labbu is similarly interpreted. The San people in southern Africa say that long ago there were no stars and the night was pitch black. A girl of the ancient race, !Xwe-/na-ssho-!ke, who was lonely and wanted to visit other people, threw the embers from a fire into the sky and created the Milky Way.” ref

“To the Māori the Milky Way is the waka (canoe) of Tama-rereti. The front and back of the canoe are Orion and Scorpius, while the Southern Cross and the Pointers are the anchor and rope. According to legend, when Tama-rereti took his canoe out onto a lake, he found himself far from home as night was falling. There were no stars at this time and in the darkness the Taniwha would attack and eat people. So Tama-rereti sailed his canoe along the river that emptied into the heavens (to cause rain) and scattered shiny pebbles from the lakeshore into the sky. The sky god, Ranginui, was pleased by this action and placed the canoe into the sky as well as a reminder of how the stars were made.” ref

“The double spiral and the Milky Way: The traditions of some of the oldest known civilizations share the belief that the souls of men dwell, between one reincarnation and the next, in the center of the Milky Way. This idea was widespread not only in Neolithic Europe, but also and above all in the Americas, for example. among Indians of Honduras and Nicaragua, and in a large number of North American traditions, such as eg. those of the Pawnee and Cherokee [cf. Santillana-Dechend, Hamlet’s mill, pp. 287-288]. The Milky Way, in all these cultures, appears indissolubly connected to the symbolism of the double spiral and to the passage from this world to the “Other World.” ref

“According to the natives of North America, the “Spiral of Life” is a representation of the “Lodge of Dreams” (in all probability a denomination of the Milky Way), the place from which, according to the traditions, all the knowledge of those peoples comes. For the Maya hunab ku, the “Galactic Butterfly», is the primordial divinity above all the others and at the same time the center of the Milky Way: represented as a double spiral, it meant the balance of opposing forces, universal consciousness, but also the door to access other parallel dimensions.” ref

“At this point, it seems necessary to note, before moving on to another spiral symbol – and catapulting us for a moment to the present day – how, thanks to the most advanced scientific instruments, it has now been possible to observe how the Milky Way is formed by several branches a spiral of logarithmic type, with an inclination of 12 degrees. A spiral is called “logarithmic” or “growth” when, moving from a center outwards, its sections grow exponentially, according to that continuous geometric proportion, everywhere present in nature (e.g. in galaxies, swirls, eddies of water, sunflowers, succulents, shells, pine cones, etc.) is Plato considered “the deepest cosmic bond” is “the only resonance on which the world is founded». This ‘divine proportion’, also called the ‘Golden Section’, was codified in the famous “Fibonacci sequence” (from its discoverer, the mathematician Leonardo Pisano; 1175 c.ca – 1235), which develops in such a way that each number of the sequence is equivalent to the sum of the two preceding it.” ref

“Mixcoatl (Nahuatl languages: Mixcōhuātl, [miʃˈkoːwaːt͡ɬ] from mixtli [ˈmiʃt͡ɬi] “cloud” and cōātl [ˈkoːaːt͡ɬ] “serpent”), or Camaxtle [kaˈmaʃt͡ɬe] or Camaxtli, was the god of the hunt and identified with the Milky Way, the stars, and the heavens in several Mesoamerican cultures. He was the patron deity of the Otomi, the Chichimecs, and several groups that claimed descent from the Chichimecs. Under the name of Camaxtli, Mixcoatl was worshipped as the central deity of Huejotzingo and Tlaxcala.” ref

“The Incas not only identified constellations and individual stars, but they also assigned each a purpose . They believed that everything in and around our world was connected. The Inca flourished in the Andes Mountains in South America from the 12th to 15th centuries. They had a grand empire stretching from present-day Colombia to Chile. Worship was very important to them, and they had a complicated religion closely linked to astronomy . The Inca worshiped various Gods, including Viracocha (the creator), Inti (the sun), and Chuqui Illa, the God of Thunder. They also worshiped huacas, spirits that were believed to inhabit any remarkable phenomenon, including large boulders, trees, streams or waterfalls.” ref

“In general, the sky was very important to the Inca. Both the moon and sun were seen as gods and they built extravagant pillars and temples with great precision so that these “heavenly bodies”, like the sun, would pass over the structures or through windows on specific days, like the summer solstice. The most crucial events for the Inca generally involved the rising and setting of the sun, moon, and stars. Upon looking at the stars, the Inca noticed many animals and other representations from their day-to-day lives. The Inca worship of stars and dark constellations shows us that this culture believed everything around them was connected. The sky had a very special meaning in managing this civilization and impacted daily life.” ref

“Astronomy was very important for the Inca civilization, partly due to the importance of agriculture. Astronomy was used for agricultural purposes. Cusco, for example, lies on a radial plan, mimicking the sky and pointing to specific astronomical events on the horizon. Similarly to the ancient Egyptians, this was a horizon-based culture. They built carefully placed pillars on mountains and hills overlooking Cusco, so when the sun rose or set between these pillars, they knew they had to plant at a specific altitude. The Inca, however, not only studied individual stars but also grouped stars into constellations. Grouping these stars into constellations became very important to the Inca.” ref

“One star grouping, known as the Pleiades, was especially believed to be influential over the well-being of animals. Pleiades were not seen as a greater God to the Inca, but they rather saw it as a huaca to which shamans would make regular sacrifices. The second type of constellation could only be observed when there were no stars: they were the dark spots or blotches on the Milky Way. These dark blotches were considered as living (animate) animals. The animals were believed to live in the Milky Way, which they thought of as a river. The Inca were one of the few civilizations who were able to locate their constellations without the presence of stars. These dark constellations, in turn, made up the Inca zodiac.” ref 

“Maya astronomy is the study of the Moon, planets, Milky Way, Sun, and astronomical phenomena by the Precolumbian Maya Civilization of Mesoamerica. The Classic Maya in particular developed some of the most accurate pre-telescope astronomy in the world, aided by their fully developed writing system and their positional numeral system, both of which are fully indigenous to Mesoamerica. The Classic Maya understood many astronomical phenomena: for example, their estimate of the length of the synodic month was more accurate than Ptolemy’s, and their calculation of the length of the tropical solar year was more accurate than that of the Spanish when the latter first arrived. Many temples from the Maya architecture have features oriented to celestial events.” ref

“Planting and harvesting, drought, rain and hurricane season, the eclipse season, and the relationship of the Milky Way to the horizon. The Milky Way appears as a hazy band of faint stars. It is the disc of our own galaxy, viewed edge-on from within it. It appears as a 10°-wide band of diffuse light passing all the way around the sky. It crosses the ecliptic at a high angle. Its most prominent feature is a large dust cloud that forms a dark rift in its southern and western part. There is no almanac in the codices that refers specifically to the Milky Way but there are references to it in almanacs concerned with other phenomena.” ref

Early Maya E Groups, the Milky Way, and Creation

“Prudence M. Rice proposes a “Milky Way / creation hypothesis” for the elongated eastern structures in early Maya E Groups: they were modeled on the Milky Way galaxy. These architectural arrangements, beginning in the Preclassic period (c. 900 BCE–CE 200) in the southern Maya Lowlands, were adopted from predecessors in the Early Preclassic neighboring Gulf Coast region. The widespread overall similarity of E Groups suggests a shared belief system centered on myths about creation, and many of the characters (e.g., Maize God) and events of creation in Maya myths are set in the Milky Way. The general north–south axial orientation of the eastern platform, frequently pivoted northeast–southwest, is proposed to be related to the rainy season position of the Milky Way overhead. E Groups were probably multifunctional ritual theaters, the eastern platforms serving as stages for nighttime performances of creation stories. Late modifications into a tripart edifice, with structures or superstructures in the center and at both ends, replicated the major asterisms of the visible galaxy and/or the creator gods.” ref

“Ever so long ago, the Breathmaker blew his breath toward the sky and created the Milky Way. This broad pathway in the night sky leads to the City of the West. There is where the souls of good Indians go when they die. Bad Indian souls stay in the ground where they are buried. When the Seminole Indians walk through the woods and step where a bad person has been buried, they become fearful. Even though the grave is covered with brush, they always seem to know that a bad person is buried there. The Seminoles say the Milky Way shines brightest following the death of one of their tribe. They believe this is so that the path to the City in the Sky will be lighted brightly for the traveling Seminole.” ref

“For a good Indian to be able to walk over the Milky Way, he must first be one whom everyone likes. He cannot be one who talks in an evil manner, or lies and steals. He must be brave at all times and an honour to the Seminoles. In the Seminole language, so-lo-pi he-ni means “spirit way” or “the Milky Way for human souls.” And if-i he-ni means “dog way” and is the sky-path for the souls of dogs and other animals that die. Spirits never return to earth from the City in the Sky. Seminoles do not believe that ghostly visitors ever come back and visit their people again. Along the Milky Way lives Rain and Rainbow. The Seminole word for Rainbow means stop-the-rain, and that is what the Rainbow does when it appears.” ref

“When the Sun is eclipsed, Seminoles say that toad-frog has come along and taken a bite out of the Sun. Toad-frog continues eating at the Sun until the Sun disappears. Seminole hunters shoot arrows at toad-frogs whenever they see one, preventing eclipses of the Sun or Moon. Seminole hunters like to make a loud clamour to scare the toad-frogs away when they do appear. Along the Milky Way is Big Dipper, which seems like a boat to the Seminoles. They say it is used to carry the souls of good Seminoles along the Milky Way to the City in the Sky. The Seminole tribe calls the Morning Star the Tomorrow Star, and the Evening Star is known to them as the Red Star.” ref

“The Maya Milky Way is the path to the Otherworld. The cross in the sky formed by the Milky Way and the ecliptic stretches out in all four directions.” ref

“A version of the tracks motif, the Milky Way, is viewed as the path re- resulting from a chase. This was found in a Tlingit raven myth.” ref

“The Lakota people refer to the Milky Way as “Wanaghi Tachanku.”Wanaghi Tachanku translates to “trail of the spirits.” ref

“The Hopi say their first home was in the Pleiades constellation, which they refer to as Chuhukon. The Cree Nation has legends that say their ancestors arrived on earth as spirits from the stars. Traditionally, the Zuni also believed they were related to a kind of Star People.” ref

Pleiades in folklore

“Nearly always imagined as a group of “seven sisters,” and their myths explain why there are only six. Seen in North Africa, the Middle East, Europe, the Americas, Asia, Oceania, and Subsaharan Africa. The Talmud (Berakhot 58b) suggests understanding ke’ me-ah as kimah (כימה as כמאה) “about one hundred” stars in the Pleiades star cluster. Like most astronomical figures in rabbinic writing, the Jewish sages pointed to this as having come from Mount Sinai.” ref

