Are You Kidding? Modern Man Rediscovers Ancient Goddess Symbols!

This article - okay - I'm retracting my first statement, which was THIS ARTICLE IS A JOKE.  Forget I wrote that.  Instead, I'm just writing "Duh!" 

Gimbutas depicted such symbols in her many books on "Old European" culture that are twice as old as this one beginning - what - 30 years ago!  Those "zig-zags" - I call them "M's" and "W's" - wave patterns, are extremely ancient, dating back to at least 25,000 BCE and are found in many places in Europe; the symbols travel the width and breath of the Old World across time, and are evidence in the art work of Native Americans too.  The most likely explanation is not independent invention by relocating populations but that the extremely ancient patterns and symbols travelled with the people to the New World.   

What's the symbol for the primal waters of the deep in many ancient cultures in their later writing - DUH!  Wavy lines!  One that immediately comes to mind is "n-n" -- pronounced something like "nuuuun" in ancient Egyptian, drawn something like vvvv or wwww, -- in heiroglyphics.  It meant WATER, more importantly, the very first waters out of which the first mound of earth (the black dirt) arose, from which all things on earth were then created.  From the ancient waters of the deep came the first earth, and from the first earth all things of creation were made.

I don't have my notes/research from many years in front of me, so I'm working from memory, but these forms (wwww's and vvvvv's - zig-zags) are well documented by many researchers, not just Gimbutas. In many extremely early instances they were associated with carvings of "bird" or "eye" goddesses.  So making a big hoo-ha about this relatively young carving on an antler is, to my way of thinking, way out of proportion.  It is nice to see that the work of the early pioneers is being confirmed by modern-day discoveries, but they are adding nothing new to the subject and give scant credit to the work upon which they are building.  That's just not right.

From Discovery News
Stone Age Fertility Ritual Object Found
Etchings on a carved elk antler dating to nearly 11,000 years ago, may have been used to promote fertility
By Jennifer Vargas
February 4, 2011

A Stone Age-era artifact carved with multiple zigzags and what is likely a woman with spread legs suggests that fertility rituals may have been important to early Europeans, according to new research.

The object, which will be documented in the March issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science, is made out of a large elk antler and has been radiocarbon dated to about 10,900 years ago.

"The ornament is composed of groups of zigzag lines and a human representation, probably a woman with spread legs with a short zigzag nearby," lead author Tomasz Płonka told Discovery News. "The woman may be nude, but the geometrical style of representation does not allow us to answer (this question)."

Płonka, a University of Wroclaw archaeologist, and his colleagues analyzed the object, unearthed by a farmer at Swidwin, Poland.

At first the scientists believed the geometrical figure carved onto the antler could have been either the mentioned woman, or a nude man raising his arms. Measurements to determine the ratio of the stick figure limbs, in addition to comparisons with other early human representations, lead the researchers to support the woman interpretation. [Turn it one way, it's a man with a long penis! Turn it the other way, it's a woman with raised legs!  Neolithic optical illusion, all within an economical sketch of  - how's that for pushing an art form back!]

Zigzags are very popular motifs on artifacts from many cultures throughout the world, with many possible meanings, but Płonka said, "I think our zigzag lines are connected with water and life symbolism." [Gee! Ya think?]

Rest of article. 

Hawk 'Sculpture' Found in Syria - Is it really 12,000 Years Old?

12,000 year old hawk sculpture from Syria?  A millennium is 1,000 years, and this sculpture is said to be 10 millennia old before present (add two millennia to bring current), but are they truly saying it is 12,000 years old?  If so, I want to see the proof.

Reported at thaindian.com and other sources

Oldest sculpture of hawk discovered in Syria
Wednesday, September 15, 2010 7:06:21 AM by ANI

Image from Archaeology Daily News, 15 September 2010.
Is this just a bad photo or does this "hawk" have no
head?  Looks like an eagle to me, not a hawk but, hey,
what do I know?

Damascus, Sept 15 (ANI): French archaeologists in Syria have discovered the world’s oldest sculpture of a hawk, which dates back to the 10th millennium B.C.

According to al-Baath Newspaper, the Directorate General of Antiquities and Museums in the Ministry of Culture said the hawk sculpture was unearthed during the archaeological work in the area of Belaas, Hama, central Syria.

The Directorate affirmed the discovery proves that Syria is the first to use the hawk as the official symbol for the Syrian Arab Republic, the Global Arab Network reported. [Say what? There was no Syrian Arab Republic back then. This kind of blatant propaganda makes the entire article suspect.]

