Temple with Possible Sacrificial Altars Discovered in Massive Prehistoric Settlement

The temple was found in the 6,000 year old Trypillian (or Tripillian) site near Nebelivka, Ukraine — a site that is almost 600 acres in area and contained approximately 1,200 buildings and 50 streets. From Live Science (and related at Obscuragator):

Built before writing was invented, the temple is about 60 by 20 meters (197 by 66 feet) in size. It was a "two-story building made of wood and clay surrounded by a galleried courtyard," the upper floor divided into five rooms, write archaeologists Nataliya Burdo and Mykhailo Videiko in a copy of a presentation they gave recently at the European Association of Archaeologists' annual meeting in Istanbul, Turkey.

Inside the temple, archaeologists found the remains of eight clay platforms, which may have been used as altars, the finds suggested. A platform on the upper floor contains "numerous burnt bones of lamb, associated with sacrifice," write Burdo and Videiko, of the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The floors and walls of all five rooms on the upper floor were "decorated by red paint, which created [a] ceremonial atmosphere.

The ground floor contains seven additional platforms and a courtyard riddled with animal bones and pottery fragments, the researchers found.

At the time the prehistoric settlement near Nebelivka flourished other early urban centers were being developed in the Middle East. And the newly discovered prehistoric temple is similar, in some ways, to temples from the fifth to fourth millennia B.C. that were built in ancient Middle East cities, such as those in Anatolia and Mesopotamia, Burdo and Videiko note.

For example a 6,000-year-old temple at the ancient city of Eridu, in modern-day Iraq, also had a floor partitioned into smaller rooms, they note.

As with other Tryptillian culture sites, at the time the Nebelivka (named for nearby modern village) site was abandoned, it was razed. Among the artifacts uncovered at the site are these curious fragments of clay figurines with beak like noses, each with one eye larger and offset from the other:



Also found where a number of carved bone ornaments and inch long gold pieces that are believed to have been worn in the hair.


Additional links:

Additional photos page at Live Science
Triptillian Mega-Sites Project site

a reply to: theantediluvian

Good stuff seen the beak clay figurines in other areas

www.pinterest.com...

originally posted by: Stormdancer777
a reply to: theantediluvian

Good stuff seen the beak clay figurines in other areas

www.pinterest.com...

Well that is interesting. I wonder if what they found could be the heads of very early representations of bird goddesses?

They don't actually have to be sacrifice tables, they could be places where they processed meat. Some could be for the buffet too. People lined up to go through the church feast with plates and a mug for the wine.

It seems like people always want to stick the word sacrifice on everything without questioning what could have been happening. This is consensus but there were some instances of sacrifice. A thousand years from now are they going to call our slaughterhouses Sacrificial holy sites? Some have smokehouses built with them to smoke hams. The bones go into a big semi though. Two thousand years ago, the bones were hammered into powder and used for various reasons.

Long ago, they burnt the bodies when people died in certain areas and their bones were crushed and cemented into burial artifacts. The headstone could actually be the grave. Other cultures buried their ancestors bones under their floors. There were a lot of traditional practices that we now would consider weird going on those days. Grandma buried in your basement, that would be very weird. But back then it wasn't in some places.

a reply to: rickymouse

That's true Ricky, not everything is a goddess either I have come to find out.

a reply to: theantediluvian

That's is what some assume, yes, they are bird goddesses, in some cultures

a reply to: theantediluvian

This pushes proof of complex urban civilization in europe back to a parity with mesopotamia, very interesting and makes you wonder at how many civilization's existed that today we know nothing about and how complex they developed, having been hidden by the Iron curtain we in the west know so little about this area but it look's like there are some great discoverys to be made there and in adjacent russian territory.
Obviously something of this magnitude was unlikely to be on it's own so there must be other city's and towns in the area related to it and rival culture's, likely stepp tribes swept through and wiped them out but it is interesting as most western europeans are descended from tribes of people who were pushed ever westward and this may actually be a city built by our own ancestor's while in ignorance many of us assume it has nothing to do with us and is just east european remains when in fact they may very well have been the ancestors of a great many european nations that exist today as well as perhaps having lingering descent among the modern day ukrainians in spite of tribal migration and displacement over the millenia.

a reply to: rickymouse

Well sacrificial altar sounds a lot more sensational than 'Prehistoric Golden Corral'

Animal sacrifice and feasting are not mutually exclusive activities. As an example, there was the Passover sacrifice practiced by Jews. The burned animal bones are also reminiscent of another Jewish practice, burnt offering. Sacrifice and specifically, sacrificial burning were common among many cultures throughout history. A few other examples:

- The Druid's Wicker Man

- The Germanic Völva are described in accounts as sacrificing female slaves (allegedly volunteers) during ship burials.

- The Minoans practiced sacrificial burning of animals.

