Maykop culture

Proto Indo-Europeans ca. 4500 - 4000 BC

Migration of Neolithic population during the second half of V millennium BC

Indo-European (Maykop) branches of G2a2

G2a-L140 and its subclades are also found in the Caucasus, Central Asia and throughout India, especially among the upper castes, who represent the descendants of the Bronze Age Indo-European invaders. The combined presence of G2a-L140 across Europe and India is a very strong argument in favour of an Indo-European dispersal.

G2a-L140 came from Anatolia to eastern and Central Europe during the Neolithic (a fact proven by ancient DNA test). Once in Southeast Europe men belonging to the U1 branch founded the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture (with men of other haplogroups, notably I2a1b-L621) around modern Moldova. The Cucuteni-Trypillian people traded actively with the neighbouring with the Steppe cultures, and from 3500 BCE, at the onset of the Yamna period in the Pontic-Caspian Steppe, the Cucuteni-Trypillian people started expanding east into the steppe of what is now western Ukraine, leaving their towns (the largest in the world at the time), and adopting an increasingly nomadic lifestyle like their Yamna neighbours. By the time the Proto-Indo-Europeans started their massive expansion, G2a-U1 men belonging to the L13 and L1264 subclades would have joined R1b and R1a tribes in the invasion of Europe, then of Central and South Asia.

Samara / Dnieper-Donets culture

 
Samara culture - Dnieper-Donets culture - Khvalynsk - Sredny Stog culture

The Samara culture was an eneolithic culture of the early 5th millennium BC at the Samara bend region of the middle Volga, at the northern edge of the steppe zone. Related sites are Varfolomievka on the Volga (5500 BC), which was part of the North Caspian culture, and Mykol'ske, on the Dnieper. The later stages of the Samara culture are contemporaneous with its successor culture in the region, the early Khvalynsk culture (4700–3800 BC), while the archaeological

• Preceded by; Bug-Dniester culture, Dnieper-Donets culture
• Followed by; Khvalynsk culture

Sredny Stog culture, 5th millennium BC

Y-DNA G2a2 & Q, R1b

Sredny Stog culture

The Sredny Stog culture seems to have had contact with the agricultural Cucuteni-Trypillian culture in the west and was a contemporary of the Khvalynsk culture.

Sredny Stog culture should be considered as an areal term, with at least four distinct cultural elements co-existing inside the same geographical area.

The culture ended at around 3500 BC, when the Yamna culture expanded westward replacing Sredny Stog, and coming into direct contact with the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture in the western Ukraine.

• Preceded by; Khvalynsk culture
• Followed by; Cernavodă culture, Yamnaya culture

• The Early Eneolithic of the Pontic steppe and forest-steppe

Indo-European migrations

Pit-grave migration

c. 4500-4000 BC

c. 4000-3500 BC

Caucasians - Typically Europoid - Hybrid race

Late Dnieper-Donets - Typically Europoid

The physical remains recovered from graves have been described as typically Europoid. They are predominantly characterized as late Cro-Magnons with more massive and robust features than the gracile Mediterranean peoples of the Balkan Neolithic.

Samara - Sacrificial objects

The culture is characterized by the remains of animal sacrifice, which occur over most of the sites. There is no indisputable evidence of riding, but there were horse burials, the earliest in the Old World. Typically the head and hooves of cattle, sheep, and horses are placed in shallow bowls over the human grave, smothered with ochre. Some have seen the beginning of the horse sacrifice in these remains, but this interpretation has not been more definitely substantiated. We know that the Indo-Europeans sacrificed both animals and people, but so did many other cultures.

• Mutated Adam/Abel (G2a2, I2a & T1a) & Steppa people Cain (R1a, R1b) = Hybrid Europoid (Indo-European race)

Proto-Indo-European religion

They practiced a polytheistic religion centered on sacrificial rites, probably administered by a class of priests.

Animals were slaughtered (*gʷʰn̥tós) and dedicated to the gods (*déiwos) in the hope of winning their favour. The king as the high priest would have been the central figure in establishing favourable relations with the gods.

The Kurgan hypothesis suggests burials in barrows or tomb chambers. Important leaders would have been buried with their belongings, and also with members of their household or wives (sati). The practice of human sacrifice is inferred from the Luhansk sacrificial site.

• Human sacrifice (altars priests) & Ritual cannibalism

Merheleva Ridge

Merheleva Ridge

Merheleva Ridge site was built in about 4000 BC, corresponding to the Dnieper-Donets or early Yamna culture.

The site is believed to be a complex of temples and sacrificial altars topping a hill with sides sculpted into steps.

Archaeologists have confirmed that evidence of graves has been found at the Luhansk site, which they believe to have been the result of human sacrifice, rather than due to its use as a burial ground.

According to The Guardian, remains of sacrifice victims, ashes and ceramics have been found at the site, but no jewellery or treasure. The complex has a base area of three-quarters of a square mile, is estimated to be 60 metres (192 ft) high, and was probably used for 2,000 years.

In Kurgan No. 4, three graves of the Berezhnovsko-Maevskaya group of the Late Bronze Age Srubna culture were found above three graves of the Early Bronze Age Catacomb culture, with 13 graves and sacrificial pits. One of the skulls found was dated to ca. 3000 BC. Four stone statues were found near the graves.

Pyramides (ou pas) en Ukraine?

Merheleva Ridge

Merheleva Ridge (ukrainien: гряда Мергелева, également transcrit Mergeleva) est le site d'un temple datant du chalcolithique ainsi que d’un complexe funéraire composé principalement de quatre grands monticules de pierres (pas exactement en marne) kourganes situés près de Perevalsk, dans l’oblast de Luhansk, en Ukraine, à environ 30 km à l'ouest-sud-ouest de la ville de Luhansk. Ce complexe aurait été bâti en 4000 avant JC, correspondant à la Dniepr-Donets ou au début de la culture Yamna , et serait resté en usage dans l’âge du bronze,  du fer, et  jusqu'au 5ème siècle avant JC Sarmatie . Le site a été découvert en 2004, elle fut officialisée le 7 Septembre 2006.

