Archaeology
Geometric petroglyphs at Toro Muerto may represent ancient songs
A new study, published in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal, suggests that geometric petroglyphs found at Toro Muerto in Peru are representations of ancient songs.
Toro Muerto, meaning “Dead Bull”, is a collection of petroglyphs in Peru’s Castilla province. The site contains over 3000 volcanic rocks inscribed with petroglyphs from the Wari Culture, a Middle Horizon civilisation the flourished from between AD 500 to 1000.
One of the unique aspects of the petroglyph iconography at Toro Muerto are images of dancing anthropomorphic human-like figures known as danzantes, which are accompanied with geometric motifs of zigzag line variants and sometimes with accompanying dots or circles.
Previous interpretations have suggested that the zigzag lines might be symbolic of snakes or lightning, with a possibly association to fertility and water cults.
However, by drawing on parallels with the Tukano people of the Colombia rainforest, the study authors suggest that the petroglyphs at Toro Muerto are abstract representations of ancient singing and songs.
Tukano motifs in art is rooted in visionary experiences evoked by the ritual consumption of the psychoactive drink yajé/yage made from Banisteriopsis caapi jungle vine.
Image Credit : A. Rozwadowski
They created art forms with concentric circles, dots, wavy lines, zigzags and crenellation motifs, that referred to creation myths that were topics the Tukano implied in dances and songs sung to the accompaniment of musical instruments.
Furthermore, different examples of Mesoamerican iconography (Maya, Mixtec and Nahua codices) have such dots or lines (also spiral-shaped) that possibly depict songs in visual form as a representation of the sonic sphere of culture.
Therefore, considering how important the sonic sphere, including songs, is in the cultures of both Amazonia and the Andes, the study authors argue that the graphic depiction of songs in petroglyphs might not be a unique phenomenon and may have existed in various other cultures such as the Wari at Toro Muerto.
According to the study authors: “In our study we show that some geometric images could have been representations or embodiments of songs themselves, in their own right, independent of any depictions of mouths or bodies. We base this study on the case of the petroglyphs at Toro Muerto in Peru, while the source of our interpretative proposal is ethnographic knowledge, more precisely an ethnographic analogy from Amazonia, specifically the art of the Tukano people.”
An expansion of this hypothesis proposes that certain intricate compositions, featuring dancers and linear geometric patterns, symbolised a journey to the afterlife.
Header Image Credit : A. Rozwadowski
Sources : Cambridge Archaeological Journal – Rozwadowski A, Wołoszyn JZ. Dances with Zigzags in Toro Muerto, Peru: Geometric Petroglyphs as (Possible) Embodiments of Songs. Cambridge Archaeological Journal. Published online 2024:1-21. doi:10.1017/S0959774324000064
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeologists from the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences have been excavating a burial ground associated with the Finnic Muromians.
The Finnic Muromians were groups of settlers that lived within the vicinity of the Volga and Oka rivers. They spoke Muromian, an Uralic language that became extinct following their assimilation by the Slavs.
The burial ground, which dates from the early 10th century AD, was discovered on the eastern bank of the Oka river, located in the Nizhny Novgorod Region of Russia.
A total of seventeen burial pits have been identified, nine of which have been severely damaged through looting.
The surviving 8 burials contain the remains of four children, two women, and two men.
The men were accompanied with an ornate collection of grave goods, including arrowheads, knives, bronze bracelets, iron plates, a bronze buckle, and a whetstone.
At the bottom of one of the pits is a heavily corroded axe, along with a flint that has traces of iron-coated embossed leather and textile threads.
The burials containing women were also accompanied with high status funerary goods, such as a necklace of red-brown prismatic and dark blue berry-shaped beads of Byzantine origin, signet ring-shaped pendants, plate bracelets, a bronze spiral, and a silver ring.
Traces of wood within the pit fillings suggest that they originally contained a wooden structure, similar to a log house made of thin beams and covered with birch bark.
According to the Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences: “The culmination of the discoveries at the site were two clay vessels, testifying to direct and close contacts between the right-bank Muromians and the Old Russian population.”
Header Image Credit : Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
Sources : Institute of Archaeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
Archaeologists from the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt are currently excavating the site of a former gallows in Quedlinburg, Germany.
Gallows are usually wooden structures made of two vertical posts, a horizontal crossbeam, and a hanging noose. They have been used for executing criminals by hanging, a prevalent form of capital punishment in Europe since the Middle Ages.
Archaeologists are currently excavating a gallows site on Galgenberg, or ‘Gallows Hill,’ which was used for public executions by the courts in Quedlinburg from 1662 to 1809.
Excavations have revealed complete and partial burials in the area, along with bone pits containing multiple bundled burials, likely the result of mass executions carried out in a short period.
Image Credit : LDA
According to the State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt, “these discoveries provide unique insights into penal practices from the Middle Ages and early modern times.”
A burial unrelated to the gallows has also been unearthed, featuring a wooden coffin containing the skeletal remains of an individual buried with a rosary chain.
Archaeologists propose that the burial’s characteristics suggest that the individual was likely a suicide victim, denied burial in consecrated ground so was placed in the cemetery near the gallows.
Also discovered is a so-called ‘revenant grave’, where the skeletal remains of a man was found placed on his back with several large stones placed across his chest.
According to the researchers, the stones were likely placed to prevent the individual from rising as a revenant, which are described as animated corpses in the verbal traditions and lore of many European ethnic groups.
In medieval times, those inflicted with the revenant condition were generally suicide victims, witches, corpses possessed by a malevolent spirit, or the victim of a vampiric attack.
Header Image Credit : LDA
Sources : State Office for Monument Preservation and Archaeology of Saxony-Anhalt
This content was originally published on www.heritagedaily.com – © 2023 – HeritageDaily
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