Secrets of the ancient Aries. Digest of articles

It should be added that the inventory of the Upper Paleolithic Byzovaya site, located 175 km from the Arctic Circle, 25—29 thousand years away from us, has much in common with the complex of the lower layer Kostenki I, 12 on the Don and belongs to the same time as, according to the conclusions of I. G. Shovkoplyas, it testifies to the genetic relationship of the human collectives that left these sites. At present, for most researchers, the population of the Urals and the Urals at the end of the Molo-Sheksna time seems to be indisputable.

The exceptional development and perfection of the forms of ornaments, sculptures, and reliefs belonging to this time convinces us that their roots should be sought in the more ancient Mousterian era, in that period of the Mikulinsky interglacial (130 – 70 thousand years ago), when human collectives were already mastered the Pechora basin and the coast of the Arctic Ocean, and when the climate of northern Eastern Europe did not differ from the modern climate of England and southern Germany. The discovery in the last decades of first-class Paleolithic monuments in the north of the European part of our country (Bear Cave is located at 65° N), with a large number of flint implements and even wall paintings, is an outstanding event. It once again testifies to the fact that in the ancient Stone Age, human groups widely settled in the north of Eastern Europe, i.e. the territories of the future Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Kostroma, Vyatka regions and the Komi Republic.

The warm Mologo-Shcheksninskoe time was replaced by a sharp cold snap about 20—18 millennia ago, when the overgrown Scandinavian ice sheet reached its maximum development.

The data of modern science indicate that the limiting boundary of the distribution of the Valdai glaciation was in the latitudinal direction from Vilnius to Smolensk, and then to the northwest to the Rybinsk reservoir, Lake Kubenskoe and Nyandoma. Further to the northeast, the border has not been reliably established.

At this time, the Atlantic tundra and subarctic meadows stretched across the glacier-free territory of England and Ireland. Sparse birch forest (park tundra) was widespread in the western part of Europe, and light forest with birch and birch-pine stands occupied most of Central Europe and then followed a relatively narrow strip along the coast of the future Baltic Sea, and then the Baltic Glacial Lake, to the northeast. True forests, or as they are called «typical forest boreal formations», in the western and middle parts of Europe at that time were very few, and they were mainly in the valleys of large rivers and intermountain basins.

Within the Russian Plain, forests occupied, in contrast to Western Europe, a large area in the form of a wide strip crossing it in the direction from southwest to northeast. These were birch, pine, spruce and fir forests. Paleogeographers note that: «in a number of regions there already existed forests with the participation of such broad-leaved species as oak and elm; in the southern part of the Russian Plain, steppe vegetation was widespread.» It is interesting to note that during the maximum of the Valdai glaciation, when almost the entire territory of England was covered with glacier, and habitable areas were tundra and arctic meadows, primitive people and animals such as wolf, cave bear, woolly rhinoceros, reindeer, bull and the mammoth lived only 50 km from the edge of the glacier. At the same time, meadow steppes with spruce-birch and pine forests were widespread in the Upper Volga basin. In the Oka basin, during the maximum glaciation, spruce-pine forests of the north-taiga type rustled. In the area of the village of Pokrovskaya on the Puchka River (near Lake Kubenskoye, at 60° N), about 38 species of flowering and spore plants grew directly at the edge of the glacier, and the open forest consisted of birch, spruce, and larch.

It should be noted that the actual tundra type of vegetation in Eastern Europe was a relatively narrow strip running along the border of the Scandinavian ice sheet. But in Central Europe, the tundra occupied, apparently, «the entire strip between the Scandinavian ice sheet in the north and the Alpine glacier in the south, and in the Atlantic part of their distribution was even greater.»

So, if during the period of the maximum stage of the Valdai glaciation (20—18 thousand years ago), almost the entire territory of Western Europe, with the exception of the south-west of France, the upper reaches of the Danube and the foothills of the Eastern Carpathians, was occupied by subarctic meadows and tundra with birch and deciduous sparse forest, then on the territory of Eastern Europe from the upper reaches of the Dniester began a wide strip of meadow steppes with pine, larch and birch forests, passing through the Pripyat basin, the Middle Dnieper, the middle course of the Oka. Expanding in the direction from the southwest to the northeast, it reached in the northwest to the Upper Volga (in the Yaroslavl region) and the middle Vychegda in the north. The entire southeast of Eastern Europe was at that time occupied by cereal steppes, reaching 55° N in the northeast; in a number of regions there were forests with the participation of such broad-leaved species as oak and elm. Thus, the vegetation zones were located in the submeridian direction, «sharply different from the mainly latitudinal zonation of the modern vegetation cover of Eurasia», which «can be considered as one of the most characteristic features of the nature of Europe in the era of glaciation.»

