Solar Jewelry - Mary Cahill

"Here Comes the Sun" is a short article by Mary Cahill in the Spring 2015 Archaeology Ireland

Many items manufactured by Beakers, whether it was houses, jet buttons, boar's tusks or pottery, in some way incorporate explicit or metaphoric associations with solar religion.  This article looks at some of those associations found in Beaker gold.

One very plausible possibility is that lunulae represent solar boats, which may represent the moon as well.  The Brone Age Nebra sky disk from Saxony-Anhalt is one of several examples showing a solar boat transitioning across the sky.

Nebra Sky Disk with Solar Boat (Unetice Culture)

Solar crosses are prominent in Beaker gold.  They also are found in various forms of beaker pottery in several regions.  Considering the bottom of bell beakers is this quote from Kristiansen:

"...Kristian Kristiansen (2011, 153) has remarked that, when the cups are raised to the
mouth, the sun would be seen to rise metaphorically as the image became visible."

This is especially meaningful when considering the content of the beaker.  I've made several posts concerning the discovery of Hyoscyamus niger (the herb of Apollo Helios) in a Ciempozuelos beer beaker, also found with regularity throughout Bronze Age Europe.

Solar crosses, probably sewn to clothing.

Continuing with Greek mythology as a proxy, it's possible to further unpack the metaphoric meanings of certain grave items.  For example, Selena Artemis (the moon) is, like her sun god brother, uniquely associated with archery.  Her bow was symbolic of the moon and also being the huntress, associated with wild boars (presumably due to the crescent tusks).

The similarity in decoration of Central European boar's tusk pendants and Atlantic lunulae is quite evident.  However, the development of lunulae from boar's tusks might be demonstrated in Chalcolithic Portugal as well.  (Valera, 2010 another interesting paper)

One passing comment about the solar crosses.  In this article, Cahill suggests that the cross represents the halo of the sun (very plausible or most plausible)  Another possibility that may be also true is that the four spoke wheel had become common enough to become known by this time in Europe.  This is important because by the Iron Age the chariot becomes the vehicle of solar movement in many religions.

More on jewelry to come...

Archaeology Ireland, Spring 2015 issue [here]

Cerveza For Your Ciempozuelos

It's likely beakers were used for alcohol, probably barely beer, but also meads, nogs and other cereal beers.  The evidence isn't overwhelming for all of Europe, but it leads that direction.  At least in Northern Spain, there seems to be a fairly good association with alcohol and beakers.  This thesis by Vaca Alonso examines the earliest alcohols from the Early Neolithic through the Bronze Age in Northern Spain.

La Sima by Luis Pascual Repiso, Aratikos Arqueólogos S. L.

She points out that alcohol beverages have likely been in Europe since the Early Neolithic.  Various evidences from Cardial to Grooved Ware point that direction.  Her conclusion is that beer takes on a new meaning with the ideology and idealism of Bell Beaker Culture.

To go off tangent here...

One thing not too surprising is the presence of henbane in some of the Meseta beakers.  In fact, before beer was hopped, probably all beer gruits, including those of the Christian era, were mildly psychoactive.  Henebane was probably one of many different additives used for beer gruit.

European purity laws had tinkered with regulating beer ingredients since the eleventh century, but it was the Protestant Reformation that fueled the anti-gruit lobby (see here) and this was imposed by various duchies during the Holy Roman Empire, the most famous known as the Reinheitsgebot.

The purity laws had a complex mix of cronyism and politics, but it appears that Protestants were more interested in lowering the hotness of beer, whose additives multiplied alcohol's unchaste behaviors and chemical dependence.  Hops, it was known, made the drinker sedated, relaxed, and the estrogenic compounds decreased libido or increase erectile dysfunction.  So hops it came to be.

Henbane, the Witch's plant. [USDA Forrest Service]

I've speculated that all of the iconography and linguistic terminology associated with witchcraft has its origins in brewing [here].  Henbane, which seems to have been a common additive to early gruit, was in ancient times associated with the god Apollos Helios* (god of sunlight), brother to Selene Artemis (goddess of the moon).  I've commented on these associations [here] and also the possibility that beaker decoration (corded, acacia, herringbone) corresponds to the principle gruit or bittering ingredient (cannabis, acacia, henbane, etc).

The linguistic etymology for henbane and hemp similarly emerge from PIE bhongo or soma1, generally attributed to the sun god who rides at daybreak.  Because PIE does not appear to distinguish from various psychoactives, it's possible multiple drugs were lumped into a single category.

A possible etymology of English hene-bane or heng-belle may also be found in Old High German as constructed by Siebs as the German god, Henno Wotan, aka the Roman sun-god Mercury or Greek Apollo. (Liberman, 2008)  It's interesting to note that the etymology associates the various sun gods + death (aka hene) for people who were buried facing the sunrise (regardless if it was hyoscyamus niger or not)  But it's also interesting to note that both PtG hene and pech are associated with black resins.

A long list of mood altering additives were originally put in alcoholic beverages, especially beer.  I'm very interested in seeing a more complete chemical analysis from beaker pottery and dental plaque.  I think the decoration of European pottery hints at some of those substances.

