scholarly journals Reflection of Solar Symbolism in the Burial Rite of the Kemi Oba Culture: Case Study of the Grave Cist Painting from Koyash Village

2020 ◽  
pp. 300-314
Author(s):  
Iuliia Kozhukhovskaia
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Concentric Circle ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Dynamic Character ◽  
The World ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Burial Rite

Introduction. The article focuses on the analysis of solar elements in the burial rite of the Kemi Oba culture of the Early Bronze Age. Methods and materials. The material draws attention to the painting of the grave cist from Koyash (Vodnoye) village that presents a set of mythopoetic schemes and plots, their interpretation proceeds from the processes of comprehension of the outside world. Analysis. The paper identifies the ideograms on the basis of the painting of the grave cist under study: the circle with a dot in its center, the concentric circle, the triangle. The burial rite of the Kemi Oba culture focuses on the conceptualization of the afterlife in terms of observations of the solar nature, which is consistent with the prevailing Indo-European concepts of the Bronze Age. The sign of the concentric circle in the Kemi Oba culture appears as a solar symbol based on the analogies in the Indo-European mythology. The ideogram is part of the plot with dynamic character, and participates in the mythopoetic scheme based on the dichotomies: up – down, this life – afterlife in the context of the Axis Mundi idea. Four suns as part of the plot of the painted cist demonstrate the non-static solar nature, its four states, and, consequently, suggests the solar myth that has a spatio-temporal realization. Results. The cosmological picture of the world of the Kemi-Oba people includes the processes of categorization of the environment objectified through the fragmentation of the path of the sun, i.e. duality and quaternary.

Minting Identity: Coinage, Ideology and the Economics of Colonization in Akhaina Magna Graecia

2002 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
John K. Papadopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Archaic Period ◽  
South Italy ◽  
Magna Graecia ◽  
The World ◽  
Abstract Notion ◽  
Social Orders ◽  
The Bronze Age

This article focuses on the early coinage of the Akhaian cities of South Italy — Sybaris, Kroton, Metapontion, Kaulonia, Poseidonia — against the backdrop of colonization. Minting an early and distinctive series of coins, these centres were issuing coinage well before their ‘mother-cities’, a phenomenon that has never been fully appreciated. With its origins in a colonial context, the Akhaian coinage of Magna Graecia not only differs from that of the early coin-minting states of the Greek mainland, it offers a case study that challenges long-held assumptions and potentially contributes to a better understanding of the origins of coinage. It does so by suggesting that coinage is much more than a symbol of authority and represents considerably more than just an abstract notion of sovereignty or hegemony. The images or emblems that the Akhaians of South Italy chose for their coins are those current in the contemporary cultural landscape of the historic Akhaians, but at the same time actively recall the world of the heroic Akhaians of the Bronze Age by referring to prehistoric measures of value. More than his, the vicissitudes of colonial and indigenous history in parts of South Italy in the Archaic period were not merely reflected in coinage, the coins themselves were central to the processes of transformation. By boldly minting — constructing — their identity on coinage, the Akhaians of South Italy chose money in order to create relations of dominance and to produce social orders that had not existed before.

Mound of the Bronze Age at the Ak-Monai Isthmus in the Eastern Crimea: Stereoscopy of Archaeological Time and Space 

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Д.В. Бейлин ◽  
А.Е. Кислый ◽  
И.В. Рукавишникова
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Heritage ◽  
Bronze Age ◽  
Late Stage ◽  
Road Construction ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Burial Mound ◽  
Cultural Heritage Object ◽  
Eastern Crimea ◽  
The Bronze Age

The article represents the results of archaeological digs of a Barrow № 2 (a cultural heritage object) belonging to the «Ak-Monai 1» Barrow Group situated in the Tavrida road construction area. A research area was 1534 square meters. Exploration revealed 13 simple ditch graves, mostly supplied with slab ceilings. 12 graves were initially covered with a burial mound; only one grave was placed inside a burial mound in antiquity. It was noticed that a burial mound had not been formed with a very first grave, but had been constructed by adding new graves to the cemetery, which was a common practice in Early Bronze Age. After completing of several burials a territory was leveled out to the extent possible, in some places it was windrowed. Digs of a Barrow № 2 enabled us to trace and analyze some funeral rite’s peculiarities, especially concerning children’s burials, and to give a cultural and chronological characteristic to the whole Barrow Group, attributing it to the late stage of a Pit Grave Culture. 