On most of the European territory of our country, there was no glacier, even during the maximum of the Valdai glaciation. And of course, given the natural conditions that existed then, it is unlikely that the population left these lands.

Moreover, experts believe that during the peak of the Valdai glaciation, during the period of the greatest cooling, the outflow of the population from the territories bordering on the edge of the glacier went «south to the mountains, to the southwest to the territory of the Massif Central of France and along the Sudetenland and the Carpathians towards the Russian Plain», with its meadow steppes and forests, and therefore with an abundance of food.» However, it should be noted that the entire territory of the Baltic States, Northern Belarus, the North-West of the Smolensk, Leningrad, Novgorod and a significant part of the Tver region wer e covered glacier and their settlement occurs only at the end of the Late Glacial, at the turn of the Paleolithic and Mesolithic.

It remains to be assumed that with the climate change towards the worsening, and then with the arrival of the glacier, the population that left these territories, to a large extent, moved to the east of the Russian Plain and the Urals. Archeology confirms that «by the beginning of the cold snap, vast settlements existed in the center and north of the Russian Plain… these monuments allow us to draw a certain conclusion about the significant population of the periglacial zone of the Ostashkovsky glacier during the period when the climate became more and more severe. The population was sedentary and provided itself with supplies of livelihood for the winter.»

It should be noted that in the «strong and long-term dwellings of the population of the Russian Plain» of that time, there are a large number of «grater pestles and real grain-grinding slabs of granite, quartzite and Shoksha sandstone». «The authors of the» Paleolithic of the USSR «note that only on the Russian Plain, these devices for obtaining flour» by ordinary methods similar to those used in agricultural crops «are found» in such quantities, starting with the Mousterian industries (i.e., no later than 50 millennium BC) and passing like a red thread through almost all the different cultural and different times of the late Paleolithic industries.»

P. P. Efimenko back in 1958, speaking about the outstanding monument of the Paleolithic era – the Kostenki site on the Don, wrote that «the oldest cultural horizon Kostenok I …, which still retains the living features of the Mousterian technique, belongs interglacial. If this is really so, then the upper horizon of the site… can be attributed with a high degree of probability to the end of the same interglacial or the early stages of the Wurm», i.e. to 70—50 thousand ago. P. P. Efimenko, the remains of a large ground dwelling (31 m long and 8 m wide, i.e. 248 square meters) with eight hearths and a complex heating system were uncovered in layer I of Kostenki.

There were grain pits – storage rooms next to the dwelling. Apparently, these pantries were filled with precisely those grasses that made up the meadow cereal steppes that stretched during the Valdai (Ostashkovsky) glaciation up to the Middle Pechora. These were barley, rye, oats, wheat and flax in their wild sowing forms, which L. S. Berg called «plants of long daylight hours», since they need at least 18 hours of indirect solar radiation per day for normal vegetation, an abundance of moisture in the soil and lack of overheating from direct sunlight. Such conditions are south of 55—56 N just missing.

Note that even Academician I. Lepekhin, a student of M. V. Lomonosov in the 18th century, discovered wild sown rye and wild flax in the Kaninskaya tundra, and in 1861, ears of this wild Kanin rye, flour and bread were presented at an agricultural exhibition in Arkhangelsk, baked from it. Moreover, it was noted that «the Lapps, roaming the tundra, knew nothing about rye or flax and did not use them in any way.» Speaking about the Paleolithic East European proto-agriculture, it should be noted that the people of that era that was far from us were closer to nature and much more observant than the inhabitants of the megacities of the early 21st century, pampered by civilization. And they, of course, should have noted for themselves the fact that if the straw left in the field after harvesting the grain burned for any reason, then the next summer the grain grew more than such repeated observations were enough to quite consciously set fire to this straw and thus fertilize the soil. Apparently, this is the very source, the starting point, from which the real cult of straw later grew. Hence the custom to burn straw fires on Christmastide, Kupala, to burn a straw effigy on Shrovetide, which marked the beginning of a new agricultural year – traditions that have come down to our days.

