Archaeological language of figuratives

Archaeology, Lussac-les-Chateaux, mergalith, manipulated stone, barbarian, Greek, Allheimr, ancestors' cult, rock-carvings, Scandinavian archaeologist, problemizing, Moon Suite, space-time, Val Camonica, season law, Lerfald, shaman belt, cult,

They have found 130 of these and it is warm up for the text cut that follows. Sometimes I need something to light my thinking. Odd opinions and unexpected figuratives are good ignition

In 1927 the amateur Dr. Morlet discovered and excavated in Glozel and found hundreds of tablets with script and small bits of figurative art. Too soon French academic archaeology told that this is fraud. Fortunately others have been working on it and best of all they have found more sites now called Azillian culture and around 10000 years old at start. It seems that French archaeology accepted truth of the figurative slabs in 1937 without any suspicion. Naturally it is easy "to see" figurative art while script carries a secret and some think it must be primitive and others that it is high level of abstraction

In Europe archaeology normally begins around 6000 - 5000 BC with the "giant table" and high dolmen mostly in Portugal. That age begins with the big boulders they call megaliths and it is a Greek academic word. It is quite odd since we do not find boulders of the West-European kind in Greece. The term is heritage from the days when the academics had to use Latin or Greek so that no laymen could understand the secrets of the academy. Boulder does not cover all sizes and shapes of these selected stone, but the word boulder says more than the Greek term.

Under that umbrella we have also that West and North Europeans are called barbarians and then megaliths are supposed to be magic and mystic places … I look in the mirror and say Hello Barbarian -;). … In the background we understand the by academics used superior culture of Rome and Greece that is used as reference. Observe the irony. ... but as mentioned there are no megaliths of the kind in Greece. In next cut from Internet the writer seems unaware of West European cave culture and boulder culture where the biggest boulder arrangements are around 2000 years older than the pyramids. I have to write again and again about this curtain over the European history.

Still it is no news when some archaeologists demonise and see odd creatures and behaviour rock-carvings and old art. Already the Greeks show how they got most of their ancient heritage around the hind leg. In their symbolism they have creatures Sumerians created two thousand years earlier and often as merge of two or more known animals/ things. There were metaphors to catch the worlds as for instance the Midgaard's Worm embracing the world we saved to the Edda.

It was simply the method to set an outer limit to the unknown world. At the same time it was fearful since it did not recommend people to row away in a rowboat on the Atlantic or far high seas. The "killer-waves" could be very high and some dangerous creature was surely a good warning even as imagination. Our archaeologists can not see behind the surface to the intelligent design of the image of Allheimr = Whole World

When dealing with the complexity of our own cultures, we use to acknowledge the conjugated influences of Athens, Rome and Jerusalem." Cut from Internet

It would be easier if writers kept track of chronology to avoid as here mixing Athens and Rome with the Neolithic Age. Ancestors' cult normally is associated to something primitive and artefacts like decorated skulls and I know of nothing of the kind in West Europe? As pure cult it occurs in Anatolia and in Jericho together with skull deformation.

I have partly been practising ancestors' cult when I referred to early inventors of technical laws and as far as I know in archaeology and other disciplines they steadily refer to forerunners. It is simply necessary as a mean of storing knowledge and there we have something in common with far ancestors. Often some medium is needed as carrier of the memory. A skull is as good as anything.

Someone may think these figures are simple. I have been laying on a rock for hours and I know how cold it could be. I do not know the size of these carvings but it could have taken days for several people to knock it in. Sticky figures tell that the message is the issue here. They just wanted to make an eternal note here. I have see other images of very good artistry. We can see they loved all animals in same intensity as in the caves.

I must say with some irony that Scandinavian archaeologists need specs. Never they recognise small symbols and on this site there is a good opportunity. However this is not the normal case, but still someone should have recognised the script in the carvings. Other sites have only a few symbols as additional comments to rock-carvings. Usually archaeologists tell that the circles with or without cross are the sun … have you ever seen a cross on the sun? I would name them time-wheels and there is the Scorpio too that was sign of vernal equinox, so it must be old. The mourning mother associate to harvest time and better known Balder's Death in the Edda. In the Levant it is maybe Tammuz.

One young archaeologist told me that the main method of archaeology is problemizing however the issue should not be difficult since then it get the label mystery … and I got a golden opportunity to some raillery. One of the normal mysteries is "what did the people think about" and then follows speculations about magi as tool in everyday life. Our ancestors "should" be more superstitious than we are and we should imagine they celebrated bloody rituals in dark nights waiting for the moon. … Magic and gods do not make children, food or anything at all. I could gather much more from the imaginative sites that speculate in our ancestors thinking. But it is perhaps a good example of problemizing?

I do not wear wristwatch and I am not a slave of time. But very many people are tied to some schedule and planner. When I look at figurative remains I see precisely the same pattern. Moon and Suite were the real leader while the sun is used only four times a year to stabilise the moon-year. This was the same pattern in Sumer, Egypt and unknown Europe. Of course the sun surely also meant something as timekeeper in the days, but it has nothing to do with the general plan/ suite that gave pace to the season. Christianity and other religious culture use remains of the ritual calendar still, but today it is not important for urbanised citizens.

