| I don't think there was an EVE but this may shed some light on the
subject. Perhaps the myth of Adam and Eve represent the beginning of
Dominating type cultures and God based relgions and the abandonment of
Partnership cultures and Goddess based religions.
[This reply contains material concerning Catal Huyuk, Catal Hacilar,
equality of the sexes, religion and modes of interpreting archaeology.]
I have recently discovered a new book about how we interpret history.
The book is _The Chalice_and_the_Blade:_Our_History,_Our_Future_ by
Raine Eisler.
In this book Ms. Eisler describes, from a philosophical point of view,
some of the misconceptions we have inherited from our predecessors.
Also Ms. Eisler describes the two types of cultures we have had in
history. The latest is the Dominating culture in which one sex
dominates the other and the older one is the Partnership culture in
which both sexes are treated equally. Both of these are models of what
we think was or is. So to get on with the topic...
Catal Huyuk and Catal Hacilar were excavated between 1961 and 1963.
These sites date from 6250 BCE till about 5000 BCE.
"New excavations are increasingly conducted not by the lone
scholar or explorer of earlier days but by teams of
scientists--zoologists, botanists, climatologists,
anthropologists, paleontologists, as well as archaeologists.
This interdisciplinary approach characterizing more recent
digs like Mellaart's at Catal Huyuk is yielding much more
accurate understanding of our prehistory."
"But perhaps most important is that a number of remarkable
technological breakthroughs, such as the Nobel Prize winner
Willard Libby's dating means by radiocarbon, C-14, and the
dendrochronological methods of dating by the girths of trees,
have vastly increased archaeology's grasp of the past.
Formerly, dates were largely a matter of conjecture--of
comparisons of objects estimated to be less, equally, or more
'advanced' than one another. But as dating became a function
of repeatable and verifiable techniques, one could no longer
get away with saying that if an artifact was more
artistically or technologically developed, it must date to a
latter and thus presumably more civilized time."
"As a consequence, there has been a dramatic reassessment of
time sequences, which in turn has radically changed earlier
views of prehistory. We know that agriculture--the
domestication of wild plants as well as animals--dates back
much earlier than previously believed. In fact, the first
signs of what archaeologist call the Neolithic or
agricultural revolution begin to appear as far back as 9000
to 8000 BCE-that is more than 10000 years ago."
"The agricultural revolution was the single most important
breakthrough in the material technology of our species.
Accordingly, the beginnings of what we call Western
civilization are also much earlier than was previously
thought."
"With a regular, and sometimes even surplus, food supply came
an increase in population and the first sizable towns. Here
hundreds, sometimes thousands, of people lived and worked,
tilling and in many places also irrigating the land.
Technological specialization as well as trade accelerated in
the Neolithic. And, as agriculture freed human energy and
imagination, such crafts as pottery and basket making,
textile weaving and leather crafting, jewelry making and wood
carving and such arts as painting, clay modeling and stone
carving flourished."
"At the same time, the evolution of human consciousness
continued. The first anthropomorphic religion, focusing upon
the worship of the Goddess, now evolved into a complex system
of symbols, rituals, and divine commands and prohibitions,
all of which found expression in the rich art of the
Neolithic period."
"Some of the most vivid evidence of this gynocentric artistic
tradition comes to us from Mellaart's excavation of Catal
Huyuk. Here, at the largest known Neolithic site in the Near
East, there are thirty-two acres of archaeological remains.
Only one twentieth of the mound has been excavated, but this
digging alone uncovered a period spanning approximately eight
hundred years, from about 6250 to about 5400 BCE. And what we
find here is a remarkably advanced center of art, with wall
paintings, plaster reliefs, stone sculptures, and large
quantities of Goddess figurines made of clay, all focusing
upon the worship of a female deity."
"'Its numerous sanctuaries', wrote Mellaart about Huyuk in
summarizing his first three seasons of work (1961-1963),
'testify to an advanced religion, complete with symbolism and
mythology; its buildings to the birth of architecture and
conscious planning; its economy to advanced practices in
agriculture and stockbreeding; and its numerous imports to a
flourishing trade in raw materials.'"
"But while the excavations carried out in Catal Huyuk, as
well as Catal Hacilar, (inhabited from approximately 5700 to
5000 BCE), have yielded some of the richest data about this
early civilization, the southern Anatolian plain is only one
of several areas where settled agricultural societies
worshiping the Goddess have been archaeological documented.
In fact, by circa 6000 BCE, not only was the agriculture and
established fact, but--to quote Mellaart--'fully agricultural
societies began expanding into hitherto marginal territories
such as the alluvial planes of Mesopotamia, Transcaucasia,
Transcaspia on the one hand, and into southeastern Europe on
the other.' Moreover, 'some of this contact, as in Crete and
Cyprus, definitely went by sea.', and in each case 'the
newcomers arrived with a fully fledged Neolithic economy.'"
"In short, though only twenty-five years earlier,
archaeologist were still talking about Sumer as the 'cradle
of civilization', (and though this is still the prevailing
impression among the general public), we now know there was
not one cradle of civilization but several, all of them
dating back millennia earlier than was previously known--to
the Neolithic. As Mellaart wrote in his 1975 work
_The_Neolithic_of_the_Near_East_, 'urban civilization, long
thought to be a Mesopotamian invention, has predecessors at
sites like Jericho or Catal Huyuk, in Palestine and Anatolia,
long regarded as backwaters.' Moreover, we now also know
something else of great significance for the original
development of our cultural evolution. This is that in all
places where the first great breakthroughs in our material
and social technology were made-to use the phrase Merlin
Stone immortalized as a book title--God was a Woman."
"The new knowledged that civilization is much older and more
widespread than was previously believed is understandably
much new scholarly writings, with massive reassessment of
earlier archaeological theories. But the central striking
fact that in these first civilizations ideology was
gynocentric has not, except among feminist scholars, generated
much interest. If mentioned by nonfeminist scholars, it is
usually in passing. Even those who, like Mellaart, do mention
it, generally do so only as a matter of purely artistic and
religious significance, without probing its social or
cultural implications."
"Indeed, the prevailing view is still that male dominance,
along with private property and slavery, were all by-products
of the agrarian revolution. And this view maintains its hold
despite the evidence that, on the contrary, equality between
the sexes--and among all people--was the general norm in the
Neolithic." _The_Chalice_and_the_Blade_, pps 10-12
Equality between the sexes was arrived at by studying the art and
graves of those peoples. The arts had no kings or heros conquering the
enemy and indeed kings, chiefs or heros were not depicted at all. And
usually burials of men and women were somewhat equal in their grave
contents. In examining the burial mounds what was not found was
entourages of individuals following the rich deceased into death.
Another important item is that Catal Huyuk and Catal Hacilar were _not_
fortified cities. And neither exhibited damage from war for period
spanning 15 centuries. Imagine not being a major power and existing for
1500 years without being wiped from the face of the earth by another
warlike power.
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