La découverte et les fouilles

Le site a été découvert en 2004 par des écoliers participant à un camp organisé par l'archéologie à Alchevsk, par le professeur d'histoire Vladimir Paramonov, qui organise des expéditions d'écoliers à la colline depuis 1995.

Le site a très certainement été bâti il y a environ cinq millénaires, au moment du début de l’âge du bronze . Le site est considéré comme un complexe de temples et d’autels sacrificiels près d'une colline dont les côtés sont sculptés en plusieurs étapes.

Viktor Klochko, l'archéologue en charge du chantier des fouilles, et le vice-ministre de la Science du Tourisme et de la protection du patrimoine culturel et au ministère de l’administration régionale de Luhansk, a déclaré que la découverte était d'importance internationale comme le premier monument de ce genre dans l'Europe orientale:

«Cela change toute notre conception de la structure sociale et le niveau de développement des éleveurs et des agriculteurs qui étaient les ancêtres directs de la plupart des peuples européens."

Les archéologues ont confirmé que des tombes ont été trouvées sur le site de Luhansk, ils croient qu’elles sont le résultat de sacrifices humains, et sont sceptiques à l’idée d’utilisation comme lieu de sépulture. Selon The Guardian, des restes de victimes sacrifiées, de cendres et de céramique ont été trouvés sur le site, mais aucun bijou ni quelque autre trésor ne s'y trouvait.

Le complexe possède une superficie de base de 1,3km² sur 60 mètres (192 pi) de hauteur, et était probablement utilisé durant 2 000 ans.

A Kurgan n°4, trois tombes du groupe Maevskaya Berezhnovsko, soit de  l'Âge du Bronze final et de culture Srubna ont été trouvées, plus encore trois autres tombes de l'âge du Bronze ancien et de la culture des catacombes. Au total 13 tombes et fosses sacrificielles ont été mises au jour.

L'un des crânes trouvés a été daté de 3000 av JC. Parallèlement, quatre statues de pierre ont été trouvées près des tombes.

Mauvaise identification en tant que pyramide, clarification, et censure

Les rapports initiaux indiquaient que les archéologues avaient découvert une structure pyramidale.

Klochko a alors blâmé la presse: «(…) Les médias se sont trompés», explique Viktor Klochko. Nous n'avons rien trouvé qui ressemble à une pyramide égyptienne, cela bien que le site soit sur une colline. Toutefois, cette découverte est intéressante en soi.»

Il est surprenant  (ou pas) qu’une censure sévit autour de cette découverte archéologique, surtout lorsque que l’on se souvient des premiers mots de Viktor Klochko, bien plus enthousiaste à l’époque, considérant alors que la découverte était de portée internationale :« C'est le premier monument de ce type aussi ancien que l’on ait retrouvé en Europe de l'Est. Il va changer notre conception de la structure sociale et notre visiion du développement des civilisations d'éleveurs de bétail et de fermiers qui étaient les ancêtres directs de la plupart des peuples européens. » Il suffit de comparer ces deux annonces pour se rendre compte qu’un truc cloche dans les déclarations. WikiStrike dénonce haut et fort cette «nouvelle» intervention des Etats, russe ici, car rien ni personne n’est supérieur à la vérité.

Pour nous, ce site aurait mérité une plus forte médiatisation. En occultant certaines informations, la Russie de Medvedev (Ou de Poutine) avoue à voix basse: «On a à faire ici à une découverte majeure mais dont l’écho ne nous servirait pas.»

Un journaliste russe, Stanislav Mogilny, a déclaré à la télévision russe : « Ce qui me surprend le plus, c’est la taille de cet énorme complexe », et de finir par: «C’est tout simplement incroyable, un exploit titanesque». (Source: R.magazine.)

Sredny Stog culture (Molochna River)

Proto-Indo-Europeans

Molochna Rive

 
Moloch

Molochna River (Ukrainian: Молочна, Russian: Моло́чная Molochnaya), is a river in the Zaporizhia Oblast of south Ukraine. Literally the name of the river translates as Milky.

Moloch is the biblical name of a Canaanite god associated with child sacrifice. Human sacrifice is the ritualistic killing of human in order to please or appease a god or supernatural beings in order to achieve a desired result. Child sacrifice is thought to be an extreme extension of the idea that, the more important the object of sacrifice, the more devout the person giving it up is.

Lord Of The Rings

Mordor - Caucasus

Mordor from Sindarin Black Land and Quenya Land of Shadow) is the realm and base of the arch-villain Sauron. It was located in the southeast of northwestern Middle-earth, east of the great river Anduin.

Mordor - Maykop/Caucasus

Orcs - Hybrid race

Orc is from Old English orcneas, which appears in the epic poem Beowulf, and refers to one of the races who are called the offspring of Cain during the initial description of Grendel ("Þanon untydras ealle onwocon,/eotenas ond ylfe, ond orcneas", ll. 111–112). In a letter of 1954 Tolkien gave orc as "demon" and claimed he used the word because of its "phonetic suitability"-its similarity to various equivalent terms in his Middle-earth languages. In an essay on Elven languages, written in 1954, Tolkien gives meaning of 'orc' as "evil spirit or bogey" and goes on to state that the origin of the Old English word is the Latin name Orcus-god of the underworld.

Orcs

Old English glossaries record the word orc corresponding with Latin Orcus (deity of the Underworld), and synonymous with þyrs/ðyrs "ogre" (cognate to Old Norse: þurs), as well as "hell devil". The Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal defines ork in the very closely related Old Dutch language as a verslindend monster ("devouring monster"), and points at a possible origin in the Old Dutch nork "petulant, crabbed, evil person".

The Latin: Orcus is glossed as "Old English: Orc, þyrs, oððe hel-deofol" as given in the first Cleopatra Glossary (10th century), and on this entry Thomas Wright wrote, "Orcus was the name for Pluto, the god of the infernal regions, hence we can easily understand the explanation of hel-deofol. Orc, in Anglo-Saxon, like thyrs, means a spectre, or goblin."

Probably the lone literary example is from Beowulf, and its poet found use of the orc- stem in orcneas, one of the tribes of creatures named alongside elves and ettins (giants) that have been condemned by God:

The compound orcneas is designated "evil spirits" above, but its accurate meaning is uncertain. Klaeber suggested it consisted of orc < L. orcus "the underworld" + neas "corpses" and that the translation "evils spirits" failed to do justice.

