The religion of cattle/dairy - farmer
In general religious symbols are viewed as manifestations of deities
that were originally identified with objects of nature
Thereby: If gods - being objects of the nature of a settlement area -
have corresponding characteristics, then geographic or climatic
details should be present in the faith itself. A thunder god should
develop more likely in an area with thunderstorms. A sea god will
scarcely grow up in high mountains or in a desert.
As shown, there are references that in a neolithic European religion
the sun was worshiped. Its symbol is supposed to be a spiral.
Within the frame of a *naturereligion* a sun religion should originate
more likely in a *cold* North than in a *hot* Egypt.
Problem: Beside spirals, where did horn-symbols originate? The
horn as a symbol of gods and kings is proven during 4000 years in
Europe and Near East. The range covers Egypt, Sumer, Crete,
Mykenae, Sardinia, Cyprus,Greece, Denmark, AngloSaxon.
Sumer, Ur
Sumer 2200 B.C.. Sumer 2100 B.C..
Cyprus 1000 B.C.
Denmark 200 BC Celt 600 BC Alexander 400 BC Anglo Saxon 400 AD
So far it is not settled where this supposed wide spread *horn-
religion*´ did or could originate . Where to look for an origin of a
horn cult in an area between Sumer and the Anglo-Saxon? With
4000 years between ! May by a link:,A sun-spiral often appears together with a cattle horn.
A helpful prehistorical reference ?
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Problem:As shown archeology offers only horns worn so far as a
status symbol. But Adam of Bremen an important German medieval
chronicler, second half of the 11th c described as a "Holy-Land", the
island of to day*Helgoland*. (Fosetisland.)
Its source:"The life of the holy Willibrord". Its author the Anglo Saxon
Alkuin ( died.804). * At the border sheath between Friesian and
Danes, on the island Fosetis-land are to have been the holy sanc-
tuary of the old-Germanic God Fosete.
There Willibrord is to have slaughtered the holy cows of the Fosete.*
(full text see p.s.)
At the same time Bonifatius, -* the missionary of the German* - falls
724 a holy oak.I n the age of 80 years killed by the Friesian.720 Karl
the Graet destroyed the Irminsul of the Saxon
Helgoland. Island in the German Bay
After Juergen Spanuth the centre of ATLANTIS
It is supposed that besides worshiping the cow there is a reference
to a northern sun religion On Helgoland in a stone grave of the older
Bronze Age a skeleton of a man placed west-east was found. Two
golden spiral disks lay to both sides of the dead one.
Problem: So far archeology offers only poor arguments to support
the hypothesis of a culture shaping dairy farming in the neolithic North.
(What archeological traces really left cattle farmer?)
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The given hypothesis of cattle /dairy farming in the area of the western
Baltic Sea is primarily based on biological data. It´s the enzyme
Lactase and the metabolizing of Lactose which remained in action
lifelong in the North but not in the South
To my feeling:a fundamental point n European prehistory)
After Herodot the Cimmerian (Kimbern, Jutland ! ), Skyten,Thracian
and Hyperboraeer drank the milk of mares. For a Greek obviously
a leading point of view a characteristic of the orthern * Hippomolgoi *
or * Galaktophagio * (Sauter) Magdalénian (?), Saudi,Tuareg, Massai,
Libyian (Herodot) Pharaoh > Hatshepsud<.
For biological reasons the " milk-drinking genetic"of the Northerners
based on Darwin´s Theory " adapt or perish refers to a myth of cattle/
dairy farmer subsisting livelong almost entirely on the meat, blood, and
milk of their herds.
Thus a cow worshiped as a mother-goddess seems reasonable.
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This more biological view - based primarily on the biological aspect of
the problematic Lactase-Problem - could explain horns being a high
ranking symbol in a cattle pasture area. A land covered with grass and
broad-leaved trees.
Such pasture area is the area of the western Balic Sea (Denmark) Up to
day a region known for optimal cattle breeding.The ritual horns being a symbol of an age-old, nordic Nature religion of
cattle/dairy farmer
*age-old *, because the genetic adjustment by selection for digesting
fresh milk could (must not) need thousands of years in a strictly iso-
lated area
(The lactase level of Magdalénian reindeer hunters is unklown)
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Egypt
More difficult to explain the mythical background of horns in Sumer and
Egypt Beginning with an old so far not settled egyptological problem
HathorWhat is or could be the mythical origin of a woman´s head with horns
and ears of a cattle? Narmer-Palette, c. 3000 b. Hathor, oldest Egyptian
goddess., closely connected with maternity,.a goddess of the sky, love
and dance. Hathor is closely related to the Greek Aphrodite
Hatschepsut 1480 b.
