mirrored file at http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ 
For complete access to all the files of this collection
	see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php 
==========================================================
Moyra was here 

KURGAN CULTURE 

Moyra was here

I'm pleased and astonished to say that this page has been linked to by
British television Channel 4 "Great Excavations". To find similar
pages, go [1]here. 

The Kurgan people were an Indo-European culture existing during the
fifth, fourth, and third millennia BC; they lived in northern Europe,
from Russia across Germany, and various authorities have mounted a
case for them being THE proto-Indo-European culture, from which all
Indo-European cultures descend. Other researchers think it likely that
later-day Kurgans were the "Sea People" who laid waste to the Holy
Land around 1200 BC - traveling south along the Mediterranean in
ships, with their women following them in wagons along the shore. The
word kurgan means barrow or grave in Slavic and Turkic; Kurgan culture
is characterized by pit-graves or barrows, a particular method of
burial. They are also called the Pit-grave people, or Barrow people. 

The earliest Kurgan sites are in the Ukraine and southern Russia, from
which they spread by about 2000 BC to Europe, crossing the Dnieper
River. Wherever Kurgan culture spread, it was marked by common
elements unlike those of the surrounding Bronze-Age cultures. These
are the characteristics of the Kurgan people: 

They practiced animal husbandry; in rubbish dumps at Kurgan hill-forts
and villages are found the bones of lots and lots of horses, many
cattle, and a few pigs, sheep and goats. Few bones of wild game (such
as deer) were found, so Kurgans were not a hunting culture.
Horse-heads carved in diorite were found, with harness-marks cut into
them to indicate bridles. 

Kurgan horse-herders may have been like the Scythians, who rode
geldings only, their main herds being kept wild under stallions, and
controlled through the mares which were hobbled near the settlements
and milked regularly. Both wild-horse bones and bones of domesticated
horses were found in Kurgan sites; modern bone-analysis specialists
can apparently tell the difference between the two types. 

Kurgan people typically lived on flat steppe grasslands, near wooded
areas and watercourses. There were mixed forests of oak, birch, fir,
beech, elder, elm, ash, aspen, apple, cherry and willow. There were
aurochs, elk, boar, wild horses, wolves, fox, beaver, squirrels,
badgers, hare and roe deer. Their ornaments were made from elk
antlers, cattle and sheep bones, and boar tusks; one of the most
common implements found at their settlements was a hammer-hoe made
from elk antler. They had bone awls, chisels, and polishers, and
wooden bows with flint-tipped arrows which were carried in skin
quivers, Scythian-style. They fished: in their villages were bone
harpoons, points, fishhooks, and also fish bones. They had wool and
flax. They didn't raise much grain (that is, they were not heavily
into farming) - only a few sickles were found in their villages,
though archeologists found grindstones, pestles, and saddle-querns;
also found was millet grain and melon seeds. One object which may have
been a ploughshare was discovered. Beneath one Kurgan barrow-mound, a
stretch of ground protected by the mound itself showed unmistakable
plough-furrows. 

They did use two- and four-wheeled wagons with big wheels of solid
wood, unspoked. Examples of these have been found, along with of clay
images: toy wagons, buried with royalty (maybe?). Also found were
copper figurines of yoked oxen in pairs, so oxen probably drew these
solid-wheel carts - which were of about the same proportions, wheel to
cartbed, as a child's toy cart with a low rim around it. 

Metal objects, early Kurgan period: copper awls plus tanged,
leaf-shaped copper knives or small daggers. Late Kurgan period:
daggers, awls, flat shaft-hole axes. The Kurgan people of the
northwest Caucasus mountain region (a center for metallurgy from way
WAY back) at about 3500 BC and afterward possessed gold and silver
vases, beads, and rings; also bull, goat and lion figurines; also
copper axes, adzes, daggers and knives. No bronze objects were found;
this means they either had no knowledge of alloying, or no access to
tin. The last is unlikely; tin was available to the Persians and
Greeks in later days, though the sites of the ancient tin mines are
not now known; the major known site was in England, of course. The
Kurgans would have panned their gold from rivers in the Caucasus
mountains: gold, copper and silver can be found raw in their pure
form, ready for use. 

The lion figurines at first sound odd; there are certainly no lions in
Europe or Asia today. But the Greeks also left artwork depicting
lions, and wrote of wild lions in the mountains of Macedonia and Asia
Minor, which came down into settled lands and preyed upon livestock.
So the Kurgan artisans in the Caucasus mountains, north of Asia Minor,
were probably also familiar with lions. Equally, there were wild bison
in Latvia and Russia right up to modern times. 

