The Fertile Crescent

The problem of the initial place from which the original Indo-European dialects spread over Eurasia has been studied by several generations of scholars. Few alternative points of view have been proposed: first an area near the North Sea (in the works of some scholars of the border of the 19th and 20th centuries), then the […]

There is an interesting monograph by Fournet & Bomhard on the Indo-European Elements in Hurrian (pdf). I will leave the linguistic details to the experts, as I doubt that many people are competent in both Proto-Indo-European and Hurrian to assess the authors’ thesis. However, this is the bit that captured my attention: Hurrian cannot be […]

Solar deity List of solar deities Winged sun Solar calendar Solar symbol – Lunar deity A solar deity (also sun god/dess) is a sky deity who represents the Sun, or an aspect of it, usually by its perceived power and strength. Solar deities and sun worship can be found throughout most of recorded history in […]

The transition from a hunter–gatherer existence to a sedentary farming-based lifestyle has had key consequences for human groups around the world and has profoundly shaped human societies. Originating in the Near East around 11,000 y ago, an agricultural lifestyle subsequently spread across Europe during the New Stone Age (Neolithic). Whether it was mediated by incoming […]

This paper discusses forms of a female figure accompanied by felines, as sheevolved in prehistoric and early historic Anatolia; her movements throughoutAsia Minor; her transmission to Greece and Rome; and her worship thencethroughout the ancient world. It also addresses the controversy of how andwhether the Phrygian and later Greco-Roman goddess Cybele is connected to theAnatolian […]