La cerveza en la prehistoria reciente: contextos de producción y consumo en la Península Ibérica, Alicia Vaca Alonso, Universidad de Valledoloid, 2014 [Link]

More:

(1) Flattery & Swartz on Soma [here]
*In fact, the Greek word, Herba Apollinaris, is 'the herb of Apollo'

Resurrection in Beaker Religion?

I continue to pick away at the Valera, Evangelista, Castanheira paper on zoomorphic figurines of Iberia's Early Chalcolithic.  It had come out months ago, but was not accessible till recently.

Although the following tradition straddles pre- and early Beaker culture, so many cultural elements of this region are carried forward into Europe that perhaps this is one early manifestation of a wider belief system (maybe not rabbit iconography per se).

These little grave rabbits are sometimes found with the dead in parts Western Iberia. The one above is from Perdigos(?), but they also were abundant in Zambujal as well. Rabbits appear to have a special, symbolic meaning as a grave offering.

Reading the Valera paper, the symbolic value of these rabbits is something that seems to stand out among the figurines.  The authors' discussion on these items provides some fascinating insight:

And within this broad sense related to an idea of reproduction we may look at the double lagomorphs as if sprouting from a common base or multiplying, suggesting that this representation supports the main idea behind these objects: renewal. Expressing and acting over the capability of regeneration, these objects (most of them pendants) may have been used as amulets, revealing an ability to act in transforming reality. Although arguing for a different meaning, by associating underground movements of rabbits to the return to the earth expressed by funerary monuments, the proposal of Thomas and Waterman (2013) follows the same general view of rabbit figurines as metaphors.

Easter Egg Hunting, An American Variation of the Tradition

Maybe it is possible to see some parallels in pre-Christian Europe.  The rabbit was in ancient times associated with Germanic, pre-Christian Easter whose symbolism was adopted for expressing Christian concepts.  Its ancient meaning allowed the rabbit to represent the burial and resurrection of Christ.  Other Easter icons such as the Easter egg and the lamb were re-used to represent rebirth and the innocent sacrifice. All of these things are metaphors for the central message of Christianity.

In old Anglo-Saxon, Eōstre means to 'face-east' which is derived from Proto-Indo-European austrōn 'rising sun', being the domain of the PIE goddess, H2eus(os).  This goddess, Eos or Aus (the dawn or morning star) was sister to Helios (the sun) and Selene (the moon), to use the Greek names.  In Germanic lands, she was the fiery red-head associated with resurrection, bunnies, Easter eggs and the vernal equinox.

Typical East-facing Beaker at Shrewton, Wiltshire

Knowing the exact meaning of the rabbits in the Iberian Chalcolithic is impossible to know for sure, but it is interesting to know that Beaker burials almost always face the rising sun.*  Additional materials may suggest respects to this heavenly trio: Eos, Helios and Selene.

We know that the most archaeologically visible aspects of Beaker material culture were drinking beakers with solar crosses, amber, gold badges and pinheads with solar crosses, lunulae of various forms, and solar calendars.  The resurrection goddess of the vernal equinox would have been extremely important to those who adorned all of their equipment with solar and lunar depictions. Theoretically, the vernal equinox (in Ēostre's month of April*) would be the holiest day in Beaker religion based on the materials they left behind.  It would also herald the first month of the calendar year (the dawn of a new year) as was common in ancient Iran and Northern India.

(* Update.  Actually, if their calendar was strictly solar, then the vernal equinox might start the month before Easter/April.  The Corded Ware calendar may have been Zodiac based looking at their burial orientation, so it its case it may have oscillated between March and April.  On the other hand, it's possible to make a case that April had been the first month in early Near Eastern religion where the similar Astarte was worshipped.  I realize this can become circular reasoning)

Items excavated from Zambujal

It doesn't appear that rabbit figurines spread to other parts of Europe, but a matured Beaker package does.  One included item that might also have had a symbolic meaning was the beer beaker that accompanied the dead.  In Ancient Egypt beer was associated with the goddess of childbirth and in Mesopotamia the goddess of procreation.

There has also been some discussion about Beaker idealism where men, women and children are buried in their ideal forms.  Young boys have little weapons, young girls are buried with little pots. This idealism may point to an underlying moral and metaphysical worldview.

Concerning idealism in death, Harry Fokkens offers some ideas on idealism in life and death; the following slide stands out in my mind.  It's hard to know if they believed they would experience bodily resurrection as they Egyptians did.  It does appear that they believed they were leaving a corrupt world and being reborn in a idealic world.

Harry Fokkens (burial of the ideal man)

*(It would be interesting to know if the slight variation in body orientation , ENE, due East and ESE, conform to the season in which Beakers died.  For example, does the palynological record jive with sun up/body orientation for that latitude?  Do winter deaths align with sun up, etc?)

ZOOMORPHIC FIGURINES AND THE PROBLEM OF HUMAN-ANIMAL RELATIONSHIPIN THE NEOLI-THIC AND CHALCOLITHIC SOUTHWEST IBERIA Valera, António Carlos, Lucy Shaw Evangelista, and Patrícia Castanheira. 2014 [Link]