A note: the early Russian naturalist P. S. Pallas ("The Southern
Provinces of the Russian Empire", originally published 1812) remarks
that in the steppes of the lower Volga lived a giant land reptile
called the Coluber Jaculator lizard, which the Russians named the
courageous Sheltopufik; he wrote that it "is not venomous, is often
six feet long; it moves about with erect head and breast, and when
pursued defends itself by darting against the horse and his rider.
There are likewise two other species of reptiles, the Berus, and the
Halys, both of a poisonous nature." Large lizards like those of the
species mentioned by Pallas inhabited the fringe lands of Asia from
the Russian steppe all the way to the Persian Gulf. It is probably not
a coincidence that the earliest dragon legends come from the same
place! 

Kurgan pottery: this was very primitive, made from clay mixed with
crushed shells and sand. The pots were decorated with incision-marks
made by a triangular stick, with pit impressing (?), cord impressing
and impressing with a stick wound with cords.
_________________________________________________________________

The Kurgan settlements came in two types. The first is a simple
village, usually located on a river terrace; there would be ten to
twenty small, rectangular, semi-subterranean houses with pitched roofs
supported by thin wooden posts. There would be stone-walled hearths,
usually one hearth per house, but situated either indoors or just
outside. A very large village could have up to two hundred houses. 

The second type is a hill-fort placed on a steep river bank in a place
difficult of access - usually a promontory at the juncture of two
rivers. Note: both types of settlement had the advantage of being
defensible; so the Kurgan people had to put up with being raided by
their neighbors, and probably raiding them right back. That is, they
were well acquainted with war. The semi-subterranean houses sound like
the underground homes of the Armenians and Gobi desert peoples, which
existed right up to modern times; the Armenians lived underground by
reason of the cold of their winters, and the Gobi people by reason of
the intense heat of their summers. Also, in the Russian steppe as late
as 1900, the Cossacks lived in semi-subterranean houses. They did it
to escape the terrible storms and blizzards of the winter months,
taking underground with them all their livestock and fuel, and many a
disgusted British traveler attests to it. 

Some examples of excavated Kurgan sites: 

Hill-fort One (Miklajlovka, where the Podpil'na River meets the
Dnieper): a settlement guarded by massive stone walls 3 meters high,
built of about ten courses of large stones. It had rectangular houses
totally unlike the river village houses: built with timber walls on
massive stone foundations (the last up to one meter in height) and two
or more large interior rooms. In the last period of usage, the fort
became very large, girdled with huge walls and ditches, and held
houses with stone foundations and wattle-and-daub walls. 

Hill-fort Two (Skelja-Kamenolomnja, on promontory overlooking Dnieper
River): it was built on a site with cliffs on three sides, and a thick
stone wall on the slope approaching the fourth side. Within the
boundaries were rectangular houses on stone foundations. Also found
were workshops for fabricating polished stone tools, battle-axes and
mace-heads etc. 

Hill-fort Three (Liventsovka at Rostov on the Don): this stood on a
high hill surrounded by a massive stone wall, with ditches both inside
and outside the wall. There were square or circular hearths in the
houses. 

Hill-fort Four (Nagyarpad, southern Hungary): this housed an estimated
250 people, in fifty small houses standing in rows along a paved road
leading to the top of a steep hill. Two large wooden houses, probably
royal, stood on the terrace at the terminus of the road. 

These hill-forts are the prototypes for Greek, Illyrian, Celtic,
Baltic, Germanic etc castle-hills et al. Walls and citadels built from
massive stones are characteristic of the earliest historical times;
the proper term for such work is Cyclopean, from the ancient Greeks
who were convinced only giants could have built on such a scale!
_________________________________________________________________

Graves: the Kurgan people left rich treasure-graves containing gold,
silver and precious stones. These important graves are set aside in
separate cemeteries, and the bodies are committed in timber or stone
houses. One body of a man was dressed in a garment onto which gold
ornaments had been sewn: 68 lion images, 19 bulls and 38 rings. (This
sounds reminiscent of the Scythians who succeeded the Kurgans in
Russia; they too wore garments decorated all over with small gold
plaques, like beads but flat and stamped with tiny images.) Necklaces
of animal teeth were common. Sun images were also commonplace. Also
found were stag figurines with enormous antlers, ornamented with
concentric-circle motifs; these were probably linked to rock
engravings of stags with supernatural antlers. Also found were
horse-heads carved from stone, mounted on rods and used as scepters.
(Note: this last re scepters was the archeologist's interpretation;
the garment hung with metal and horse-wand sounds shamanistic to me.
In fact, wands surmounted by horse-heads are a well-known accouterment
of Mongolian shamans, who also make a point of sewing metal objects
and ribbons onto their ceremonial garments. The more metal the better
was their rationale, ie the heavier the garment, the more desirable it
was; as for the wands with horse-heads, modern shamans use them as
drum-sticks and also as "magic horses" for spirit journeys.) 