- The Spartans gave burnt offerings of young dogs to Ares.

a reply to: theantediluvian

But, if someone actually ate the meat or used the fats to make oil, is that actually really a sacrifice or is it just a cooking process? It sounds more neat calling it a sacrifice though. Mom tells little Johny: "I sacrificed the chicken to make medicinal chicken soup to treat your cold".

a reply to: rickymouse

My homemade chicken soup is exactly that lol

It will knock a cold in its tracks, hubby says I have the touch, not that I am not a little touched along with it

a reply to: LABTECH767

When I and a friend were tracing all these trails back through time I kinda ran out of steam at Armenia and Romania fascinating rock art in areas we seldom hear about, following rock art throughout Russia and Siberia

armrockart.nt.am...

fascinating stuff Maynard, I still can sit and stare at it forever trying to get my head inside their heads

THE GODDESS THEORY : Controversial UCLA Archeologist Marija Gimbutas Argues That the World Was at Peace When God Was a Woman

articles.latimes.com...

Most archeologists think that Gimbutas' interpretation goes far beyond the tentative conclusions that can be drawn from her data. Ian Hodder, a Cambridge University archeologist whose field of expertise overlaps Gimbutas', calls her work "extremely important" because it provides a "coherent and wide-ranging review of the evidence," but he rejects her interpretations of symbols. "She looks at a squiggle on a pot and says it's a primeval egg or a snake, or she looks at female figurines and says they're mother goddesses. I don't really think there's an awful lot of evidence to support that level of interpretation." Alan McPherron, an anthropology professor at the University of Pittsburgh, buttresses Hodder's view. McPherron says that after he published a book describing a dig he led in Yugoslavia, Gimbutas designated one of the excavated structures a temple, even though it was distinguished from surrounding houses only by its slightly greater size. "In my opinion, it's no more a temple than I am a monkey," McPherron says. Many archeologists believe that one reason Gimbutas has caught laymen's attention is that she habitually presents debatable assertions as fact. Ruth Tringham, an archeologist at UC Berkeley, says the evidence from early societies is far too murky to allow such definitive statements. "I would never write, 'This is the obvious conclusion'--there is nothing obvious about what we write. Whatever we write is always, 'It could be this, it could be that.' Our problem is that the public isn't attracted by that kind of ambiguous thinking. Since Gimbutas often omits the logical steps by which she arrives at her conclusions, Tringham says she has no way to judge the validity of the conclusions, and therefore can't accept them. Tringham is unconvinced, for example, that Gimbutas' figurines represent goddesses, or that neolithic cultures were dominated by women.

I'm reminded of a story about an archeologist from the UK that found "henge like" structures in Northern Africa. He immediately decided they were sacrificial altars and got quite famous. Only later he learned they were only olive oil presses. I can't find the story on google but I stumbled on this gem of an article.

Talks about a 10k year old stone henge and calendar in South Africa. Mentions bird gods as well. Interesting to say the least.

Adam's Calendar

a reply to: Stormdancer777

That rockart on the link you had is better than I could do. I am not much of an artist. I did create some decent looking houses though.

a reply to: Stormdancer777

Using common sense when reading all the old texts, it sure looks like god really should be female.

a reply to: theantediluvian

Such alters should be expect to be found in ancient ruins. Early people, given to ponder the how and why of the universe would tend to reason for some higher power in control. As one honors a king or even tribe leader with gifts, so too would the unknown power be supplied with gifts, of food, animals and when the givers were under severe pressures of one sort or another, even humans would be offered up. After all, was it not long ago that we burned people at the stake to satisfy our virtually current belief in (a) God? That was a thinly veiled form of sacrifice to the higher power. Heck, alters are still in existence in some prominent religions. Where do you think that concept came from?

originally posted by: rickymouse
a reply to: Stormdancer777

Using common sense when reading all the old texts, it sure looks like god really should be female.

I'm going to have to think about that observation lol

originally posted by: rickymouse
They don't actually have to be sacrifice tables, they could be places where they processed meat. Some could be for the buffet too. People lined up to go through the church feast with plates and a mug for the wine.

It seems like people always want to stick the word sacrifice on everything without questioning what could have been happening. This is consensus but there were some instances of sacrifice. A thousand years from now are they going to call our slaughterhouses Sacrificial holy sites? Some have smokehouses built with them to smoke hams. The bones go into a big semi though. Two thousand years ago, the bones were hammered into powder and used for various reasons.
/quote]

I agree - it sounds more like a prehistoric outdoor restaurant. Since they didn't have air conditioning or extractor fans, the only place the chefs could work would be upstairs. There would have been a ramp for the waiters to bring food down and dirty plates could be washed at the back of lower level where they would be taken upstairs to dry in the sun.

Archaeologists always use "ritual purposes" or "religious purposes" as a marker for "we don't really know". Buildings are either constructed for housing, religion, government or trade.

a reply to: Aliensun

that would make a great topic, if someone wanted to put the time and effort into it

Those "goddess heads" look alien....and I have seen them before elsewhere also....they seem to be kinda common for old societies.....