The lexicography has been complicated by the Bosworth-Toller dictionary's conjecture that orcneas devolved from the form *orcen possibly meaning "(?) a sea-monster," possibly related to Icelandic: orkn (örkn).

 
Orcs

At the time of the War of the Ring, Sauron had gathered great armies to serve him. These included Easterlings and Haradrim, who spoke a variety of tongues, and Orcs and Trolls, who usually spoke a debased form of the Common Speech. Within Barad-dûr and among the captains of Mordor (the Ringwraiths and other high-ranking servants such as the Mouth of Sauron), the Black Speech was still used, the language devised by Sauron during the Dark Years of the Second Age. In addition to ordinary Orcs and Trolls, Sauron had bred a stronger strain of Orcs, the Uruk-hai, and very large Trolls known as Olog-hai who could endure the sun. The Olog-hai knew only the Black Speech.

Orcs

Indo-European migrations

Indo-European migrations

Red Hair and Royalty

British royals

The picture depicts some of the red-haired daughters of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville.

Henry II

Richard the Lionheart

Elizabeth Woodville

Elizabeth of York

Elizabeth I

Alexander II, King of Scotland

Mary Queen of Scots

The father of Henry II, Geoffrey Plantagenet, was a redhead. He was described as "handsome, red-headed, jovial, and a great warrior."

Mary Tudor, Queen of France was likewise red-haired.

As was Simon de Montfort, 5th Earl of Leicester. He was one of the leaders of the Albigensian Crusade and was renowned for his cruelty. I came across the following passage on a web-page about the Cathars;

It is in Toulouse that the commander Simon de Montfort - known as "The butcher of Occitanie", or "The Crusade Lion" (depending on the side!)- finds his end his skull crushed in 1218 by a catapulted stone thrown by the women of the city (he was recognized by his distinct red hair!!).

Another Earl with red hair was Gilbert de Clare, 7th Earl of Gloucester. He was known as the Red Earl because of it.

The Holy Roman Emperors Otto II and Otto III were also red-haired. In fact, Otto II was known as Otto the Red. Other red-haired Holy Roman Emperors include Frederick I Barbarossa and Frederick II. The following is a description of Frederick II given by the chronicler Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi;

"The Emperor was covered with red hair, was bald and myopic. Had he been a slave, he would not have fetched 200 dirhams at market."

Baldwin IV, King of Jerusalem was also ginger. He was known as the leper and was described as "a blue-eyed, freckled, leprous evil-doer."

Other noted red-haired royals include Isabella I of Castile, Joanna of Castile (aka Joanna the Mad) and Louis II, King of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia.

Prometheus - Pḥatḗr

Prometheus Brings Fire

Prometheus is a Titan, culture hero, and trickster figure who is credited with the creation of man from clay, and who defies the gods by stealing fire and giving it to humanity, an act that enabled progress and civilization. Prometheus is known for his intelligence and as a champion of humankind and also seen as the author of the human arts and sciences generally. He is sometimes presented as the father of Deucalion, the hero of the Greek flood story.

The punishment of Prometheus as a consequence of the theft is a major theme of his mythology, and is a popular subject of both ancient and modern art. Zeus, king of the Olympian gods, sentenced the Titan to eternal torment for his transgression. The immortal Prometheus was bound to a rock, where each day an eagle, the emblem of Zeus, was sent to feed on his liver, which would then grow back overnight to be eaten again the next day. (In ancient Greece, the liver was often thought to be the seat of human emotions.) Prometheus is freed at last by the hero Heracles.

In another myth, Prometheus establishes the form of animal sacrifice practiced in ancient Greek religion. Evidence of a cult to Prometheus himself is not widespread. He was a focus of religious activity mainly at Athens, where he was linked to Athena and Hephaestus, other Greek deities of creative skills and technology.

In the Western classical tradition, Prometheus became a figure who represented human striving, particularly the quest for scientific knowledge, and the risk of overreaching or unintended consequences.

Hesiod's Theogony and Works of the Days

The first recorded account of the Prometheus myth appeared in the late 8th-century BC Greek epic poet Hesiod's Theogony (507–616). He was a son of the Titan Iapetus by Clymene, one of the Oceanids. He was brother to Menoetius, Atlas, and Epimetheus. Hesiod, in Theogony, introduces Prometheus as a lowly challenger to Zeus's omniscience and omnipotence.

In the trick at Mekone (535–544), a sacrificial meal marking the "settling of accounts" between mortals and immortals, Prometheus played a trick against Zeus. He placed two sacrificial offerings before the Olympian: a selection of beef hidden inside an ox's stomach (nourishment hidden inside a displeasing exterior), and the bull's bones wrapped completely in "glistening fat" (something inedible hidden inside a pleasing exterior). Zeus chose the latter, setting a precedent for future sacrifices (556–557). Henceforth, humans would keep that meat for themselves and burn the bones wrapped in fat as an offering to the gods. This angered Zeus, who hid fire from humans in retribution. In this version of the myth, the use of fire was already known to humans, but withdrawn by Zeus. Prometheus, however, stole fire back in a giant fennel-stalk and restored it to humanity (565–566). This further enraged Zeus, who sent the first woman to live with humanity (Pandora, not explicitly mentioned). The woman, a "shy maiden", was fashioned by Hephaestus out of clay and Athena helped to adorn her properly (571–574). Hesiod writes, "From her is the race of women and female kind: of her is the deadly race and tribe of women who live amongst mortal men to their great trouble, no helpmeets in hateful poverty, but only in wealth" (590–594).

Prometheus is chained to a rock in the Caucasus for eternity, where his liver is eaten daily by an eagle, only to be regenerated by night, due to his immortality. The eagle is a symbol of Zeus himself. Years later, the Greek hero Heracles slays the eagle and frees Prometheus from his torment (520–528).

"Prometheus", the thief of fire

Vainakhish peoples

Y-DNA J2a

Vainakhish peoples

Ancient J-M410 has been found, in a mesolithic context, in a tooth from the Kotias Klde Cave in western Georgia dating 9.529-9.895 cal. BP. This sample has been assigned to the Caucasus hunter-gatherers (CHG) autosomal component.

