Cradle of Civilization

A Blog about the Birth of Our Civilisation and Development

  • Sjur C Papazian

  • FB: Sjur Papazian

    FB: Sjur Papazian

  • Recent Posts

  • Categories

  • Armenian Eternal Symbol

  • Forget-me-not

  • The Fertile Crescent

    The Fertile Crescent is a term for an old fertile area north, east and west of the Arabian Desert in Southwest Asia. The Mesopotamian valley and the Nile valley fall under this term even though the mountain zone around Mesopotamia is the natural zone for the transition in a historical sense.

    As a result of a number of unique geographical factors the Fertile Crescent have an impressive history of early human agricultural activity and culture. Besides the numerous archaeological sites with remains of skeletons and cultural relics the area is known primarily for its excavation sites linked to agricultural origins and development of the Neolithic era.

    It was here, in the forested mountain slopes of the periphery of this area, that agriculture originated in an ecologically restricted environment. The western zone and areas around the upper Euphrates gave growth to the first known Neolithic farming communities with small, round houses , also referred to as Pre Pottery Neolithic A (PPNA) cultures, which dates to just after 10,000 BC and include areas such as Jericho, the world’s oldest city.

    During the subsequent PPNB from 9000 BC these communities developed into larger villages with farming and animal husbandry as the main source of livelihood, with settlement in the two-story, rectangular house. Man now entered in symbiosis with grain and livestock species, with no opportunity to return to hunter – gatherer societies.

    The area west and north of the plains of the Euphrates and Tigris also saw the emergence of early complex societies in the much later Bronze Age (about 4000 BC). There is evidence of written culture and early state formation in this northern steppe area, although the written formation of the states relatively quickly shifted its center of gravity into the Mesopotamian valley and developed there. The area is therefore in very many writers been named “The Cradle of Civilization.”

    The area has experienced a series of upheavals and new formation of states. When Turkey was formed in the aftermath of the genocide against the Pontic Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians perpetrated by the Young Turks during the First World War it is estimated that two-thirds to three-quarters of all Armenians and Assyrians in the region died, and the Pontic Greeks was pushed to Greece.

    Israel was created out of the Ottoman Empire and the conquering of the Palestinian terretories. The existence of large Arab nation states from the Maghreb to the Levant has since represented a potential threat to Israel which should be neutralised when opportunities arise.

    This line of thinking was at the heart of David Ben Gurion’s policies in the 1950s which sought to exacerbate tensions between Christians and Muslims in the Lebanon for the fruits of acquiring regional influence by the dismembering the country and the possible acquisition of additional territory.

    The Christians are now being systematically targeted for genocide in Syria according to Vatican and other sources with contacts on the ground among the besieged Christian community.

    According to reports by the Vatican’s Fides News Agency collected by the Centre for the Study of Interventionism, the US-backed Free Syrian Army rebels and ever more radical spin-off factions are sacking Christian churches, shooting Christians dead in the street, broadcasting ultimatums that all Christians must be cleansed from the rebel-held villages, and even shooting priests.

    It is now time that the genocide against the Pontic Greeks, Assyrians and Armenians is being recognized, that the Israeli occupation, settlements and violence against the Palestinians stop, and that the various minorities in the area start to live their lifes in peace – without violence and threats from majority populations, or from the West, and then specificially from the US.

    War in the Fertile Crescent

    War in the Fertile Crescent


    —
    Everyone is free to use the text on this blog as they want. There is no copyright etc. This because knowledge is more important than rules and regulations.

  • Archives

«
»

The history of the Swastika

Posted by Sjur Cappelen Papazian on December 16, 2013

photo

http://at37.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/swastika4.gif

The earliest swastika known has been found in Mezine, Ukraine. It is carved on late paleolithic figurine of mammoth ivory, being dated as early as about 10,000 BC. It has been suggested this swastika may be a stylized picture of a stork in flight and not the true swastika that is in use today. Mirror-image swastikas (clockwise and anti-clockwise) have been found on ceramic pottery in the Devetashka cave, Bulgaria, dated 6,000 B.C. It appear in Neolithic China in the Majiabang, Dawenkou and Xiaoheyan cultures.

Swastikas also appear on pottery in archaeological digs in Africa, in the area of Kush and on pottery at the Jebel Barkal temples. It is seen in Egypt during the Coptic period. Textile number T.231-1923 held at the V&A Museum in London includes small swastikas in its design. This piece was found at Qau-el-Kebir, near Asyut, and is dated between AD 300-600.

The swastika is also seen in Iron Age designs of the northern Caucasus (Koban culture). Other Iron Age attestations of the swastika can be associated with Indo-European cultures such as the Indo-Iranians, Celts, Greeks, Germanic peoples and Slavs. In England, neolithic or Bronze Age stone carvings of the symbol have been found on Ilkley Moor.