“The Mesopotamian cuneiform texts of the MUL.APIN, which were produced from the seventh century BC onwards, describe Pleiades leap rules for the intercalation of months. They refer to a time well before the creation of the surviving clay tablets, which have been copied several times, namely the 26th century BCE. This results from the astronomical dates explicitly given in the texts for the visibility of the Pleiades (Sumerian term MUL.MUL = “stars”) and the beginnings of the months. The two surviving Babylonian Pleiades leap rules are recorded in lines eight to eleven of the second clay tablet of the MUL.APIN series. Although the cuneiform characters of the beginnings of lines ten and eleven have not been completely preserved, they can be reconstructed relatively reliably and meaningfully. A normal year has twelve lunar months. A full year requires the intercalation of a thirteenth lunar month. According to this leap rule, seven synodical month have to be intercalated within the duration of a Metonic cycle, which has exactly nineteen solar years.” ref

“To the Bronze Age people of Europe, such as the Celts (and probably considerably earlier), the Pleiades were associated with mourning and with funerals, since at that time in history, on the cross-quarter day between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice (see Samhain, also Halloween or All Souls Day), which was a festival devoted to the remembrance of the dead, the cluster rose in the eastern sky as the Sun’s light faded in the evening. It was from this acronychal rising that the Pleiades became associated with tears and mourning. As a result of precession over the centuries, the Pleiades no longer marked the festival, but the association has nevertheless persisted, and may account for the significance of the Pleiades astrologically.” ref

“The visual narrative of the Twisted Gourd symbol as an ideogram was as a timeless and therefore enduring Snake-Mountain/cave-Cloud/lightning “born of the gods” origin story of hereditary rulership. The task of Andean, Mayan, and Puebloan visual arts in the context of Twisted Gourd symbolism was to show the everywhere-present liminal “misty” state of the creator gods that was co-identified with “living water” and the timeless misty place of the ancestors as the vital biography of hereditary rulers in a hierarchically organized society. The mythology of the first organized religion of the first hierarchically organized civilizations of the Americas as encoded in Twisted Gourd symbolism, begins and ends with the role of the cosmic Serpent as primordial mist (liminal space), whose omniscient spirit was embodied in the water cycle, the primary metaphor of which was the Milky Way-sky river of life.” ref

“That one metaphor was the basis of all storm mythology in relation to divinity, the materialized signs of which were wind, lightning, thunder, clouds, and seasonal water cycles. Out of the mists of the Serpent, the sun god materialized, which formed the basis of all light and heat, hence the igneous: aquatic paradigm as materialized by the cosmic Plumed Serpent and the supernatural lineages that extended from it that were embodied in the offices of a hierarchical social organization. It is also important to realize that in the omniscient, everywhere-present misty space of the cosmic Serpent, a space that it organized into sacred roads (directions) to serve the material world just as a developer would first lay out the grid of roads for a new community, the possibilities of the seeds of all life forms also resided.” ref

“One symbol from the Twisted Gourd symbol set that came to embody nearly as well as the Twisted Gourd symbol the unified concept of connections and transformation was the checkerboard pattern, one unit of which greatly elaborated its meaning in terms of the foundation of hereditary rulership (T594 glyph, see Maya Connection). The visual narrative of the Twisted Gourd symbol as an ideogram was as a timeless and therefore enduring Snake-Mountain/cave-Cloud/lightning “born of the gods” origin story of hereditary rulership. The task of Andean, Mayan, and Puebloan visual arts in the context of Twisted Gourd symbolism was to show the everywhere-present liminal “misty” state of the creator gods that was co-identified with “living water” and the timeless misty place of the ancestors as the vital biography of hereditary rulers in a hierarchically organized society.” ref

“The mythology of the first organized religion of the first hierarchically organized civilizations of the Americas as encoded in Twisted Gourd symbolism begins and ends with the role of the cosmic Serpent as primordial mist (liminal space), whose omniscient spirit was embodied in the water cycle, the primary metaphor of which was the Milky Way-sky river of life. That one metaphor was the basis of all storm mythology in relation to divinity, the materialized signs of which were wind, lightning, thunder, clouds, and seasonal water cycles. Out of the mists of the Serpent the sun god materialized, which formed the basis of all light and heat, hence the igneous: aquatic paradigm as materialized by the cosmic Plumed Serpent and the supernatural lineages that extended from it that were embodied in the offices of a hierarchical social organization.” ref

“It is also important to realize that in the omniscient, everywhere-present misty space of the cosmic Serpent, a space that it organized into sacred roads (directions) to serve the material world just as a developer would first lay out the grid of roads for a new community, the possibilities of the seeds of all life forms also resided. The checkerboard pattern was at once a symbol for the Milky Way-sky as the realm of the cosmic bicephalic Serpent and also the overarching concept of the place of dualism, wherein the liminal and material realms met in the Mountain/cave.  In terms of an archetypal ordering principle the Mountain/cave had mirrored forms as houses in the Above, Middle, and Below, e.g., the axis mundi conceived as a vertically triadic centerpole linking three great houses along a “road.” Stories of the Hero/War Twins, the daily birth of the sun god from a cave in the east, clouds, lightning, wind, rivers, and the provision of seeds all referred to the backstory of the archetypal Mountain/cave as the centerplace of origin and the birth of the sun, when time began.” ref

“If the interpretative framework of the corpus of Cupisnique/Chavin-Moche and later Maya and Pueblo art had to be reduced to just two words, the words would be connections and transformation. The context of transformation through connections (tinkuy) is the vertically triadic upper, center, and lower worlds with its archetypal trinity of animal lords (I use the present tense because this system is still extant among modern Amerindian traditionalists, which includes the Puebloans of the American Southwest). The centerplace is the archetypal Mountain/cave surrounded by a water world of sky and ocean (sky-water, a unity), which is represented by the lower stepped triangle and the stepped fret of the Twisted Gourd, respectively. As spelled out in the main report, this was a system of “sacred directions,” i.e., an embodiment of gods, that extended to cardinal and intercardinal points from the centerplace.” ref

“Serpent-lightning is indicated by the serrated white space that ran over the mountain and between the mountain-cloud stepped triangles. In that context follows the integrated system of the sun-water cycle and the themes of fertility: sacrifice, ancestors, and regeneration to name a few. Transformation through connections that allowed reciprocity through fertility: sacrifice is the cosmological model of the water cycle that the three elements of the Twisted Gourd symbol represent. a twisted serpent-stepped mountain- stepped cloud motif. It is a fire: water rebus in both directions. The fretted serpent-lightning with the Mountain/cave forms the fire: water rebus along a horizontal axis, and the dark mountain: cloud forms the rebus in a vertical direction.” ref

“Also, the overhead cloud offers the solution to the fire: water paradox when the triadic cosmogram is read as a linear construct of the triadic cosmos from left to right. The “threeness” of the image with reference to serpent lightning is reiterated at least twice by the steps. In the Cupisnique/Chavin image on the lower left, we see a world divided between serpent and predator realms that are unified by blood/water, with the plant “cat’s claw,” a woody tropical vine that can snake its way 100 feet or more up a tree to reach sunlight, referencing the form of the serpent attached to feline claws and bird talons that produce blood. As always the serpent (water cycle) is there to establish the reciprocity between blood and water.” ref

In some expressions of shamanism it is believed that a shaman can travel back and forth between earth and heaven by using the Milky Way/Axis Mundi. In shamanism, it is a common belief that the Milky Way/Axis Mundi is the path souls take to reach heaven and become a star. Mounds, mountains/hills, and pyramids can also be connected with an axis mundi or “center of the world pole.”

Turtle Mythology, to me, relates to Sacred Mountain/Mound of Creation beliefs (25,000-15,000 years old) starting in Siberia, then going to the Middle East, turning into Turtle mythology (by 17,000 to 15,000 years ago), then 12,000 years ago back to Siberia, the Americas.

36 turtles in Amazon art on rock walls

“Animals of the Serranía de la Lindosa: Exploring representation and categorization in the rock art and zooarchaeological remains of the Colombian Amazon. Animal representation in the artwork. The presence of processed ochre pigments throughout associated stratigraphy, dating from circa 12,000 to 500 years ago, suggests paintings may have been made since the late Pleistocene.” ref

“The Colombian Amazon contains one of the richest collections of rock art in the world. Adorning the rock outcrops of the Serranía de la Lindosa (from here on La Lindosa) (Fig. 1), Chiribiquete, and the Inírida River region, are vibrant ochre images of human figures, handprints, animals, plants, and geometric designs. As with many other rock art corpora worldwide, the motifs here encode and manifest critical information about how Indigenous communities interacted with their environment, and how they constructed, engaged with, and perpetuated their ritualized, socio-cultural worlds.” ref

Damien Marie AtHope’s Art

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Religious/Ritual Ideas, including goddesses and gods as well as ritual mounds or pyramids from Northeastern Asia at least 6,000 years old, seemingly filtering to Iran, Iraq, the Mediterranean, Europe, Egypt, and the Americas?

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White Temple and ziggurat, Uruk

“Anu ziggurat and White Temple at Uruk. The original pyramidal structure, the “Anu Ziggurat”, dates to the Sumerians around 4000 BCE or around 6,000 years ago, and the White Temple was built on top of it circa 3500 BCE or around 5,500 years ago.” ref

“Within Uruk, the greatest monument was the Anu Ziggurat on which the White Temple was built. Dating to the late 4th millennium BCE (the Late Uruk Period, or Uruk III) and dedicated to the sky god Anu, this temple would have towered well above (approximately 40 feet) the flat plain of Uruk, and been visible from a great distance—even over the defensive walls of the city. Ziggurats were not only a visual focal point of the city, they were a symbolic one, as well—they were at the heart of the theocratic political system (a theocracy is a type of government where a god is recognized as the ruler, and the state officials operate on the god’s behalf). So, seeing the ziggurat towering above the city, one made a visual connection to the god or goddess honored there, but also recognized that deity’s political authority. Excavators of the White Temple estimate that it would have taken 1500 laborers working on average ten hours per day for about five years to build the last major revetment (stone facing) of its massive underlying terrace (the open areas surrounding the White Temple at the top of the ziggurat).” ref

“Although religious belief may have inspired participation in such a project, no doubt some sort of force (corvée labor—unpaid labor coerced by the state/slavery) was involved as well. The White temple was rectangular, measuring 17.5 x 22.3 meters and, at its corners, oriented to the cardinal points. It is a typical Uruk “high temple (Hochtempel)” type with a tripartite plan: a long rectangular central hall with rooms on either side (plan). The White Temple had three entrances, none of which faced the ziggurat ramp directly. Visitors would have needed to walk around the temple, appreciating its bright façade and the powerful view, and likely gained access to the interior in a “bent axis” approach (where one would have to turn 90 degrees to face the altar), a typical arrangement for Ancient Near Eastern temples.” ref

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Eridu Genesis, also called the Sumerian Creation Myth, Sumerian Flood Story

Eridu Sumerian City

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“Eridu 5500 – 5300 BCE or 7,500/7,300 years ago was the southernmost of the Sumerian cities that grew around temples. The city gods of Eridu were Enki and his consort Damkina. 5000–4500 BCE or around 7,000 to 6,500 years ago, in Early Ubaid, No structures were found. 4500–4000 BCE or 6,500 to 6,000 years ago, Ubaid period, size 4.5×12.6, the First platform.” ref