A 2011 study by Oleg Balanovsky and a number of other geneticists showed that the Y-DNA haplogroup J2a4b* (a subclade of J2, located mainly in the Middle East, Caucasus and Mediterranean) was highly associated with Nakh peoples. J2a4b* accounted for the majority of the Y-chromosomes of Ingush and Chechen men, with the Ingush having a much higher percentage, 87.4%, than Chechens, who had 51–58% depending on region (the lowest being in Malgobek, the highest in Dagestan and Achkhoy-Martan). In their paper, Balanovsky et al. speculated that the differences between fraternal Caucasian populations may have arisen due to genetic drift, which would have had a greater effect among the Ingush than the Chechens due to their smaller population (another possible reason for the difference is the greater absorption of foreign peoples into the Chechen populace, reflecting an older theory that the Ingush are more 'archaic' than other Caucasian peoples). The Chechens and Ingush have the highest frequencies of J2a4b* yet reported (other relatively high frequencies, between 10 and 20 percent, are found in the Mediterranean and Georgia).

6000 - 4000 BC Y-DNA J2a4b

Neolithic era. Pottery is known to the region. Old settlements near Ali-Yurt and Magas, discovered in the modern times, revealed tools made out of stone: stone axes, polished stones, stone knives, stones with holes drilled in them, clay dishes etc. Settlements made out of clay bricks discovered in the plains. In the mountains there were discovered settlements made out of stone surrounded by walls some of them dated back 8000 BC.

Y-DNA J2

4000 - 3000 BC Y-DNA J2a4b & G2a2

Use of the wheel (3000 BC), horseback riding, metal works (copper, gold, silver, iron) dishes, armor, daggers, knives, arrow tips. The artifacts were found near Naser-Kort, Muzhichi, Yi-E-Borz (now Surkhakhi), Abi-Goo (now Nazran).

Ages of Man

The first extant account of the successive ages of humanity comes from the Greek poet Hesiod (between 750 and 650 BC), in his poem Works and Days (lines 109–201). His list is:

• Golden Age – The Golden Age is the only age that falls within the rule of Cronus. Created by the immortals who live on Olympus, these humans were said to live among the gods, and freely mingled with them. Peace and harmony prevailed during this age. Humans did not have to work to feed themselves, for the earth provided food in abundance. They lived to a very old age but with a youthful appearance and eventually died peacefully. Their spirits live on as "guardians". Plato in Cratylus (397e) recounts the golden race of men who came first. He clarifies that Hesiod did not mean men literally made of gold, but good and noble. He describes these men as daemons upon the earth. Since δαίμονες (daimones) is derived from δαήμονες (daēmones, meaning knowing or wise), they are beneficent, preventing ills, and guardians of mortals.
• Silver Age – The Silver Age and every age that follows fall within the rule of Cronus's successor and son, Zeus. Men in the Silver age lived for one hundred years under the dominion of their mothers. They lived only a short time as grown adults, and spent that time in strife with one another. During this Age men refused to worship the gods and Zeus destroyed them for their impiety. After death, humans of this age became "blessed spirits" of the underworld.
• Bronze Age – Men of the Bronze Age were hardened and tough, as war was their purpose and passion. Zeus created these humans out of the ash tree. Their armor was forged of bronze, as were their homes, and tools. The men of this Age were undone by their own violent ways and left no named spirits; instead, they dwell in the "dank house of Hades". This Age came to an end with the flood of Deucalion.
• Heroic Age – The Heroic Age is the one age that does not correspond with any metal. It is also the only age that improves upon the age it follows. It was the heroes of this Age who fought at Thebes and Troy. This race of humans died and went to Elysium.
• Iron Age – Hesiod finds himself in the Iron Age. During this age humans live an existence of toil and misery. Children dishonor their parents, brother fights with brother and the social contract between guest and host (xenia) is forgotten. During this age might makes right, and bad men use lies to be thought good. At the height of this age, humans no longer feel shame or indignation at wrongdoing; babies will be born with gray hair and the gods will have completely forsaken humanity: "there will be no help against evil."

Goldene & Silver Age = Early & Late neolitic

Eurasiatic languages

Eurasiatic languages = Lower Danubian language = Barbarian languages

The Neolithic Continuity

Eurasiatic languages (Lower Danube language) > Proto-Indo-European language (Maykop) > Indo-European language

• Eurasiatic languages - Y-DNA G2a2, I2a, T1a (Lower Danubian Civilization)
  • Altaic languages - Y-DNA Q, R1b (Khvalynsk / Sredny Stog culture)
  • Fino-Uralic languages - Y-DNA N1. R1a (Botai culture)
  • Dené–Caucasian languages - Y-DNA R1b (Early Yamna culture)
  • Indo-European language - Y-DNA R1a, R1b, J & G2a2. T1a, I2a (Yamna/Maykop culture)

Fusional & Agglutinative languages

Fusional languages or inflected languages are a type of synthetic language, distinguished from agglutinative languages by their tendency to use a single inflectional morpheme to denote multiple grammatical, syntactic, or semantic features. For example, the Spanish verb comer ("to eat") has the first-person singular preterite tense form comí ('I ate'); the single suffix -í represents both the features of first-person singular agreement and preterite tense, instead of having a separate affix for each feature.

Another notable group of fusional languages is the Semitic languages group; however, Modern Hebrew is much more analytic than Classical Hebrew “both with nouns and with verbs”. Colloquial varieties of Arabic are more analytic than the standard language, having lost all noun declensions, and in many cases also featuring simplified conjugation.

