The ancient world is shrouded in mystery and the rare found artifacts of those times only slightly shed light on how our ancestors lived. And although there were not many people on Earth in those epochs, and cultural societies were sometimes at a very great distance from each other, they often have such similar things that one wonders.
10. Lord of the animals
Figures of the Master of Animals usually depict a man or woman surrounded by two animals, which the Master holds by collars, a rope, or simply with his hands on the neck. Animals are found completely different from snakes to bulls and lions. One of the oldest images of this kind was on a 5-thousand-year-old seal from Uruk. There was a picture of the Lord with two goats.
For 3 thousand years, this incomprehensible symbol was found everywhere: from Mongolian petroglyphs of the Bronze Age to bronze vessels of the Roman Empire and figurines from Afghan burials.
The mysterious unknown culture of the Indus made similar figurines with two seals, and the Scythians loved this style so much that they decorated almost all household items with figures of animals and humans or just animals. From this in archeology, he received the name "Scythian animal style".
Similar images have also been found in Denmark from 100 AD and on the hilt of an Egyptian knife from Gebel el-Arak dating from 3400 BC.
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Archaeologists believe that this motif first appeared in Mesopotamia and was primarily associated with the hero of the local epic - Gilgamesh. But how this motive gained such widespread worldwide popularity is unknown.
9. Three hares
The symbol itself in the form of three hares, which with their ears creates a triangle in the center of the circle, is very simple and can be made even with the most primitive tools. Each hare in this symbol actually has one ear, and the other is at the same time the ear of a neighbor. Thus, there are only three ears for three birds with one stone.
The oldest such image was found on the wall of a Buddhist cave-temple and dated to 7-8 centuries AD. But later it is found on the walls of medieval English churches and even on Mongolian coins of the Genghis Khan era. He was also found in an old synagogue in Ukraine and in Christian cathedrals in France and Germany.
This symbol has undoubtedly spread very far, but historians and archaeologists do not understand what it should represent. In Christianity, there is a motive with the Trinity, one God in three hypostases, but how is this motive connected with Genghis Khan and the Buddhists? There is no doubt about it.
8. God with staves
The image of a god holding a decorated staff in divorced hands was widespread in pre-Columbian America in many ancient cultures. Previously it was believed that this is an image of a specific deity, but now it is believed that a variety of gods are depicted in such a symbolic pose.
The oldest image of this kind was found on a dried gourd jar and dated to a likely 4,000 years old. But due to the dryness of this region, there is still debate about this dating among archaeologists.
The oldest undisputedly accepted God with staffs dates back to 500 BC, but in any case it was a very popular motif over a vast territory and persisted for almost 2 thousand years. However, we do not know. what exactly this strange pose of the Gods means and what the staffs in their hands symbolize.
7. Intricate carved balls
Want to easily piss off a British archaeologist? Ask him what these carved stone balls are found in ancient Scotland, Ireland and England. Until now, no one knows what it is.
Most of these balls were found in Scotland and date back to the late Neolithic, about 3-2.5 thousand years BC. They are almost identical, of the same size and differ only in the shape of the convex circle cut. Also, their quality may vary, and not everywhere these patterns on the balls are symmetrical and even.
Even more unusual, more than 400 of these balls have been found, but it is extremely rare to find more than one in one place. The only exception is the no less mysterious place of Skara Bray in Scotland, where three such balls were found at once.
There are several theories about what these balls are. They do not show any traces of frequent use, they are not covered with scratches and scuffs, so most of the time they apparently just lay in one place.
6. Curvy Venus
Figures of "Venus" - women with very outstanding features of the figure, in the Paleolithic (ended 10 thousand years ago), it seems, was not done only by the lazy. They were found throughout Eurasia from Germany to Siberia.
Officially, it is believed that they symbolize fertility or some kind of goddess, but not everyone supports this version and suggests that it could be something like the very first exciting images for self-satisfaction of men.
The oldest "Venus" is dated 35 thousand years, this is the so-called Venus from Hole-Fels and it is the most surreal. This figure has almost no head, but the genitals are very large. Other figurines are dated several thousand years later. That is, this tradition has been very long and at the same time persistent.
5. Cup-shaped marks and circles
The symbol in the form of a depression (hole) surrounded by several circles is one of the most ancient and incomprehensible. This mark has always been carved on stones and has been found all over the world from Ireland and Namibia to Peru and Tahiti. But most often it is found in Atlantic Europe (England, Scotland, Spain) and Mediterranean Europe (Italy, Greece, Switzerland). In Russia, it can be found in the Caucasus on dolmens, for example, on a dolmen in the Gelendzhik region.
In later centuries, this drawing was interpreted in Europe as marks of fairies and offerings for fairies were brought to them to appease them. However, most of these bowls with circles are carved into vertical surfaces, so it was clearly not made for offerings and water was not supposed to collect in the holes.
Archaeologists don't know what these signs mean. Some consider them "marks of death", that is, something very bad happened in such a place. Others are convinced that this is related to the planting season and refers to fertility.
4. Stone circles
The stone circles are probably the most famous of the symbols, repeated in different peoples around the world. The most popular of them is undoubtedly Stonehenge and in general there are a huge number of such monuments in Great Britain, as in Europe. In other places like Senegal and The Gambia, these stone circles were built "only" about 700 years ago, but European ones are dated several thousand years ago.
It's hard to say what they were used for. Someone thinks that this was a variant of the calendar, others consider them instruments for observing the sky. Still others are sure that ancient people marked "places of power" or magnetic anomalies with stone circles.
3. Hand prints
Handprints are found on the walls of caves as often as drawings of various animals and this tradition is common throughout the world, but mainly in Europe and Indonesia.
It is very simple to create such a work of art. Pigment paint, crushed into a fine powder, is put into the mouth, a hand with spread fingers is placed on the wall, after which paint is sprinkled with force on and around the brush. When the hand is removed, a beautiful print is obtained. During the Paleolithic era, this was a very popular image.
For the first time, such drawings began to appear 40 thousand years ago, that is, at a time when a person of the modern type left Africa, reached Europe and began to settle in other places. Some believe that these drawings originated with them as early as the African period and thus can explain the almost simultaneous appearance of these drawings in the caves of Borneo and in Europe. However, no such images have been found in Africa.
2. Triskelion
The triskelion is a triple helix and another very popular ancient symbol around the world. They depicted him as three running legs or three curved lines. He was especially popular in Celtic art and in ancient Sicily in southern Italy. In Ireland, the triskelion can be seen on the walls of Newgrange, a famous Irish stone structure built around 3200 BC.
However, the oldest triskelions were found in Malta and they are at least a thousand years older than the Irish and even older than the Egyptian pyramids. This symbol is very popular even now, especially in tattoos.
1. Stone labyrinths "City of Troy"
Stone labyrinths of the "City of Troy" type are the most ancient type of labyrinths and are characterized by the fact that they are labyrinths in which it is impossible to get lost, there are no dead ends, and if there is only one and only winding path.
The world's largest cluster of similar labyrinths of the Neolithic era is located in Russia on the Solovetsky Islands - 35 labyrinths. In the 7th century BC, this image was painted on an Etruscan jug and was marked with the word "Truia", but no one knows exactly what it means. Later, similar labyrinths appeared on coins in Greece and on walls in Pompeii.
In the Middle Ages, labyrinths became especially popular in England, Scandinavia and the Baltic countries, but even then the true meaning of what labyrinths are for was lost. Historians associate them with either folk magic or the myth of the Minotaur.