“Eridu was a Sumerian city located at Tell Abu Shahrain an archaeological site in Lower Mesopotamia. It is located in Dhi Qar Governorate, Iraq, near the modern city of Basra. Eridu is traditionally considered the earliest city in southern Mesopotamia based on the Sumerian King List. Located 12 kilometers southwest of the ancient site of Ur, Eridu was the southernmost of a conglomeration of Sumerian cities that grew around temples, almost in sight of one another. The city gods of Eridu were Enki and his consort Damkina. Enki, later known as Ea, was considered to have founded the city. His temple was called E-Abzu, as Enki was believed to live in Abzu, an aquifer from which all life was thought to stem. According to Sumerian temple hymns, another name for the temple of Ea/Enki was called Esira (Esirra).” ref

“… The temple is constructed with gold and lapis lazuli, Its foundation on the nether-sea (apsu) is filled in. By the river of Sippar (Euphrates) it stands. O Apsu pure place of propriety, Esira, may thy king stand within thee. …” At nearby Ur there was a temple of Ishtar of Eridu (built by Lagash‘s ruler Ur-Baba) and a sanctuary of Inanna of Eridu (built by Ur III ruler Ur-Nammu). Ur-Nammu also recorded building a temple of Ishtar of Eridu at Ur which is assumed to have been a rebuild. One of the religious quarters of Babylon, containing the temple called the Esagila as well as the temple of Annunitum, among others, was also named Eridu. Large buildings, implying a centralized government, started to be made. Eridu Temple, final Ubaid period.” ref

5000–4500 BCE or around 7,000 to 6,500 years ago, Early Ubaid, No structures were found. 

Temple and ziggurat at Eridu

“The urban nucleus of Eridu was Enki‘s temple, called House of the Aquifer, which in later history was called House of the Waters (Cuneiform: 𒂍𒇉, E₂.LAGAB×HAL; Sumerian: e₂-engur; Akkadian: bītu engurru). The name refers to Enki’s realm. His consort Ninhursag had a nearby temple at Ubaid. During the Ur III period Ur-Nammu had a ziggurat built over the remains of previous temples. Aside from Enmerkar of Uruk (as mentioned in the Aratta epics), several later historical Sumerian kings are said in inscriptions found here to have worked on or renewed the e-abzu temple, including Elili of Ur; Ur-Nammu, Shulgi and Amar-Sin of Ur-III, and Nur-Adad of Larsa.” ref

“Eridu is one of the earliest settlements in the region, founded c. 5400 BCE or around 7,400 years ago during the early Ubaid period, at that time close to the Persian Gulf near the mouth of the Euphrates, although in modern times it is about 90 miles inland. Excavation has shown that the city was founded on a virgin sand dune site with no previous habitation. According to the excavators, construction of the Ur III ziggurat and associated buildings was preceded by the destruction of preceding construction and its use as leveling fill, so no remains from that time were found. At a small mound 1 kilometer north of Eridu, two Early Dynastic III palaces were found, with an enclosure wall. The palaces measured 45 meters by 65 meters with 2.6 meter wide walls and were constructed in the standard Early Dynastic period method of plano-convex bricks laid in a herringbone fashion.” ref

“Twelve neolithic clay tokens, the precursor to Proto-cuneiform, were found in the Ubaid levels of the site. Eighteen superimposed mudbrick temples at the site underlie the unfinished ziggurat of Amar-Sin (c. 2047–2039 BCE or around 4,047 to 4,039 years ago). Levels XIX to VI were from the Ubaid period, and Levels V to I were dated to the Uruk period. Significant habitation was found from the Uruk period with “non-secular” buildings being found in soundings. Uruk finds included decorative terracotta cones topped with copper, copper nails topped with gold, a pair of basalt stone lion statues, columns several meters in diameter coated with cones and gypsum, and extensive Uruk period pottery. Occupation increased in the Early Dynastic period with a monumental 100 meter by 100 meter palace being constructed. An inscription of Elulu, a ruler of the First Dynasty of Ur (c. 2600 BCE or around 4,600 years ago), was found at Eridu. On a statue of the Early Dynastic ruler of Lagash named Entemena (c. 2400 BCE or around 4,400 years ago), it reads, “he built Ab-zupasira for Enki, king of Eridu …” ref

“The bright star Canopus was known to the ancient Mesopotamians and represented the city of Eridu in the Three Stars Each Babylonian star catalogues and later around 1100 BCE or around 3,100 years ago on the MUL.APIN tablets. Canopus was called MUL.NUN^KI by the Babylonians, which translates as “star of the city of Eridu”. From most southern city of Mesopotamia, Eridu, there is a good view to the south, so that about 6000 years ago due to the precession of the Earth’s axis the first rising of the star Canopus in Mesopotamia could be observed only from there at the southern meridian at midnight. In the city of Ur this was the case only 60 years later. In the flood myth tablet found in Ur, how Eridu and Alulim were chosen by gods as first city and first priest-king is described. In Sumerian mythology, Eridu was the home of the Abzu temple of the god Enki, the Sumerian counterpart of the Akkadian god Ea, god of deep waters, wisdom and magic.” ref

“Like all the Sumerian and Babylonian gods, Enki/Ea began as a local god who, according to the later cosmology, came to share the rule of the cosmos with Anu and Enlil. His kingdom was the sweet waters that lay below earth (Sumerian ab=water; zu=far). The stories of Inanna, goddess of Uruk, describe how she had to go to Eridu in order to receive the gifts of civilization. At first Enki, the god of Eridu, attempted to retrieve these sources of his power but later willingly accepted that Uruk now was the center of the land. Alulim King of Sumer King of Eridu. The Uruk List of Kings and Sages (ULKS) version of the SKL pairs him up with an apkallu (an apkallu was a sage in Sumerian literature and religion—the first apkallu was named Adapa, and he was paired up with Alulim; additionally, Adapa has been compared with the Biblical figure Adam).” ref

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Letchworth-Love Mounds site photo by Shayna Marie AtHope

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Mound of Creation?

“Possible emergence scenes in Southwestern rock art.” ref

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“Possible emergence scenes in Southwestern rock art: Archaic ascendance pictograph, White Shaman Site, lower Pecos River, Texas.” ref

The Pipette, the Tiered Cosmos, and the Materialization of Transcendence in the Rock Art of the North American Southwest

“The pipette is a rare rock art motif found across the North American Southwest but seldom depicted in other media. We address landscape and archaeological contexts, associated imagery, material correlates, and ethnography to provide an interpretative hypothesis that accounts for the motif’s widespread, cross-cultural use. We argue that pipettes represent a tiered cosmos and axis mundi, at times with portrayals of emergence and transcendence. The pipette’s compartmentalization signifies the conceptual metaphor ‘the cosmos is comprised of containers’, a concept embedded in Uto-Aztecan languages with Mesoamerican antecedents. The motif’s distribution across the North American Southwest demonstrates that it was a key religious symbol that accompanied the adoption of Mesoamerican-like religious beliefs and practices beginning in the eighth century or before. Prehistoric iconography – whether we understand it or not – references thought and ideas that were important enough to memorialize. Despite difficulties inherent to interpretation, archaeology would be remiss not to take advantage of the enduring iconological record. We demonstrate that careful, concentrated, and multidimensional approaches to understanding prehistoric symbolism can provide valuable and credible insight into cultures that otherwise could not speak for themselves.” ref

“Abya Yala (from the Kuna language: ‘Abiayala‘, meaning “mature land”) is a neologism used by some indigenous peoples of the Americas to refer to the American continent. The term is used by some indigenous organisations, institutions, and movements as a symbol of identity and respect for the land one inhabits. The increasing usage of the term can be viewed in the context of decolonization, as it serves to create an understanding that “land and discourse, territorio y palabra, cannot be disjointed” and a geography in which a struggle for sovereignty and resistance occurs on an everyday basis for Indigenous communities.The name, which translates to “land in its full maturity”, “land of lifeblood”, or “noble land that welcomes all” originates from the Guna people who once inhabited a region spanning from the northern coast of Colombia to the Darién Gap, and now live on the Caribbean coast of Panama, in the Comarca of Guna Yala. The term is Pre-Columbian. A similar term referring to the northern part of the continent is Turtle Island, which is used by several Northeastern Woodland Native American tribes, especially the Haudenosaunee or Iroquois Confederacy, for part of the continent.” ref

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How Ancient Egyptians Understood the World

“In ancient Egypt, the answers revolved around the relationship between Heaven and Earth – the intersection between the worlds of the gods and people. Rather than there being one central story or idea about the nature of life and our world, as highlighted by Ludwig Maximilian Universität Egyptologist Regine Schulz, the beliefs of ancient Egyptians changed through time. From texts written on the walls of pyramids during the Old Kingdom, around 4,500 to 4,350 years ago, for example, archaeologists have discerned that ancient Egyptians thought of the sky as the home of the gods and a place relevant to the afterlife. Gods often traversed this space in boats, a reflection of the ancient Egyptians’ reliance on the Nile for transport, food, and life.” ref

“In fact, much of what ancient Egyptians observed around them informed their understanding of the universe. The sun is so prominent in the Egyptian sky that it’s no wonder than ancient Egyptians developed sets of beliefs about the bright orb. The way the sun seemed to move from east to west reflected the journey of life from birth to death, with the sun god Re entering the underworld each night as the sun sunk below the horizon. The belief evolved over time, with the sun god making a harrowing 12-hour journey through the underworld only to repeat the entire process over again the next day. Other deities were involved in the process, too. The god Nut, some traditions held, gave birth to the sun each day and swallowed the sun each evening as the ball moved through the starfield of her body at night.” ref

“Re was hardly the only god that was importance to ancient Egyptians or their view of the world, though. Over time, ancient Egyptians developed a view of what the universe was like before the origin of the world. They envisioned a set of eight deities – four frog-headed, four serpent-headed – that represented water, darkness, and other facets of the universe during a time of “nothingness.” From there, they believed, the eight created an egg that would hatch the god who would create the world and everything in it – with some variations to the story depending on when and where it was being recounted.” ref

“Gods that sprung forth from the world’s creation weren’t just distant characters. The gods of ancient Egypt were believed to be interested and involved in the lives of people’s daily lives. Bastet, associated with cats, was a female god concerned with the home, fertility, and women’s secrets. Anubis was concerned with the afterlife, mummification, and lost souls, often depicted as a dog or a jackal. The god Thoth was often represented by ibis and oversaw writing, wisdom, and the moon. And that’s just to name a few. But what allowed all of these deities to assist people was the god Heka – the ancient Egyptian personification of magic. Heka ran through everything and allowed the gods to go about their tasks, as well as for humans to connect to the gods. Life on Earth and the world of the gods were not separate, but were intertwined.” ref

