Hohle Fels Figurine is the Upper Paleolithic Double Goddess (2011) (original) (raw)
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2019_Whirlwinds and the 'Babel of the tongues': Remarks on Secondary Iconization (Proofs)
The Rod and Measuring Rope. Festschrift for Olof Pedersén. Harrassowitz 2019: 184-197
with the collaboration of Judith Pfitzner The following lines are offered to Olof Pedersén on the occasion of his 65 th birthday as a small token of gratitude for interesting discussions during our common stays at the Free University of Berlin. The dispute over the 'original' language behind the invention of Mesopotamian cuneiform writing will certainly continue in the coming decades. In our eyes it may well be possible that cuneiform writing originated in a multilingual environment. However, the iconic origin of the earliest cuneiform signs-when traceable-has received little attention so far. This is certainly due to the fact that many of the proposals of father Anton Deimel 1 or Kurt Jaritz are not very convincing. 2 The work of latter was heavily criticized by Wolfram von Soden 3 and others, and it may well be that this is one of the reasons that research in this field is somewhat disparate und difficult to access. In order to illustrate the iconic origin of cuneiform writing most works describing the evolution of early cuneiform refer to the signs SAG, KA, KU2/GU7 and NAG. 4 We note that other examples also show a certain preference for the uses of parts of the human or animal body, predominantly the animals' heads. 5 However, when compared to the roughly contemporary Hieroglyphic signs from Egypt, the iconicity of the Mesopotamian proto-cuneiform signs is less clear and quite often their origin remains in the dark. For the earliest periods we find occasional remarks from various authors, chiefly Adam Falkenstein, and especially in his ATU. Quite recent are the systematic observations of Theo Krispijn (1991-1992) and Jean-Jacques Glassner (1999, 2000). They attempted to demonstrate how original iconic signs underwent various manipulations in a rather systematic way, in order to specify particular semantics connected to such signs. An interesting example is perhaps the Late Uruk variation of RA and RAX from ZATU 431 and 448 respectively, to be compared with the younger word /ra(h)/ (RA = rah2) "to beat, to kill, to drive (animals)".
2004
In Part 1, I showed how to identify and begin a decipherment of European Upper Paleolithic geometric signs as a protolanguage, UP(E), which crystallized during the Magdalenian period, ca. 15,000 to 10,000 BC. The present study shows how this preliminary grapho-semantic decipherment of UP(E) can be mapped against a reconstruction of 'primordial language' (PL), including its 'phememes' and a hundred word stem lexicon developed by the linguist Mary LeCron Foster (1978). Assuming the validity of Foster's reconstruction, this cross-mapping procedure results in differentiating the four basic UP(E) semes into 24 (4X6) semes, each corresponding to a canonical geometric sign. There are 24 symbols for articulating transformations of sacred, creative process. This reconstruction I designate the 'maximal hypothesis' for geometric UP(E).
The challenge of the abstract mind: symbols, signs and notational systems in European prehistory
Documenta Praehistorica, 2005
Since the earliest manifestations of symbolic activity in modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens) in the Upper Palaeolithic, there is evidence for two independent cognitive procedures, for the production of representational images (naturalistic pictures or sculptures) and of abstract signs. The use of signs and symbols is attested for archaic humans (Homo neanderthalensis) and for Homo erectus while art in naturalistic style is an innovation among modern humans. The symbiotic interaction of the two symbolic capacities is illustrated for the visual heritage of Palaeolithic cave paintings in Southwestern Europe, for rock engravings in the Italian Alps (Val Camonica) and for the vivid use of signs and symbols in Southeastern Europe during the Neolithic. Around 5500 BC, sign use in Southeastern Europe reached a sophisticated stage of organization as to produce the earliest writing system of mankind. Since abstractness is the main theme in the visual heritage of the region, this script, not...
Journal of World Philosophies
The topic of asymmetry between the semantic and the phono-morphological levels of language emerges very early in Indian technical and speculative reflections as it also does in pre-socratic Greek thought. A well established relation between words and the objects they denote (the so-called one-to-one principle of correspondence) seems to have been presupposed for each analysis of the signification long before its earliest statement. The present paper aims at shedding light on two different patterns of tackling the mentioned problem. The first approach sees asymmetry as an exception to the regular correspondence between language and reality, whereas the second approach considers language in itself as a conceptualisation which does not faithfully represent reality. In the latter case, asymmetry is no longer an exception, but the rule.
Symbolism and archaeoastronomy in prehistory
The Oxford Handbook of Human Symbolic Evolution
This chapter explores the symbolic and conceptual relations between prehistoric groups and the sky. The study of how people engage with the sky is known as cultural astronomy, a term that comprises any field concerned with sky and culture, including archaeoastronomy. The latter focuses on analyzing the archaeological record for evidence of past skyscapes, i.e., past forms of engagement with the celestial objects, and how they would feature in the world views of the societies under study. The chapter discusses six case studies from the Western part of the Iberian Peninsula that are representative of prehistoric contexts found in other parts of the world. They illustrate how prehistoric skyscapes provided not only spatial axes for the construction of structures that align to celestial objects and events but, more importantly, how such alignments served as temporal anchors moored to key environmental, social, and symbolic moments of transition.
