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Tracing the celestial deer - An ancient motif and its astronomical interpretation across cultures
... All these animals perched on a tree, or on the substitute object (for example, a post) are stylised depictions with a single leg (Horsch and Kuiper 1965;Rappenglück 2000), and they have a special relationship to the Sun, solar power and fire (Wright 2008, 34). Often, a shooter targets the solar animal (Mänchen-Helfen 1937;Rappenglück 2008) or the World Tree itself (Fischer 1932, 237;Rappenglück 1999, 174-177). The shooting down of the solar animal at summer solstice is thematised in traditions of pole archery, in which the target is a model bird. ...
The symbolism of the World Tree has not hitherto been explored from the perspective of possible astronomical references, despite widespread examples of the concept across the world and attention from various fields of study. The aim of the current study is to respond to that gap, using an interdisciplinary methodology that draws on approaches from comparative mythology, ritual studies, archaeological records, botany and socio-anthropological analysis.
Across cultures and through time people used costuming for presenting essential parts of their worldviews. They often linked dress, appliqués and accessories to certain concepts of cosmography and cosmogony, including the interplay of forces in nature. Costumes showed the intermediary and changeable position of man in nature and his relationship with other cosmic entities. Besides tattoos and body painting, people associated a wide range of garments with astronomical phenomena or cosmovisions: astral crowns and sky coats, special designed garments for passages through cosmic realms, astral necklaces, girdles or veils symbolizing the zodiac or the Milky Way, head coverings and dresses decorated with astral symbols (Sun, Moon, constellations, selected fixed and wandering stars), celestial footwear, feathered and cornuted crowns etc. The sky itself was considered to be a star-spangled skin of an animal (later a coat or a textile). The study presents an overview about the topic.
The aquatic world plays an essential part in ecosystems. On the earth it provides the fertilizing, vital basis for life. Devastating giant flooding, however, has been destructive and fatal for certain cultures. Archaic people identified the realm of the water world as the primeval and lasting cosmic ocean, which surrounds and intersperses the world. The respective land ("the earth") and the celestial bodies emerged out of the cosmic sea, both swimming there as the first "aquatics". People identified different species of the celestial fauna and flora as having counterparts in the earthly water world, with the moon, single stars and asterisms, open star clusters, zodiacal star patterns, shooting stars, the Milky Way, and the cosmological structure. Ancient cultures, especially those whose subsistence was based mainly on fishing and navigation, often correlated their time reckonings using lunar cycles and star phases with the rhythms of the water realm (e.g. tides, seasonality etc.) and of certain aquatics. Fishing aids (nets, hooks, and spears), boots and ships as well as navigation aids were recognized in certain star patterns. Some celestial aquatics, e.g. certain fish asterisms, were important as navigation aids for seafaring cultures. Finally, their archaic cosmovisions are linked to the cosmic water world: There are widespread ideas about a giant water animal out of which the world was created or about the aquatic monster in the middle of the abyss in the cosmic ocean, causing earthquakes and tsunamis. The combat between an avian and an aquatic illustrates the antagonism and polarity of the upper world and the lower world, closely linked to the earth's water cycle. An example par excellence for a cosmic water plant is the water lily or lotus. The present work sums up some important aspects of the topic, based on selected examples and a comparative methodology.
Using archaeology and social anthropology, and more than 100 original line drawings and photographs, An Archaeology of Images takes a fresh look at how ancient images of both people and animals were used in the Iron Age and Roman societies of Europe, 600 BC to AD 400 and investigates the various meanings with which images may have been imbued. The book challenges the usual interpretation of statues, reliefs and figurines as passive things to be looked at or worshipped, and reveals them instead as active artefacts designed to be used, handled and broken. It is made clear that the placing of images in temples or graves may not have been the only episode in their biographies, and a single image may have gone through several existences before its working life was over. Miranda Aldhouse Green examines a wide range of other issues, from gender and identity to foreignness, enmity and captivity, as well as the significance of the materials used to make the images. The result is a comprehensive survey of the multifarious functions and experiences of images in the communities that produced and consumed them. Challenging many previously held assumptions about the meaning and significance of Celtic and Roman art, An Archaeology of Images will be controversial yet essential reading for anyone interested in this area.
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