Group portrait

Group portrait!!! Smile!!! Zoomorphic figurines, Copper Age Central European Baden culture...

These guys were farmers who grew wheat and millet, but they also heavily relied on keeping farm animals, like pigs, sheep, goats, horses and cattle...

One curious thing we find in Baden culture are animal "graves" with whole cattle, horses, sheep, goats, pigs and dogs. As well as pits with partial animal remains, and whole and parts of animals buried together with humans. 

You can read more about it in the paper "Transcendent phenomena in the Late Copper Age Boleráz/ Baden settlement uncovered at Balatonőszöd- Temetői dűlő: human and animal depositions"

The authors of the papers interpret these animal burials like this: 

"...the celestial deities were invited to a joint feast during the offering, and certain parts of the sacrificed animal were offered to them...Celestial deities are the lords of the courses of stars and being the guardians of the fixed laws that rule this sphere, they were also the lords of justice, customs and ethics in the earthly world...Their predominance over the earthly deities evolved in societies where “knightly culture” flourished, meaning that charismatic social/military/religious leaders played a major role and a weaponry and social classes matching this role developed...The situation was different with the chthonic deities. They could not be invited to a joint feast, so the entire animal had to be offered to them...Accordingly, the complete skeletons uncovered at a site could have been offered to the chthonic deities, the partial ones to the celestial deities..."

My comment: That's kind of random??? Why???

"...The sacrificial pits dug into the earth are associated with the cult of chthonic deities and consequently the fertility cult and the cult of the dead: they are the lords of wealth, abundance and fate in the otherworld..."

My comment: this belief still exists among Slavs...

"...By means of offering sacrifices, these pits create a connection to the earthly and chthonic deities, who willingly accept the offering placed in the pits. In certain cases the pit itself is a chthonic altar..."

But then the authors backtrack on Celestial-Chthonic thingy:

"...As pits are the most common phenomena in a prehistoric settlement excavation...the sacrifices were always uncovered in pits. This, however, does not mean that all of them were offered to the chthonic deities! After all: what feature type could be associated in a prehistoric settlement with offering types intended for the celestial deities if not a pit?..."

My comment: Eeee exactly...

The authors then continue with this:

"...In the following we try to categorize in a simple and combined way the above described ritual rules of diverse origins as it can be adapted to the Boleráz / Baden cultures...Female animal skeletons could be funeral sacrifices relating to female fertility symbols in fertility rites...Mature male animals could be votive offerings, the symbols of male power in fertility ceremonies, and appeasing offerings to the chthonic deities...Immature skeletons could be firstling offerings, the young animals could be offered to prominent heroes and ancestors...The large communal sacrifices could be peace offerings..."

My comment: Based on what exactly???

They finish with: 

"...An interpretation according to the above stated ritual rules almost frighteningly simplifies the animal burials, which seem extremely complex and variegated at first glance..."

My comment: Except this is all just a complete speculation, based on what???

The paper authors also try to address placing of whole animals in human graves:

"...There could be various reasons why animal skeletons were placed beside human corpses...The choice of the species of the “accompanying animal” could be connected with animal species that possessed death “aspects” in the cults of the dead (like dogs and horses)..." 

My comment: how do we know that these animals had "death aspect"? And what is "death aspect"???

"...It is also possible that a former pet was placed beside the dead or an animal that marked something for the community or the individual (totem animal) or one that reflected the person’s social status: a symbol of power, status or occupation...Still, one circumstance remains inexplicable: no religious historical work mentions an offering type in which pregnant women and female animals (sheep) or foetuses (newborn babies, calves, lambs, piglets) were used, a phenomena, which was observed in Baden burials..."

So confusing...

There is actually one simple explanation for all of this. I believe these whole animals buried with humans or in graves next to human graves, were not sacrifices. These animals were killed and buried to accompany their deceased owners to the otherworld...

Remember: As above, so below...How old is this belief? The dead will awake in the otherworld exactly as they were buried. Which is why all these ancient cultures buried their dead with their chariots, weapons, tools, jewelry, food, drink...And their cattle, sheep, goats, dogs...

This also explains why pregnant women and animals and newborn animals and children were "sacrificed" (killed and sent to the otherworld to accompany a deceased man so he can have a ready made family when he wakes in the otherworld)...