Braziers were found in Kurgan houses and grave-houses: these burned
charcoal and also cow's-dung. Ashes and charcoal were found in the
graves: fires had been lit in the braziers inside the grave-houses.
The charcoal deserves a special mention because while dung as fuel is
free and easy to gather (and cow-droppings, pastoral peoples say,
burns better than those of horses or sheep) charcoal has to be
specially prepared; but dung burns with an acrid fume and people who
live in homes heated by dung fires usually develop eye problems, while
charcoal burns with little or no smoke and those who enjoy a charcoal
fire are happier and healthier.

Red ochre was found in the graves . . . but then, red ochre and
Indo-European graves go together, from southern Palestine to the coast
of England. Also found were metal cauldrons . . . as per Scythian
graves, where the household goods were buried with the dead chief. The
graves of poor people contained only (usually) a ceramic pot, a flint
tool, or nothing. 

Also found in some graves were bones from the tails of sheep; the
rationale is that the tails of Asian fat-tailed sheep were buried with
the dead. The fat-tailed sheep themselves have been raised in middle
Asia since before history began. Herodotus mentions them, and they
were commonly kept by nomads from the Bedouin of north Africa right up
into Siberia. Unlike European breeds, these sheep grow enormous tails,
rather like the humps of camels; fat and marrowlike substances are
stored in their tails, just as with the humps of camels, and the sheep
themselves are better able to endure arid country. The tails
themselves used to be cut off and kept to provide cooking fat, for the
kitchens of Persian and Arabian women. And perhaps they still are to
this day! 

And since the harnesses of Kurgan horses were made from bone and
leather, the graves of poor Kurgans contained only flint tools, and
the only worked metal was sewn on people's clothing, one might
conclude these people were still well in the grip of the Stone Age. 

The mortuary houses themselves mimicked actual houses, being made of
timber or of stone slabs. Husbands were frequently buried with their
wives; sometimes an adult was buried with one or more children. Animal
bones were found jumbled in pits near the graves; Kurgan graves north
of the Black Sea usually included snake skeletons, sometimes up to ten
of them. (Note: Edith Durham in her book High Albania mentions that
many old graves in the Albanian mountains - one of the remotest places
on earth - were frequently marked with pre-Christian symbols; suns and
crescent moons combined with Christian crosses were common, and a
serpent image which the Albanians told her represented courage and
war, ie the snake was the mark of a hero!) Sometimes human bones were
found jumbled in with the animal bones in the adjoining offering-pits.
It was an Indo-European custom up to historic times for animals to be
sacrificed at the grave, their flesh eaten and their bones then
collected in skins and interred. 

These grave-houses were covered by earth or stone mounds, and then
topped with stone stelae. Each stela was carved with a crude human
shape, male, holding a mace or axe in one hand; one figure holds a
bow. In the graves of men, ornamental axes of antler, copper, stone,
or semiprecious stone were found. Some of these axes were made from
nephrite, serpentine, diorite, amber, or other materials obviously not
meant for utility. The amber came from the Baltic region, and since
mother-of-pearl and faience beads were also found in the graves, this
certainly points to a thriving trade between regions. 

The knucklebones of sheep were found in many graves (particularly the
graves of children) throughout European sites. Knucklebones are a
gaming device; in Indo-European languages there are correspondences
between the knucklebone or astrogalus and words for dice. Plural:
astragali. 

And how do you play knucklebones with the astragali of sheep? Well, we
have accounts of that too, as it happens. The Uzbeg nomads of southern
Russia used to call it the Ashik-game (after ashik, the word for the
anklebones of sheep) and played it after the manner of European
dicing, with four anklebones or astragali. The upper part of the bone
they called tava, the lower altchi, and the two sides were called
yantarap. The player took all four bones in the palm of his hand,
threw them up and got half of the stake wagered, if two tava or two
altchi turned up; or the whole stake, if all four tava or altchi
showed. 