In the Paleolithic era, the type of economic activity and division of labor took shape, in which it was women who were engaged in the collection, storage and processing of grain, as evidenced by the preserved in the Russian folk tradition until the middle – end of the twentieth century very archaic «stubble» ritual songs, in which only «girls, young men» were charged with the obligation to harvest, dry and grind grain. Moreover, perhaps, the alarming closeness of such words as «muka-flour» and «muka- torment». It was in the Paleolithic that, together with the idea that «bread is the head of everything,» the cult of the Mother, the giver of life and the keeper of grain, the mistress of the harvest, water and fire, the Great Goddess, took shape. This vast epoch is often called the «Golden Age of Equality of the Matriarchy».

It ended 13 millennia ago, when a global catastrophe changed both the landscapes and the Earth’s climate.

Mother-in-law – as a character of Shrovetide

Turu-turu, shepherd, do you sound far off?

From the sea to the sea, to the Keiev city

There is our homeland, in the homeland there is an oak tree,

An owl is on the oak, an owl is my mother-in-law, and she grazed horses One of the most difficult and mysterious in the Russian calendar rites, of course, is a holiday called Maslenitsa. All ethnographers, without exception, noted and note the strange circumstance that Maslenitsa (or Maslyanitsa) is the only major pre-Christian holiday that was not timed to coincide with a Christian holiday and did not receive a new interpretation. And really why? After all, if we look at the ritual cycles of the so-called «cross of the year», that is, the winter and summer solstices, the autumn and spring equinoxes, then there is a paradox. The winter solstice (Christmastide or Kolyada) is associated with the Nativity of Christ. Summer solstice (Kupalo) is the Nativity of John the Baptist. The autumnal equinox (Oat tree) is the Nativity of the Virgin. And spring – nothing. Have you forgotten the spring equinox?

In order to deal with this strange phenomenon, we will have to plunge into the depths of millennia. And remember that during a huge time interval – from 7 thousand BC. until the middle of the 1st millennium BC in the north of Eastern Europe (from 69° N to 55° N), the average summer temperatures were 4—5° C higher than at present. Spring began a month earlier than now. Accordingly, the arrival of autumn shifted, the winter pattern changed, in which the temperatures were close to 0° С, winter was very mild.

Since spring practically began already at the turn of February and March, the rituals of meeting spring, which lasted in antiquity (like the winter Christmastide) month, began at the end of February and ended on the day of the vernal equinox – March 22 (more precisely, on the night of March 21—22). It was from this day that a new agricultural year began, marked by the rites of Maslenitsa – «the only major pre-Christian holiday not timed to coincide with a Christian holiday.» Judging by the Western European and Slavic traditions, in which dressing was, adopted everywhere for these days, and zoomorphic masks were mainly used, the addition of these traditions can be attributed to the common Indo-European period, i.e. no later than the turn of 4—3 thousand BC. The fact that Maslenitsa, as a holiday of the beginning of the agricultural year – spring, took shape in the common Indo-European period is evidenced not only by the traditions of European peoples, preserved up to the present day, but also by the traditions of India, which came from ancient times.

In ancient Indian rituals, many elements of Maslenitsa (and subsequent Easter) are traced in one of the brightest holidays on the border of winter and spring – Holi, which is celebrated in February – March (the end of the cold season). N. R. Guseva emphasized that «all ritual actions of the holiday are inseparable from the magic of fertility and historically go back to the pre-Indian period of the life of the Aryans». The ritual and magical manifestations associated with the vernal equinox are extremely close to the Easter ones, going directly back to paganism, which passed into the Easter rituals of the Slavic peoples.

The common ceremonies of Maslenitsa and Holi included: performing obscene songs of an erotic content, drinking alcoholic beverages, preparing ritual food from dough and cottage cheese. In India, during the Holi festival, the effigy of Holiki, which is made from straw, is necessarily burned. For the ritual bonfire collect: brushwood, straw, old things, cow dung.

In Russia, fires were also burned on Shrovetide. Moreover, the material for the fires was hay, straw, old things. Cow dung was also used. And they also burned an effigy of Maslenitsa, which was made of straw.

