Images of a deer and the cult places of Europe and Northern Asia. EXPRESSION quarterly e-journal of atelier in cooperation with uispp-cisenp. international scientific commission on the intellectual and spiritual expressions of non-literate peoples CULT SITES AND ART (original) (raw)
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Images of a deer and the cult places of Europe and Northern Asia.
EXPRESSION quarterly e-journal of atelier in cooperation with uispp-cisenp. international scientific commission on the intellectual and spiritual expressions of non-literate peoples CULT SITES AND ART , 2017
The purpose of the article is to understand the function of the Stone Age deer cult sites through comparing of the archaeological and ethnographical materials with the synchronic and diachronic aspects.
Pages 79-108 in “Now These Records are Ancient”. Studies in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical History, Language and Culture in Honor of K. Lawson Younger, Jr. Edited by James K. Hoffmeier, Richard E. Averbeck, J. Caleb Howard and Wolfgang Zwickel., 2022
This article focuses on two deer antlers recovered from Iron Age IB cultic contexts in Area A that date to the 11th and early 10th centuries B.C.E, and the possible implications they have for understanding cult and ritual related to the human-deer relationship in antiquity. We will first describe the find contexts of the antlers, then identify their osteological characteristics and the ensuing archaeological implications, and finally touch upon their possible significance from an ancient Near Eastern historical, cultural, and ritual perspective. We are honored to offer our contribution to this well-deserved Festschrift to honor Prof. Lawson K. Younger. His encouragement to undertake the excavations at Tel Abel Beth Maacah, as well as his excel- lent scholarship, serve as a guiding light and inspiration to us all.
THE ANTHROPOMORPHIC FACE OF DEER STONES
This investigation is about one interesting facet of deer stone monuments. I present images of human faces as well as motifs representative of the human face depicted on the deer stones, and propose their meaning. The face images on the deer stones closely resemble symbolic images on shaman headgear and masks in across Eurasia. These images are also related to depictions in rock art and archaeological materials. In this article aim to elucidate a connection between deer stone faces and shamanic images and as well as archaeological materials.
Now These Records Are Ancient”. Studies in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical History, Language and Culture in Honor of K. Lawson Younger, Jr.,, 2022
This article, a contribution to the festschrift in honor of Prof. Lawson Younger, Jr., presents and discusses two complete deer antlers found in two different Iron Age I contexts at Tel Abel Beth Maacah in the north of Israel. The discussion explores the human-deer relationship in general and the specific role and significance of deer antlers in Bronze and Iron Age rituals, in light of archaeological finds and texts, the latter focusing on medical incantations.
The Symbol of Deer in the Ancient and Early Medieval Cultures of Azerbaijan
Peregrinations: Journal of Medieval Art and Architecture 3, 2 (2011): 178-209., 2011
This article considers the symbol of deer in the ancient art of Azerbaijan during Bronze, Iron and Early medieval eras; it researches the significance of the symbol in the culture and history of people who inhabited the territory that is now modern Azerbaijan. The symbol is depicted on rock engravings of Gobustan (about 60 kilometers south of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan) and Gemi-Qaya (territory of Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan); it is represented in different decorations, zoomorphic vessels, décor on bronze belts and ceramic artifacts. It is discovered that for the ancient inhabitants of Azerbaijan the deer was one of the most honored animals and, in different historic stages, this symbol had different semantics. The image of the deer served as an amulet; it was connected with a woman goddess and with fertility, with totem and shamanism, with the tree of life, and also with solar and burial cults. The symbol is less frequently depicted in the artifacts of the Early medieval epoch which is explained by the gradual change of ancient religious cults to Christianity and Islam.
Taking the Deer by the Antlers: Deer in Material Culture in the Balkan Neolithic
Arts , 2024
Prehistoric communities had strong ties with the animal world that surrounded them— animals were prey, sources of food, and raw materials, but also threats and mysteries, and certain animals often had an important place in the symbolic realm. With the process of domestication and the switch to animal husbandry as the main source of animal food, these relations changed considerably, and a certain dichotomy between “the domestic” and “the wild” may be noted in numerous past communities. When it comes to the Neolithic period in the Balkans, domestic animals had an important place in subsistence and economy, and it seems that cattle had a particularly prominent symbolic role. Wild species preserved some of their significance in both subsistence and symbolic realms, especially cervids (red deer, roe deer, and fallow deer). In this paper, the place of deer in the material culture of the Neolithic communities in the Balkans will be analysed: skeletal elements of deer were used for the production of diverse items, including non-utilitarian ones, or were part of ritual depositions, and deer representations are encountered in other materials, such as clay figurines. The symbolic meaning of deer cannot be reconstructed with certainty; however, it is probable that deer were tied with territoriality and the landscape.
Emblematic signs? On the iconography of animals at Göbekli Tepe
Ritual Centres" and the Neolithisation of Upper Mesopotamia, Neo-Lithics. A Newsletter of Southwest Asian Lithics Research 2/05, 13-21. Klaus Schmidt, Göbekli Tepe -the Stone Age Sanctuaries. New results of ongoning excavations with a special focus on sculptures and high reliefs, Documenta Praehistorica (Ljubliana) 37, 2010, 239-256.