Cosmic Deer as an Archaic Symbol in the Narratives and Rituals of the Tungus-Manchus

2020 ◽  
pp. 112-121
Author(s):  
Татьяна Юрьевна Сем
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Time Model ◽  
Space And Time ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Cosmic Scale ◽  
First Time ◽  
The Universe ◽  
The Bronze Age

Статья посвящена мифологическому образу космического оленя в традиционной культуре тунгусо-маньчжуров. В работе рассматриваются материалы фольклора, шаманства, промысловых и календарных ритуалов, а также искусства. Впервые систематизированы материалы по всем тунгусо-маньчжурским народам. Образ космического оленя в фольклоре эвенов имеет наиболее близкие аналогии с амурскими народами, которые представляют его с рогами до небес. Он сохранился в сказочном фольклоре с мифологическими и эпическими элементами. В эвенском мифе образ оленя имеет космические масштабы: из тела его происходит земля и всё живущее на ней. У народов Амура образ оленя нашел отражение в космогенезе, отделении неба от земли. Своеобразие сюжета космической охоты характеризует общесибирскую мифологию, относящуюся к ранней истории. В ней наиболее ярко проявляется мотив смены старого и нового солнца, хода времени, смены времен года, календарь тунгусо-маньчжуров. В результате анализа автор пришел к выводу, что олень в тунгусо-маньчжурской традиции моделирует пространство и время Вселенной, характеризует образ солнца и хода времени. Космический олень является архетипичным символом культуры тунгусо-маньчжуров, сохранившим свое значение до настоящего времени в художественной культуре This article is devoted to the mythological image of cosmic deer in traditional Tungus-Manchu culture. It examines materials of folklore, shamanism, trade and calendar rituals as well as art and for the first time systematizes materials from all of the Tungus-Manchu peoples. The image of cosmic deer in the folklore of the Evens has its closest analogy in that of the Amur peoples, reflected in the image of a deer with horns reaching up to the sky. This image is preserved in fairytales with mythological and epic elements. In the Even myth, the image of a deer is on a cosmic scale, as the cosmos issues from its body. Among the Amur peoples, the image of a deer is also related to cosmogenesis, to the separation of the earth from the sky. The plot of a cosmic hunt is reflected in pan-Siberian mythology, dating back to the Bronze Age. It clearly illustrates the motif of the change of the old and new sun, the passage of time, the change of seasons, the Tungus-Manchu calendar. The author comes to the conclusion that deer in the Tungus-Manchu tradition, in depicting the image of the sun and the passage of time, model the space and time of the Universe. The cosmic deer is an archetypal symbol of Tungus-Manchu culture, which has retained its significance in artistic culture to the present day.

An interpretation of the Nebra disc

Antiquity ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 81 (312) ◽  
pp. 267-278 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emília Pásztor ◽  
Curt Roslund
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Bronze Age

The Nebra disc is one of the most sensational European discoveries of the decade. It appears to carry symbols of the sun, moon and stars wrought in gold on a flat bronze disc just over a foot across (320mm). It is not only very strange, but, famously, appears to be winking, initially raising the suspicion that it may be a hoax. Scholars have, however, claimed it firmly for the Bronze Age, and the debate now moves to the matter of its meaning. Here the authors offer a subtle interpretation that sees it as the shamanistic device of a local warrior society.

The Boat of the Dead in the Bronze Age

Antiquity ◽  
1941 ◽  
Vol 15 (60) ◽  
pp. 360-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. V. Grinsell
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The World ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Bronze Age

In many parts of the world and at many periods the practice has prevailed of depositing boats, or models or other representations of them, with the dead, either as a means of facilitating his supposed voyage to another world, or as a symbol of his maritime activities during his lifetime.That the former is generally the correct explanation of the custom there can be no doubt. This is shown by the evidence of the belief in a voyage to a future world, and the customs to which it has given rise, among living primitive peoples in the Pacific Islands and elsewhere, so well collected and presented by the late Sir J. G. Frazer. It is shown also by traditions such as that of our own king Arthur's journey by barge to ‘the island valley of Avilion, where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow’ It is shown also by the ancient Greek and Roman custom of placing a coin in the mouth of the dead to pay Charon's fee for ferrying him across the Styx.

scholarly journals Celestial Aspects of Hittite Religion, Part 2: Cosmic Symbolism at Yazilikaya

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eberhard Zangger ◽  
E.C. Krupp ◽  
Serkan Demirel ◽  
Rita Gautschy
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Central Anatolia ◽  
Astronomical Observation ◽  
Main Chamber ◽  
Far North ◽  
The World ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Symbolic Image ◽  
The Bronze Age ◽  
Central Panel

