Origins of the Gods by Andrew Collins

Author:Andrew Collins
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ancient Mysteries
Publisher: Inner Traditions/Bear & Company
Published: 2022-02-23T00:00:00+00:00

EPOCH OF THE ELEPHANT

The elephant was the principal large game of the Levant during the Middle Pleistocene (see fig. 18.2 for a breakdown of the Earth’s geological epochs and how they correspond date-wise with the archaeological periods of the Homo species). It not only satisfied the dietary needs of the Homo erectus Acheulean culture, but it also exemplified the symbolic ties that existed between them and the animal world as a whole. This is demonstrated, Barkai explained, by the fact that in the aftermath of a kill, Homo erectus would use bones from the slaughtered animal to fashion Acheulean-style handaxes, which being relatively soft had no obvious utilitarian function.

These elephant bone handaxes would thus seem to have been created for no reason other than to convey the deep respect Homo erectus possessed not just for elephants as a whole but also for the individual animal to which the bones belonged. Indeed, Barkai considers it quite probable that the elephant bone handaxes acted as symbolic points of contact with the animistic form of the animal in question and, by virtue of that, with the world in which they were thought to exist, even in death.7

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