According to the hypothesis of an archaeologist from Novorossiysk, the mysterious dolmens in the vicinity of this seaside city, built in the Bronze Age by tribes who lived six thousand years ago on the Black Sea coast, are associated with Zoroastrianism. Perhaps religion itself originated much earlier than it is believed.
At first glance, it is strange what could unite the religion, the sacred texts of which were recorded in the period from the 4th to the 6th century AD, and the beliefs of the priests of the Bronze Age.
The original doctrine of Zarathushtra, which the Greeks called Zoroaster, appeared in eastern Iran around 1000 BC. In any case, some historians of religions date the life of this reformer in this way. Zarathushtra changed the old religious practice. He denounced bloody sacrifices and radically changed the divine pantheon, which became monotheistic and dualistic.
Subsequently, the new religion, called Zoroastrianism, underwent significant evolution, and, according to some sources, it is still practiced by about three hundred thousand people.
According to some sources, Zarathushtra said that he himself did not create a new teaching, but collected together the rituals of various beliefs. This point of view is shared by the Novorossiysk archaeologist, researcher of the city museum-reserve Alexander Kononenko.
Modern “historians argue that people belonging to the dolmen culture (at least those who lived in the Northern Black Sea region) and their neighbors adhered to the beliefs that became the basis of Zoroastrianism. Their ancient settlements and burial grounds date back to the same period that Zarathushtra told about,”reports the online version of the city newspaper Nash Novorossiysk.
Dolmen culture is a megalithic structure made of stone slabs and blocks, or carved into a rock mass. Dolmens, which the Adyghe and Abkhaz call "ispun", "spyun" ("houses of dwarfs", "caves"), as well as "keunezh", "adamra" ("ancient burial houses"), served as tombs. The oldest dolmens in the Western Caucasus appeared in the Early Bronze Age, between 2400-2100 BC.
However, few people know that a stone wall was erected around the megalithic trapezoid, in which there are passages in the form of a corridor or an underground passage. It was possible to get to the dolmen hole along them.
Promotional video:
“By the same principle, many centuries later the Zoroastrians built their so-called pits. Only their building material was clay, it turned out to be more accessible in that area. Both dolmen complexes and Zoroastrian pits served for burial of people. The burial ceremony itself among the tribes of the dolmen culture, according to Alexander Kononenko, resembles the funeral rite of the Zoroastrians. They both did not bury the dead in the ground. Only after the decomposition of the bodies were the bones collected and piled in burial structures. Sometimes in dolmens they found up to twenty or more skeletons, literally gathered in piles,”writes“Our Novorossiysk”on its website.
Some time ago, during excavations of a dolmen settlement and a burial ground in the area of the resort village and the suburb of Novorossiysk, the village of Myskhako, ground burials were discovered that were smaller than most of the known dolmens. These megalithic structures in miniature also served as tombs.
Among the most diverse finds, scientists drew attention to a wand made of a deer horn, similar to a slingshot with a hole. Apparently this item belonged to a priest. The same principle was used to make wands for the Zoroastrian clergy, who were called magicians. The shamanic rod became a confirmation of the protozoan beliefs of local residents.
Recently, under the village of Natukhaevskaya, another staff was found, which one to one resembles the staff from Myskhako. However, Natukhaev's rod is two thousand years older than its "twin".
Moreover, representatives of another archaeological culture, the Maikop culture, lived on the site of the present village at that time.
Representatives of this culture possessed higher technologies and a more established way of life than representatives of the later dolmen culture. Perhaps the "Maikopians" came here from Western Asia, and their culture is close to the Sumerian. At present, her religious cults are still poorly understood.
“The found magic wand of the Maikop culture period may indicate that the origin of Zoroastrianism is much older than previously thought,” suggests Alexander Kononenko on the pages of the city newspaper Nash Novorossiysk. "Its origins may have been formed two millennia earlier than indicated by Zarathushtra."
“Of course, their beliefs were still very far from the Zoroastrian ones,” says Alexander Kononenko. - And Zoroastrianism itself did not immediately become a religion that recognizes a single God. For quite a long time, his followers worshiped a whole pantheon of gods. In our area, it was most likely Vata - the god of hurricane wind and death. I believe that it was his cult that existed among the representatives of the dolmen culture”.
A small antique city on the outskirts of the Bosporus kingdom, which was located in the area of present-day Novorossiysk, was called Bata. Greek authors have repeatedly mentioned that tribes of exibats and yazamats live in the northern Black Sea region. One word is of Iranian origin, the other is of ancient Greek. But they are translated the same way - worshipers or worshipers of the god Vata.
IGOR BOKKER
