“WHEN GOD WAS A WOMAN” “The question most pressing—perhaps the one that has most insistently caused this book to come into being—is this: What effect did the worship of the female deity actually have upon the status of women in the cultures in which She was extolled?” MERLIN STONE “WHO WAS SHE” (Continued) THE NEOLITHIC MORNING The connections between the Paleolithic female figurines and the later emergence of the Goddess-worshiping societies in the Neolithic periods of the Near and Middle East are not definitive, but are suggested by many authorities. At the Gravettian site of Vestonice, Czechoslovakia, where Venus figures were not only formed but hardened in an oven, the carefully arranged grave of a woman was found. She was about forty years old. She had been supplied with tools, covered with mammoth shoulder blade bones and strewn with red ochre. In a proto-Neolithic site at Shanidar, on the northern stretches of the Tigris River, another grave was found, this one dating from about 9000 BC. It was the burial of a slightly younger woman, once again strewn with red ochre. One of the most significant links between the two periods are the female figurines, understood in Neolithic societies, through the emergence into the historic period of written records, to represent the Goddess. The sculptures of the Paleolithic cultures and those of the Neolithic periods are remarkably similar in materials, size and, most astonishing, in style. Hawkes commented on the relationship between the two periods, noting that the Paleolithic female figures “…are extraordinarily like the Mother or Earth Goddesses of the agricultural peoples of Eurasia in the Neolithic Age and must be directly ancestral to them.” E.O. James also remarks on the similarity, saying of the Neolithic statues, “Many of them are quite clearly allied to the Gravettian-Paleolithic prototypes.” But perhaps most significant is the fact that Aurignacian sites have now been discovered near Antalya, about sixty miles from the Neolithic Goddess-worshiping community of Hacilar in Anatolia (Turkey), and a Musa Dag in northern Syria (once a part of Canaan). James Mellaart, formerly the assistant director of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara, now teaching at the Institute of Archaeology in London, describes the proto-Neolithic cultures of the Near East, dating them at about 9000 to 7000 BC. He writes that during that time, “Art makes its appearance in the form of animal carvings and statuettes of the supreme deity, the Mother Goddess.” These Neolithic communities emerge with the earliest evidences of agricultural development (which is what defines them as Neolithic). They appear in areas later known as Canaan (Palestine {Israel}, Lebanon and Syria); in Anatolia (Turkey) and along the northern reaches of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (Iraq and Syria). It may be significant that all these cultures possessed obsidian, which was probably acquired from the closest site of availability—Anatolia. One of these sites, near Lake Van, would be directly on the route from the Russian steppes into the Near East. At the same site that is now known as Jericho (in Canaan), by 7000 BC people were living in plastered brick houses, some with clay ovens with chimneys and even sockets for doorposts. Rectangular plaster shrines had already appeared. Sybelle von Cles-Reden writes of Jericho, “Various finds point to an active religious life. Female clay figures with their hands raised to their breast resemble idols of the mother goddess which were later so widely disseminated in the Near East.” Mellaart too writes of Jericho: “They carefully made small clay figures of the mother-goddess type.” Another Neolithic community was centered in Jarmo in northern Iraq from about 6800 BC. H.W.F. Saggs, Professor of Semitic Languages, tells us that in Jarmo, “There were figurines in clay of animals as well as of a mother goddess: the mother goddess represented by such figurines seems to have been the central figure in Neolithic religion.” Hacilar, some sixty miles from the Aurigacian site of Antalya, was inhabited at about 6000 BC. Here, too, figures of the Goddess have been found. And at the excavations at Catal Huyuk, close to the Cilician plains of Anatolia, near present day Konya, Mellaart discovered no less than forty shrines, dating from 6500 BC onward. The culture of Catal Huyuk existed for nearly one thousand years. Mellaart reveals, “The statues allow us to recognize the main deities worshiped by Neolithic people at Catal Huyuk. The principal deity was a goddess, who is shown in her three aspects, as a young woman, a mother giving birth or as an old woman.” Mellaart suggests that there may have been a majority of women at Catal Huyuk, as evidenced by the number of female burials. At Catal Huyuk , too, red ochre was strewn on the bodies; nearly all of the red ochre burials were of women. He also suggests that the religion was primarily associated with the role of women in the initial development of AGRICULTURE, and adds, “It seems extremely likely that the cult of the goddess was administered mainly by women…” (SA NOTE: THIS DESERVES AN ONCORE?