“Ancient Egyptian creation myths are the ancient Egyptian accounts of the creation of the world. The Pyramid Texts, tomb wall decorations, and writings, dating back to the Old Kingdom (c. 2700–2200 BCE or around 4,700 to 4,200 years ago) have provided the majority of information regarding ancient Egyptian creation myths. These myths also form the earliest recorded religious compilations in the world. The ancient Egyptians had many creator gods and associated legends. Thus, the world or more specifically Egypt was created in diverse ways according to different parts of ancient Egypt. Some versions of the myth indicate spitting, others masturbation, as the act of creation.” ref

“The earliest god, Ra and/or Atum (both being creator/sun gods), emerged from a chaotic state of the world and gave rise to Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture), from whose union came Geb (earth) and Nut (sky), who in turn created Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys. An extension to this basic framework was the Osiris myth involving Osiris, his consort Isis, and their son Horus. The murder of Osiris by Set, and the resulting struggle for power, won by Horus, provided a powerful narrative linking the ancient Egyptian ideology of kingship with the creation of the cosmos. In all of these myths, the world was said to have emerged from an infinite, lifeless sea when the sun rose for the first time, in a distant period known as zp tpj (sometimes transcribed as Zep Tepi), “the first occasion.” ref

“Different myths attributed the creation to different gods: the set of eight primordial deities called the Ogdoad, the contemplative deity Ptah, and the mysterious, transcendent god Amun. While these differing cosmogonies competed to some extent, in other ways they were complementary, as different aspects of the Egyptian understanding of creation. The different myths have some elements in common. They all held that the world had arisen out of the lifeless waters of chaos, called Nu. They also included a pyramid-shaped mound, called the benben, which was the first thing to emerge from the waters. These elements were likely inspired by the flooding of the Nile River each year; the receding floodwaters left fertile soil in their wake, and the Egyptians may have equated this with the emergence of life from the primeval chaos. The imagery of the pyramidal mound derived from the highest mounds of earth emerging as the river receded.” ref

“The sun was also closely associated with creation, and it was said to have first risen from the mound, as the general sun-god Ra or as the god Khepri, who represented the newly-risen sun. There were many versions of the sun’s emergence, and it was said to have emerged directly from the mound or from a lotus flower that grew from the mound, in the form of a heron, falcon, scarab beetle, or human child. Another common element of Egyptian cosmogonies is the familiar figure of the cosmic egg, a substitute for the primeval waters or the primeval mound. One variant of the cosmic egg version teaches that the sun god, as primeval power, emerged from the primeval mound, which stood in the chaos of the primeval sea. The different creation accounts were each associated with the cult of a particular god in one of the major cities of Egypt: Hermopolis, Heliopolis, Memphis, and Thebes. To some degree, these myths represent competing theologies, but they also represent different aspects of the process of creation.” ref

Hermopolis

“The creation myth promulgated in the city of Hermopolis focused on the nature of the universe before the creation of the world. The inherent qualities of the primeval waters were represented by a set of eight gods, called the Ogdoad. The goddess Naunet and her male counterpart Nu represented the stagnant primeval water itself; Huh and his counterpart Hauhet represented the water’s infinite extent; Kek and Kauket personified the darkness present within it; and Amun and Amaunet represented its hidden and unknowable nature, in contrast to the tangible world of the living. The primeval waters were themselves part of the creation process, therefore, the deities representing them could be seen as creator gods. According to the myth, the eight gods were originally divided into male and female groups. They were symbolically depicted as aquatic creatures because they dwelt within the water: the males were represented as frogs, and the females were represented as snakes. These two groups eventually converged, resulting in a great upheaval, which produced the pyramidal mound. From it emerged the sun, which rose into the sky to light the world.” ref

Heliopolis

“In Heliopolis, the creation was attributed to Atum, a deity closely associated with Ra, who was said to have existed in the waters of Nu as an inert potential being. Atum was a self-engendered god, the source of all the elements and forces in the world, and the Heliopolitan myth described the process by which he “evolved” from a single being into this multiplicity of elements. The process began when Atum appeared on the mound and gave rise to the air god Shu and his sister Tefnut, whose existence represented the emergence of space amid the waters. To explain how Atum did this, the myth uses the metaphor of masturbation, with the hand he used in this act representing the female principle inherent within him. He is also said to have “sneezed” and “spat” to produce Shu and Tefnut, a metaphor that arose from puns on their names. Next, Shu and Tefnut coupled to produce the earth god Geb and the sky goddess Nut, who defined the limits of the world. Geb and Nut in turn gave rise to four children, who represented the forces of life: Osiris, god of fertility and regeneration; Isis, goddess of motherhood; Set, the god of chaos; and Nephthys, the goddess of protection. The myth thus represented the process by which life was made possible. These nine gods were grouped theologically as the Ennead, but the eight lesser gods, and all other things in the world, were ultimately seen as extensions of Atum.” ref

Memphis

“The Memphite version of creation centered on Ptah, who was the patron god of craftsmen. As such, he represented the craftsman’s ability to envision a finished product, and shape raw materials to create that product. The Memphite theology said that Ptah similarly created the world. This, unlike the other Egyptian creations, was not a physical but an intellectual creation by the Word and the Mind of God. The ideas developed within Ptah’s heart (regarded by the Egyptians as the seat of human thought) were given form when he named them with his tongue. By speaking these names, Ptah produced the gods and all other things. The Memphite creation myth coexisted with that of Heliopolis, as Ptah’s creative thought and speech were believed to have caused the formation of Atum and the Ennead. Ptah was also associated with Tatjenen, the god who personified the pyramidal mound.” ref

Thebes

“Theban theology claimed that Amun was not merely a member of the Ogdoad, but the hidden force behind all things. There is a conflation of all notions of creation into the personality of Amun, a synthesis which emphasizes how Amun transcends all other deities in his being “beyond the sky and deeper than the underworld”. One Theban myth likened Amun’s act of creation to the call of a goose, which broke the stillness of the primeval waters and caused the Ogdoad and Ennead to form. Amun was separate from the world, his true nature was concealed even from the other gods. At the same time, however, because he was the ultimate source of creation, all the gods, including the other creators, were merely aspects of Amun. Amun eventually became the supreme god of the Egyptian pantheon because of this belief. Amun is synonymous with the growth of Thebes as a major religious capital. But it is the columned halls, obelisks, colossal statues, wall reliefs, and hieroglyphic inscriptions of the Theban temples that we look to gain the true impression of Amun’s superiority. Thebes was thought of as the location of the emergence of the primeval mound at the beginning of time.” ref

Cipactli “Earth Monster” (a like of Mound of Creation?)

“In Aztec cosmology, the crocodile symbolized the earth floating in the primeval waters. Cipactli was a primeval sea monster, part crocodilian, part fish, and part toad or frog, with indefinite gender.” ref

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To me, it could be, “Water” is snake, the egg is the Mound of Creation and is that an egg by the spiral beginning/origin place.

“An effigy mound is a raised pile of earth built in the shape of a stylized animal, symbol, religious figure, human, or other figure. The Effigy Moundbuilder culture is primarily associated with the years 550–1200 CE during the Late Woodland Period, although radiocarbon dating has placed the origin of certain mounds as far back as 320 BCE or around 2,320 years ago. Effigy mounds were constructed in many Native American cultures. Scholars believe they were primarily for religious purposes, although some also fulfilled a burial mound function. The builders of the effigy mounds are usually referred to as the Mound Builders. Over 3200 animal-shaped effigy mounds have been identified by the Wisconsin Historical Society in the upper midwest. Native North American effigy mounds have been compared to the large-scale geoglyphs such as the Nazca Lines of Peru.” ref

“The Ho-Chunk suggest that effigy mounds were used as places of refuge as well as burial. Some archaeologists today believe that the mounds were built by particular clans or groups to honor their representative animal. Some believe that the animal shape is the clan or extended family of the person or person’s buried in the mound. Others believe that the mounds were burial sites for everyday people, while still others believe that the depicted animal might be somehow responsible for transitioning the deceased into the next world. The mounds may also indicate hunting and gathering territories of different groups. Other evidence suggests that effigy mounds were used for all manner of rites and ceremonies, from birth ceremonies to funeral rites.” ref

“Common shapes for effigy mounds include birds, bear, deer, bison, lynx, panther, turtles, and water spirits. These are somewhat arbitrary names given to the mound shapes by archaeologists who were simply looking for words that would help them classify the mounds. These shapes were most likely chosen for their particular religious or spiritual significance. The earliest mounds are ‘conical’; they are essentially bumps of earth – the simplest and arguably the most intuitive kind of burial. Successive conicals likely evolved into linear mounds. Bird mounds likely came next as modifying a linear mound to make a bird mound required only the addition of a head and a tail. From there many different animal forms emerged. These often expressed a kind of abstract elongation. Hochunk ancestors naturally buried their dead next to lakes and rivers, and on hillsides.” ref

“In mythology, creation or cosmogonic myths are narratives describing the beginning of the universe or cosmos. Some methods of the creation of the universe in mythology include:

• the will or action of a supreme being or beings,
• the process of metamorphosis,
• the copulation of female and male deities,
• from chaos,
• or via a cosmic egg.” ref

“Creation myths may be etiological, attempting to provide explanations for the origin of the universe. For instance, Eridu Genesis, the oldest known creation myth, contains an account of the creation of the world in which the universe was created out of a primeval sea (Abzu). Creation myths vary, but they may share similar deities or symbols. For instance, the ruler of the gods in Greek mythology, Zeus, is similar to the ruler of the gods in Roman mythology, Jupiter.” ref 

“Another example is the ruler of the gods in Tagalog mythology, Bathala, who is similar to various rulers of certain pantheons within Philippine mythology such as the Bisaya’s Kaptan. In the humanities, the distinction between cosmogony and cosmology is blurred. For example, in theology, the cosmological argument for the existence of God (pre-cosmic cosmogonic bearer of personhood) is an appeal to ideas concerning the origin of the universe and is thus cosmogonical. Some religious cosmogonies have an impersonal first cause (for example Taoism).” ref

“In the beginning, there was a period of Chaos, when air, water, and matter were combined in a formless mixture. On this floated a Cosmic Egg, from which arose Gaea (Earth) and Uranus (Sky). These deities created the earth and its creatures and the Sun, Moon, and Stars. Thus, the Greeks accounted for creation. In the beginning, there were Holy People, supernatural and sacred, who lived below ground in 12 lower worlds. A great flood underground forced the Holy People to crawl to the surface of the earth through a hollow reed, where they created the world. Changing Woman gave birth to the Hero Twins, called “Monster Slayer” and “Child of the Waters” who had many adventures. Earth Surface People, mortals, were created, and First Man and First Woman were formed from ears of white and yellow corn. Thus, the Navajo accounted for creation.” ref

“Among the most basic questions raised by human beings are those of origins. How did the human species arise? How was the Earth created? What about the sun? The moon? The stars? Why do we have night and day? Why do people die? No human society lacks answers to such questions. While these answers vary greatly in detail, they are, for primitive peoples as a whole, similar in their basic form: people and the world exist because they were brought into being by a series of creative acts. Moreover, this creation is usually regarded as the work of supernatural beings or forces. The accounts of the ways in which these supernatural agents formed the earth and peopled it are known as origin myths. Until the rise of modern science, origin myths provided the only kinds of answers possible to such questions. Thus, myths embody the state and limitation of human thought about origins for more than 99% of human history.” ref