. . . Incidentally, the Venus figurines of the late Stone Age are not
Kurgan. They pre-date Kurgan expansion into Anatolian, Aegean, and
Balkan cultures. Seated goddesses of clay, alabaster or marble also
appeared in the Ukraine and north Caucasus regions prior to the third
millennium BC; these were borrowed from southern cultures in the
Balkans and the Mediterranean. Equally, male and female figures carved
from stone (called Babas) were apparently scattered across the Russian
steppe, but they are attributed to the descendants of the Scythians,
not to prehistoric peoples. According to old Russian chronicles, a
famous statue named Slata Baba once stood near a river between settled
Russia and the Siberian wilderness; what happened to it is not now
known.
_________________________________________________________________

Some Notes on Proto-Indo-European Culture

History: 

Fourth millennia BC: Kurgan peoples had spread across the entire area
north of the Black Sea, across northern Europe, and probably east to
the natural barrier of the Ural Mountains. In the Caucasus area, they
enjoyed a primitive metal culture. 

2800 BC: wave of destruction in Anatolia, Aegean; Luwian speakers
probably invade and settle in Hatti. 

2500-2100 BC: wave of destruction in Syria and Palestine. Many cities
destroyed, probably by proto-Indo-European invaders. The walled town
at Bab edh-Dhra in Jordan, on the eastern shore of the Dead Sea, was
destroyed about 2300 BC; in its cemetery outside the city walls, tombs
predating the destruction were of the charnel-house type; graves
post-dating the destruction are pits covered by stone barrows,
containing single burials in a contracted position, with pottery and
grave-goods unlike those of the mass graves in the earlier period.

There is some evidence that the number five was important to
proto-Indo-Europeans; things were ranked in pentads or fives, just as
the ancient Persian cultures tended to put things in sixes.
_________________________________________________________________

Assorted Proto-Indo-European vocabulary. These are all theoretical
words, proto-words proposed by PIE linguists, and not actual
vocabulary. Included with them are some cognates descended from the
original PIE language. Please note that cognates prefixed with an *
indicate further proto-words, from languages now lost to history.

Trees known in the Indo-European homeland (along with the salmon): 

Birch, PIE bherHgo- ie Betulus (mainly B. alba). 

Scotch pine, pre-PIE pV-, PIE pytw-, pwk- ie Pinus sylventris 

Juniper/cedar (one word for the entire group) late PIE el-n-/el-w- 

Aspen/poplar, regional PIE asp-, ie Populus (mainly P. tremula) 

Willows, PIE wyt-, sVlyk-, possibly wrb- ie Salix - possibly drawing
distinction between ossiers and tree willows. 

Apple, northern abVl- and southern ma:lo- ie Malum, wild apples. 

Maple, PIE klen- and late PIE akVrno- possibly going back to early PIE
kL-n-/kVL-n- 

Alder, PIE Vlyso- ie Alnus, and possibly covering four varieties:
black, grey, bearded, and mountain alders. 

Hazel, western PIE kosVlo 

The nut, PIE ar- and western PIE knw-, the latter probably associated
with kosVlo- "hazelnut" whereas the former seemed to cover various nut
trees including walnuts and chestnuts. 

Elm, PIE wyg(h)- and western PIE lmo- 

Linden, PIE lyp-. 

Common ash, PIE os- 

Oak, PIE ayg-, perkw-, dorw- possibly distinguishing three species.
Perkw- and dorw- may also simply have meant "tree". 

Common hornbeam, PIE gro:b(h)- or gra:b(h)- 

Beech, PIE bha:go- 

Cherry, possibly early PIE Ker-n- ie the bird cherry, the cornus
cherry, etc. 

English yew, PIE tVkso- and early PIE eywo-. 

*** 

Brother: bhrater 

Horse-drunk; apparently referring to a ritual which includes a horse
plus drunkenness: ekwo-meydho. 

Horse-mead: ekwo-medu. 

Mead: medhu. 

Hundred: kmtom. Cognate: Greek hekaton. 

Excrement (child's word): kakka. 

Sheep: oewis. 

Third: trito. 

Wed, literally 'to lead home': wedh 

Water: wedor. Cognates: uje, udan, hudor, utur, voda, water. 

Fire: ghwer-. Cognates: gorn, jer, thermos, formus, zjarr. 

Daughter: dhugeter. 

Son: sunus. 

Nephew / grandson: nepots. 

Woman: gwena. Cognates: Sanscrit gana, gyne, genna, quean. 

Wasp: wobhsa. 

Speckled one: p(e)ik-sk, ie speckled fish. 

Salmon: loksos. 

To comb: pek- 

Cuckoo: kuku. Cognates: kokila, kokkyx, cuculus, kukuoti, kukusa,
cuach, cuckoo. 

Livestock, possessions: peku- 

Field: agras. Cognates: ajras, agros, ager, akrs. 