This old belief, is the reason we still dress our dead "in their best" and put makeup on them "to make them look their best"...When they enter eternity...

What is very interesting is that cattle and other domestic animal burials were during Copper Age period found all in Central Europe, in the connected territories of Baden (I2a, G2a), Funnel-Beaker (I2a, G2a), Globular Amphorae (I2a, G2a) and Corded Ware (R1a, I2a) cultures...

Do you think that maybe this belief system was in some way linked to a particular tribe connected through paternal lineage... 🙂 Just an idea...

BTW, these cattle, sheep and goat herders were also butter and cheese makers. Just like their other Central European I2a and G2a cousins...

I talked about the early dairy farmers in my post "Milk butter cheese"...

One for the road

This is really cool. The people of the Bronze Age Encrusted Pottery Culture (Middle Bronze Age, 2000-1500BC) from the Carpathian basin, buried children with miniature versions of the pottery with which the adults were buried. Pic: pottery from children graves (L) vs pottery from adult graves (R)

This was also observed when remains of adults were found in the same grave. For instance, the remains of a child and of an adult male were found in the same grave, and their vessels could be clearly separated on the basis of their size and differing decoration....

Furthermore, vessels accompanying children showed differences according to age at death, since small, horn-shaped vessels (baby horns) typically occurred in graves of infants. 

I talked about these baby rhyta here in my post "Baby (milk) horns"...

Now the reason why this is soooooo cool, is because it explains why these vessels were buried with the dead...To provide them with the food (or drink) for their trip to the other world... I proposed that these vessels originally contained drink in my post "Thirst"...More about insatiable thirst and hunger of the dead in my post "Blood red wine"...

Oh and remember goat Amaltheia ("Nourishing Goddess"), who fed baby Zeus with her milk? And then he "accidentally broke off one of her horns", which then became "cornucopia", the horn which had "the divine power to provide unending nourishment"...I talked about this in my post "Cornucopia"...

Well this whole link between goats, thunder gods and abundance originates from the fact that Ibex goat mating season in Crete coincides with the beginning of the rain season. And it is rain that bring fertility and abundance...

I talked about this in my post "Goat riding thundergods"

If horn vessels were buried with infants, this means that what was contained inside of the funeral vessels was drink. Because it is impossible to feed infants using horns. Unless you fed them milk...

How would you use these baby horns? Just like you would use gunpowder horns like this one. 

You cut the tip off. You close the hole with your finger. You fill the horn with water, milk, soup...You stick the horn tip into the baby's mouth and voila...Suck suck suck...

This basically proves my hypothesis, which I based on ethnographic data, that the funerary vessels found in Neolithic, Bronze age and Iron age burials were buried full of drink...Most likely just water...Cause the otherworld is a thirsty place...

But that would mean that the same beliefs and the same rituals related to the departure of the dead have survived in Europe since Neolithic...How interesting...But not surprising...At least not to me...

Thirst

In Serbia people believed that droughts could be caused by the angry thirsty ancestors who didn't receive their water libations..

Serbs, like many other people believed that what the dead miss the most in the other world is water and that they are always thirsty...

Babylonians and Germanic people believed that only those who died in battle would in the other world "always drink fresh water from a well" while everyone else was doomed to suffer eternal thirst

This is why in the ancestral cults it was always one of the most important duties to ensure that the dead have enough water.

Orphic mystery cult promised the followers lots o water in the other world and even gave them a secret formula which would help them to find it.

Muslims in the Balkans used to soak the grave after the burial and sometimes they used to bury their dead in a place hours away from the village if the village was located in a dry area.

In Serbia, on the place where the dead lied at home before burial,  people break the jug of water. A jug of water is also brought to the graveyard and is poured over the grave. At the funeral dinner some water is poured under the table...

In Serbia, for 40 days after the burial, the family of the deceased used to take water from their well to 40 different houses, different house each day, "for the soul"...

In Stip, Macedonia there is a curse  "May no one brings water for him for the other world"...

The belief in the Balkans was that if the dead are not given water, they will drink it from the clouds, and will cause drought. This is why Bosnian Muslims would during droughts throw stones in the air making sure they fall in a river, to bring the thirsty souls down from the clouds.

This is not a Muslim ritual, but a pagan Slavic ritual which Muslim Slavs from Bosnia preserved, with many other pagan beliefs and rituals. I talked about some of them in my post "Alidjun". 