The discovery made during the Syrian-French joint expedition, proves that the Syrian Hawk is 5 millenniums older than all other sculptures. [On what evidence? Older than sculpture from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Iran, Catyl Hoyuk, Gobekli Tepe, Urfa?]

It in turn proves the historic role of the region where the sculpture was first created and then spread out to the whole world along with other aspects of the Syrian culture [ahem - even if this is so, it wasn't "Syrian Arab Republic" culture back then - the Arabs wouldn't be in the area for thousands of years] in contribution to human culture. (ANI)

****************************************************

Show me the facts, please.  In the meantime, contemplate this incredible sculptured head of a "vulture" - from Gobekli Tepe.

According to a report at xinhuanet: 
The [hawk] sculpture, 5.4 cm long and 5.3 cm wide [that's 2.13 inches long and 2.09 inches wide], was unearthed during the excavation work in Belaas, Hama, 200 kilometers to the north of the Syrian capital Damascus.

Just curious - how far is Hama from the Gobekli Tepe/Urfa area in Turkey (traditional Armenian highlands)?  I couldn't find a direct answer on the internet and measuring by map scales - hmmm - well, according to this map, it is maybe 375 miles as the crow flies???


You can get a feel for the area of Urfa and Gobekli Tepe, etc. in this archaeological map:

Map source.  There is an overlap area between the oran "Urfa Region" and the green demarcated
"Neolithic in the Levante" which I think includes the Hama area in modern-day Syria.

It's an Eye Goddess Symbol or a Goddess Spiral

Come on, dudes, it's as plain as the nose on your faces.  This is either a Bronze Age eye-goddess symbol or a Neolithic Goddess spiral pattern (similar to New Grange).

Cambridgeshire Quarry throws up 4,500-year-old find
July 16, 2010

(PhysOrg.com) -- A remarkable piece of Neolithic rock art, unlike anything previously found in Eastern England, has been unearthed in the Cambridgeshire village of Over (photo).

The hand-sized artefact, which could date back to 2,500 BC, was found by a participant in a geological weekend course which was being run by the University of Cambridge's Institute for Continuing Education.

It consists of a hand-sized slab of weathered sandstone with two pairs of concentric circles etched into the surface - a motif which, according to archaeologists, is typical of "Grooved Ware" art from the later Neolithic era.

While examples of similar Grooved Ware art have been discovered at sites elsewhere in the UK, this is the first time that any such find has been encountered in Eastern England, which may provide more information about the connections of the communities who inhabited the area 4,500 years ago.

The motives of whoever created the design are unclear. Researchers say that it could represent the ornamental efforts of a Prehistoric Picasso, but may just as easily have been an aimless inscription.

"It really is a fantastic find; certainly we have had nothing like it from any of our sites before," Dr. Chris Evans, Director of the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, which operates out of the Department of Archaeology at the University of Cambridge, said.

"In fact, it's unique in Eastern England, with the nearest comparable example being the similar scratch patterns on a sandstone plaque from a Grooved Ware site in Leicestershire. Otherwise you would have to look to Wessex or Northern Britain and the much more formal Megalithic Art of the period."

"The big question in the case of the Over stone is whether we should actually be calling it meaningful art, or if it amounted to no more than Neolithic doodling. Either way it's a great find."

The stone will make its first public appearance since the discovery was made this Saturday (July 17th), when it will go on display at Over Village Carnival.

It was found by Susie Sinclair, who was taking part in the weekend course led by Dr Peter Sheldon (from the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The Open University) at Hanson Aggregates' Needingworth Quarry. The quarry lies north and west of Over alongside the River Great Ouse.

The Cambridge Archaeological Unit has been excavating sites within the quarry for 15 years, partly in an effort to better understand the shape and nature of the landscape in prehistoric times. The remains of several settlement clusters from the late Neolithic period have already been found.

The Over stone, however, was hidden in the quarry's spoil, one of the heaps of waste geological materials discarded by quarry workers. Researchers believe it had been deposited within one of the river's ancient palaeochannels crossing the area and that, with the existing information they have about the geographical layout of the region, the point where it was found can be reconstructed with relative ease.

The area around Over and the River Great Ouse would have looked dramatically different 4,500 years ago. Huge, "S" shaped bends from the river originally meandered across the fens and efforts to tame them only really began in earnest in the late medieval period.

According to the latest research, at the time the Over stone was being carved, the countryside would have been dominated by the snaking course of the river, its tributary channels and flooding. This would essentially have broken the area up into a delta-like landscape of small islands, channels and marshlands.

