Early script

This is a letter to the Rock-art Club that shows some of the essential features in script shown in rock carvings. Here the illustrations are included

Rock-art, ritual rock-carvings, calendar, Evenstorp. Ritual law

Letter to the rock art list [email protected]

I know that I have posted on Idaho before. Maybe I also in this repeat myself. But now I try to make a series of pedagogic letters. The first was about Totemism and the Idaho letter attacks preconceived ideas we all have. Now I have uploaded three pedagogic pictures about the motifs in rock carvings in many places of the world. For totemism see http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~catshaman/essays/0totemE.htm

When I began my research 25 years ago I discovered soon that if I want to know about ancient astronomy, calendar, myth and practical ritual I have to do the hard work myself. I decided that I call my discipline "ancient ideas" without any bias. In Sweden the discipline would have been under Religion Faculty until 1981. I think it is like setting the goat to be gardener. I have seen many frames limiting objective science from that faculty. In my essay Totemism I have touched that aspect a lot.

"Follow Hor" half-year suite from "Hut to Palm leaf" predynastic time Egypt. The crowd is supposed to follow the idol of fertile space-time.

I shall try to put it shortly here how civilisation began to accelerate 6000 years ago in the Old World. The simple model is the "suites" that make people follow the lead and organise their work. In those days nearly everyone was cultivators, cattlers or other labours used the nature as larder.

An organised society meant more food and secures food supply. And food on table is the core in all rituals in the past. In the big cultures Indus, Sumer, and Egypt we can clearly see that most of the rituals and symbolism was ready 3400 BC and we have indications that it reached also Scandinavia

In the picture "season" from later Egyptian symbolism we see the season suite which is connected to the asterism of the period. It is practical agriculture. In the middle we see Osiris sitting prepared for the journey to Underworld. He is the seed to be sown. Mostly they made a dummy of sand and straw and saw some seed following their ritual. The practical use was surely to check germination.
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The ritual began around February 1^st and at the head of the asterism Hydra / Watersnake that symbolises the womb/ waters of Underworld. Toth with ibis head was idol of the scribe and of the moon. That means they counted time after the moon in the season until autumn when Aton the evening sun took over. Toth stand at left with "what it should be in front of him. On the other side of Osiris we see Isis with the step on head "she steps down". Next is Nephtys with the beaker symbolising watering during season bout both these like Osiris have their stars/ asterisms in the sky. Last idol is surely fertilise we know from Sumerian symbolism
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When we see these exact drawing we respect them and we think of the advanced Egyptian culture so it should be intelligent. But when we see the same motifs drawn by hand and often as rapid sketches to put on the label "primitive" is easy. People everywhere and in every profession needed that calendar but not always the myths. Still it was good to get the World Order and the cosmology that was underlying knowledge. It is so advanced that our capitalist and many church people do not understand it because they are alienated from nature.
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We are lovers of rock art and we need the context and the underlying World Order if we want to understand the messages. It is to help if we know the general order, but we have also to know the local context. We should not put amounts of spiritualism and animism to our pretending if we want to be able to pretend what was the rational purpose.

Backa Bohuslen Sweden

Next example is the loaded rock-carvings from Backa Bohuslen near Norway. It is mixed single symbols a trial in connecting symbols/ figures to show which ones belongs to each other. In right lower corner we recognised a "Sitting" we know from last millennium and from figurines maybe of Phoenician origin since their idol Tinia was normally sitting. The big wheel with six spokes symbolises the moon year and the four spoked the sun year. Double lines mean normally the second/ the other
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Above the small boat under the big boat we see the "mourning mother" we normally associate to the Isis type symbolising harvest. The big ship with autumn birds as cargo and the running deer is maybe the winter half of the year. Normally they planned only the season and that is why we see so many symbols at that part. Above the smaller ships there are trials in creating script in the Hittitian style.
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Here I show that when we begin with the easy ones we get some sentences that help us in further analyses. At the same time we see the rational thinking. In very many rock-carvings we see calendar symbols and icons for asterism that could symbolise the work during respective period. We see no star symbols in Scandinavian rock-carvings. However since we can associate to Sumer and Egypt we can tell that many of the role models were asterism or had an incarnation in the sky.
Earlier researchers have missed the importance of the ritual astronomy and of practical agriculture of course. The Pharaohs started the season. If I remember it right the Japanese /Chinese emperor did until beginning of 20^th century. Instead they have made a mystery of the rational symbolism.

The ritual laws of Evenstorp are the most pedagogic in the world ... see picture Evenstorp. We see the moon counting as 12 + guys in a row at the bottom. We see three connected circles and that associates to the trisected moon year we know from Indus culture. The dog animal connects us to the starry sky and Ramadan. The two guys with crescents as head are maybe the phase of the moon and tell about fortnights.
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They begin the drawing of the season at Per-Zeus the Engender. The Water Snake begins with the encircled dot, footprint, mating and the sowing hand and there are picks too The snake runs to the Urn and the harvesting sickle. In the middle we see the Big Man instructing the cultivating lady and here suite. Even in this case we get some meaning when we get the context.

Evenstorp is my best-explored object since there is much of archaeology and remains. It could be dated to the time of wedge toms/ slab cists: The rock-carvings at Haugsbyn are of the same age but a little different with the Law of Brotherhood that is similar to the Sumerians making a treaty between cultivators and cattlers. There we also see signs of searching metals.
For more about the age of wedge tombs and copper prospecting see:
http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~catshaman/02slabc.htm
http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~catshaman/02evenst/02followma.htm
http://freepages.history.rootsweb.com/~catshaman/02evenst/02followma2.htm