In Indian tradition, there is a custom during Holi to sprinkle the ash from the fire on the floor of the house and sprinkle it on each other. But in the Vologda province, for example, at Maslenitsa, mummers often poured ashes and ashes on the floor of the hut and danced on them, and also smeared with soot and sprinkled ashes and ashes on all participants in the ceremony.

We should especially note that in the East Slavic tradition one of the main elements of the Maslenitsa ritual, a holiday associated with the commemoration of the dead, was ritual food – pancakes. Being a very ancient ritual food by origin – fresh cakes baked on hot stones – pancakes are in no way associated with the cult of the sun, but are a common Indo-European symbol of the moon – «the sun of the dead». Russians, for example, baked pancakes on «parental Saturday». In some villages, the first pancake was smeared with honey, butter and put on the goddess – «parents». Sometimes the first pancake was carried to the churchyard and laid on the grave. Note that pancakes are a must (along with oatmeal jelly), and the latter is food for funerals, funerals and weddings. And another interesting circumstance is that the dough for pancakes on Shrovetide was necessarily created by the oldest woman in the house, and in secret from family and strangers and always in the light of the month. And if she was the mother of adult married daughters, then her name was Mother-in-law. It was to the mother-in-law (and not to the father-in-law and mother-in-law) that they went «for pancakes». Mother-in-law – as a character of Maslenitsa, is, in our deep conviction, the greatest interest of everything connected with this archaic ritual complex.

Why? We will try to answer this question. First of all, let us note that the text of the Veles Book (translated by Valentina and Yulia Gnatyuk) contains a list of the main holidays of the year.

These are Kolyada, Yaro, Krasnaya Gora and Ovseni (Great and Small). Kolyada, of course, is our Winter Christmastide with ritual songs – «kolyadki» and performing those mummers – «kolyadniki», «kolyadovshchiki». The very term «Kolyada» (that is, «kolyada» – giving a circle) is directly related to the end of the divine day, when the Night of the Gods, which ends on the night of December 21 to 22, is replaced by a new Divine Day, starting from December 22. The entire period of Winter Christmas (December 19 – January 19) is dedicated to the worship of the Divine Light – the Creator of the Universe, whom our ancestors called the Immutable Law – Grandfather. During this month, those who were able to comprehend the Cosmic Law in earthly life and after death acquired a light body («holy») returned to the world of people, that is became a Saint.

Thus, Winter Christmas is a period of worshiping the Light – the Creator, summing up the results of the annual circle and meeting the new Kolo – the Sun.

Yaro or Yarilin Day (Kupalo) – June 22 – the summer solstice and the beginning of the Divine Night. Note that this is a celebration of youth, those who were to find a mate and pass the test of Divine Fire on the right to enter into marriage with a chosen one or chosen one. And after marriage, to fulfill the cosmic law of reincarnation, giving life to new people. It is no accident that our ancestors said: «To be born to death. To die for life». And again: «Children eat us from the nave (dead)», i.e. in the form of newborns bring us back to this world.

The next most important holiday in the list of the «Veles Book» is Krasnaya Gora, followed by Ovsen (Avsen, Usen, Tausen), i.e. the holiday of the autumn equinox. But here we stop at a paradox – today’s Krasnaya Gorka has nothing to do with the vernal equinox. We don’t have a holiday close to this calendar date – March 22. Krasnaya Gorka today is a holiday of the Easter fortyda.

In most cases, Krasnaya Gorka is called either Fomino’s Sunday (the next after Easter), or the first three days of Fomin’s week (including Sunday), or the entire Fomin week. B. A. Rybakov, analyzing the ancient Slavic calendar ritual, wrote in «Paganism of the Ancient Slavs»

that: «The church calendar, which in many cases has adapted to the old pagan times of prayers and festivities, greatly shattered these dates in cases where the church used a movable Easter calendar, at which the amplitude of fluctuations of the „great day“ (Easter) exceeded a month – from March 22 to April 25 according to the old style, or April 4 to May 8 according to our Gregorian style. A seven-week great fast was associated with Easter, drowning out all pagan festivity: the Trinity day also depends on the period of Easter. For these reasons, the ancient pagan holidays were shifted in one direction or another. The ancient Shrovetide was supposed to be celebrated in one of the solar phases – on the days of the vernal equinox, March 20—25, but in reality a wild spring holiday… moved away to February».