New "Venus" Figurine Discovered

Story from AP:

By PATRICK McGROARTY, Associated Press Writer Patrick Mcgroarty, Associated Press Writer – Wed May 13, 3:42 pm ET

BERLIN – A 35,000-year-old ivory carving of a busty woman found in a German cave was unveiled Wednesday by archaeologists who believe it is the oldest known sculpture of the human form. The carving found in six fragments in Germany's Hohle Fels cave depicts a woman with a swollen belly, wide-set thighs and large, protruding breasts.

"It's very sexually charged," said University of Tuebingen archaeologist Nicholas Conard, whose team discovered the figure in September.

Carbon dating suggests it was carved at least 35,000 years ago, according to the researchers' findings, which are being published Thursday in the scientific journal Nature.

"It's the oldest known piece of figurative sculpture in the world," said Jill Cook, a curator of Paleolithic and Mesolithic material at the British Museum in London.

Stones in Israel and Africa almost twice as old are believed to have been collected by ancient humans because they resembled people, but they were not carved independently.

The Hohle Fels cave discovery suggests the humans, who are believed to have come to Europe around 40,000 years ago, had the intelligence to create symbols and think abstractly in a way that matches the modern human, Conard said

"It's 100 percent certain that, by the time we get to 40,000 years ago in Swabia, we're dealing with people just like you and me," Conard told The Associated Press, referring to the southern German region where the sculpture was recovered along with other prehistoric artifacts.

Conard believes the 2.4-inch-tall (6-centimeter) figure may have been hung on the end of a string. The left arm is missing, but Conard said he hopes to find it by sifting through material from the cave.

The Hohle Fels sculpture is curvaceous and has neither feet nor a head, like some of the roughly 150 so-called Venus figurines found in a range from the Pyrenees mountains to southern Russia and dating back about 25,000-29,000 years.

But Cook warned against trying to draw any connections between the Venuses and the Hohle Fels figure, saying that would be like comparing Picasso to a classical sculptor — too much time had passed.

"I wonder whether at this point we're looking at figures which are unique within themselves and unique within the cultures that they're arising in," she said.

Archaeologist Paul Mellars, of the University of Cambridge, suggested a clearer continuum. "We now have evidence of that sort of artistic tradition of Venus figurines going back 6,000 years earlier than anybody ever guessed," he said.

Neanderthals also lived in Europe around the time the sculpture was carved, and frequented the Hohle Fels cave. But Mellars said layered deposits left by both species over thousands of years prove the sculpture was crafted by humans.

"Nothing within a million miles of this has ever been found in a Neanderthal layer," Mellars said.

The archaeologists agreed the sculpture's age and features invite speculation about its purpose and the preoccupations of the culture that produced it.

Cook suggested it could be symbol of fertility, perhaps even portrayed in the act of giving birth. Mellars suggested a more basic motivation for the carving: "These people were obsessed with sex."

Conard said the differing opinions reinforced the connection between the ancient artist and modern viewer.

"How we interpret it tells us just as much about ourselves as about people 40,000 years ago," he said.

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Hmmm, the experts know better, I guess... All I can say is that when I looked at this image of the "Venus" and the other two images I saw, I thought it depicts two people intertwined in an embrace. Perhaps it's just the way the object was photographed that makes it appear that way.

Tomb Full of Phallic Figures???

Hmmmm - I have to say it - I think only one of these artifacts resembles a penis. One looks like a proto-Egyptian scarab, two look like vulva or sea-shells (that were used for currency and also represented the female genetalia), and one looks like a hand tool, maybe an axe or an awl. Well, whatever - I'm no expert, darlings, and that's a fact. But the experts aren't so good at this stuff either! From Discover Magazine Blog Archaeological Surprise: Grave Site Full of Phallic Figurines September 8, 2008 Archaeologists excavating a burial site near Nazareth dating back to between 6750 and 8500 B.C. found the area littered with shells, axes, and other artifacts—no surprise there. But something else also caught their attention: a high number of phallic figurines. It’s not unusual to find reproductive-themed artifacts in grave sites from this period, says study leader Nigel Goring-Morris of the Hebrew University. But this period of history, not so long after the agricultural revolution, typically produced more female figurines, associated with the fertility of the land. Even though most of the 65 people buried in this 10 meters by 20 meters plot were young men, he says, the finding is an odd one. Goring-Morris speculates that these guys were trying to reclaim their manhood. With societies at the time moving from being hunter-gatherers to farmers, he says, men lost some of the macho feeling: Let’s face it, plowing a field just doesn’t get the testosterone flowing as much as killing a gazelle. There’s no real evidence that these men felt that way, but the possible alternative explanations for carving a bunch of phalluses are perhaps more unsavory. In any case, farming—and female fertility imagery—won out in the region. But every time a group of men jump in a freezing lake or embark on a disastrous camping trip to reassert their manhood, they can rest assured that they might just be carrying on a millennia-old tradition. Image: Nigel Goring-Morris

Older than the pyramids, buried for centuries – found by an Orkney plumber

Published Date: 17 March 2008 Source: The Scotsman Location: Scotland By Tristan Stewart-Robertson A RARE piece of Neolithic art has been discovered on a beach in Orkney. The 6,000-year-old relic, thought to be a fragment from a larger piece, was left exposed by storms which swept across the country last week. Local plumber David Barnes, who found the stone on the beach in Sandwick Bay, South Ronaldsay, said circular markings had shown up in the late-afternoon winter sun, drawing his attention to the piece. Archeologists last night heralded the discovery as a "once-in- 50-years event". But they warned that a search for other fragments in the area would be hampered by a lack of funds. "At first, I just thought it was an interesting pattern from the erosion," said Mr Barnes, 44. "Then I knew it was fairly rare. It's a miracle I spotted it." He said he realised the find could be significant after he read more about the local history of the area. Archaeologists compared the discovery to the Westray Stone, a Neolithic carved stone discovered in 1981 during routine quarrying work. It has been in Orkney Museum for more than 25 years but is due to be returned to the area this week and exhibited in the new Westray Heritage Centre in Pierowall. The Westray Stone was once part of a Neolithic chambered cairn which is thought to have been destroyed in prehistory. A second part, and two smaller carved pieces, were found the following spring in a dig led by Niall Sharples, of the University of Cardiff. Mrs Julie Gibson, Orkney county archaeologist, said the latest discovery must be the result of erosion from recent storms, as the carved patterns would not have successfully survived so many thousands of years' exposure on soft sandstone. She said: "This piece is really a once-in-50-years discovery. I was very pleased to find out David really had such a piece of Neolithic art. It's not something that happens every day." Natural stones always have patterns in them and quite often people mistake patterns for art. It was surprising David was able to see this on the beach. "The stone is perhaps from a chambered tomb and could be as old as 5,000 or 6,000 years, and would have possibly been used as a ceremonial, sacred object. This is art made in the same style as art from the Newgrange stone tomb in Ireland or tombs in Brittany. It's part of this Neolithic world linked by the Irish Sea." The world heritage site at Newgrange in County Meath is estimated to be 600 years older than the Giza pyramids in Egypt. The concentric circles in the latest find indicated "something special", said Mrs Gibson. She added that the Sandwick Bay beach now warranted more investigation but she feared that would be constrained by a lack of resources. She said: "The budget for 'rescue' archaeology has been flat-lined since Margaret Thatcher's time, and it's gone down since then by £200,000 a year, down to £1.5 million in Scotland each year for all rescue archaeology. We would like to do more, but the chances are pretty slim." The stone will now be passed to Orkney Museum and brought to the attention of the Queen and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer to determine if it is a treasure trove or not. Ancient objects without an owner are automatically property of the Crown. But Mrs Gibson added: "An object like this becomes the property of everyone." TREASURES FIND THEIR WAY TO THE CROWN ALL historical finds – whether made by chance, fieldwalking, metal detector or archaeological excavation – are subject to the laws of Treasure Trove in Scotland. The objects become the property of the Crown and may be claimed as treasure trove, and must be reported so they can be assessed. The Queen and Lord Treasurer's Remembrancer is the Crown Office employee responsible for claiming objects for the Crown under the law of Treasure Trove. The role of the QLTR also includes deciding on the allocation of objects to museums and the payment of rewards to finders. The Crown Office, on behalf of the Scottish Government, is given the first chance to claim the object for the overall benefit of the nation. Small museums, including Orkney Museum, can also bid for the found objects to stay in the area where they were found. Finds not claimed by the Crown are returned to the finder along with an individually numbered certificate stating that the Crown is not exercising its right to claim. The full article contains 767 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper. Last Updated: 17 March 2008 12:04 AM

Neolithic Lovers

Ahhhhh, I'm such a sap for romance!

Here's a lovely little stone carving dating back to c. 3200 BCE from Malta, the island where the Goddess rules strong.

The Times of Malta reported on February 12, 2008 that Heritage Malta is to mark Valentine's Day by exhibiting a 5,000 old terracotta figurine depicting an embracing couple. The minute figurine has some fine incisions representing long hair on both figures.

The figurine, dating back to 3200 B.C is the only Maltese prehistoric presentation of an embracing couple, the agency said. It is being exhibited at the lobby of the National Museum of Archeology in Republic Street Valletta. Admission is free of charge.

Some examples of necklaces and axe pendants which were also unearthed from Malta’s Megalithic Temples and hypogea are also being exhibited alongside.