“The ex nihilo (from nothing) myth, for instance, emphasizes creation from the mind of the Creator (e.g., Yahweh/God/Allah) or creation from the words of the Creator (e.g., the Polynesian Io). The creation from chaos myth tells of creation from undifferentiated material such as cosmic eggs (e.g., the Dogon world egg). The world parents myth—creation from the sacrifice of the world parent(s) (e.g., the Chinese Pangu, the Indian Purusha, the Norse Ymir) often involves the separation of the two world parents, representing Earth and Heaven (e.g., the Polynesian Papa and Rangu, the Mesopotamian Apsu and Tiamat, the Egyptian Geb and Nut). In the earth diver myth an animal dives into the primordial waters to find soil that becomes Earth. This type is particularly prevalent among Native American tribes of the east (e.g., the Iroquoians). In the emergence-type myth, the people emerge from the World Mother (Earth). The birth metaphor is evident here. This myth type is almost exclusively southwestern Native American (e.g., Dine, Hopi), and in it goddesses play significant roles.” ref

Greek Creation Myth

“In the beginning, there was an empty darkness. The only thing in this void was Nyx, a bird with black wings. With the wind, she laid a golden egg, and for ages, she sat upon this egg. Finally, life began to stir in the egg, and out of it rose Eros, the god of love. One half of the shell rose into the air and became the sky and the other became the Earth. Eros named the sky Uranus and the Earth he named Gaia. Then, Eros made them fall in love.” ref

“The golden egg is a Hindu Creation myth that centers around how the Earth came to be. The egg brought life to Earth through rituals called Yajnas. A Yajna is a ritual performed in front of a sacred fire. There are devotions, sacrifices, and offerings involved in these rituals.” ref

“Svayambhu (Sanskrit: स्वयम्भू, romanized: Svayambhū, lit. ‘self-born’) is a Sanskrit word that means “self-born”, “self-manifested”, “self-existing”, or “that that is created by its own accord”. Various deities and entities featured in Hindu literature and tradition are regarded to be svayambhu, such as Brahman in the Upanishads, and the Trimurti of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, and Manu in the Puranas. According to the Brahmanas, the Brahman, the Ultimate Reality, is described to be svayambhu and the cause of all life and the universe. The Manusmriti describes the creation of Brahma from the Svayambhu, applied as a term to denote Brahman. The mind of Brahman is stated to have produced the golden, germinal substance that created the Hiranyagarbha, the primordial egg, from which the creator deity manifested.” ref

“Hiranyagarbha (Sanskrit: हिरण्यगर्भ, lit. ‘golden womb’, IAST: Hiraṇyagarbha, poetically translated as ‘universal womb’) is the source of the creation of the universe or the manifested cosmos in Vedic philosophy. It finds mention in one hymn of the Rigveda (RV 10.121), known as the Hiraṇyagarbha Sūkta, suggesting a single creator deity (verse 8: yo deveṣv ādhi devā eka āsīt, Griffith: “He is the God of gods, and none beside him.”), identified in the hymn as Prajāpati. The concept of the “golden womb” is first mentioned in the Vishvakarma Sūkta (RV 10.82.5,6) which picturized the “primeval womb” as being rested set upon the navel of Vishvakarman. This imagery was later transferred to Vishnu and Surya. In classical Purāṇic Hinduism, Hiraṇyagarbha is the term used in the Vedanta for the “creator”. Hiraṇyagarbha is also Brahmā, so called because it is said he was born in a golden egg (Manu Smṛti 1.9), while the Mahābhārata calls it the Manifest.” ref

“Some Egyptologists (specifically Jan Bergman, Terence Duquesne or Richard H. Wilkinson) have stated that Geb was associated with a mythological divine creator goose who had laid a world egg from which the sun and/or the world had sprung. This theory is assumed to be incorrect and to be a result of confusing the divine name “Geb” with that of a Whitefronted Goose (Anser albifrons), also called originally gb(b): “lame one, stumbled. Geb was the Egyptian god of the Earth and a mythological member of the Ennead of Heliopolis. He could also be considered a father of snakes. It was believed in ancient Egypt that Geb’s laughter created earthquakes and that he allowed crops to grow.” ref

“Thoth was sometimes said to take the place of the Primeval Goose and be the creator of the world and all other gods.” ref

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I added some art to the pic above.

“In the Mythology of all races, figures with the heads of hawks or Baboons Greet the Sun jackals, who were also Over the celestial pillar, the celestial tree, called the souls 01 the east, are described as saluting the sun every morning, some scholars have attempted to see in this allusions to the cries with which the animals of the wilderness seem joyfully to hail the rising sun. However, the autocephalous ba-boons who, according to the Egyptian view, like-wise welcome the sun, thus with prayers and hymns at his rising, also bid him farewell at his setting.” ref

Atum – Sun god who once was an egg

“Atum (/ɑ.tum/, Egyptian: jtm(w) or tm(w), reconstructed [jaˈtaːmuw]; Coptic ⲁⲧⲟⲩⲙ Atoum), sometimes rendered as Atem, Temu, or Tem, is the primordial God in Egyptian mythology from whom all else arose. He created himself and is the father of Shu and Tefnut, the divine couple, who are the ancestors of the other Egyptian deities. Atum is also closely associated with the evening sun. As a primordial god and as the evening sun, Atum has chthonic and underworld connections. Atum was relevant to the ancient Egyptians throughout most of Egypt’s history. He is believed to have been present in ideology as early as predynastic times, becoming even more prevalent during the Old Kingdom and continuing to be worshiped through the Middle and New Kingdom, though he becomes overshadowed by Re around this time. Atum is one of the most important and frequently mentioned deities from earliest times, as evidenced by his prominence in the Pyramid Texts, where he is sometimes syncretized with Ra to form Ra-Atum, and is portrayed as both a creator and father to the king throughout the collection of spells. Several writings contradict how Atum was brought into existence. According to the Heliopolitan view, Atum originally existed in his egg within the primeval waters, being born during the primordial flood, becoming the source of everything that was created after him. The Memphites (priests of Memphis), on the other hand, believed that Ptah created Atum in a more intellectual way, using his speech and thought, as told on the Shabaka Stone. In the Heliopolitan creation myth, Atum was considered to be the first god, having created himself, sitting on a mound (benben) (or identified with the mound itself), and rose from the primordial waters (Nu). Early myths state that Atum created the god Shu and goddess Tefnut by spitting them out of his mouth. One text debates that Atum did not create Shu and Tefnut by spitting them out of his mouth by means of saliva and semen, but rather by Atum’s lips. Another writing describes Shu and Tefnut being birthed by Atum’s hand. That same writing states that Atum’s hand is the title of the god’s wife based on her Heliopolitan beginning. Other myths state Atum created by masturbation, with the hand he used in this act that may be interpreted as the female principle inherent within him due to the fact that the word for hand in Egyptian is feminine (ḏr.t) and identified with goddesses such as Hathor or Iusaaset. Yet other interpretations state that he made union with his shadow. In the Old Kingdom, the Egyptians believed that Atum lifted the dead king’s soul from his pyramid to the starry heavens. He was also a solar deity, associated with the primary sun god Ra. Atum was linked specifically with the evening sun, while Ra, or the closely linked god Khepri were connected with the sun at morning and midday. In the Coffin Texts, Atum has a vital conversation with Osiris in which he describes the end of the universe as a time in which everything will cease to exist with the exception of the elements of the primordial waters, stating that after millions of years he and Osiris would be the only ones to survive the end of time as serpents. He claims that he will destroy everything he created in the beginning of existence and bring it back to Nu, the primeval waters, thus describing the belief that the gods and goddesses would one day cease to exist outside of the primeval waters. In the Book of the Dead, which was still current in the Graeco-Roman period, the sun god Atum is said to have ascended from chaos-waters with the appearance of a snake, the animal renewing itself every morning. Atum is the god of pre-existence and post-existence. In the binary solar cycle, the serpentine Atum is contrasted with the scarab-headed god Khepri—the young sun god, whose name is derived from the Egyptian ḫpr “to come into existence”. Khepri-Atum encompassed sunrise and sunset, thus reflecting the entire cycle of morning and evening.” ref

ref

The Sumerian Myth of the Cosmic Egg

Golden Egg: The Mythical Origins and Its Modern Significance

The Golden Egg: A Symbol of Creation and Rebirth

THE RELIGION AND MORALS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS

Earth Lodge?

“A number of major Mississippian culture mound centers have identified earth lodges, either beneath (i.e. preceding) mound construction or as a mound-top building. Sequential constructions, collapses, and rebuilding of earth lodges seems to be part of the mechanism of construction for certain mounds (including the mound at Town Creek Indian Mound and some of the mounds at the Ocmulgee National Monument).” ref

Jacawitz (Mountain of Creation?)

“Jacawitz, a mountain god of the Maya. The word jacawitz means “mountain” in lowland Maya and “fire mountain” in highland Maya. In the Cholan languages, jacawitz means “first mountain”, linking the god with the first mountain of creation. The temple of Jacawitz at the Kʼicheʼ capital of Qʼumarkaj was one of the three tallest buildings in the City, a large mound south, stonework stripped away making its original form uncertain, although a 19th-century plan of the city recorded it as a pyramid.” ref

Inca Mountain Mythology

“When the two Amarus died, they turned into the chain of mountains that are located in valle del Mantaro, Peru. Paryaqaqa was victorious, Huallallo, angered, turned into a devourer of humans, blaming them for his disgrace. Viracocha watching these atrocities, punished both Paryaqaqa and Huallallo for their cruelties turning both gods into snow mountains. A representation that the Incas gave to Illapa was that of a warrior formed by stars in the celestial world. His rites took place in the highest mountains, because they believed that Illapa lived in them. Mallku (Spirits of the mountains) was a deity that represents the spirit and strength of the mountains. Mama Pacha (Mother nature or Mother Earth; a.k.a. Pachamama) was considered a sacred being by the andean cosmology. She is the mother of the hills and men.” ref

The Incan mythic Creation of the World

“According to the Inca religion, the world was created by Viracocha, the Creator, when he rose out of Lake Titicaca. In a different version, Manco Cápac and Mama Ocllo the son and daughter of the sun god Inti and the moon goddess Mama Killa. Were raised out of Lake Titicaca (or a cave near Pacaritambo, depending on who you talk to), and taught the arts of civilization – farming, building, weaving, cooking, etc. They were then sent to find the perfect place to start a new civilization. Manco Cápac was given a golden rod, and instructed by Inti that where this rod sank into the ground with a single blow, that would be the place to build the new Inca capital.” ref

“In Greek mythology, the Ourea (Ancient Greek: Οὔρεα, romanized: Oúrea, lit. ‘mountains’, plural of Οὖρος, or ‘Oûros’) were the parthenogenetic offspring of Gaia (Earth), produced alongside Uranus (Sky), and Pontus (Sea).” ref

