The axe is one of the most ancient of Aryan symbols, being associated both with the Battle Axe culture of the Indo-Europeans and its links with the Aryan Thunder God. It has thus both a religious and an ethnic significance.
The oldest known axes are associated with the Nordic peoples and it is thus safe to conjecture that this instrument which is both a tool and a weapon originated with our own race.
Archaeological finds of ceremonial axes dating back to the Neolithic Age have been found as burial or religious votive deposits, including examples buried underneath northern European megaliths, dwelling sites, in tombs, bogs, fields and hearths. The frequent positioning of often valuable axes upright in the earth with the cutting edge in the air is an indication of the ritual use of the axes. Miniture axes worn as pendants have also been found.
The sacred use of the axe is indicative of the existence of a prehistoric axe God. The cult of this axe God ccontinued into the Bronze Age. Prehistoric pictures of an axe God are frequent in rock art in Swedish caves.
The Frisian God Fosite possessed an axe and it was He who was considered the law giver and judge of the Frisian tribes. His temple is called Axenshowe. It is possible that this Fosite is the same deity referred to in the Norse Eddas as Forseti, the son of Baldr and Nanna, whose residence was Glitnir. He is represented in the Eddas as a God who settles disputes.
Alcuin in the 8th century CE refers to an island called Fositesland, situated between Frisia and Denmark and named in honour of the God who was worshipped there.
Minuture axes symbolscontinued to be worn late into the Iron Age and again into the Viking Age.
Rudolf Simek [Dictionary of Northern Mythology] suggests that since there is no apparent literary evidence for the cult of axes that there is a connection with Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor/Thunor/Thunar/Donar. Both cult symbols, the axe and the hammer are also fertility symbols as well as having a martial aspect.
He states "The great age of the Germanic axe-cult, the relationship with the Cretan axe-cult and the parallels to the lightning weapons of the non-Germanic gods, such as Indra`s and Hercules` clubs or Sucellos the Gaul`s hammer all suggest an Indo-Germanic origin of the various forms of the axe."
He also refers to a connection with the Old Slavic Perkunos/Perun, closely related to the Baltic Perkunas and Perkons. Thor/Thunor/Thunar/Donar is also related to the Celtic Thunder Gods Taranis and Sucellos, both of whom carry a hammer.
Even the Finnish Thunder God Ukko carries an axe-hammer.
The distinguished scholar Hilda Ellis Davidson also refers to Thor`s weapon as an `axe-hammer` in her works.
Since composing this article I have stumbled across this interesting article taken from Cosmos Magazine:
Hand axe
The limestone axe is the oldest ever found in Europe.
Credit: Michael Walker
Related articles
Oldest known advanced stone tools found
Africa beat Europe to complex tool-making
Humans stepped out of Africa earlier
Fossils may age Europeans 200,000 years
World's oldest axe found in Australia
PARIS: Early humans used two-sided stone axes in Europe up to 900,000 years ago, far earlier than previously thought, according to a new study.
The transition from primitive chopper-like tools to more finely crafted double-faced axes marked a milestone in the history of technology, and gave those whose wielded them an edge in the struggle to survive.
The revised dating of tools discovered in the 1970s at two sites in Spain largely erases a time gap that had long perplexed scientists.
Mind the gap
Before the new study, the earliest double axes found in Europe were thought to date from only 500,000 years ago - fully a million years after they had come into use in Africa.
It seemed unlikely that populations on the European continent, originating from Africa, could have lagged so far behind on such a key development.
Gary Scott and Luis Gibert of the Berkeley Geochronology Centre in Berkeley, California applied a technique called magnetostratigraphy to determine that the hatchets were in fact crafted between 760,000 and 900,000 years ago. Magnetostratigraphy is based on the periodic reversal of Earth's magnetic field.
Tiny compasses
Acting like tiny compasses, fine-grained magnetic minerals in the tools contain a record of the polarity at the time they were used. Once buried in sediment, the polarity is preserved.
"The age (of the axes) must be Early Pleistocene, the most recent period dominated by reverse polarity, 1.78 to 0.78 million years ago," the researchers concluded. They published their findings in the British journal Nature.
The new dating suggests that early man was present in southwestern Europe for much of this period, and that the barrier between Africa and Europe was more permeable than once thought, they said. The two archaeological sites, both in southern Spain, are La Solana del Zamborino, and Estrecho del Quipar.
0 comments:
Post a Comment