There are more than 100.000 ships in our rock-carvings. They were often used to symbolise fragments of time and some are found on passage graves 4^th millennium but could be earlier. Then one guess is as good as another, is it Nordic invention or did they get inspiration from South where the ships are used the same way. … I remember oldies using old words about time such as spring-time and harvest-time/ a time for harvest or a time to do something. I call it space-time that includes everything in the living space and room. We see it in medieval almanacs with illustrations of the jobs in every month. When we speak about time we just mean the mathematical amount of time.

The best way of showing the purpose and meaning of rock-carvings is to look at a couple of engraved standing stones in Val Camonica. The one at left could look simple and some on the theme are simpler. People of the time knew what it meant and they are not made specifically for us! At right we get the whole story of the settlement that practised agriculture.  

In the middle we have the fenced field and in the end the double spiral symbolising IN - OUT seen as separate carvings in many places. It is also the shape of the bronze-bra showing the flow of fertility associated to the movement of the Moon/ rain to Underworld. This part of the stone is also found as the necklace lunula = "luna now flow". Above that the shining sun and at left perhaps the Moon Dog = Ramadan. The axes are defence against thieves of every kind. The daggers are of the Isis-type from Egypt and the blade shows "going-in" and the knob is the crescent moon. The plougher uses Egyptian plough.

Lately I looked at Lerfald again and come to think about archaeology naming cultures as abstract objects and no references to real sites, except the one that gave name. I am tired of Perigordien, Aurignacien, Funell Beakers, Ertebölle, Komsa and names saying nothing to me. Worst of all I can not place them on the timeline. That makes it difficult for laymen to understand culture in different ages. Some aspects are separated from the general view. So are rock-carvings usually seen as primitive scribble and many stony monuments are overseen and not mentioned in archaeology books.

I think it is time to see every rock-painting, rock-carvings, ancient field, stony remains and other possible remains as marking centre of site. They are claim and some of them are clear signs of ritual law. Earliest laws was lead by prey animals/ fishes but already in the caves we 20.000 years ago we see the Time was leader. The better-defined Time-Law we get around 4000 BC and that show the virtual archetypes as leader and we can expect canonical rules in society.

We should investigate the context that could be within 5 kilometres normally. We can investigate the life and continuity of living at the place. It is normal procedure that we in science go from "the known to the unknown" … our forerunners did it at least 6000 years ago. Literally that means to start at the known centre. We have many indications that culture has been continuous at good living places. Late remains cover the original site in many cases. Megalith foundations have a great variety but they are temples, territory claims and later they mark graves. Here I write mostly from the horizon of Scandinavia but the cultures were much alike.

There is no reason to demonise and make magic or speculate in superstitious ancestors that saw ghosts everywhere. Our forerunners were used to wilderness since many hundred thousand years and they knew everything about the night sky … I think modern citizens are very afraid when they are set in the middle of our forests in dark nights. -;) I saw a TV-programme where the scientists project their own fear on our ancestors -;)

For me it is stupid when they tell Hittites, Greeks, specific Europeans came from no-where and a culture was born. That does not tell us about from where they got ideas and if it just was original slow development that suddenly flowered. And that is all very relative. Normally a city starts with the first house. From medieval times we have lots of examples how cities was born from old seasonal marketplaces to become cities in 17^th century. Some of the cities in the Levant started as factories for Akkadians and others. The Sumerian called it "tamkarum" and I read it as "bull-fence" or maybe rather cow fence since they used cows as carriers of goods.

Spoken language is also a part of archaeological language. In the Northern Hemisphere it is quite normal that the academic are hunting for shamans. In fact some tell about a shaman belt north of latitude 60 degrees. That immediately furnish an attitude to all thinking and writing and we should understand the words "primitive, low culture and uneducated" behind it.

I saw just a program from the Russian Carelia. The Same told that mankind has a "home soul" within the fence of the village. When he walk out in the woods he gets his "wood soul" and he can sense the spirits in nature and must be careful. He does not understand the Russian bear-hunter who hang the hide in a tree and throw away the bones. In his world it should be given back to Nature as it has been for thousands of year. But I think he inside laugh at people from South asking about spirits and myths. He understands that the stupid would never understand that a sould is always filled with all our experiences and readiness to sense things.

The case is the same as we have with our Celtic ancestors that we do not understand when they talk about worlds. Odd formulations that some hero could be in the grave as well as in the world. Tricky things since at that stage the tenses were not developed. They are quite right we can talk about what is under surface, upon surface and what is in the sky. We can always use world that some academics with no imagination could not understand.

In TIME TEAM they say with a smile that everything unknown is cult. Youngsters avoid too difficult questions and Scandinavian archaeology avoids symbols in rock-carvings. Easier to tell they are magic signs. But where is the description that reconsiders everything in the ancient environment.