Examples of agglutinative languages include:

• Indigenous languages of the Americas
• Austronesian languages
• Niger–Congo languages
• Berber languages
• Dravidian languages
• Eskimo–Aleut languages
• Kartvelian languages
• Turkic languages
• Tungusic languages
• Japanese
• Korean
• Mongolian
• Languages of the Caucasus
• Tibeto-Burman languages
• Uralic languages
• Basque
• Munda languages

Epigravettian & Iron Gates culture (Fusional language)

Haplogroup I2a & Haplogroup R1b-L754 > R-V88 - Indo-European & Semitic languages

Origins of Fusional language: Epigravettian

Maykop culture, c. 3700 - 3000 BC

Y-DNA G2a2, I2a, T1a

Maykop culture

The Maykop culture (scientific transliteration: Majkop, Russian: майкоп, ), c. 3700 BC–3000 BC, was a major Bronze Age archaeological culture in the western Caucasus region of southern Russia.  It extends along the area from the Taman Peninsula at the Kerch Strait to near the modern border of Dagestan and southwards to the Kura River. The culture takes its name from a royal burial found in Maykop kurgan in the Kuban River valley.

Territory

In the south it borders the approximately contemporaneous Kura-Araxes culture (3500—2200 BC), which extends into eastern Anatolia and apparently influenced it. To the north is the Yamna culture, including the Novotitorovka culture (3300—2700), which it overlaps in territorial extent. It is contemporaneous with the late Uruk period in Mesopotamia.

The Kuban River is navigable for much of its length and provides an easy water-passage via the Sea of Azov to the territory of the Yamna culture, along the Don and Donets River systems. The Maykop culture was thus well-situated to exploit the trading possibilities with the central Ukraine area.

New data revealed the similarity of artifacts from the Maykop culture with those found recently in the course of excavations of the ancient city of Tell Khazneh in northern Syria, the construction of which dates back to 4000 BC.

Radiocarbon dates for various monuments of the Maykop culture are from 3950 - 3650 - 3610 - 2980 calBC.

After the discovery of the Leyla-Tepe culture in the 1980s, some links were noted with the Maykop culture.

The Leyla-Tepe culture is a culture of archaeological interest from the Chalcolithic era. Its population was distributed on the southern slopes of the Central Caucasus (modern Azerbaijan, Agdam District), from 4350 until 4000 B.C. Similar amphora burials in the South Caucasus are found in the Western Georgian Jar-Burial Culture.

The culture has also been linked to the north Ubaid period monuments, in particular, with the settlements in the Eastern Anatolia Region. The settlement is of a typical Western-Asian variety, with the dwellings packed closely together and made of mud bricks with smoke outlets.

It has been suggested that the Leyla-Tepe were the founders of the Maykop culture. An expedition to Syria by the Russian Academy of Sciences revealed the similarity of the Maykop and Leyla-Tepe artifacts with those found recently while excavating the ancient city of Tel Khazneh I, from the 4th millennium BC.

In 2010, nearly 200 Bronze Age sites were reported stretching over 60 miles from the Kuban River to Nalchik, at an altitude of between 4,620 feet and 7,920 feet. They were all "visibly constructed according to the same architectural plan, with an oval courtyard in the center, and connected by roads."

Culture

Its inhumation practices were characteristically Indo-European, typically in a pit, sometimes stone-lined, topped with a kurgan (or tumulus). Stone cairns replace kurgans in later interments.

The Maykop kurgan was extremely rich in gold and silver artifacts; unusual for the time.

Art

In the early 20th century, researchers established the existence of a local Maykop animal style in the artifacts found. This style was seen as the prototype for animal styles of later archaeological cultures: the Maykop animal style is more than a thousand years older than the Scythian, Sarmatian and Celtic animal styles.

Attributed to the Maykop culture are petroglyphs which have yet to be deciphered.

Hephaestus

Golden bull figurine

Horse breeding

The Maykop people lived sedentary lives, and horses formed a very low percentage of their livestock, which mostly consisted of pigs and cattle.

Archaeologists have discovered a unique form of bronze cheek-piece, which consists of a bronze rod with a twisted loop in the middle that threads through the nodes and connects to the bridle, halter strap, and headband. Notches and bumps on the edges of the cheek-pieces were, apparently, to attach nose and under-lip straps.

Some of the earliest wagon wheels in the world are found in Maykop culture area. The two solid wooden wheels from the kurgan of Starokorsunskaya in the Kuban region have been dated to the second half of the fourth millennium.

Terrace agriculture The construction of artificial terrace complexes in the mountains is evidence of their sedentary living, high population density, and high levels of agricultural and technical skills. The terraces were built around the fourth millennium BC. and all subsequent cultures used them for agricultural purposes. The vast majority of pottery found on the terraces are from the Maykop period, the rest from the Scythian and Alan period. The Maykop terraces are among the most ancient in the world, but they are little studied. The longevity of the terraces (more than 5000 years) allows us to consider their builders unsurpassed engineers and craftsmen.

Recent discoveries

Recent discoveries by archaeologist Alexei Rezepkin include:

• The most ancient bronze sword on record, dating from the second or third century of the 4th millennium BC. It was found in a stone tomb near Novosvobodnaya, and is now on display in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. It has a total length of 63 cm and a hilt length of 11 cm.
• The most ancient column.
• The most ancient stringed instrument, resembling the modern Adyghian shichepshin, dating from the late 4th millennium B.C., now also in the Hermitage Museum.

Pontic steppe Origins

Its burial practices resemble the burial practices described in the Kurgan hypothesis of Marija Gimbutas, has been regarded by some as an Indo-European intrusion from the Pontic steppe into the Caucasus. However, according to J.P. Mallory,

... where the evidence for barrows is found, it is precisely in regions which later demonstrate the presence of non-Indo-European populations.

The culture has been described as, at the very least, a "kurganized" local culture with strong ethnic and linguistic links to the descendants of the Proto-Indo-Europeans. It has been linked to the Lower Mikhaylovka group and Kemi Oba culture, and more distantly, to the Globular Amphora and Corded Ware cultures, if only in an economic sense. Yet, according to Mallory,

Such a theory, it must be emphasized, is highly speculative and controversial although there is a recognition that this culture may be a product of at least two traditions: the local steppe tradition embraced in the Novosvobodna culture and foreign elements from south of the Caucasus which can be charted through imports in both regions.