….SO I REPEAT…ESPECIALLY FOR MY MALE READERS AND CHRISTIANS WHO DENY THE AFRICAN GODDESS CULTURE….” Hacilar, some sixty miles from the Aurigacian site of Antalya, was inhabited at about 6000 BC. Here, too, figures of the Goddess have been found. And at the excavations at Catal Huyuk, close to the Cilician plains of Anatolia, near present day Konya, Mellaart discovered no less than forty shrines, dating from 6500 BC onward. The culture of Catal Huyuk existed for nearly one thousand years. Mellaart reveals, “The statues allow us to recognize the main deities worshiped by Neolithic people at Catal Huyuk. The principal deity was a goddess, who is shown in her three aspects, as a young woman, a mother giving birth or as an older woman.” Mellaart suggests that there may hae been a majority of women at Catal Huyuk, as evidenced by the number of female burials. At Catal Huyuk , too, red ochre was strewn on the bodies; nearly all of the red ochre burials were of women. He also suggests that the religion was primarily associated with the role of women in the initial development of AGRICULTURE, and adds, “It seems extremely likely that the cult of the goddess was administered mainly by WOMEN…” By about 5500 BC houses had been built with groups of rooms around a central courtyard, a style used by many architects even TODAY. (SA NOTE: WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH THE AUSTRALIAN WHO STATED AFRICANS WEREN’T INTELLIGENT ENOUGH FOR WHITE AUSTRALIANS WHO WERE STILL PRIMITIVE, CRAWLING AROUND ON ALL FOURS, WHEN WE WERE BUILDING ARCHITECTUAL WONDERS (THE 8TH)….SMILING. These were found in sites along the northern reaches of the Tigris River, in communities that represent what is known as the Hassuna period. There, as in other Neolithic communities, archaeologists found agricultural tools such as the hoe and sickle, storage jars for corn and clay ovens. And again, Professor Saggs reports, “The religious ideas of the Hassuna period are reflected in clay figurines of the MOTHER GODDESS.” One of the most sophisticated prehistoric cultures of the ancient Near and Middle East was situated along the banks of the northern Tigris and westward as far as the Habur River. It is known as the Halaf culture and appeared in various places by 5000BC. At these Halaf sites, small towns with cobbled streets have been discovered. Metal was in use, which would place the Halaf cultures into a period labeled by archaeologists as Chalcolithic. Saggs writes that, judging from a picture on a ceramic vase, “It is probably from the Halaf period that the invention of wheeled vehicles date.” Goddess figurines have been found at all Halaf sites, but at the Halafian town of Arpachiyah these figures were associated with serpents, double axes and doves, all symbols connected with GODDESS WORSHIP as it was known in historical periods. Along with the intricately designed polychromed ceramic ware, at Arpachiyah buildings known as “tholoi” appeared. These were circular shaped rooms up to thirty-three feet in diameter with well-engineered vaulted ceilings. The round structures were connected to long rectangular corridors up to sixty-three feet in length. Since it was close to these “tholoi” that most of the Goddess figurines were discovered, it is likely that they were used as shrines. By 4000 BC Goddess figures appeared at Ur and Uruk, both situated on the southern end of the Euphrates River, not far from the Persian Gulf. At about this same period the Neolithic Badarian and Amratian cultures of Egypt FIRST APPEARED. It is at these sites that agriculture first emerged in Egypt. And once again in these Neolithic communities of Egypt, GODDESS figurines were discovered. (SA: TO THE AUSTRALIAN WHITE MAN—READ AND KNOW THIS AND BE A PREJUDICE IDIOT NO MORE)… HIGHLY UNLIKELY, BUT A THOUGHT. From this point on, with the invention of writing, history emerged in both Sumer (southern Iraq) and Egypt—about 3000 BC. Dr. Sidney Davis speaks of this. In every area of the Near and Middle East the Goddess was known in historic times. Through many centuries of transformation had undoubtedly changed the religion in various ways, the worship of the FEMALE deity survived into the classical periods of Greece and Rome. It was not totally suppressed until the time of the Christian emperors of Rome and Byzantium, who closed down the last Goddess temples in about 500 AD. NEXT READING WILL COVER: GODDESS – AS PEOPLE TODAY THINK OF GOD TO BE CONTINUED ______________________________________________________________ SA Comments: To the soothsayers out there, I ask only that you open your minds to the archeological finds….this is not our Country….their’s is Not our Religion!! They used religion to oppress and control us….and they still do…and it still does!! Thanks for joining me on this magic Mother Goddess, knowledge carpet ride.
Posted on: Wed, 21 Jan 2015 18:15:19 +0000
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