Sets of signs denoting the year on a Paleolithic artifact from the Baikal region and a towel from Podillya

The offered concept states that primitive people operated "sacred" sets. The author considers them to be sets of signs on archaeological artifacts and folk ornaments conveying the cycles of heavenly bodies and the physiological cycles of a woman reduced by certain numbers. These are stable sets having become entrenched in mythology and acquired the status of "sacred". Based on this concept, the sets of signs have been studied on the Paleolithic artifact from the Baikal region. Two groups of signs have been distinguished: circles (there are 364 of them) forming sets, and signs (there are 7 of them) delimiting the sets. The author presents the idea that the artifact superposes the days of a year (364) and woman's pregnancy (280) sets. For this purpose, ancient people depicted the "sacred" set of 88 located in the center of the spiral in a color different from the rest of the spiral. Thus, according to the author, they indicated the subtraction of the "sacred" set of 88 from the set of the year. Since the difference between them (364-88 = 276) is four days less than the set of 280, the deficiency was made up by four delimitation signs indicating the action of addition. The research considers two options for superposing the yearly and pregnancy sets. To compare, the author analyzes the sets of signs on the ornament of a towel from Podillya. This analysis shows that these sets are sacred and add up to a year (364). The author assumes that the "sacred" sets on the artifacts of ancient people and on ornaments could appear as summands for obtaining great sets (365/364, 280, 224, etc.). This approach opens up a new perspective in the study of sets on artifacts and ornaments.

The Semantics of Sets of Signs on Paleolithic Artifact from Plugatel (France, Brittany)

The article attempts to interpret a set of signs (points and lines) on two Paleolithic artifacts found by French archaeologists near the town Plugatel (Brittany). The author considers that the sets of signs on archaeological artifacts and folk ornaments hid sacred sets of ancient people and were formed by dividing the cycles of the Sun, the Moon, Venus, and Mercury, as well as the menstrual cycle and the pregnancy cycle of a woman into relatively small (and sacral!) numbers (7, 8, 28 & 5). The presence of the set of 13 on the artifact (Figure 1) in front of the animal's muzzle and 13 “rays” around the bison's head is the basis for concluding that the semantic connection of horned animals and the Sun was already formed in the Paleolithic. This is evidenced by an artifact called «Venus from Laussel», representing an engraved image of a woman holding in her hand either a horn or a sickle moon with 13 lines painted on it. The same number of marks on the animals' horns is found on a number of artifacts of later times. There is every reason to assume that the horns symbolized the Moon, and the 13 signs on them denoted 13 lunar cycles (28 days each) per year. In general, it can be stated that the sets on artifacts from the Plugatel are embedded in the framework of the concept of sacral sets, which was formed by the author based on the study of many archaic artifacts, folk ornaments, and fairy tales.