Pig: su-. Cognates swine, sus, su- 

Wild pig: (?possibly) porko- 

Horse: ekwos. Cognates a-su-wa, a-as-su-us-as-an-ni Hurrian
horse-trainer, Sanscrit asva, aspa, yuk, yakwe, i-qo, hippos, equus,
eku-, eoh, epo-, ech. Mare: Old Lithuanian asva. Old names based on
horse words: Asvacakra, Vistaspa, Hipparkhos, Philioppos, Eponpennus,
Eomaer. Asvins, horse brothers: the divine twins of Indic religion. 

PIE number series: oinos 1, duwo 2, treyes 3, kwetwores 4, penkwe 5,
sweks 6, sab 7, dekmt 10. 

Chariot. Kwekwlo. Cognates: ratha, rota, roth, ratas (wheel); also
Sumerian gigir, Semitic *galgal-, Kartvelian *grgar. 

To turn, to twist: kwel. 

To die: mer-. 

Bronze: ayes. Cognates ayas, aes, eir, ore. 

Red: reudh. 

Clothes: wes-. 

Belt: yos-. 

Boat: nau-. Cognates: naus, navis, nau. 

Sharp: ak. 

Hammer, stone, sky: akmon. This word is perplexing because the same
root yields three meanings. It refers to the folk belief that stone
axes / arrowheads are fallen thunderbolts; that is, when a farmer
turned up a flint point in his field or someone picked one up from the
road, they used to say these were what remained after lightning
struck. In Indo-European mythology, thunder is associated with
missiles, hammers; and also with wagon wheels which used to rumble
like thunder, hence one of the symbols of the Slavic thunder-god Perun
is a six-spoked wheel. 

Widow: widhewa-. 

Military organization ie 'warband': teuta-. Cognates: Persian toda
'mob', touto 'people', tuath, tauta, diota, tuzzi 

King: reg. Cognates Sanscrit raj, rex, rix, ri, rhesos. Some linguists
think this word may actually mean 'queen' and indicates a charismatic
leader, a 'shepherd of the people' and not a military leader or
warlord. 

Twin: yem-. 

Wild ox: (s)tauro. 

Master of the clan: weik-polis. 

Hundred: kmtom. Centum series of cognates: centum, cet, hekatom, hund,
kunt, kant, kante. Satem series: sata, satem, simtas. 

House, village, clan, tribe or settlement: w(e)ik-. Cognates:
(w)oikos, vicus, weihs, vis-. 

To bear: gher-. Cognates: ephere 'he bore', eber, abharat. 

Snake: netr. Cognates: natrix, nathis, naeddre ie adder. 

Wolf: wlkwos. Cognates: vrkas, vilkas, Iranian vehrka. Also Hyrcania,
the Land of Wolves; the nomadic tribes which inhabited this land were
called Hyrcanoi, the Wolves. 

To press, to strangle, to squeeze: dhau. A root word for various words
meaning wolf: Phrygian daoi, Illyrian dhaunos, Iranian-Saka dahae.
This may refer to the anecdotal belief of pastoral shepherds that the
wolf when it came after the sheep would seize them by the throat so
that they strangled and could make no sound as it dragged them away
from the rest of the flock. 

Mountain: gwer(e). Cognates: Sanscrit giris, deiros, gora. 

Earth, soil: g'hemel. Cognates Avestan zam, Lithuanian zeme, Lettish
zeme, Old Prussian same, semme, Old Slavic zemlja and Thracian zemelen
plus Semele, the earth goddess; the Lithuanian earth god Zameluks; the
Thracian Zalmoxis, who descended into the earth. 

Light, lightning: g'heib. 

Bellow, hum: suer. 

To shine: guer. 

Shining, luminous: bho-s. 

Beak of a bird: pleus. Cognates Thracian *pleisk 'pointed cap', pilos
'felt cap'. 

To separate: sqei-d. Cognate: Thracian *skistai, 'those who live
apart, celibates'. 

*** 

Campaign. Cognates: Mycenean rawaketa or lawagetas, Phrygian lawagtaei
'people under arms', Greek la(w)os. 

Moon. Cognates: mas, men, mensis, man, moon, menuo. 

Sun. Cognates: saule, suvar, sol, sauil, sauluze. 

Dawn. Cognates: ausra (diminutive ausrine), usas, cos, aurora, easter.

Hearth. Cognate: Russian gorn. 

Flock. Cognates: hairda, herd, Sanscrit sardha- 

Night. Cognates: nahts, nekut, Sanscrit nak, nyks, nate, nox,
in-nocht, naktis, nosti. 

Fear. Cognates: agis, akhos, akor. 

Cow. Cognates: Sanscrit gaus, bous, bum, guovs, ko, cow. 

Sow. Cognates: suwo, sus. 

Copper. Cognate: Sumerian urud. 

Yoke. Cognates: yugam, zygon, jugum, yoke. 

Sword. Cognates: asis, ensis. 

Axe. Cognates: ates-, adesa, -adhiti. 

Protector. Cognates: Sanscrit rajan-, Greek aregon. 

God. Cognates: devas, deus, dievas, dia, Old Norse plural tivar
'gods', tingre, etc. 

Fort. Cognates: Sanscrit pur, polis, pilis. Greek akropolis 'high
fort'. 

Pot, bowl. Cognates: caru, coire, hverr.
_________________________________________________________________

Indo-European proto-law (that is, ancient legal customs which were so
widely spread that they likely came from the Proto-Indo-Europeans
themselves): 

Usurpare: law of possession. "Possession is nine-tenths of the law"
the woman or tools used by a man are his. A woman who lives in a man's
house and whose use he enjoys, is his wife; to divorce him, she must
leave his usage for a set period of days. In Latin law, a woman after
acquiring a usucaption of one year (dwelling under a man's roof
continuously for a year) passed into her husband's family and ranked
there as a daughter. Thus, if she did not wish to pass into a new
family, she should stay away from him for three nights in every year. 

Usurpation, wolf-marriage, marriage by abduction. Ie the rape of the
Sabines. Virginem rapere, the Latin term for the ancient and legally
recognized custom of marriage by abduction. In Hindu law, demoniacal
marriage-rite (raksasa vivaha): 'the forcible abduction of a maiden
from her home, while she cries out and weeps, after her kinsmen have
been slain or wounded and their houses broken open, is called the
raksasa rite." - with technical legal term "outcry" as to a thief
caught in flagrante delicto. In Irish law, union of abduction, lanamus
foxail. In Hittite law, wolf-marriage: no action lies for murder
arising out of an attempted abduction, the situation being covered by
the cry "Zik-wa URBARRA-as kistat" 'you have become a wolf', as from
Hittite writings: "If someone abducts a woman and helpers go after
them, if 3 or 2 men die, there is no compensation; you have become a
wolf." 

Noxiam sarcire: if a slave commits a crime (burglary, for instance)
then his owner must either make restitution, or yield up the slave to
the injured party. 

Theft: here the distinction is between possessions in a man's
enclosure, and those same possessions discovered in another enclosure.
To catch the thief in the act, he must be in your enclosure or its
yard, not in the open field. If the thief was not caught in the act,
the injured party might enter the suspected thief's house and search
it for stolen goods; but to carry out this search, the searcher must
be naked or nearly so; he must carry a platter and a tether
symbolizing the stolen goods. Ritualized and solemn house-searches
carried out in this manner were attested to among the Greeks, the
Germanic peoples, and the Slavs. The Greek term for this act is
phorao, and the searcher was obliged to enter the house in question
either naked, or clad only in an undergarment. 

Surety: one man stood bond for another's future behavior.
_________________________________________________________________

Some miscellaneous PIE mythology, now so garbled by the passage of
time that it is difficult even to guess at the original meanings:

1. Horse mythology. Proto-Indo-European terms have been traced which
translate to "sacrifice of a hundred horses" (a specific word meaning
this) plus many words for horse. 

The Asvanedha, an ancient Indian ritual, the horse sacrifice: in the
spring, four priests acting under the aegis of the king (who is
offering up this sacrifice to the god of his warrior caste) select a
prize stallion; after rituals, this stallion is freed to wander for a
year, followed by four hundred warriors whose task it is to guard him,
ensure that his course is never interfered with, and keep him from
contact with mares. Various rituals are enacted through the seasons,
and when an entire year has passed, the stallion is brought home.
During the three day finale, the events include the stallion being
harnessed to pull the king's chariot, the sacrifice of a variety of
animals, and the smothering of the horse - after which the king's
favorite wife had to spend a night with the stallion, both woman and
horse being hidden behind a blanket. Come dawn, the stallion was
dismembered into three portions: one to the god of the warriors, one
to the priests' share, and one to the gods of artisans and farmers. 

The October Equus, the ancient Roman custom: on the ides of October, a
horse race is held. The right-hand horse of the winning team is
dispatched with a spear and then dismembered, again into three
portions for the three estates: warrior, priest, and farmer. 