Queen Hatschepsut drinks at the udder of the Hathor-cow and points
thereby to her close relation with the goddess. Genetically the queen
obviously belongs to people with a lifelong lactase activity .Problem:Native Egyptians can´t digest fresh milk. Hatschepsut a Libyan ?.
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Hypothesis:The invading predynastic meanwhile *seafaring* Post-Magda-
lenian reindeer hunter formed an upperclass in the eastern Mediterranean
(Palestine, Egypt, Mesopotamia )
In the course of time invading northern cattle farmer adapted to the more
optimal natural conditions for agriculture along the Nil,The consequence
At the Nile milk of a cow was no longer a vital basic food
So far there are no referrings that milk contributed substantially to the nutri-
tion of the native Egyptian.The regular annual inundations of the Nile made
a far higher yield possible than dairy farming.The advancing Egyptian high-culture had other cultural points of reference
and the cow became in the daily experience of the population a matter of
minor significance.The admired cow survived * holy*' in a more or less reflec-
ted ritual of the ruling rupperclass.. (From the eyes from the sense)The later referrings in Egypt to large cattle herds property particularly as
Libyan booty- are not logically to equate with referring to dairy farming,
to the existence of milk cattle at the Nile!.
Herodot (4/186) *The Libyan could drink milk*. Obviously a noteworthy point
for a Greek reporter.
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Sumer
Despite unfavorable ecologic conditions cattle in Sumer were adored
as well as in Egypt
a,b) Fries on the wall of Obaid in the proximity of Ur (5200-3500 b..)
Water-birds made of limestone and cattle from pieces of shells.
Inserting work
c) Roll seal after Fara, Meselim (2600 b.). Bull human beingd-e) Sumeri kings . Naramsin (2200 b..) and Urnammu (2100 b.). The horns
of four cattle laid on top of each other.The artist is not yet common with the perspective representation of the horns.
Priests while taking care of the cows wore caps with horns. (Moortgat).
g,) Fragment from a wall painting from the palace in Nuzzi (1500 b.) A Bukra-
nium, an ageold symbol, used already in the Tell Halaf period (5050-4300 d.)
f) Roll seal, cattle with barley-feeds.These pictures are inter-
preted with the reference that south Mesopotamia had no
natural pastures.
The animals were fed probably among other things with
grain (Moortgat) (such a picture in Denmark?)
The milk of the sumeric Nin-khursag served the king and the priests as a
devine meal (Woolley). Comparably the function of Hathor in Egypt.
Problem: In Egypt and Sumer for climatical reasons the ecological condi-
tions for a vitally necessary and thus culture-shaping dairy farming were not
given.
Thus the question may arise how the two ' Milk Goddess ' could have been
born´ in Egypt and Sumer in the context of a nature religion?
What * life emergency* the Milk-Goddess should turn away?
What was the sumerian adorant begging for?
(the ability for digesting milk sugar , Lactose?)
Facit:
For climatic and ecological reasons it is unlikely that native Egyptian and
Sumerian should worship sun and cow. The given hypothesis:
The origin of the Egytian *Milk-Goddess* Hathor and Sumeric Nin-khursag
could have been the neolithic pasture areas of Northern Europe
(Admit may sound a little bit "strange" :-)
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Where did the Milk-drinker in Egypt and Sumer come from ?
Ur (Royal Cemetry) 2500-2350 BC Ur - Obaid
Golden double spiral
a) Anthropomorphic arranged bull head. Bronze a) Bull head, copper, poured
b) Silver boat, 10 rudder places, 60 cm b) Bull, 62 cm, copper (a-f Obaid)
c)Dechsel (transverse axe) from gold, 15cm c) Wood column at the temple of Obaid
d) Decoration, double spiral, gold d) Model of an axe formed out of loam
e) lyra wood- gold, height of 160 cm e) flat hatchet or chisel from copper
f ) dagger from copper g) Axt, Bronze, (Ur)
h) Awl, Ur
i) Copper ----- hammered !
The tools in the king´s graves of Ur and Obaid. Among other things
the four tools needed to build a clinker boat.
1.) An axe, to fell a tree
2.) A wedge to split a tree into longitudinal direction.
3.) A Dechsel,a transverse axe, to arrange the planks
4.) An awl to bore holes through planks (Wolley)
Noteworthy the carpenter hatchet from gold in a royal grave. Wolley assumes
that the king was the * Master Craftsman *. A craftsman king of seafaring Sumerian ? The ship in Egypt and Sumer a symbol of power ?