“OUREA – Greek Primordial Gods of the Mountains (Roman Montes): THE OUREA were the primordial gods (protogenoi) of the mountains. Each mountain was believed to have its own ancient deity. Mountains were depicted in classical art as old, bearded men partially emerged from between a pair of crags.” ref

LIST OF OUREA (MOUNTAIN-GODS)

• AITNA (Etna) The volcano of Sikelia (Sicily) and its goddess.
• ATHOS A mountain of Thrake (Thrace) (north of Greece) and its god.
• HELIKON (Helicon) A mountain of Boiotia (Boeotia) (central Greece) and its god. He entered a singing contest with the neighbouring Mount Kithairon (Cithaeron).
• KITHAIRON (Cithaeron) A mountain of Boiotia (Boeotia) (central Greece) and its god. He entered a singing contest with the neighbouring Mount Helikon (Helicon)..
• NYSOS (Nysus) A mythical mountain and its god. He was the nurse of the god Dionysos.
• OLYMPOS (Olympus) A mountain in Thessalia (Thessaly) (northern Greece) and its god. Olympos was the home of the gods.
• OLYMPOS (Olympus) A mountain of Phrygia (in Anatolia) and its god.
• OREIOS (Oreus) The mountain-god of Mount Othrys in Malis (central Greece).
• PARNES A mountain between Boiotia (Boeotia) and Attika (Attica) (central Greece) and its god.
• TMOLOS (Tmolus) A mountain of Lydia (in Anatolia) and its god. He was the judge of a musical contest between Apollon and Pan.” ref

Mountain gods

“Lugaldukuga (Sumerian: “lord of the holy mound”) was a Mesopotamian god primarily understood as a theogonic figure. He is best attested as the father of Enlil, the head of the Mesopotamian pantheon, though other traditions about the parentage of the latter also existed, and no references to him in this role are known from before the Kassite period. Sometimes he could also be described as his grandfather instead. He was envisioned as a no longer active and as an inhabitant of the underworld. He could be equated with other deities of similar character, such as Enmesharra. It is not known which part of Mesopotamia he originated in, though references to him are known from texts from both Babylonia and Assyria. The name Lugaldukuga could also function as an epithet of the god Ea, who was not regarded as Enlil’s father.” ref

“Lugaldukuga was understood as a primeval deity. Such figures were generally regarded as ancient and no longer active (unlike the regular gods) by the Mesopotamians. Wilfred G. Lambert proposed that Lugaldukuga was originally understood as a “prime mover” in the local theology of a presently unknown small settlement, and only came to be incorporated into major scholarly works at a later date. His name means “lord of the holy mound (the Duku)” in Sumerian. The Duku was regarded as the place where Enlil determined destinies for other deities. It was also believed to be the dwelling of his ancestors. The word has two possible meanings, as the sign du could refer to both a hill and to a brick platform. According to Wilfred G. Lambert, it is possible that they could be interpreted as the cosmic location and its physical representation in Enlil’s Ekur temple complex in Nippur.” ref

ref

BIRTH OF Inequality and Oppression Hierarchy

“During the fourth millennium BCE the cultural development already perceptible during the Ubaid period proceeded at a quicker pace, and the Sumerian civilization finally blossomed. The new villages, like the old ones, were situated on river banks, but they tended to cluster around those Ubaid period settlements, which were both the abodes of the great gods upon whom all prosperity depended and the centers of sizeable agricultural communities. Technical improvements generated a large surplus of food that could be stored, redistributed, or exchanged for imported raw materials and luxuries, while other inventions – such as the potter’s wheel and the casting of copper alloys – opened the era of industrial production. This went on for three or four centuries, but towards the end of the millennium, the effects of desiccation started to be felt in southern Mesopotamia.” ref

“Many villages disappeared, their inhabitants regrouping themselves within and around the larger centers, which rapidly grew to the size of towns. To extend the areas of cultivable land artificial irrigation was developed, but the enormous common effort required to dig and maintain big canals and the need for an equitable distribution of water considerably reinforced the authority of the traditional town chiefs, the high priests. This, together with the scarcity of fertile land, led to the concentration of power and wealth in a few hands and in a few places, it would seem, turned into the first city-states of ancient Sumer, with their fortified cities and well-defined territories, with their population of priests, scribes, architects, artists, overseers, merchants, factory workers, soldiers and peasants and their religious rulers or war leaders. But there is little doubt that the people responsible for the urbanization of southern Mesopotamia were closely related to, or had been absorbed by, the Ubaidians, for there is no clear-cut break between the Ubaid culture and the Uruk culture and no sign of armed invasion and destruction.” ref

“On all the sites excavated, such as Eridu, Uruk, and Ur, the new temples are built over old ones, on the same plans and with the same materials, and the distinctive Uruk ware – a wheelmade, mass-produced, unpainted but sometimes highly polished buff, grey or red pottery, which in some of its forms seems to copy the metal vessels now used by the wealthy – very slowly replaces the Ubaid ware. As for the other elements of the Uruk and Jemdat Nasr cultures (cylinder-seals, cone-mosaic wall decoration, reliefs and sculptures in the round, temples on high terraces), they either derive from older Mesopotamian models or can be credited to the inventiveness of local artists and architects. We are therefore confronted here not with a civilization imported ready-made, but with the final stages of an evolution that had begun with the foundation of Eridu and possibly even earlier in northern Iraq.” ref

“The site which gave its name to that period is Uruk (biblical Erech, modern Warka), whose large and impressive ruins lie in a non-desert area about half-way between Baghdad and Basrah, not far from the small town of Samawa. It is one of the most important sites of the Near East, the city of Uruk was born of the coalescence of two towns 800 meters apart: Kullaba, devoted to the sky-god An (or Anu), the supreme god of the Mesopotamians, and E-Anna (‘House of Heaven’), the main abode of the love goddess Inanna (called Ishtar by the Semites). In the center of E-Anna, can still be seen the remains of a mud-brick stage tower (ziqqurat) built by the Sumerian king Ur-Nammu (c. 2112 – 2095 BCE) over a large temple raised on a platform and dating to the Jemdat Nasr period 3100 to 2900 BCE. It is in this area that the German archaeologists, who since 1912 have been digging on and off at Warka for about fifty years, have unearthed at least seven adjacent or superimposed temples and various other cultic installations dating to the second half of the Uruk period. It is also there that they sunk a twenty meter deep well reaching the virgin soil and obtained a stratigraphic section of the site, apparently founded during the Ubaid period.” ref

“The archaic temples of Uruk were very similar in plan to those of the Ubaid period at Eridu already described: the buttressed façade, the long cella surrounded by small rooms, the doors on the long side testify to the persistence of architectural traditions as well, probably, as of belief and cult. In E-Anna, they were arranged in pairs, dedicated not only to Inanna but also to her lover, the fertility-god Dumuzi.” ref

“(“Dumuzid the Shepherd”) In addition to being the god of shepherds, Dumuzid was also an agricultural deity associated with the growth of plants. Dumuzid was also listed as an early king of Uruk, where he was said to have come from the nearby village of Kuara and to have been the consort of the goddess Inanna. In the poem “Inanna Prefers the Farmer” (ETCSL 4.0.8.3.3) begins with a rather playful conversation between Inanna and her brother Utu, who incrementally reveals to her that it is time for her to marry. Dumuzid comes to court her, along with a farmer named Enkimdu. At first, Inanna prefers the farmer, but Utu and Dumuzid gradually persuade her that Dumuzid is the better choice for a husband, arguing that, for every gift the farmer can give to her, the shepherd can give her something even better. In the end, Inanna marries Dumuzid. The shepherd and the farmer reconcile their differences, offering each other gifts. Samuel Noah Kramer compares the myth to the Biblical story of Cain and Abel because both accounts center around a farmer and a shepherd competing for divine favor and, in both stories, the deity in question ultimately chooses the shepherd.” ref 

“Particularly remarkable were the lowermost levels with their enormous temples – one of them, built on limestone foundations, measured 87 by 33 meters – and their extraordinary ‘mosaic building’. The latter consisted of a large courtyard extending between two sanctuaries, with a raised portico of eight massive mud-brick columns, three meters in diameter, arranged in two rows. The side walls of the courtyard, the columns themselves and the platform on which they rested were entirely clad in a colored pattern of geometrical design formed by the flat end of terracotta cones, seven to ten centimeters long, which had been painted in black, red or white and then stuck into the mud plaster. This original and very effective type of decoration was widely used during the Uruk and Jemdat Nasr periods, and loose clay cones can still be picked up by the thousand in the ruins of Warka. The color, when preserved, has lost its brightness, but little effort is required to imagine what a fresh cone-mosaic facade must have looked like in the glaring oriental sunlight. This taste for color is also manifest in the use of wall painting.” ref

“One of the archaic temples of E-Anna, the so-called ‘Red Temple’, owes its name to the pink wash which covered its walls, and at Tell ‘Uqair, eighty kilometres south of Baghdad, the Iraqis excavated in 1940 a temple of the Uruk period decorated with frescoes which, when discovered, were ‘as bright as the day they were applied’: human figures, unfortunately damaged, formed a procession, and two crouching leopards guarded the throne of an unknown god. All these temples, it must be noted, rested on low brick platforms, as did the temples of the Ubaid period at Eridu; but with time the platform became higher, tending to be more important in size than the building itself. Here in all probability is the origin of the ziqqurat, the stage-tower topped by a shrine so typical of the Mesopotamian civilization in historical times. This evolution is illustrated by the Anu temple of Uruk, where six temples built in succession were finally included in a truly monumental platform rising some fifteen metres above the plain. At the top of this platform are the amazingly well-preserved remains of a sanctuary dating to the late Uruk period, the so-called ‘White Temple‘, and to stand between these walls, at the very place where officiated, five thousand years ago, the priests of the sky-god, is an experience which no visitor will easily forget.” ref

“Domestic architecture is poorly represented in southern Iraq, but we may catch a glimpse of it on other, distant sites – for the Uruk culture progressively spread throughout Mesopotamia and covered roughly the same area as the Ubaid culture. Near Erbil, for instance, at Tell Qalinj Agha,⁶ two large residential quarters were separated by a main street, 2 to 3 metres wide, intersected by smaller streets at a right angle, and the same regular plan can be seen at Habuba Kabira, on the great bend of the Euphrates, a city which covered not less than 22 hectares and was surrounded by a wall with square towers.⁷ In both places the houses, carefully built of oblong bricks, consisted of three buildings of two to four spacious rooms each, around a large hall or courtyard. The magnificence of the Uruk temples and the near-luxurious aspect of private houses tend to dwarf the other forms of art. Yet the seal impressions of the Uruk period are little masterpieces. At that time the stamp-seal of earlier periods was almost entirely superseded by the cylinder-seal.” ref