Iranian Origins

According to Mariya Ivanova the Maikop origins were on the Iranian Plateau:

Graves and settlements of the 5th millennium BC in North Caucasus attest to a material culture that was related to contemporaneous archaeological complexes in the northern and western Black Sea region. Yet it was replaced, suddenly as it seems, around the middle of the 4th millennium BC by a “high culture” whose origin is still quite unclear. This archaeological culture named after the great Maikop kurgan showed innovations in all areas which have no local archetypes and which cannot be assigned to the tradition of the Balkan-Anatolian Copper Age. The favoured theory of Russian researchers is a migration from the south originating in the Syro-Anatolian area, which is often mentioned in connection with the socalled “Uruk expansion”. However, serious doubts have arisen about a connection between Maikop and the Syro-Anatolian region. The foreign objects in the North Caucasus reveal no connection to the upper reaches of the Euphrates and Tigris or to the floodplains of Mesopotamia, but rather seem to have ties to the Iranian plateau and to South Central Asia. Recent excavations in the Southwest Caspian Sea region are enabling a new perspective about the interactions between the “Orient” and Continental Europe. On the one hand, it is becoming gradually apparent that a gigantic area of interaction evolved already in the early 4th millennium BC which extended far beyond Mesopotamia; on the other hand, these findings relativise the traditional importance given to Mesopotamia, because innovations originating in Iran and Central Asia obviously spread throughout the Syro-Anatolian region independently thereof.

Azerbaijan

More recently, some very ancient kurgans have been discovered at Soyuqbulaq in Azerbaijan. These kurgans date to the beginning of the 4th millennium BC, and belong to Leylatepe Culture. According to the excavators of these kurgans, there are some significant parallels between Soyugbulaq kurgans and the Maikop kurgans:

"Discovery of Soyugbulaq in 2004 and subsequent excavations provided substantial proof that the practice of kurgan burial was well established in the South Caucasus during the late Eneolithic [...] The Leylatepe Culture tribes migrated to the north in the mid-fourth millennium, B.C. and played an important part in the rise of the Maikop Culture of the North Caucasus."

Indo-Anatolian homeland in the Caucasus

On the Y-DNA data

Particularly striking is the genetic signature from the steppe on the Y chromosome. From this the researchers conclude that the majority of migrants were males. Kristian Kristiansen, chief archaeologist in the Willerslev team, also has an idea of ​​how this could be explained: “Maybe it’s a rite of initiation, as it was spread among the steppe peoples,” he says.

The younger sons of the Yamnaya herders, who were excluded from the succession, had to seek their fortune on their own. As part of a solemn ritual, they threw themselves to wolves’ skins and then swarmed in warlike gangs to buy their own herds by cattle-stealing.

(…)

An ally that they seem to have brought from their homeland may also have contributed to the genetic success of the steppe people: Yersinia pestis, the plague bacterium. Its genes were found by researchers from the Max Planck Institute in Jena – and apparently it emerged exactly at the same time as the Yamnaya thrust began.

About the Hittites

(…) And yet now, where Asia and Europe meet geographically, there is no trace of the Yamnaya genes. The wander-loving people from the Pontic-Caspian steppe apparently found neither the way across the Balkans nor through the Caucasus mountains.

Now the researchers are puzzled: How can it be that a language goes on a walk, without the accompanying speakers coming along? Is it possible that the Indo-European seeped into Anatolia, much like the English language spread today without the need for Englishmen?

Archaeologist Kristiansen does not believe it. The researchers would find it hard to reconsider their theories, he says: “Especially the first chapter of the story has to be rewritten.”

He suspects that there was a predecessor of the Yamnaya culture, in which a kind of Proto-Proto-Indo-European was spoken. And he also has a suspicion, where this people could have drifted around: The Caucasus, says Kristiansen, was their homeland.

Spread of Indo-European languages

Stećci

"Ono što nam arheološki dokazi Stare Europe sugeriraju jeste da se ne radi o fenomenu koji je prisutan samo u jednoj izoliranoj kulturi. Mi nalazimo arhitektonske, umjetničke i religiozne elemente stećaka gotovo u svim ranim kulturama koje spadaju u jedno specifično prahistorijsko doba na tlu Balkana. Prema svojoj arhitektonskoj strukturi, ali i dekorativnim te religioznim elementima, stećci predstavljaju odraz staroevropskih svetilišta, kao i minijaturnih reprodukcija kuća, hramova, oltara... Običaj proizvodnje takvih minijaturnih reprodukcija nalazimo u kulturi Starčevo koja se prostirala središnjim dijelom Balkana, od devetog do sedmog tisućljeća prije nove ere. Slične arheološke nalaze pronalazimo u kulturi Vinče u Srbiji, pa onda u kulturi Porodin pokraj Bitole u Makedoniji. Minijaturne rekonstrukcije prahistorijskih hramova i zavjetne oltare za kultne potrebe koji su odraz stećaka, nalazimo također u prahistorijskim kulturama sjeverne Grčke, pa zatim u Rumunjskoj, Mađarskoj, Bugarskoj i Ukrajini. Stotine prapovijesnih artefakta ovih, ali i drugih kultura s ovog područja, svjedoče o jednom bezgraničnom svijetu koji je dijelio zajedničke arhitektonske oblike i elemente, dekorativnu i vjersku simboliku."

"Ono što je proizašlo iz moje studije jeste to da je osnovna funkcija stećaka bila višestručna. Poznato je kako su staroeuropske kulture sahranjivale osobe ženskog spola i djecu između ili unutar kuća neolitskih naselja, što potvrđuje da je moderni i popularni naziv za stećke vječna kuća ili vječni dom i najprikladniji, a potiče direktno iz te antičke tradicije. Uostalom, nalazimo stećke u obliku kuća na raznim lokacijama Bosne i Hercegovine. Osim toga, arhitektura stećaka inkorporira ne samo različite oblike staroeuropskih hramova, nego i svetu simboliku koja je vezana za pitagorejsku doktrinu; četiri vječna osnovna elementa - Zrak, Vatra, Voda i Zemlja, pitagorejsku doktrinu o besmrtnosti duše i svetu simboliku u bliskom odnosu sa kulturama koje su gradili piramide, a to jeste simbol za Horizont i koncept slojevitog svemira. Sa znatiželjom nalazimo istu simboliku na stotinu artefakata što potiču iz tisućljetne tradicije Stare Europe. Znači da su stećci svjedoci ne samo jednog jedinstvenog i duševno razvijenog društva, nego i da je to društvo bilo vrlo dobro upoznato sa spiritualnim konceptima koji su karakteristični za antičke kulture poput egipatske ili meksičke. To jedinstveno kulturno i spiritualno blago je nerazdvojivo spojeno u sve oblike stećka, a dolazi do naglašenog izražaja u stećcima izduženog pentagonalnog oblika."