Marco Merlini, Neo-Eneolithic Literacy in Southeastern Europe: an Inquiry into the Danube, Biblioteca Brukenthal XXXIII, Ministery of Culture of Romania and Brukenthal National Museum, Editura Altip, Alba Iulia, 2009
Also the 13 small clay chairs -found in the area of the fireplace of a Precucuteni sanctuary at Isaiia (Iaši County, Romania) together with 21 feminine statuettes, 21 phallic representations formed by the assemblage 282 of vertically perforated small cones with 21 partly perforated small spheres, and 42 small clay beads probably forming a necklace -show small horns in the upper part of the backrest. Special attention was given to the representation of horns on pots rendered as protomes, because it was a stylized symbol of virility placed on a recipient representing the feminine emblem. Some hearths (the most important place of a dwelling) with ritual role had a symbolic shape, such as the cruciform hearth from Popudnja (Ukraine). It was noticed that in most Cucuteni-Trypillia dwellings the fireplaces was situated on top of pits, which were sometimes containing cult items out of use or intentionally deposited as votive offering. Therefore the filling of such a pit, on top of which the dwelling fireplace was built, was often a foundation cultic offering such as in the instence of the dwelling no. 8 of the Precucuteni III settlement of Târgu Frumos (Iaši County, Romania) (Ursulescu 2008). This cult practice gives evidence to the double role of the fireplace. On one side, it produced fire and light -attributes of solar divinities. On the other side, it was key place of offering for the underground divinities of germination and fertility. It means that a fireplace could be built only in both a hierophanic and cratophanic place (M. Eliade). The fireplace -preserving flames and illumination (of divine, celestial origin), but being built on top of a pit which penetrated into the sacred soil -directly linked the two life generating powers: the Heavens and the Earth. The union in the fireplace of the forces that assured the permanent regeneration of nature expressed the "divine couple", a type of hierogamy. Bordering the fireplace, warious cult items with high symbolic shapes have been found, such as star-like clay plates or miniature columns, indicating distinctive ways to express the religious feeling and a wide range of liturgies. Such is the miniature clay column with a mushroom-shaped top erected on the clay border delimiting the fireplace of dwelling n. 6 from Isaiia (Ursulescu 2008). Such columns (or simple wooden posts) were discovered in more or less contemporary cultures such as the Gumelniţa culture (at Căscioarele), the Precucuteni-Ariuşd-Cucuteni-Trypillia cultural complex, the Banat culture (at Parţa). They are in general interpreted as "heavens columns", having the role of assuring the connection between Earth and Sky (Lazarovici Gh., Draşovean, Maxim 2001).
2023
The impetus for this research was observing of the geometric characteristics of the ancient Greek capital script from an architect's perspective. The central idea was based on the search for mechanisms utilizing geometric principles as a reference point for forming certain words. These observations, alongside other findings from three years of research, could be practical in creating a new language. This concept also resonates with the Transhumanistic goals of enhancement of the individual. The enhanced intellectual capacities may also create the conditions for a new language with connection points to mathematics and geometry. The results highlight the analogical relationship between the artistic spirit, the interdisciplinary research approach of Greek polymaths, and the multifaceted education of ancient times. In this context, a cultural semiosphere, without strictly distinct and segregated sciences, is observed to have been a source of different meanings and enriched the development of the Language (langue). The placement of letters in certain words seems to have been influenced by the approaches of the arts, architecture, mathematics 1 , and philosophy. Semiotics offers a new dynamic perspective by incorporating interdisciplinary approaches, allowing new connections and meanings to be discovered. Within this framework, an attempt is made to present a point of intersection between abstract design and the linguistic unit of an alphabetical code.
Journal of World Philosophies, Indiana University Press, 2017
The topic of asymmetry between the semantic and the phono-morphological levels of language emerges very early in Indian technical and speculative reflections as it also does in pre-socratic Greek thought. A well established relation between words and the objects they denote (the so-called one-to-one principle of correspondence) seems to have been presupposed for each analysis of the signification long before its earliest statement. The present paper aims at shedding light on two different patterns of tackling the mentioned problem. The first approach sees asymmetry as an exception to the regular correspondence between language and reality, whereas the second approach considers language in itself as a conceptualisation which does not faithfully represent reality. In the latter case, asymmetry is no longer an exception, but the rule. Keywords: ancient Greek speculation on language; ancient Indian linguistics; language as a means of knowledge; linguistic asymmetry; paretymologies; polysemy; synonymy; substitution 1 Introduction: the Alleged Symmetry between Words and Objects The present joint paper focuses on the topic of asymmetry between the semantic and the phono-morphological levels of language which emerges very early on in Indian technical and speculative reflections, as it also does in pre-socratic Greek thought. Our shared research aims at shedding light on two different patterns of explaining such a linguistic phenomenon. The first approach sees asymmetry as an exception to the regular correspondence between language and reality, whereas the second approach considers language itself as a conceptualization that does not faithfully represent reality, and hence, asymmetry is no longer an exception, but the rule. Before dealing with asymmetry, we need to take a short step back and depict a remote and common background where the symmetry between words and the objects they denote constitutes a given datum. In fact, these two opposed historical interpretations, in which linguistic asymmetry was either a natural or a conventional exception, at a certain point in time, actually derived from the reflections on this alleged symmetry between words and objects. The first problematic way of considering asymmetry as an exception depends, in our opinion, on a presupposed basic symmetry of language, namely, on a sort of one-to-one principle of correspondence between words and the objects they denote 1 —which we assume was presupposed both in ancient India and in ancient Greece. This principle is clearly expressed in the Pāṇinian grammatical tradition only from the 3 rd century BCE onwards. 2 According to Kātyāyana, words as a rule apply per object: one and only one word-form matches with one and only one object. 3
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