My Understanding of Religion
Page 14
Neanderthals succeeded Homo heidelbergensis in Europe sometime after 200 000 years ago and were replaced in Europe by modern humans about 30 000 years ago. Some scholars believe Neanderthal man was an ancestor of modern humans and little different from Homo heidelbergensis from whom, it is assumed, Neanderthal man descended. Other scholars believe Neanderthal man is unrelated to modern humans, even though he was the first hominid to intentionally bury his dead. Unlike Homo erectus and Homo heidelbergensis, Neanderthals used a Mousterian tool kit. As they had domesticated fire they were able to live in caves - where most Neanderthal fossils come from. Neanderthal remains were first unearthed, during 1856, in a cave in the Neander Valley (near Dusseldorf) in Germany. The brain case of Neanderthal man was longer and lower than in modern humans but Neanderthal cranial capacity equalled or surpassed that of modern humans - their brains were larger than those of modern humans. Neanderthals and modern humans may have coexisted for thousands of years and there is evidence from Lisbon, in Portugal, that may provide proof of interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans.
Human remains discovered in a rock shelter in the Cro-Magnon hill (near Les Eyzies in the Dordogne area of France) during 1868 proved to be between 10 000 and 35 000 years old. These remains engendered the term Cro-Magnon man. Some scientists believe Cro-Magnon man was little different from Neanderthal man. Like Neanderthal man Cro-Magnon man buried his dead and used flake tools. Neanderthals are associated with a flake tool industry called
Mousterian, Cro-Magnons are associated with a more sophisticated flake tool industry called Aurignacian - some
Neanderthal remains have been found in association with Aurignacian tools. Although Cro-Magnons are thought to have been between five feet five inches and five feet seven inches tall it is generally agreed that they were tall compared to other early humans; it was originally claimed that one individual from the Cro-Magnon hill find was six feet three inches tall. Several Cro-Magnon skeletons from the Grimaldi Caves in Italy were found to have an average height of five feet ten inches. Cro-Magnon people were muscular and powerful. Their skulls were long and narrow, their molars large, and their cranial capacity (1600 cubic centimetres) was larger than the average for modern humans. Cro-Magnons appear to have been a settled people with social networks throughout Europe. They are associated with shelters of skin and shelters of stone (which were intended for year round use) and statuettes of a corpulent woman (like the so-called Venus of Willendorf) that seem to be a phenomenon related to the appearance of humankind's first religion.
It is not known how long Cro-Magnons persisted or what became of them. One theory has them being absorbed into the European populations that came after them. Emigration into Europe after the appearance of Cro-Magnon people could only have taken place from the east, south, and southeast. As mentioned elsewhere, the Pleistocene Epoch contained several ice ages. More than 30 percent of the world's land area was covered by ice during periods of severe Pleistocene glaciation. Extensive ice sheets covered much of North America, Asia, and Europe. Sea levels were as much as 200 metres lower than today. Almost half of Europe was under the Scandinavian Ice Sheet: it covered most of Britain, continued south across central Germany and Poland, and then stretched north-east across the northern Russian Plain to the Arctic Ocean. Mountain glaciers covered much of Siberia and its northwestern plain was under the Siberian Ice Sheet. Neanderthal man appeared before the last great Pleistocene glaciation, which began about 70 000 years ago. Cro-Magnon man appeared during the vertex of the last major glaciation. During this period (35 000 to 13 000 years ago) some European populations moved south, leaving much of the North European Plain unoccupied. About 25 000 years ago there was a late expansion of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet. The Pleistocene Epoch gave way to the Holocene Epoch about 10 000 years ago and over the next 4000 years the melting of the great ice sheets resulted in a rapid rise in sea levels, the destruction of some land bridges (including the one between Britain and France), and extensive flooding of large areas of land in the North Sea Basin and Mediterranean region.
Two kinds of race are recognised: geographic and local. All European people belong to the European geographic race. However, the European geographic race contains several local races: Mediterranean local race, Alpine local race, northeast Europe local race, and northwest Europe local race. Members of a geographic race will be similar in hereditary make-up. Members of a local race will resemble each other in appearance. The Mediterranean local race is made up of people from southern Europe, the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula, and North Africa. They are short of stature. People from the Balkan and Alpine regions of Europe make up the Alpine local race. Members of this race are of short stature. The northeast Europe local race is composed of people from northwestern Russia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Poland. A characteristic of this race is a tendency towards brachycephaly - a head that is short from back to face. The northwest Europe local race is made up of people from Ireland, England, northern Germany, The Netherlands, Iceland, and Scandinavia. It is this race that has the greatest average height in Europe (most evident amongst Scots and Scandinavians). People entering northwest Europe from just about anywhere else in the Old World, including the south, east or southeast would have encountered a people taller than themselves. These 'giants' of northwest Europe probably descended, at least in part, from Cro-Magnon populations. Consequently, their religions may have derived from humankind's first religion.
Statuettes of corpulent women were generated by this religion. Numerous examples have been found in an area ranging from France to Russia. Perhaps the best-known example is the Venus of Willendorf. It dates from between 24 to 26 thousand years ago and seems an accurate representation of a fat woman; like all other examples it has neither feet nor face. Viewed from the side, the figure is looking down. Concentric circles of hair - an impossible hairdo, conceal the 'face'. Although described as a fertility idol, Mother Goddess, Earth Goddess or child's doll, the rings around her head proclaim the Venus of Willendorf a solar deity or sun mother and link her to the wood henges and stone circles of Western Europe that feature concentric circles.
This part of 'My Religious Understanding' has seen much ground, time, and human activity covered concisely. Emphasis followed perceivable threads of Indo-European influence: Bodhidharma, Buddhism, Yoga, Hittites, Balts, etc. Sanskrit, the language of Yoga, is an Indo-European language. However, it is doubtful that Yoga is a product of Indo-European design. By implication Yoga descended from a naga or serpent influenced train of thought. Serpents and dragons keep company with golden apples. These apples are opium apples. Serpents, dragons, and nagas are the enemy of the sunbird. Material representative of the most remote stage of Indo-European religion may be preserved in Lithuanian, a language of the Balts. Baltic tradition says the sun is female. Balts acknowledge a sun-goddess (Saule). Sun-goddess worship appears as a feature of humankind's first religion. Concentric circles were another feature of this religion. Humankind's first religion originated in Europe.
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