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“Arslantepe, the oldest sectors of the fourth-millennium palace. a: 3D drawing of the courtyard and Building 37 (by C. Alvaro); b: Temple B with materials in situ; c: Three high-stemmed bowls found in front of the altar in Temple B.” ref

 “Arslantepe Mound is a 30-metre-tall archaeological tell located in the Malatya plain, 15 km south-west of the Euphrates River. Archaeological evidence from the site testifies to its occupation from at least the 6th millennium BCE up until the Medieval period. The earliest layers belong to the Late Chalcolithic 1-2 periods, contemporary to Early Uruk in Southern Mesopotamia (4300-3900 BCE or around 6,300 to 5,900 years ago), and are characterized by adobe houses. The most prominent and flourishing period of the site was in the Late Chalcolithic 5 period, during which the so-called palace complex was constructed. Considerable evidence also testifies to the Early Bronze Age period, most prominently identified by the Royal Tomb complex. The archaeological stratigraphy then extends to the Middle and Late Bronze Ages and Hittite periods, including Neo-Hittite levels. The site illustrates the processes which led to the emergence of a State society in the Near East and a sophisticated bureaucratic system that predates writing. Exceptional metal objects and weapons have been excavated at the site, among them the earliest swords so far known in the world, which suggests the beginning of forms of organized combat as the prerogative of an elite, who -at Arslantepe- exhibited them as instruments of their new political power.” ref

“In Greek mythology, the Ourea (Ancient Greek: Οὔρεα, romanized: Oúrea, lit. ‘mountains’, plural of Οὖρος, or ‘Oûros’) were the parthenogenetic offspring of Gaia (Earth), produced alongside Uranus (Sky), and Pontus (Sea).” ref

“OUREA – Greek Primordial Gods of the Mountains (Roman Montes): THE OUREA were the primordial gods (protogenoi) of the mountains. Each mountain was believed to have its own ancient deity. Mountains were depicted in classical art as old, bearded men partially emerged from between a pair of crags.” ref

LIST OF OUREA (MOUNTAIN-GODS)

• AITNA (Etna) The volcano of Sikelia (Sicily) and its goddess.
• ATHOS A mountain of Thrake (Thrace) (north of Greece) and its god.
• HELIKON (Helicon) A mountain of Boiotia (Boeotia) (central Greece) and its god. He entered a singing contest with the neighbouring Mount Kithairon (Cithaeron).
• KITHAIRON (Cithaeron) A mountain of Boiotia (Boeotia) (central Greece) and its god. He entered a singing contest with the neighbouring Mount Helikon (Helicon)..
• NYSOS (Nysus) A mythical mountain and its god. He was the nurse of the god Dionysos.
• OLYMPOS (Olympus) A mountain in Thessalia (Thessaly) (northern Greece) and its god. Olympos was the home of the gods.
• OLYMPOS (Olympus) A mountain of Phrygia (in Anatolia) and its god.
• OREIOS (Oreus) The mountain-god of Mount Othrys in Malis (central Greece).
• PARNES A mountain between Boiotia (Boeotia) and Attika (Attica) (central Greece) and its god.
• TMOLOS (Tmolus) A mountain of Lydia (in Anatolia) and its god. He was the judge of a musical contest between Apollon and Pan.” ref

ref

“The Egyptian fascination with ostriches led them to also delicately carve some of their eggs.” ref

“Does a 7000 year old ostrich eggshell held at the Nubian Museum depict a drawing of ancient Egyptian pyramids? If so, when was the drawing drawn? There is a conspiracy theory on the internet that a 7000-year-old ostrich eggshell held at the Nubian Museum depicts a drawing of ancient Egyptian pyramids.” ref

“Does A “Mysterious” Ostrich Egg Prove the Pyramids are thousands of years older – NO.” ref

The Pyramids at Giza are exactly as Old as we think they are

“There are multiple lines of evidence for the age of The Pyramids i.e. built during the 4th Dynasty, roughly 2613 to 2494 BC. There are masons/work crew marks on the stones in hieroglyphs. Hieroglyphs were only invented at roughly 3000BC and were not standardized until the 3rd Dynasty, ergo The Pyramids can’t be older than the 3rd Dynasty. We have administrative records about the construction. There of course are historical records that back this up too, I won’t go into details, the Wikipedia Page is pretty good if you want more – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pyramid_of_Giza and of course carbon dating. It is true that limestone and granite, what The Pyramids are made of, can’t be carbon dated because they have no carbon, the material needed for carbon dating. So how did we, archaeologists, carbon date The Pyramids? The mortar between the stones is how. Ash and charcoal was mixed into the mortar and ash and charcoal are basically nothing but carbon. So it is very much possible to carbon date The Pyramids.

“In fact, there have been two big carbon dating projects on The Pyramids in the 1980s and 1990s. They were funded by wealthy donors looking to prove they were much older… that found they are exactly as old as we though they were. I am guessing the funders were not happy too. But the reasoning is important here, if the funders had every reason to try and prove their pet theory, that The Pyramids are much older, and couldn’t, then you can be sure that no one is going to be able to. These were billionaires with resources that archaeologists could only dream of. Over 450 samples were taken between the two projects, the Great Pyramid at Giza had ~50 samples alone. I can’t tell you how much over kill it is to run 50 samples on a single building with only one phase of construction. It most cases, we only run a handful of dates on most archaeological excavations, if any. These samples were tested at three different labs to ensure there were no errors – they all got the same results. You can read the paper where the full results were published here – https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/radiocarbon/article/radiocarbon-dates-of-old-and-middle-kingdom-monuments-in-egypt/A967302ADD527BFEB9226457682C0B4A. Contrary to what those tweets, blog posts, etc. say, The Pyramids have been carbon dated, a lot, like way too much.

The Egg was Not Dated

“The original blogger that started this all actual says in the comments of her post that the source of the carbon dating of the egg was … not scientific and did not cite the source when someone asked for it. “My info on carbon dating was not a scientific source, so I don’t think it would be helpful to you.” We know the egg was not carbon-dated because the egg was excavated in 1909-10 before carbon dating was invented in the late 1940s. You can read the excavation report here – https://sfdas.com/IMG/pdf/5_-firth_c._m._the_archaeological_survey_of_nubia_1909-1910.pdf. There is even a photo of the grave it came from in this paper on Ostrich Eggs in Ancient Egypt- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343510437_Ostrich_Eggs_of_Predynastic_Egypt (really interesting stuff, I would recommend reading it). Furthermore, carbon dating is a destructive process. You have to destroy part of the egg to be able to date it, and Ostrich Eggs are hard to date. It is so hard to date that it usually requires 5-10 grams of the egg to be destroyed to get a good carbon date. There is no large sample section taken out of the egg, so we know it was not dated later, after carbon dating was invented.” ref

“However, the date is real, it is 7000ish years old. The date of the egg comes from the associated artifacts found in the grave. This is actually the most common method of dating in archaeology. If we know when one type of artifact was made, we can then date all the other artifacts found with it. The egg was found in a grave whose artifacts are about 7000 years old so we know it is that old. However, if we are confident of the age of The Pyramids, really confident on this point (hundreds of carbon dates + ton of other evidence), and confident of the age of the egg, it means the image on the egg can’t be The Pyramids. Also, there are ten* pyramids at Giza, not three, so there is that really obvious reason why they can’t be the same too.” ref 

So, what is the Image on the Egg?

“We don’t know. The design style at that time was heavily geometric, so it could just be a geometric design with no meaning. It could actually be pyramids – small p, as in something shaped like a pyramid, maybe tents? mountains? hills? This is the fun part of archaeology: a bit of a hypothesis about what it might be. We have eliminated it so that it could represent the Pyramids at Giza, but beyond that, there is a whole range of possibilities, so feel free to make your own guess. (Mountains???).” ref

7 Myths About Pyramids of Giza, Debunked 

Pyramidology?

“Pyramidology (or pyramidism) refers to various religious or pseudoscientific speculations regarding pyramids, most often the Giza pyramid complex and the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. Some “pyramidologists” also concern themselves with the monumental structures of pre-Columbian America (such as Teotihuacan, the Mesoamerican Maya civilization, and the Inca of the South American Andes), and the temples of Southeast Asia.” ref

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Egyptian pyramids?

“The Egyptian pyramids sources cite at least 118 identified “Egyptian” pyramids.” ref

Ancient Egyptian Deities?

“The first written evidence of deities in Egypt comes from the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3100–2686 BCE or around 5,100 to 4,686 years ago). Deities must have emerged sometime in the preceding Predynastic Period (before 3100 BCE) and grown out of prehistoric religious beliefs. Predynastic artwork depicts a variety of animal and human figures. Some of these images, such as stars and cattle, are reminiscent of important features of Egyptian religion in later times, but in most cases, there is not enough evidence to say whether the images are connected with deities.” ref

“Tatenen (also Ta-tenen, Tatjenen, Tathenen, Tanen, Tenen, Tanenu, and Tanuu) was the deity of the primordial mound in ancient Egyptian religion. His name means “risen land” or “exalted earth”, as well as referring to the silt of the Nile. As a primeval chthonic deity, Tatenen was identified with creation. Both feminine and masculine, he was an androgynous protector of nature from the Memphis area (then known as Men-nefer), the ancient capital of the Inebu-hedj nome in Lower Egypt. Tatenen represented the Earth and was born in the moment it rose from the watery chaos, analogous to the primeval mound of the benben and mastaba and the later pyramids. He was seen as the source of “food and viands, divine offers, all good things”, as his realms were the deep regions beneath the earth “from which everything emerges”, specifically including plants, vegetables, and minerals.” ref

“In the Third Intermediate Period hymn, The Great Hymn of Khnum, he is identified with the creator god Khnum, who created “all that is” on his potter’s wheel. This fortuity granted him the titles of both “creator and mother who gave birth to all gods” and “father of all the gods.” He also personified Egypt (due to his associations with rebirth and the Nile) and was an aspect of the earth-god Geb, as a source of artistic inspiration, as well as assisting the dead in their journey to the afterlife. He is first attested in the inscriptions that mostly appear on coffins during the First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom.” ref

“In those inscriptions his name appears as Tanenu or Tanuu, ‘the inert land’, a name which characterizes him as a deity of the primeval condition of the earth. Middle Kingdom texts provide the first examples of the form Tatenen. With a staff, Tatenen repelled the evil serpent Apep from the Primeval Mound. He also had a magical mace dedicated to the falcon, venerated as “The Great White of the Earth Creator.” In one interpretation, Tatenen brought the Djed-pillars of stability to the country, although this is more commonly attributed to Ptah.” ref

“Tatenen’s ambiguous portrayal may be a result of his being merged with Ptah. He was most commonly depicted in human form, sometimes with green skin, usually seated with a pharaonic beard, wearing either an Atef-crown (as Ptah-Sokar) or, more commonly, a pair of ram’s horns surmounted by a sun disk and two tall feathers. As Tanenu or Tanuu, obviously a chthonic deity, he carried two snakes on his head. He was both feminine and masculine because of his status as a primeval, creator deity. Some depictions show Tatenen with a green complexion (face and arms), as he had connections to fertility and a chthonic association with plants.” ref