So, apparently, the ancient name of Shrovetide is «Red Mountain». And many facts confirm this. First of all, the presence of the appeal «Krasnaya Krasigorka» to the deceased mother, recorded at the beginning of the twentieth century in the Arkhangelsk province (White Sea coast). Here, the bride is an orphan, going out to the crossroads, just like this: «My Red Krasigorka», addressed the deceased mother. We have good reason to believe that the mountain (be it a grave mound, a pyramid or an ice mountain that was built on Shrovetide) was a symbol of the mother’s womb of Mother Earth, Foremother or Mother-in-law.

There are enough grounds for conclusions. Recall that the wife of Zeus – «blonde Hera» – the supreme Olympic goddess, daughter of Kronos and Rhea, whose name means «guardian», «mistress», is called «Mother-in-law» in ancient hymns. Researchers note that in her image «features of the great female deity of the pre-Olympic period are seen» and indicate her connection with the chthonic forces. This great matriarchal Deity had a zoomorphic incarnation – a cow, and was called «drawing.» And her ancient fetish in the temple of Hera of Samos on the island of Samos was a wooden carved spinning board. We also note that the famous love scene of Zeus and Hera from the Iliad takes place among fragrant flowers on the top of Mount Ida. But Ida Mountain and the Ida River are in the north of Russia, in the Subpolar Urals.

Thus, «mother-in-law» in the archaic tradition, judging by the above, was called not only and not so much the wife’s mother as the oldest woman in the family or the Foremother. Here I would like to cite a number of ritual songs recorded by folklorists in the Vologda and Vladimir regions. The Vologda version was recorded in 1978 by a Leningrad folklorist (A. M. Mekhnetsov) in the village of Karmakino, Totemsky District:

Turu-turu, shepherd, do you sound far off?

From the sea to the sea, to the Keiev city (option «Kiev») There is our homeland, in the homeland there is an oak tree, an owl is on the oak, an owl is my mother-in-law, she grazed horses The «Keyev City» of this song is of unconditional interest. So in the ancient Greek tradition, the inhabitants of the north of Eastern Europe – Hyperboreans were considered the descendants of the titans – «who grew out of the blood of the most ancient titans.» But in the same tradition, Kei is the titan, the son of the heavens of Uranus and the land of Gaia. His daughters are Asteria (Star) and Leto. The first (Asteria), taking the form of a quail, rushed into the sea and turned into the wandering island of Delos. It was on Delos that the second sister, Leto, gave birth to Artemis and Apollo of Hyperborean, the great Olympic gods of Ancient Greece. Thus, the titan Key, who lived on the shore of the Kronian (Arctic) Ocean and owned the «Keyev city», where «our Motherland» of the Vologda ritual song was located, was the grandfather of the ancient Greek Apollo and Artemis. As for Leto, she was married to Zeus in the form of a quail (Zeus accordingly took the form of a quail). It makes sense to cite the ritual Kupala song recorded in 1969 in the Smolensk region:

And I’m from a kind

And I’m from a good kind,

And I’m from a kind.

And I’m dad,

And I’m a rich dad

And I’m dad.

And my dad,

And my dad – the month is clear,

And my dad.

And my mom,

My mom is a red sun

My math.

And my brothers,

My brothers are nightingales in the forest

My brothers.

And my sisters,

My sisters are in the life of the quail,

My sisters.

The month is clear

The moon shines at night,

The month is clear.

Red sun,

The red sun warms in summer

Red sun.

Siza nightingales,

Nightingales are singing in the summer,

Gray nightingales.

In the quail field

In the field, quails are calling for the harvest,

Quail in the field.

Let us return to the Vologda ritual song recorded in 1978, which refers to the «mother-in-law». In the Vladimir version, it sounds as follows:

Tutu-turu, shepherd boy,

Viburnum podozhok,

Where do you graze?

– From sea to sea,

From sea to sea

To the city of Toev.

There is my homeland.

An oak stands at home.

An owl sits on an oak tree.

The owl is my mother-in-law.

(Vladimir region, Murom district, Popolutovo village)

The second option: