Bronze Age male dresses 3

Kaisa Warg's recipe, rock carvings, two-wheel chariot, double-axe, crescent moon, boat-axe, copper tools, dagger, slab cist, gable hole, ritual axe, Isis-dagger, female goddess, educating system, horse-ship, Ekenberg,

"Take what you have" is the Kajsa Warg recipe and we see it also in cultural development. In Kazakhstan they tried the camel and hard to tell what animal the Saharans tried on that drawing. In some Nordic rock carvings we see an elk as drat animal and hard to tell if they picture virtual reality or trial for a wild ride.

When we are making comparisons with the South and see all the import to think we got all our Nordic culture from the South is easy. But that is as long as we so not see the proportions of import in the time span and all that was developed up to local environment and possibilities. Culture is a product of local invention and adapting ideas from other places. In the end culture is as different in North and South as the languages since word gives names to the cultural elements.

Rock carvings with the two-wheeled chariots are found far in Siberia. That does not mean that Hittitians conquered that vast land. The theories about Indo-Europeans and migrations have dominated analysis of normal life where new culture flow with trade, migration, mission and jumping cultural information. Herodotos tells about how gifts from the northmost countries were sent from tribe to tribe. It was a natural mean of getting them to the Temple of Artemis at Delos.

That means people were engaged as tribes and not as individual traders. They think ancient cultures were lead by priesthood and not by rulers even in "high" cultures like the Minoan. We see it as late as the Nordic Golden Age around Great Migration that folklands seems to have been lead by priesthood taken from the nobility with the neckring or oath ring as symbol. Nobility was like islands in peasants' land.

We cannot know if the Kivik tomb from c. 1400 BC was made for a trader or a priest. We can only state that we see cultural images that are similar to those we know from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Levant, Anatolia, Aegean world but also clear Nordic elements like the ritual axes. Then we can only speculate in the spin-off effects of this trade of culture.

Beginning from the beginning we can follow small variations like changing fashion in ritual artefacts and ritual symbolism from c. 4000 BC. The double-axe is the first widely spread ritual attribute. We have to think it all who and haw the axe was used and if they wore special dresses for the ritual events. The dolmens and later the passage graves seem to indicate some "go beneath" ritual forecasting sowing and the season

Sumerian songs and rituals from third millennium help us since they sing about the double axe. Since we know that Inanna was the new moon we can imagine that the blades of the double axe symbolise new moon and vane moon perhaps. In the song about "Birth of the sickle" in the Nart-epos from Caucasus the crescent moon seems to be model.

To see the crescent moon as model for the boat-axe is not immediately that easy. But when we look at a bigger collection we see that some of them are near the crescent shape of a blade from the double axe. They have suggested that the boat axe to be meant for battle. Hard to see that they needed a boat shape for that purpose. Some of them are big and not good in battle.

Another thing is that when we look closely at our rock carvings we see the shape as mean for going beneath. Another thing is that many of them are made locally and why take so much time for only a battle-axe. Seems more likely that they wanted to follow some ritual and thought that they needed the right ritual symbol.

Some of them have seams and seems to copy copper axes. The Scandinavian finds of copper tools are dated to before 3300 BC so maybe the supply of copper to Scandinavia ended. After follow a period around 1000 years with no copper find. Instead they copied or used some other shapes for their ritual axes. The consistence of ritual we see in the grinding ritual of chisels, which lasted for around 1000 years in some places.

In the Alps the ritual weapon / tool was instead the dagger and we see it in the rock carvings with a seam. There we have some evidence that the dagger and wedge shape was symbol for the ritual. For instance one burial place is made in that shape at a place where they were metallurgists

Next great ritual symbol in Scandinavia is the dagger that is found in slab cists together with sickles and some amulet. They think the fashion was founded in France but it could be Caucasus as well. At least the cist with gable hole seems to come from there and the same types of holes are found in the Alp-region.

Lately I found a picture from Gobustan Azerbadjan with "Nordic" rock carvings of ships in the same fashion as for instance the Herrestrup and Engelstrup stones at Zealand. The boat shape corresponds even to the rock carvings at Evenstorp on Dal and maybe even a few boats at Haugsbyn. These could be dated to 2300 - 2000 BC.

My first theory is that Nordic traders went via Volga to the Caspian and got new ideas to the slab cists with gable hole. They also learned to work in stone that way. At the same time as they made their notes on rocks that they have been there. The Nordic script is so special that it must be source to ships on rocks in Caucasus since they are few there. The script's style and motifs are simply mostly different compared to Scandinavian style.

Around the same time began the import of bronze from Hungary, Transylvania and the so-called Unetice culture.

With bronze trade and developing metallurgy in Scandinavia we got the special ritual axe I name "balta". They simply split the double axe in two. In the Minoan culture we see four axes pointing at the cardinal directions and the "wanax" = double axe was symbol of ritual leadership. In Scandinavian symbolism they are usually interested only in the season of growth. In a few cases we see four axes and later we see pair of axes and pairs of lures at the ritual ship.

The dagger was ritual symbol in the Alps and seems to have reached Scandinavia together with the slab cist around 2300 BC. Another source for the slab cist was maybe the Caucasian trade. That gave us the cist with gable hole spread mostly 70% in West Gautland and nearly the rest in Smaaland and a few here on Dal.

In the Alps we see a variant of the Isismyth and that is why I call it the Isis-dagger that was also made as pure ritual symbol. The flint dagger together with an amulet and sickles are the ritual item during the slab cist period. Maybe the "yearman" or leader of season an ritual wore a dagger. Next step was the short sword and they were made also in miniature or like a ritual weapon. Soon it became the male symbol and in rock carvings we see most of the figures with a sword.

Our finds from Sumerian and Scandinavian culture show that Inanna, the rain and new moon was the primary goddess in Ritual Age or 4000 to 2000 BC. Mostly it is difficult to know for sure if the figures on the rocks mirror reality or myth at the time … or maybe they just tell about what they have seen abroad. But during Bronze Age the male dominate the agenda.

In the Akkadian culture around 2300 BC we see that the individual man or "Big Man" become equal with the gods / idols and step by step the female goddess fade away in art. But the female goddess was naturally popular among women as we can learn from the Bible … still the catholic church has Maria and many female saints are just substitutes for the older female idols. In Scandinavia the ritual rule continued until around 600 AD if wee see the neckring as ritual symbol.

When we see African boys with a stick we maybe think they are primitive. Maybe it is the first sign of malehood before they are allowed to carry spears. They have to learn to be with and to hunt the big animals and they need some training. We must "feel in" their entire environment before we think anything. Three to four spears in hand are the normal in rock carvings that may be 25000 years old in Africa and Australia. Still the Zulu brothers hunt in the same way using each their cast spears.

In our society we do not care when the boys bring chains, karate pins, knifes and in worst case pistols to the school. The problem of "mobbing" is too frequent and the boys bring their armours to oppose their enemies. We let the children solve one of the most difficult problems on earth. How stick together in peace. And this increases with pressure on the children and general stress in society. Grown people do not manage that problem either.

Maybe we should look at those ancient teaching and educating system and see that they fostered the children with growth. The initiating ritual was the entrance to the adult world but with more learning to come. Parents and society took their responsibility seriously. As Hilary Clinton once said, "It takes the hole society to foster a child" … nowadays we hear often that when a child do something bad it is the children's fault. We should blame the adults for not talking care and prepare them for life.

It is often difficult to look through rituals and customs to see the rational thoughts behind it all. The first main purpose is to get food on table. Next to make the peace so people can live together. The demand for rules increases with population. Naturally the local environment is an important aspect. The rituals were means for shaping the life and giving a plan for the year.

If we look at our time we have of course rituals but not for the entire society except national feasts and that we have some holidays in common. The religious follows some ritual but it has grown virtual since originally it was created to follow the nature. Now people live apart from nature in general.

The rosette on top we can see in the palace of Knossos Crete even today. The horse-ship type is from the Aegean sphere. But ships with horse stem we find even in Assyrian reliefs showing timber freight from Lebanon. The big sword they date to later than the Vitlycke sword dated c. 1250 BC. These plus the Halstatt type from 800 - 400 BC could easily be dated while others are without special features.

Here we see several figures without.arms and for sure they are not aggressive. But who know what a god looks like? The tricky thing is to find out what kind of idea they stand for.

Some of the figures could be read as merged symbols and script. In this cased they are made different so we get one without arms, the second with goat horns and the third with a snake. The special features are the legs with shinguards we know from the Aegean sphere. That was naturally for protection at war.

In Danish finds there is one shaving knife and engraved Big Girl with shinguards in a ship with two rowing men. Naturally we think of the later known valkyria and the goddess of war. She also wears short tunic.

The Age of Oxen ended around 1300 BC, but maybe in some cultures they continued with Taurus, the wild bull represented by the asterism Kaitos. Anyhow this shows that the horned idol is not only a feature of Scandinavia. On some rock carvings it is difficult to see if the horns are meant to be short goathorns in fact. Still during the last millennium BC we see many figures with horns on our rocks.

Maybe they wanted that the horns should indicate that these were idols and not male beings. Many of the figures are furnished with bird heads. In the Mycenean culture we see a lot of idols especially in gold works without heads. As said, Who knows what a god / goddess looks like?

We see that this is not figurative art. Some would maybe say they are primitive, but not compared with many Egyptian and Sumerian odd figures. The second from right interests me since we have find in Northern Scandinavia of the same type. Some scientists tell me that it is a "shaman". I am not so sure and the headgear looks like that of the Hittitian weathergod.

The shape of the lures dates this. The calendar symbols of spring are on the Greek type votive ship. There is the twig, the cupmark and a little spruce tree that could be meant as the twigs. We see the twig or little tree at the Akkadian seal in part 1 and it symbolise "growing". The cup mark symbolised "going beneath".

The tree is more difficult and a kind of enigma. On the big Lauketorp rock carvings there is a big spruce on the first ship of season. Maybe it should read "gran" that is the Nordic name for spruce but in Celtic Mac Grane means the sun.

When we look at clothes, accessories and attributes it is often hard to tell to which world they belong. The general use of the rocks seems to have been as laws of society. But a wider definition would be the message board of the local tribe. Anyhow we see the different cultural items and can seek for similar in south and get an idea of cultural exchange. We cannot prove any practical use at the time without evidence.

The find of Ötzi in the Alps helps us very much since it gives us a full picture of a full outfit of the time. He was furnished for a long work and with bow, axe, knife and medicine that was normal for a man living on what nature gives. Settled people do not need to have more than the tools they use at the moment. Idols usually have some attribute that tell us what they stand for if no other sign it is hard to identify them.