"Barem u principu, sljedbenici bogumilske vjere su odbacivali bogatstvo i feudalno izrabljivanje državne vlasti. Bogumili su, također, odbijali dominantnu istočnu kršćansku crkvu i njezinu hijerarhiju, njezine hramove, sakramente i svečanosti u izvedbi svećenika. Na isti način su odbacivali sve materijalne objekte koji su koristili Pravoslavci tokom održavanja molitve i osuđivali uporabu ikona, pretežno križa, te štovanje relikvija i svetaca. Bogumili i patareni su pretežno bili vjerski propovjednici, ravnodušni prema svjetovnim poslovima. Masovna proizvodnja desetak tisuća monolitnih stećaka sa bogatim ukrasnim motivima je u totalnoj kontradikciji sa skromnom vjerskom doktrinom bogumila i patarena. S druge strane nam se predstavlja sličan problem u vezi sa srednjovjekovnom teorijom stećaka kao povlasticom ortodoksnog ili katoličkog Kršćanstva. Naime, od sedamdesetak tisuća registriranih stećaka, samo pet tisuća imaju ukrasne motive. Od pet tisuća ukrašenih stećaka samo 438 imaju kao glavni ukrasni element različite forme križeva. To znači da najvažniji religiozni simbol potencijalno podložan različitim crkvama, zajedno sa ostalim varijantama stećaka u obliku križa, ne predstavlja niti dvadeset posto ukrašenih stećaka. Pitanje koje iz ove činjenice spontano proizlazi glasi: kako je moguće da najreprezentativniji simbol obje, i rimokatoličke i istočne pravoslavne crkve, obuhvaća takav mali broj stećaka? Ako uz predhodne činjenice još dodamo da je većina križeva koje nalazimo na stećcima paganskog podrijetla u obliku swastike ili antropomorfnog oblika, logičan zaključak može biti samo jedan; stećci nisu ekskluzivna povlastica srednjovjekovnih crkava i kultura."

 
Svastike na stećcima

"Na području Stare Europe ne nalazimo samo stećke i armenske hačkare, ororots, nego i bjeloruske kamene idole poznate pod nazivom baba. Poput stećaka i armenskih hačkara, bjeloruski babari često su upisani simbolikom swastike ili antropomorfnim oblicima križa. Postoje stotine primjera babara, a rasuti su po cijeloj teritoriji Bjelorusije. Valja naglasiti da se kulturni utjecaj i tradicija bezgraničnog svijeta Stare Europe prostirao od Balkana do današnje Anatolije, pa i sve do velikog broja bivših sovjetskih republika. Istina je da su stećci na tlu Balkana, zajedno s armenskim hačkarima i bjeloruskim babarima, puno starijeg podrijetla nego što je to akademski stipendijum pretpostavljao. U doprinos tome ide i podatak da su simboli prahistorijske kulture Vinča identični armenskim antičkim simbolima u kamenu. Ovo zapanjujuće otkriće je predstavljeno u lokalitetu Capo di Ponte u talijanskoj Valcamonici, tokom 33 simpozija za umjetnost u kamenu 2009 godine. Zaključak izvještaja službene akademske stipendije bio je jednoglasan: armenska prahistorijska umjetnost u kamenu potječe iz kulture Vinča, što nam svjedoči o postojanju najstarije interkulturalne mreže i komunikacije između kultova Stare Europe i stare Armenije, u periodu od šest tisuća godina prije Krista." - Nenad M. Đurđević

Hačkar u Armeniji ili armenski stećak

Odlomci iz Đurđevićeve studije

"Stećci se uglavnom nalaze u Bosni i Hercegovini, Hrvatskoj, Srbiji i Crnoj Gori. Iako većina postojećih teorija pripisuje stvaranje stećaka bogumilskom socijalno-religijskom pokretu, ovi spomenici se ne nalaze na mjestima gdje je ova doktrina nastala i bila uglavnom propovijedana, naime, u Bugarskoj i Makedoniji.."

"Stećci u obliku kuće mogu se naći gotovo svugdje u Bosni, ali i u susjednim zemljama. Ponekad su ukrašeni motivima i natpisima, ali najčešće su neukrašeni. Stećke u obliku kuća nalazimo u formi velikog kamena (monolita), kao i položene na postolja. Korištenje velikih temelja od kamena je zajedničko obilježje koje možemo naći kod mnogih stećaka. Daljnji dokazi jasno pokazuju da takva arhitektonska praksa nije isključivo produkt srednjovjekovnog razdoblja, već je dubokoukorijenjena u tisućljetnu Staroeuropsku kulturu i tradiciju.."
...
"Kugle (jabuke) su često smještene uzduž zabata i mogu se pojaviti pojedinačno, u parovima ili utroje. Ponekad, čvorovi se koriste za ukrašavanje središnjih dijelova okomitih strana, kao elaboracija središnjeg polja. Također ih možemo naći na vrhovima zašiljenih stela. U nekim slučajevima, pripisuju ih osmanskom naslijeđu, jer slične kugle nalazimo na grobovima muslimanskih vođa. Alternativno, smatraju se prerogativom različitih srednjevjekovnih crkava, jer su često prikazane na kamenim križevima iz tog razdoblja. U srpskom ili hrvatskom jeziku te kugle nazivaju "jabuka". Čak i danas postoji običaj da se jabuke stavljaju na vrh i krakove križeva, a posebno nad grobovima mladih djevojaka i mladića. Unatoč tome, dokazi ukazuju da kugle, kao i mnogi drugi simboli pronađeni na stećcima u cijeloj Bosni i Hercegovini, Hrvatskoj i Srbiji, ne proizlaze iz srednjovjekovne umjetnosti ili tradicije, već vode podrijetlo u 7000 godina staroj civilizaciji Stare Europe.."