Evidence of systematic astronomical observation and the impact of celestial knowledge on culture is plentiful in the Bronze Age societies of Egypt, Mesopotamia and Europe. An interest in astral phenomena is also reflected in Hittite documents, architecture and art. The rock-cut reliefs of 64 deities in the main chamber of Yazilikaya, a Hittite rock sanctuary associated with Hattusa, the Hittite capital in central Anatolia, can be broken into groups marking days, synodic months and solar years. Here, we suggest that the sanctuary in its entirety represents a symbolic image of the cosmos, including its static levels (earth, sky, underworld) and the cyclical processes of renewal and rebirth (day/night, lunar phases, summer/winter). Static levels and celestial cyclicities are emphasised throughout the sanctuary – every single relief relates to this system. We interpret the central panel with the supreme deities, at the far north end of Chamber A, as a reference to the northern stars, the circumpolar realm and the world axis. Chamber B seems to symbolise the netherworld.

scholarly journals Emberi ábrázolás a Változások korában, 4000 és 2000 BC között

2014 ◽  
pp. 113-144
Author(s):  
Tünde Horváth
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Middle Age ◽  
Late Phase ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Copper Age ◽  
Cultural Impacts ◽  
Middle Bronze Age ◽  
Archaeological Cultures ◽  
The Bronze Age

Our survey should by necessity begin earlier, from the close of the Middle Age Copper Age, and should extend to much later, at least until the onset of the Middle Bronze Age, in order to identify and analyse the appearance and spread of the cultural impacts affecting the Baden complex, their in-teraction with neighbouring cultures and, finally, their decline or transformation. Discussed here will be the archaeological cultures flourishing between 4200/4000 and 2200/2000 BC, from the late phase of the Middle Copper Age to its end (3600 BC), the Late Copper Age (ending in 2800 BC), the transi-tion between the Copper Age and the Bronze Age (ending in 2600 BC), and the Early Bronze Age 1–3 (ending in 2000 BC), which I have termed the Age of Transformation.

scholarly journals Through the Gloomy Vale: Underworld Alignments at Stonehenge

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (1 and 2) ◽  
pp. 11-30
Author(s):  
Lionel Sims ◽  
David Fisher
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Mirror Image ◽  
Landscape Model ◽  
Late Neolithic ◽  
The World ◽  
The Dead

Three recent independently developed models suggest that some Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments exhibit dual design properties in monument complexes by pairing obverse structures. Parker Pearson’s1 materiality model proposes that monuments of wood are paired with monuments of stone, these material metaphors respectively signifying places of rituals for the living with rituals for the dead. Higginbottom’s2 landscape model suggests that many western Scottish megalithic structures are paired in mirror-image landscape locations in which the horizon distance, direction and height of one site is the topographical reverse of the paired site – all in the service of ritually experiencing the liminal boundaries to the world. Sims’3 diacritical model suggests that materials, landscapes and lunar-solar alignments are diacritically combined to facilitate cyclical ritual processions between paired monuments through a simulated underworld. All three models combine in varying degrees archaeology and archaeoastronomy and our paper tests them through the case study of the late Neolithic/EBA Stonehenge Palisade in the Stonehenge monument complex.

/ Schyłek epoki kamienia i początki epoki brązu w okolicach Igołomi i Wawrzeńczyc The end of the Stone Age and the beginning of the Bronze Age in the vicinity of Igołomia and Wawrzeńczyce

2020 ◽  
pp. 93-114
Author(s):  
Piotr Włodarczak
Keyword(s):  
Bronze Age ◽  
Early Bronze Age ◽  
Burial Mound ◽  
Funeral Rite ◽  
Loess Hills ◽  
Vistula River ◽  
The North ◽  
Funnel Beaker Culture ◽  
Age Range ◽  
The Bronze Age

The borderland of the Vistula Plain and the Proszowice Plateau is part of the loess zone extending mainly to the north of the Vistula River, known for numerous discoveries of archaeological sites from the Eneolithic period and the early Bronze Age. The state of reconnaissance of settlement is far from satisfactory here. From the final Eneolithic period primarily cemeteries of the Corded Ware culture (around 2800–2300 BC) are known. Falling within this age range is probably the only burial mound in the area, in Igołomia, which yielded a niche grave of the Corded Ware culture within the eastern part of its cover. Another cemetery was investigated in Rudno Górne, where niche graves of the culture in question were found dug into the embankments of Funnel Beaker culture megalithic graves from the middle Eneolithic period. From the early Bronze Age, the richest and most cognitively significant sites of the Mierzanowice culture (around 2200–1600 BC) are concentrated on loess hills rising above the valleys of Ropotek and Rudnik. They are both cemeteries and large settlements. Particularly valuable results were obtained during research on the cemetery in Szarbia, where as many as 44 graves were found. These findings enable the reconstruction of funeral rite rules from the early Bronze Age.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document