The Tierwirbel (the German for “animal whorl” or “whirl of animals”) is a characteristic motive in Bronze Age Central Asia, the Eurasian Steppe, and later also in Iron Age Scythian and European (Baltic and Germanic) culture, showing rotational symmetric arrangement of an animal motive, often four birds’ heads. Even wider diffusion of this “Asiatic” theme has been proposed, to the Pacific and even North America (especially Moundville).

Solar symbols

The swastika (卐)

Borjgali

Triskelion

Three hares

Gankyil

Tursaansydän

Sun cross

Celtic cross

Brigid’s cross

Iran Sun Cross

Swastika Stone

Camunian rose

Swastika curve

Rosettes and  Ornamental Art

Sun Wheel – The Ancient Swastika

The Women’s Dance I: Southern Asia

Human Past

Armenian Eternity Sign (arevakhach)

Borjgala.svg

Georgian Eternity Sign (Borjgali)

File:Kolovrat (Коловрат) Swastika (Свастика) - Rodnovery.jpg

The Kolovrat (Коловрат) Swastika (Свастика)

– the foremost symbol representing Rodnovery amongst East Slavic peoples and traditions.

Armenian dancers

Ingushetia National Flag

Solar emblem of Vainakh represents not only the sun and the universe

but also awareness of the oneness of the spirit in the past, present and future

File:Swastika avarian Dagh.JPG

Old Avarian popular symbols appearing on stone and felt

Avar, Kumyk

File:Flag of Ust-Orda Buryat Autonomous Okrug.svg

Flag of Ust-Orda Buryat Autonomous Okrug

File:Flag of the Isle of Man.svg

Flag of the Isle of Man

File:Flag of Sicily.svg

Flag of Sicily

File:Flag of Kuna Yala.svg

Kuna, indigenous people of Panama and Colombia

Flag of India

Swastika, a symbol of auspiciousness in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism

Jainism

Mezin, Ukraine, 10,000 BC

Swastika, Balkans, 7th-6th mill. BC

Cucuteni-Trypillian, 6500 BC

photo

Swastika, Vinca, 5500-4800 BC

Samarra, Iraq, 5000 BC

Swastika, Hassuna, 5500 BC

Swastika, Elam, 4000 BC

Swastika, Ur, Early dynastic, 2900-2400 BC

Swastika, Ur, Jemdet Nasr, 3100-2900 BC

Swastika, Ur, Jemdet Nasr, 3100-2900 BC

File:IndusValleySeals swastikas.JPG

Swastika seals, Indus Valley

Minoan ''Kamares'' Jar

Minoan

Swastika, Early Cycladik II, 2700-2300 BC

File:Swastika symbol in ancient greek doll.JPG

Bronze Age Mycenaean

Swastika, China, Majiayao, Mid 3rd mill BC

Swastika, China, Majiayao, Mid 3rd mill BC

photo

Swastika, China, Majiayao, Mid 3rd mill BC

Swastika, China, Majiayao, Mid 3rd mill BC

Swastika, Minoan, 1800-1600 BC

photo

Triskele, China, 1200-650 BC

File:Etruscan pendant with swastika symbols Bolsena Italy 700 BCE to 650 BCE.jpg

Etruscan, Bolsena, Italy, 700-650 BC

File:Geometric kantharos Staatliche Antikensammlungen 8501.jpg

Greek, Attica, ca. 780 BC

Artemis with swastikas. Greece, circa 700 BC

Thebes, Greece, 500 BC

Etruscan pot c.700BC

Etruscan pot 700 BC

Gaul, Lyon, France

La Olmeda, Spain, Ancient Rome

File:Nydam.8.jpg

Nydam Mose, Denmark, 300-400

File:British Museum cinerary urn with swastika motifs.jpg

Anglo-Saxon, North Elmham, Norfolk, 500-600

File:Buckle from Oseberg Vikingship Buddha.JPG

Buckle from Oseberg Vikingship Buddha

File:Runestone from Snoldelev, East Zealand, Denmark.jpg

Runestone from Snoldelev, East Zealand, Denmark, 900 AD

Buddhist temple, Japan

Antique Navajo Indian silver. In Navajo myth, the swastika represents the Whirling Log, vehicle of the Culture Hero. In the Whirling Logs myth, the hero of sets out on a long journey, has a number of misadventures encountering the Water Monster, picking up important ceremonial/medicinal knowledge along the way, and when he reaches his destination, When he finally reaches his destination, the gods take his log out of a whirlpool where the rivers meet, and help him to shore.

Antique Navajo

Antique Navajo

Antique Navajo

File:GhanaSwastika.jpg

Ghana, 1400 AD

This entry was posted on December 16, 2013 at 8:53 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a comment

«
»