“In the Pyramid Texts, e.g. Utterances 587 and 600, Atum himself is at times referred to as “mound.” It was said to have turned into a small pyramid, located in Heliopolis (Egyptian: Annu or Iunu), within which Atum was said to dwell. Other cities developed their own myths of the primeval mound. At Memphis, the god Tatenen, an earth god and the origin of “all things in the shape of food and viands, divine offers, all good things,” was the personification of the primeval mound.” ref

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History of ancient Egypt: Mastaba, the first Pyramids

THE PRIMEVAL MOUND AND THE MASTABA 

“The mastabas of the early dynasties contained within them a development of the primeval mound, the place of original creation in Zep Tepi, the First Time, an embryonic stepped structure concealed inside the building’s internal fabric.” ref

“It was almost inevitable, therefore, that later generations should express their creative spirit in a shape of pure force, colossal but surging upwards, resting with absolute confidence on the earth, immovable but expressing that reaching out for the firmament — and beyond it, to the realm of the Imperishable Stars — which is so typical of the spirit of early Egypt. It would have been more extraordinary, perhaps, if the Egyptians had not produced so perfect a shape as the pyramid, at this particular point in their development. That they did so sets the final seal on their achievement; after that expression of creative energy it was only to be expected that decline would inevitably follow. It was not a performance that could ever be repeated, nor one that could even be sustained; indeed, it may be argued that it could not be matched.” ref

“The pyramid, the supreme artifact of the age which was now approaching, represented in stone the summation of all that early Egypt was seeking to express. In every aspect of life, particularly those which touched the king in any way, the early builders of the Egyptian state were attempting to reconcile the cosmic with the human, to identify their society with concepts which otherwise defied articulation. The Egyptians possessed an exceptional ability to synthesize complex propositions and penetrating perceptions in symbol and in expressions of the form and content of buildings. Often, such synthesis was occluded. An example, which is pertinent to the origins of the Step Pyramid, is the terraced mound, whose origin lies in the little pile of sand raised above a Badarian grave. The mound signifies the Primeval Hill, the mound of creation on which the creator god settled himself when it first appeared above or out of the waters of the Abyss, on which he performed the first acts which inaugurated the cycle of creation itself.” ref

“The most spectacular manifestations of the terraced mound are the Step Pyramid and its companions in other parts of the Valley. The terraced mound would have had a powerful mystical appeal both to Imhotep and to his master. By means of it, Netjerykhet is able to mount to the stars; also it permits the king to fulfil the role of the creator god on his mound, in the perpetual renewal of the life of Egypt, which the whole complex at Saqqara encompasses. The terraced mound evidently meant something of profound importance to the powers of the Third Dynasty and, so far as we can judge, particularly to them. Their successors of the Fourth Dynasty began at once to break away from the stepped form in the experimental structures which King Sneferu developed at Dahshur and Maidum, which achieved their consummation in the pyramids which his successors raised on the plateau at Giza.” ref

“There is a still more numinous form of the terraced mound, from much earlier times which is, in a quite literal sense, even more occult. Hidden in the core of the brick-enclosed rubble superstructures of several of the large First Dynasty mastabas at Saqqara is buried, as though waiting for its ultimate liberation or rebirth in the soaring terraces of the Third Dynasty pyramids. The terraced mound is to be found in all periods of Egyptian history, even in the latest, most decadent days. It is one of the most enduring and persistent images developed by the genius of the Egyptian creative spirit. Some might see elements in the Netjerykhet complex as the last flowering of the ‘Mesopotamian connection’ in Egypt. The great wall, running for a total length of over one and a half miles, is recessed in a way reminiscent of the recessing of mastaba tombs which are in turn derived from Mesopotamian precedents. This similarity with the exterior of a mastaba is in line with the monument’s rich and complex symbols, and it probably deliberately recalls the earlier structure.” ref

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Thunderbird Symbol and First Nations

“The Thunderbird is a mythical creature that is said to be the dominating force of all-natural activity. Located in the Pacific North Western Mountains, the Thunderbird creates booms of thunder by flapping his wings and shoots bolts of lightning from his eyes, when hunters got too close to his home. By creating rainstorms he waters the earth, making it possible for vegetation to grow. He is said to be so large that his wingspan is as large as two canoes, and that he could easily carry a killer whale out of the water with his talons. Only the most powerful and successful chiefs and families use the Thunderbird in their crest. He resembles the Eagle but is distinguished by the two curved horns or Plumage on his head. Long ago Northwest Coast people pleaded to the Thunderbird for help in times of food shortage, and he helped, but in return requested that from then on he only be depicted at the top of a totem pole with his wings stretched out. That is the reason the Thunderbird appears at the top of so many Northwest Coast totem poles.” ref

“The story of the Thunderbird: The Great Chief (Namoquayalis-“the only one”) lived on the highest mountain, called Klaskis, near Cape Cook on the west coast of Vancouver Island. At one time a great flood threatened to engulf the world. Then lightning flashed four times, and a Thunderbird appeared before the Great Chief, transformed himself into a human being, and came to the rescue of the Great Chief. The Great Chief then asked the Thunderbird to go look around the land for any survivors of the flood. After completing his search, the Thunderbird returned and told the Great Chief that he had found some human survivors. So the Great Chief then told the Thunderbird to go and invite these people to come and witness a Thunderbird dance. This dance and the Thunderbird privileges have been passed down from generation to generation of the Great Chief’s family.” ref 

TLINGIT TRIBES, CLANS AND CLAN HOUSES

Thunderbird (mythology)

“The thunderbird is a mythological bird-like spirit in North American indigenous peoples’ history and culture. It is considered a supernatural being of power and strength. It is frequently depicted in the art, songs, and oral histories of many Pacific Northwest Coast cultures, but is also found in various forms among some peoples of the American Southwest, US East Coast, Great Lakes, and Great Plains.Similar beings appear in mythologies the world over. Examples include the Chinese thunder-god Leigong, the Hindu Garuda, and the African lightning bird. Archaeologically, sites containing depictions of thunderbirds have been found dating to the past 4,000 years. Petroglyphs of thunderbirds are found near Twin Bluffs, Wisconsin. They are in a shelter that was probably used c. 250 BCE to 1500.” ref

“Koryaks are an Indigenous people of the Russian Far East, who live immediately north of the Kamchatka Peninsula in Kamchatka Krai and inhabit the coastlands of the Bering Sea. The cultural borders of the Koryaks include Tigilsk in the south and the Anadyr basin in the north. The Koryaks are culturally similar to the Chukchis of extreme northeast Siberia. The Koryak language and Alutor (which is often regarded as a dialect of Koryak), are linguistically close to the Chukchi language. All of these languages are members of the Chukotko-Kamchatkan language family. They are more distantly related to the Itelmens on the Kamchatka Peninsula. All of these peoples and other, unrelated minorities in and around Kamchatka are known collectively as Kamchadals.” ref

“Koryaks believe in a Supreme Being whom they call by various names: ŋajŋənen (Universe/World), ineɣitelʔən (Supervisor), ɣət͡ɕɣoletənvəlʔən (Master-of-the-Upper-World), ɣət͡ɕɣolʔən (One-on-High), etc. He is considered to reside in Heaven with his family and when he wishes to punish mankind for immoral acts, he falls asleep and thus leaves man vulnerable to unsuccessful hunting and other ills. Koryak mythology centers on the supernatural shaman Quikil (Big-Raven), who was created by the Supreme Being as the first man and protector of the Koryak. Big Raven myths are also found in Southeast Alaska in the Tlingit culture, and among the Haida, Tsimshian, and other natives of the Pacific Northwest Coast Amerindians.” ref

“The thunderbird myth and motif is prevalent among Algonquian peoples in the Northeast, i.e., Eastern Canada (Ontario, Quebec, and eastward) and Northeastern United States, and the Iroquois peoples (surrounding the Great Lakes). The discussion of the Northeast region has included Algonquian-speaking people in the Lakes-bordering U.S. Midwest states (e.g., Ojibwe in Minnesota). In Algonquian mythology, the thunderbird controls the upper world while the underworld is governed by the underwater panther or Great Horned Serpent. The thunderbird creates not just thunder (with its wing-flapping) but lightning bolts, which it casts at the underworld creatures. Thunderbird in this tradition may be depicted as a spreadeagled bird (wings horizontal head in profile), but also quite common with the head facing forward, thus presenting an X-shaped appearance overall (see under §Iconography below).” ref

“The Ojibwe version of the myth states that the thunderbirds were created by Nanabozho to fight the underwater spirits. Thunderbirds also punished humans who broke moral rules. The thunderbirds lived in the four directions and arrived with the other birds in the springtime. In the fall, they migrated south after the end of the underwater spirits’ most dangerous season. The Menominee of Northern Wisconsin tell of a great mountain that floats in the western sky on which dwell the thunderbirds. They control the rain and hail, and delight in fighting and deeds of greatness. They are the enemies of the great horned snakes (the Misikinubik) and have prevented these from overrunning the earth and devouring humankind. They are messengers of the Great Sun himself.” ref

“The thunderbird motif is also seen in Siouan-speaking peoples, which include tribes traditionally occupying areas around the Great Lakes. Ho-Chunk tradition states that a man who has a vision of a thunderbird during a solitary fast will become a war chief of the people. Ethnographer George Amos Dorsey transcribed a tale from the Arikaras with the title The Boy who befriended the Thunderbirds and the Serpent: a boy named Antelope-Carrier finds a nest with four young thunderbirds; their mother comes and tells the human boy that a two-headed Serpent comes out of the lake to eat the young. In Algonquian images, an X-shaped thunderbird is often used to depict the thunderbird with its wings alongside its body and the head facing forwards instead of in profile. The depiction may be stylized and simplified. A headless X-shaped thunderbird was found on an Ojibwe midewiwin disc dating to 1250–1400 CE. In an 18th-century manuscript (a “daybook” ledger) written by the namesake grandson of Governor Matthew Mayhew, the thunderbird pictograms varies from “recognizable birds to simply an incised X.” ref

Thunderbird and Whale

“Thunderbird and Whale” is an Indigenous myth belonging to the mythological traditions of a number of tribes from the American Pacific Northwest. The myth of the epic struggle between Thunderbird and Whale is found in common among different language/cultural groups of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of America, and seems to be uniquely localized to this area. It is also the major archetypal motif in carvings and painted art, particularly among the natives along the outlying coasts of Vancouver Island, e.g., the Kwakiutl (Kwakwakaʼwakw) or the Nootka (Nuu-chah-nulth) people. In one of many variant versions of the myth, the sound of the whale dropping into the sea is the source of thunder. A young boy of a Vancouver Island people, the Comox, was fascinated by the sound of thunder, and heard it from behind a point of land. He crossed that point, following the sound of thunder, and discovered the spectacle of the Thunderbird seizing and dropping the whale. The Thunderbird saw the boy, and told him that the story was now his, and he had the right to wear the Thunderbird mask and wings at the potlatch.” ref