Back in a Jiff

Had some priorities pop up these last two weeks.  Should be back in a day or two with some new posts.

-BBB

Veiling the Dead? - Part II (Little Red Riding Hood)

In part one of Veiling the Dead, the central question was whether there is a meaning to the red veil burials of the Argaric Culture of Spain or the Djumbulak kum burials of the Taklamakan Desert.  For that matter, how about all red-shrouded burials since the Paleolithic?  Is it part of something bigger?

Let's go down another avenue using an ancient European story-with-a-twist found in Charles Perrault's "Le Petit Chaperon Rouge" or the Grimm brother's reconstruction of "Little Red Riding Hood".  The story is theorized to be about two thousand years old by (Tehrani, 2013) and has many widespread variations emanating from the Northern Middle East in his view (keep that in mind).

Little Red Riding Hood (Carl Larsson, 1881)

Interpretations of this story are all over the place, usually involving fruity Freudian or boring feminist constructs.  A compelling case could be made, however, that this folk story is fundamentally concerned with a question of superstition, specifically the one discussed in Part 1.

The maiden's red cloak and the presence of an old woman are important clues to the interpretation of this story, where the innocent girl attracts the attention of a wolf while picking flowers in the forest, despite having a red cloak and despite the oversight of an old woman who cares for her.  In many versions, it has a bad outcome.

The maiden is devoured along with the old woman, who I would interpret as an 'Elder mother' of folklore, the protective elder tree being strongly associated with red wool dye.  Regardless of whether the maiden and the old woman die, usually, many versions end with some sort of revenge on the wolf (significant in Elder folklore).

In the Grimm reconstruction it is interesting that the elder lady has already been eaten and, in a horrific twist, the wolf assumes the identity of the elder woman, who should be the guardian of the girl, regardless of whether she has a supernatural identity.  To the disguised wolf the maiden comments "what big eyes you have", to which the wolf responds "the better to see you with".

My interpretation is that it appears to be a religious lesson for a young person of the early Christian Age.  The Tehrani (2013) time frame and his proposed geographical origin is significant in this regard.

The moral of the story warns: 'Trinkets, idols, spells and fairies won't protect you from the cold eyes watching from Hell.  This girl was certainly not invisible in the forest meadows.  Little Red Riding Hood was eaten by a monster wearing the clothing of her dead eldermother.'  The story chastises the helplessness of dumb idols like Dagon-before-the-Ark or the contrast between Moses and the impotent Egyptian court magicians.

Within the context of Christianity spreading in the late Roman period, it is perhaps a more direct warning for marriage-age girls to adopt and maintain Christian wedding rites instead of pagan ones.  Quite coincidentally, it is around this time that blue wedding dresses (associated with the Virgin Mary) came in to vogue in the West.

Fleury Francois Richard (1820)

In summary, this bed-time fairy tale is opposed to the traditions you see in Part 1 as far as I read it.
Part 3 I'll try and close the loop by looking at more prehistoric burials.




"The Evil Eye" Alan Dundes, 1981 [Link]

"The Evil Eye, Thanatology, and Other Essays" Roswell Park, 1911

"Beware of the Evil Eye, Volume 1" John Elliot, 2015 [Link]

"Why is Ochre Found in Some Graves"  National Museum of Denmark

Thankerton Man

The young guy looks like a slacker.

Thankerton Man, Dundee University

I missed this reconstruction of an early Scottish Beaker as reported by the BBC in 2015.  He was about 5-11" or 180cm and buried in a stone cist. (see also)  If is cist #2 (GU-1117), then he is described as an unusually tall adolescent young man.

Caroline Erolin, quoted by the BBC, said: "Once we built the basic shape of his face we then looked at historical data to get a better idea of how a man would have looked at that time. For instance, we know they had the ability to shave."

Thankerton Man, Dundee University

I believe the carbon dates broadcast by news outlets (2460-2140 b.c.) are calibrated dates for the same GU-1117 in the Canmore database and referenced in a paper by Allison Sheridan, "Scottish Beaker dates: the good, the bad and the ugly".  In other words, he'd be among the earliest British Beakers.  Also, the right side of page 96 will give you something to anticipate as more Beaker and CW genomes are revealed (I'm personally curious of how 'Eastern' the Eastern Scottish Beakers will be and how this is reflected in modern Scots).  

See also the 3d "Thankerton Man" digital reconstruction via Biggar Museum.
 

Global Cultures (Kiel in 2017)

Mental rolodex [flier]

Last Minute Review of 2016

In a few weeks 2016 will be a distant memory because some spectacular papers are about to parachute in.

Here's a few things that were memorable.

From the "Beakers & Bodies Project" (British Archaeology, 2017)

1.  One of the best forensic reconstructions of an ancient person was brought to life:  "Ava of the Highlands" 

2.  There was the release of a paper "The Beaker People Project" that gave some support to the idea that flatheads could have been a product of infant rearing practices.

My view for a long while has been that flattened occiputs are enticingly a tell-tale sign of infant cradleboard use, most common in North Asia.  That, in combination with a strong genetic disposition for brachycephaly, made for some strange new head shapes in the Beaker period.   (Being Tall)

Discussed this a little further here VanderWaals, 1984

3.  Very recently there was a 'Neolithic Eyebrow' raising paper from Christina Roth, 2016.  I suspect this is part of a drip from a bigger paper, but in any case the Mesetan Beakerfolk clearly have unexpected maternal profiles that are not native to the plateau lands of Iberia.

Roth's paper agrees to some degree with Brotherton et al, 2013 in that Iberia has the kind of components that later appear elsewhere in Europe, while the reverse could also be true in the Mesetas and the Tagus estuary.  Some sort of reflux in one direction or the other seems likely.

On the other hand, kept in mind Hervella et al, 2015 who suggested that the dominant Beaker maternal profiles (H + V) were largely a contribution from a later Neolithic influx (relatively speaking) from Anatolia which also began to expand with the Beakers.

4.  Ancient Canary Islander DNA introduces some intriguing possibilities.   The bottom line is that R1b owes much less to the mission period than expected.  It could predate Berbers.  It's probably not Roman either.

The most backwards, isolated, hayseed hicks of the Canary Islands tested from a millennium ago are also the most Atlantic-like.

5.  Beer can literally be brought back from the dead.  [here].  This is more than analyzing ingredients and reproducing a beverage; it's actually reanimating surviving yeast (gives beer most of its unique character).

If beakers meant for drinking were periodically waterproofed with beeswax, then it's possible that yeast migrated into the liner and survived the harsher processes of decomposition.  Reproducing those yeast cells and then reusing (by the right hands, Alex McGovern?) could tell us volumes about the stages, temperatures and conditions in which that particular beer was made and stored (even if it was a relatively wild and uncontrolled yeast).

That would tell us if there was a radical difference in alcohol content in the funeral beakers of children, women and men.  Also, I suspect Neolithic beer was fermented in 1/4 oak log barrels (which is basically a hallowed-out oak log proofed with wax).

This next year looks to be a good one.  Happy New Year!