"U skladu s mojim osobnim iskustvom i dokazima koji su nastali tijekom terenskog istraživanja u Visočkoj dolini, zajedno s usmenim svjedočenjima poljoprivrednika koji nerijetko pomiču ove spomenike u poljoprivredne svrhe, primjeri stećaka bez ljudskih skeletnih ostataka, kao što su lubanje, bedrene kosti itd. nadmašuju u velikoj mjeri one u kojima su takvi ostatci nađeni."

Kernosovka stelae of Sredny Stog culture

From Dnepropetrovsk Historical museum collection of 86 stelae ranging from Sredny Stog to Kipchak

Kernosovka stele, publicised in 1973

Natalia stele, publicised in 1862

Other stelae from Dnepropetrovsk Historical Museum collection of 86 stelae

 
Stele below depict males

The crown-type hat of jewelry-adorned female below depicts a discernable tamga insignia

Stele below apparently depict a female in a conical hat holding a ritual drinking cup.

We have already noted the potential importance of the Caucasus in stimulating the Neolithic economy in the Pontic-Caspian region. The association of the northern Caucasus with the Pontic-Caspian is much more clearly seen in the Eneolithic period. One of the earliest north Caucasian sites of importance is the cemetery at Nalchik. Here were found 147 burials placed under very low kurgans which together formed an extensive low kurgan covering an area of about 300 square meters. Although twelve of the burials were found in the supine position with legs flexed (as we frequently encounter in the steppe), the majority were deposited on their sides, males on their right and females on their left. Ochre frequently accompanied the burials. Grave goods included pendants fashioned from animal teeth, flint tools, and a series of marble bracelets. The earliest burials at Nalchik are dated to the Eneolithic. Other than a few other burials and a single settlement site, there is little local context for the Nalchik cemetery which appears to straddle the world of both the steppe and the Caucasus.

Stećci - Babe

Lijevo je motiv na kamenom stupu u Ukrajini - Motiv na stećku u Donjem Vrbnu,

Motivi na kamenu-babi u Ukrajini (lijevo) i na stećcima-babama.

 
Lepenski vir - Motiv na stećku u selu Dići kod Ljiga.

Avignon, Musée Calvet

Stele from the Petit Chasseur in Sion, Switzerland, dating from 2700–2150 BC

South Caucasus, Transcaucasia

Stone stele found in Boyahmadli village of Ağdam region of Azerbaijan

Kurgan

Tumulus - Kurgan

Kurgan - Dilmun civilization

Znak "П" sa točkom u sredini - Istok

Istočna kapija neba sa izlazećim suncem

Znak П sa točkom u vinčanskim simbolima.

П, п - Ćirilica = P, p - Latinica

Riječi sanskrita sa početnim П (P latinicom) znače:

purvaza = istok
praci = istok
pragdiz = istok
pracya = istok
paurastya = istok
paurva = istok
purva = istok, prvi
purvaka = prvi
purvya = prvi
prajc = prvi
pramukha = prvi
prathamaka = prvi
purvataram = prvi
pura = prvi

E-KUR - Kurgan - Kuroš (Kuronja)

Gnostic Basilides Abraxas - glava pijetao, noge zmije

Genetic studies have pointed to multiple maternal origins in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia, but with the clade found in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa originating in the Indian subcontinent.

The origin could be the Harappan culture of the Indus Valley. Eventually, the chicken moved to the Tarim basin of central Asia. The chicken reached Europe (Romania, Turkey, Greece, Ukraine) about 3000 BC. Introduction into Western Europe came far later, about the 1st millennium BC. Phoenicians spread chickens along the Mediterranean coasts as far as Iberia. Breeding increased under the Roman Empire, and was reduced in the Middle Ages.

Cyrus II of Persia (Old Persian: 𐎤𐎢𐎽𐎢𐏁 Kūrauš; Kourosh; New Persian: کوروش Kuruš; Hebrew: כורש, Modern: Kōréš, Tiberian: Kōréš; 600 – 530 BC), commonly known as Cyrus the Great, and also called Cyrus the Elder by the Greeks, was the founder of the Achaemenid Empire, the first Persian Empire.

The name Cyrus is a Latinized form derived from the Greek Κῦρος, Kỹros, itself from the Old Persian Kūruš. The name and its meaning have been recorded in ancient inscriptions in different languages. The ancient Greek historians Ctesias and Plutarch stated that Cyrus was named from Kuros, the Sun, a concept which has been interpreted as meaning "like the Sun" (Khurvash) by noting its relation to the Persian noun for sun, khor, while using -vash as a suffix of likeness. This may also point to a relationship to the mythological "first king" of Persia, Jamshid, whose name also incorporates the element "sun" ("shid"). In the Persian language and especially in Iran, Cyrus's name is spelled as کوروش [kuːˈɾoʃ]. In the Bible, he is known as Koresh (Hebrew: כורש‎).

Kur in Sumerian mythology, a mountain or mountains, usually identified as the Zagros mountains to the east of Sumer.

Ekur (𒂍𒆳 É.KUR) is a Sumerian term meaning "mountain house". It is the assembly of the gods in the Garden of the gods, parallel in Greek mythology to Mount Olympus and was the most revered and sacred building of ancient Sumer.

• KU-KUR, koka, kokot (vulgar dick), kurija, kurac, kurva.. kvočka, kučka..
• KU-KUR, Куч, gomila, gum, hum.. kuća, kut, kutija..

   
Gnostic Basilides Abraxas

• Kur, Kourosh = Mountain & Sun (Shamash, Christus)
• Christus, krijesta, krasta, korona, kruna, kralj.. Kuro, Kuroš, Kurobasa.. Kir, Ćir, Ćiro, Ćiril..

Christus Fílius tuus

Flammas eius lúcifer matutínus invéniat: ille, inquam, lúcifer, qui nescit occásum. Christus Fílius tuus, qui, regréssus ab ínferis, humáno géneri serénus illúxit, et vivit et regnat in sæcula sæculórum.

May this flame be found still burning by the Morning Star: the one Morning Star who never sets, Christ your Son, who, coming back from death's domain, has shed his peaceful light on humanity, and lives and reigns for ever and ever.