The reason why stones were used in this magic ceremony is because it was believed that stones can tie the souls to themselves. I talked about this in my post "Tombstones".

In Southeastern Serbia people used to place bowls with water in the coffin, cause the dead are particularly thirsty during the 40 days after burial. 

This is a Bronze Age burial cist. Next to the body are two earthen bowls...

Were these bowls, which our Neolithic, Bronze age, Iron Age ancestors placed in graves, also originally full of water? 

Development of Montenegrian tumuluses

The development of Copper Age tumulus in the territory of Montenegro went through several stages.

The initial phase is represented by the central pit grave within the first mound of the Gruda Boljevića tumulus. This initial burial was dated to the beginning of the fourth millennium BC. Culturally it belongs to the southwestern branch of the Yamnaya culture, characterized by pit grave burials.

The next phase in the Copper Age tumulus development are represented by Velika Gruda and Mala Gruda tumuluses, which was dated to the period between the 3000 and 2800 BC. Mala and Velika Gruda tumuluses also have central pit burial. But this time the body was not placed directly into the pit. First a shallow grave pit was dug into the earth to the depth of half a meter. Then a stone cist was built inside the pit. First the bottom of the grave pit was covered with a stone plate and then the vertical stone plates were placed on top of it to form the dolmen cist. The body was placed inside the stone cist and then the cover stone plate was placed on top of it. The stone dolmen cist which was sticking out of the pit was then covered with a tumulus pile.

 

The final phase in the Copper Age tumulus development is represented by the Mogila na Rake and Bjelopavlići tumuluses. These two tumuluses were dated to the period between 2700 and 2400 BC. These two tumuluses also have a central burial withing a stone cist. But this time this stone cist is free standing on the surface of the earth. There is no trace of a burial pit any more. I don't have detailed description of the Bjelopavlići tumulus but I do for the Mogila na Rake tumulus. The stone cist was built on a base which was round in shape, and made of medium and small pieces of limestone (0.5 to 0.20 m) mixed with red-brown earth. The cist was built on this layer using local stones. The sides were  constructed from massive trapezoidal shape stone plates (1.40 × 1.00 m, about 20 cm thick), which were bonded with yellow waterproof clay.  The body was placed inside the cist, and the cist was then covered with two massive rectangle shaped plates (1m x 1.20m and 1.80 × 1 m; 20 cm thick). After the cist was covered the dolmen cist was then covered with a tumulus pile.

 

The Late Copper age Montenegrian tumuluses have several common elements:

1. a central position of the burial within a large multi layered tumulus with stone curb
2. a cross in circle symbol inscribed either on a golden disc which topped the axe shaft hole or on ceramic vesel, which was interpreted as thurible and which was part of a special funerary ceramic set.
3. placing of food vessels inside the burial

These common elements show clear cultural continuity.

But at the same time the actual burial underwent a significant change:

1. a burial inside a pit with or without a cist dug into the ground
2. a burial inside a cist sticking out of a pit which was dug into the ground
3. a burial inside a free standing cist built on the surface of the ground.

This shows clear cultural development.

So by 2500 BC in Montenegro we find massive stone burial dolmen like cists which were placed on the surface of the ground and then covered by multi layered earth tumuluses with stone curbs.

In my previous posts about Montenegrian tumuluses, I already discussed the possibility that the Irish Annals contain records describing the arrival in the mid 3rd millennium BC, of the first metallurgists to Ireland from Montenegro. The finding of golden cross discs in both Montenegro (early 3rd millennium BC) and then in Ireland (late 3rd millennium BC), and the latest genetic data (which I will discuss in one of my future posts) seem to confirm this. 

So there is definite observable cultural influence brought to Ireland by immigrants from Montenegro in the mid 3rd millennium BC. 

But was there, at the beginning of the 3rd millennium, a previous cultural influence brought to Montenegro by people who emigrated from Ireland? 

Is it possible that the cultural process of "raising" of burial cists from the ground, which happened in Montenegro in the first half of the 3rd millennium BC was influenced by these Irish immigrants? Or did the Montenegrian immigrants arrive to Ireland in several waves, the first wave arriving before 2800 BC and the second wave arriving around 2500 BC?

I will talk more about this in my next post.