In medieval Ireland, during the coronation of the one of the tribal
kings of Ulster, a mare was sacrificed and dismembered; the meat was
thrown into a cauldron and boiled into a broth, in which the king
bathes while eating the morsels of meat.

2. The perkunas goat: in an Iranian (?) ritual, the perkunas goat was
led before a sacrificial horse; goats were the messengers to the gods,
and the perkunas goat's role was to go before the horse, to announce
the horse's arrival. Both were sacrificed. 

The European snipe - scolopax gallingo - is called in German
'Himmelsgeiss' ie Heaven's ghost? - and in Lithuanian heaven's goat,
gods' goat, Perkunas goat; in Finnish it is called heaven's goat. Its
flight is said to foretell the storm. 

In PIE, 'perkunas' is thunder, the storm; hence various names of
Thunder gods, including Perkunas; also Thor's cart is drawn by two
goats. There is a great deal of evidence that the Thunder god was THE
king of the gods in Proto-Indo-European mythology. Examples: the
dominant Weather-god of the Hittites, Zeus the thunderer and Jove the
hurler of thunderbolts in Greek and Roman mythology; and in very early
Norse mythology, Thor was the first among the gods and Odin was
apparently merely the god of War, second in a triumvirate of Thunder,
War, and Freya the goddess of Love.
_________________________________________________________________

Two PIE myths:

1. Kingship in Heaven. Possibly a Persian myth or originating from the
southern Black Sea rather than PIE? 

Greek version: there are several generations of kings in heaven; Chaos
and Earth first rule, and then Earth gives birth to Kronos (her
youngest-born) who at his mother's behest, castrates his father with a
stone sickle and usurps the throne. Eventually Kronos marries and has
children, whom he swallows (to keep them from usurping his rule) until
his wife Rhea hides the youngest son Zeus, giving her husband a stone
wrapped in swaddling cloths to swallow. When Zeus grows up, he battles
his father and defeats him. Finally, Zeus fights and destroyed a
monstrous giant named Typhon. 

Version of the city of Byblos, roughly the same as the Greek. 

Hittite version: for many eras, sons fight their fathers and become
the kings of heaven. In the third such generation, the victorious son
Kumarbi pursues his father Anu, pulls him down and bites his loins -
thereby rendering him helpless. But because Kumarbi swallowed Anu's
manhood, Kumarbi gives birth to five godly children including the
Weather-God and the goddess Aranzahk (ie the river Tigris). Kumarbi
apparently then attempts to eat these children, but the Weather-God
defeats him and assumes the throne. After his defeat, Kumarbi has
intercourse with a rock, from which is born the stone-monster
Ullikummi who rises to avenge his father. The Weather-God defeats
Ullikummi by cutting him off at the feet with a sickle, severing his
connection with the earth. 

Iranian version: Jamshid, the king of the first generation is deposed
and sawn in half by the second king Zohak, who is a monster like
Typhon - with snakes growing from his shoulders. Zohak cannot have
children, but he has an insatiable desire to consume human beings.
Eventually Jamshid's grandson Feridun (raised in hiding, by shepherds
on the slopes of Mt Alberz - ie the Elbruz?) comes with a club to
battle and defeat his uncle - chaining Zohak to a rock on Mt Demawend
(location unknown) to die of exposure.

2. Second Myth: the heavenly twins and the daughter of the sun. 

The heavenly twins are rivals for the daughter of the sun. She is
stolen away and forced to labor beside the river; eventually they
rescue her, and both become her husbands; their horses are tethered
outside her house. 

The twins are associated with horses- owners of horses, skilled
horsemen, having white horses - they are saviors at sea, gods of
fertility and abundance and warfare, they are magic healers, they are
associated with swans. Sometimes they are two leaders chosen to lead a
colony away from a city plagued by overpopulation. Sometimes they
arrive by water just in time to lead a beleaguered army to victory. 

The girl "the Sun" is often their sister. Greek version: Caster,
Pollux, and Helen. The twins become their sister's suitors and then
her husbands. They rescue her, leading her home in a chariot that
crosses the sky; or in a boat sailing the sea. 

Sun maiden images; as they row to rescue her, she sinks until only her
golden crown is visible - laying a golden road across the waves. She
is forced to wash clothes on the shore, or seen on the seashore
washing her face, washing golden pitchers, washing white linen. In one
version she is a mortal woman who washes the clothes of the gods to
gain their favor. Or else she is depicted rising early and performing
household tasks, for tomorrow the Sons of God will arrive to marry
her. Sometimes the moon weeps because the Sun Maiden drowned, washing
golden pitchers by the seashore; but she did not actually die, for the
Sons of God rowed to her rescue.