As in Egypt (Cheops) a ship needed to cross the ´deadly´ water to reach
the ´holy´ horizon ? A ship in Sumer ( Gilgamesch (germ.) was needed to cross
the deadly water.)The golden double spirals, the Lyra in form like a boat - wih long steves-
and the spiral at Narmer´s crown can - insofar - hardly be explained within a
Near East context.
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Woolley: "the Sumerian brought the use o f metal from its original home-
land , wherever it may have been.... ............. It becomes obvious that the Early
Bonze Age in Europe is obligated to thanks to the civilization of the Sumerian directly."Royal Cemetry (Ur) n=11 Sn = 9.5% 2500-2350 Kisch n=7 Sn = 8%
Obaid 1.Dyn n=5 Sn = 4%
n=1 Sn = 7.9%
Sargon of Akkad no further bronze !
Sargonid n=5 Sn= 0.75% 2350-2150 Susa n=6 Sn= 0
n=1 Sn 1.63% 2200 b.
Tin of bronze in Mesapotamia
Wolley, Plenderleith,Witter (1934 ! )--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Summing up:
The difference between the cultures in north and south was due to the climate.
The natural habitat of the reindeer hunters of the Magdalénien culture was the
Central European tundra.(15000-9000 ) Thereby, the descendant, the Post-Mag-
dalénian were not peaceful farmers but weapon-wearing individualists. Later
on free cattle/dairy farmer which - to the disappointment of archaeologists-
did not see why to pay -with a sword in hand - voluntarily for ´useless´ high
culture monuments like pyramids.
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P.S. A link to Gilgamesch
The later religion of the Northerners supports the view of a
martial society .In historical times it is said that only a man
dying with the weapon in his hand comes to god, to OdinNaked unprotected ´celtic´ warrior wearing a neckring and
horns. Looking for death with a weapon in hand ?
In the Edda: "the Hel (daughter of the Loki, sister of the Midgard-serpent and
the Fenriswolf) threw he down to Niflheim and gave her force over nine worlds
that she those would instruct dwelling, which were sent to her, such that died at
age or illness "(Gylfaginning 34)3000 years before comparably also the ' martial ' self understanding of the Sumerian king Gilgamesch. (germ.) With his departure to the guarded cedar
forest Gilgamesch says:A fight I stand, which I do not know,
A way I go, which I do not know."
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A name, which lasts, I want to set
The point is not for what one fights, the point is how. The self-image of a rest-
less warrior ? A caste, whose honouring could not become a fair codex for
Enkidu being a friend of Gilgamesch, because he was afraid in the fight
"friend who falls there in the battle, is lucky,
however I bear disgrace in dying."
The combined data may support the view that
There could have been be a wide spread Neolithic Eurpean- Near East mythical contex.
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P.S.
Medieval Sourcebook:
Alucin (735-804): The Life of Willibrord, c.796 (§ 10)Now whilst this energetic preacher of the Word was pursuing his iourney he
came to a certain island on the boundary between the Frisians and the Danes,
which the people of those parts call Fositeland,[l] after a god named Fosite,
whom they worship and whose temples stood there. This place was held by
the pagans in such great awe that none of the natives would venture to meddle
with any of the cattle that fed there nor with anything else, nor dare they
draw water from the spring that bubbled up there except in complete silence.
On this island the man of God was driven ashore by a storm and waited for
some days until the gale died down and fair weather made it possible to set
sail again. He set little store by the superstitious sacredness ascribed to the
spot, or by the savage cruelty of the king, who was accustomed to condemn
nolators of the sacred objects to the most cruel death. Willibrord baptized
three persons in the fountain in the name of the Blessed Trinity and gave
orders that some of the cattle should be slaughtered as food for his company.
When the pagans saw this they expected that the strangers would become
mad or be struck with sudden death. Noticing, however, that they suffered
no harm, the pagans, terrorstricken and astounded, reported to the king
what they had witnessed.
[1] Fositeland or Heligoland.
Erman, A., Die Religion der Ägypter 1934
Helck, W., Geschichte des Alten Aegyptens (Handbuch der Orientalistik, 1968)
Moortgat, A., Die Enstehung der sumerischen Hochkultur 1945
Plenderleith, H.J., in Woolley S.284 ff
Spanuth, J., Die Atlanter 1976
Schott A, von Soden W. , Das Gilgamesch Epos, Reclam 1958
Sauter, H. , *Studien zum Kimmerierproblem*, www.kimmerier.de
Witter, W., Die Kenntnis von Kupfer und Bronze in der AltenWelt, 1938
Woolley, C.L. , Ur-Excavation, The Royal Cemetry, 1934
1-horn-religion 05.02.05 upd.indexNext: Origin and meaning of dolmen Holy stones fallen down from a stony sky
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