Thread: This is an Elk-head staffs found in a grave in the Yuzhniy Oleniy Ostrov cemetery, one of the largest Early Holocene cemeteries in northern Eurasia, located in Karelia, northwest Russia...
A new radiocarbon dating, taking into account a correction for freshwater reservoir effects, suggests that the cemetery was even older than previously thought, and was used for some 100–300 years, centring on ca. 8250 to 8000 cal BP...
Around 30 elk head shaped staffs have been found from burials and settlement layers across a widespread area, extending from the Baltic region to the Urals...The map of sites where these artefacts were found...
These staffs made of antler were in use for a considerably long period from the Late Mesolithic to the Early Metal Period, and depictions of elk‐head staffs are also known from rock art sites...Like these from Alta, Norway...
All scholars seem to agree that the staffs belonged to mature individuals (especially of male gender) and that the staffs were used for some kind of ritual purpose...But the jury is still out on what that purpose exactly was...

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More from @serbiaireland

Feb 4
Thread: It's cold out there...It's cold out there every day... 🙂 Which is why I am posting pictures of old Slavic storage heater/cooking oven/sleeping quarter thingies...Perfect for snuggling up and enjoying yourself during cold days...From: oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2014/06/caille…
This is an improvement on old Slavic stone stoves/ovens/heaters...Stone absorbs the heat, and then slowly radiates it out...Like a storage heater...All Early Medieval Central and Eastern European Slavic houses had stone oven in their corner...From: oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2017/01/banya.…
But these ovens/stoves/heaters had no chimneys. Hence Slavic proverb: Who doesn't get choked by smoke, doesn't get warm...Having a smoky house has it's advantages though...

oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2016/05/curing…
Read 5 tweets
Feb 3
Thread: Hindu god Varuna, riding Makara, "a mythical being" which was sometimes (like on this 17th century illustration) depicted as a crocodile...
So why would Varuna ride on a crocodile? To answer this question, we first have to look into who Varuna is. Actually who he was, at the time when his mythology and symbolism was developed...
During the Vedic period, Varuna was "The Man", the Sky God who controlled "The Waters": sea, rivers, rain...As one would expect from a Sky god in India, where rivers are filled with the rain that arrives with the monsoon winds from the sea...
Read 48 tweets
Jan 6
Thread: On this picture you see "badnjak", Serbian Yule log, a young oak sapling which was ritually cut on Christmas Eve and "pečenica", Serbian Yule roast, a pig on a spit, which was ritually slaughtered and roasted on Christmas Eve...
I talked about Serbian Yule log and the rituals surrounding its cutting, bringing into the house and burning in the heath in these posts

oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2019/01/badnja…
oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2017/12/first-…
And I talked about the Serbian Christmas roast in this post, which is about the sacrificial animals (boar, ram, bull) in Serbian tradition and their Indo-European root...

oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2018/09/sacrif…

Serbs were not the only people who had this triple animal sacrifice:
Read 25 tweets
Jan 5
Thread: Pleased to meet you. Wên Chung (Wen Zhong), The Minister of Thunder...At your service...
The Ministry of Thunder and Storms from Chinese mythology is a great illustration of how on one hand, the Chinese world view was different from everyone else's, and at the same time the same as everyone else's...
Different: Where other cultures saw all powerful thunder and rain hero gods who wielded absolute power over the clouds, thunder and lightning, the Chinese saw a well coordinated team of officials who worked together in harmony to provide a good service to gods and people...
Read 35 tweets
Jan 4
Thread: Lei Chên-tzŭ, AKA Leizhenzi AKA The Son of Thunder, was either a son of the Chinese Thunder god Lei Kung, or Lei King's alter ego...

And legends about him are full of animal and plant calendar markers related to the rain and thunderstorm season in China... Image
Believe or not, The Son of Thunder was born out of an an egg hatched by the heat of the thunder strike on the Swallows mountain...
And just in case anyone had any doubt that he was "official", the newborn Son of Thunder had an inscription on his palm that read: "Ministry of Thunder"...

Love this 🙂
Read 26 tweets
Dec 30, 2021
Thread: I want to thank @realgavinlee for posting this pict of a very interesting, 1-3 C. AD Eastern Han Empire, bronze mirror.

The mirror is decorated with repeated scenes of "a tiger following a goat" and "a dragon facing a monkey". Except these are not ordinary decorations...
These are animal calendar markers for

winter - "a tiger following a goat"
and
summer - "a dragon facing a monkey"

Tiger (winter) and Dragon (summer) are found as two opposing symbols in China since Neolithic Yangshao culture. I talked about this here:
oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2021/08/tiger-…
The reason for this kind of symbolic division of the calendar year is because of the climate in the North Eastern china: The climatic year is divided into cold, dry winter (tiger) and hot, wet summer (dragon)...Xian climate. But the climate for the whole Han area is very similar.
Read 19 tweets

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