Thread of story: 

The Divine Twins, sons of the Sky God / (who are associated with
horses) / Court the Sun Maiden / Who is their sister / She is promised
to them in marriage. 

But she is given to, or stolen by, another / Who can be associated
with the moon. 

The maiden is delivered to the mother of the abductor / She is
tormented, or forced to perform humiliating acts 

The maiden washes clothes by the sea / A pair of rescuers arrive / Who
are her betrothed and/or brothers / And who arrive by sea. 

The captive maiden casts the clothes into the sea / The tormenting
mother-in-law is punished by the rescuers / The abductor, however,
remains unpunished.

Latvian folk songs of the Sun Maiden 

(taken from several different versions):

I make a boat out of an apple tree, 

both ends are golden. 

God's sons, the oarsmen, 

take the Sun Maiden sailing.

The silver cocks are crowing 

At the banks of the golden stream; 

They are waking the Sons of God, 

Suitors of the Sun Maiden.

Whose grey steeds 

before the door of the Sun's house? 

They are the horses of the Son of God, 

the Sun Maiden's suitor.

While my mother was bringing me up, 

she promised me to God's Son; 

but when I grew up, She gave me not to him, 

She gave me to the Moon.

God's Sons and Sun Maiden(s) 

were celebrating a celestial wedding; 

The Moon as he was moving, 

exchanged the rings.

Today the Sun is moving 

More warmly than on other days; 

Today someone has taken the Sun Maiden 

From the Daugava to Germany.

The Sun shattered the Moon 

with a sharp sword 

because he stole the bride 

from the Morning Star.

The Sun Maiden beats the linen 

upon an island in the sea; 

a shirt of silver, a mallet of gold, 

a washboard of silver.

Arise early Sun Maiden 

scrub the linden table white 

tomorrow morning the Sons of God are coming 

to roll the golden apples.

The Sun went to play 

with the water in the sea; 

The Sun was throwing silk, 

the sea a piece of foam.

The Sun Maiden was wading in the sea; 

Only her crown was visible. 

Row your boat, O Sons of God, 

Rescue the Sun's soul.

The Moon leads home <ie weds> the Sun, 

in the first of spring. 

The Sun rose early, 

The Moon left her. 

The Moon alone wandered, 

With the Morning Star he fell in love. 

Perkunas <the Thunderstorm?> very angry, 

With his sword he cut him to pieces.
_________________________________________________________________

And finally, these three examples of Indo-European poetry from three
vastly different sources:

The Eggjum Stone, ploughed up by a Norwegian farmer near Eggjum in SW
Norway. Late 7^th or 8^th century AD, inscribed in Norse runes:

It has not been struck by the sun nor has the stone been carved with
(iron) sword. 

Neither a ... man (shall lay it) bare nor distressed nor stray men
(shall do so)! 

The man sprinkled it with the 'corpse-sea' (ie blood) 

smeared with it the oarlocks in the 'bore-tired' boat (jettisoned by
drilling) 

Who has come hither on it here unto the land of 'Goths' (ie men)? 

The fish swimming out of the 'stream-of-spear' (ie blood) 

The bird shrieking in the 'hail-of-lances' (ie battle) 

he died by a misdeed.

***

Tocharian love-poem 

(from the Indo-European settlements of the Gobi desert)

Earlier there was no one dearer to me than you, 

And later too there was none dearer. 

The love for you, the delight in you is breath together with life. 

This should not change for life. 

Thus I thought: with the one beloved will I live well 

Lifelong without deceit without pretense. 

The god Karman alone knew this my thought. 

Therefore, he caused dissension and tore from me the heart that
belonged to you. 

The joy I had in you, he took away from me.

***

From the Gathas, by Zarathustra

To what land shall I flee? Where bend my steps? 

I am thrust out from family and tribe; 

I have no favor from the village to which I belong, 

Nor from the wicked rulers of the country: 

How then, O Lord, shall I obtain thy favor? 

I know, O Wise One, which I am powerless: 

My cattle are few, and I have few men.
______________________________________________________________________

Credits 

Art For This Website Courtesy of Moyra: 

[2]MOYRA'S WEB JEWELS 

Last Updated on August 21, 2000 by [3]Lisa and Sylvia 

Return to [4]Asia Page 

Moyra was here 

References

1. http://www.channel4.com/nextstep/great%20excavations
2. http://www.mysticpc.com/jewels
3. mailto:Volk.t at RSLS.com
4. http://www.iras.ucalgary.ca/%7Evolk/sylvia/Asia.htm