By Martin Bless

If human language and genes spread “in tandem” as postulated by Michael Witzel, the split up time of the major phylogenetic lineages may provide a minimum age for the origin of Palaeolithic myths.
If this hypothesis is true, the distribution pattern of the motif about an “old man with hanging eyelids; so old that the eyelids hang to his chin and must be lifted up”, can only be explained if a primeval version has already existed in Southwest Asia by 50.000 BP, before people living there split up into East Asian and European phylogenetic lineages.
The presence of Upper Palaeolithic “Venus” figurines and images in Europe and East Asia may also hint at the existence of a primitive “Venus” cult and the myths connected therewith by 50.000 BP, before people split up into separate East Asian and European communities.
A 25.000-year-old pictorial narrative in Llonin Cave (Spain), perhaps illustrating a Palaeolithic tale about a bushy-browed giant living in a deep cave and a “Venus” creature, apparently combines elements of the “Old Man” motif and one of these “Venus” tales.

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Martin Bless



Published: 3 Nov, 2017

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