Homo Sapiens and a Cross

By Valentyn Moiseienko

Numerous authentic images of cross on archaeological findings, monuments, cult structures and traditional clothes of different peoples of the world, put in chronological order, serve to show how this symbol spread around the globe. The author comes to conclusion that cross is a graphic symbol of human conquest of the planet and subjugation of other humans, as well as a symbol of urge to know. The author also expresses hope that cross, as a religious symbol, offers tender hope for survival of people in the future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Andrew Afonin
• Release date: Nov 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393739401

Book preview

Homo Sapiens and a Cross

Valentyn Moyseyenko

The Illustrated History of Humanity through History of One Symbol

The author’s preface: The long-term study of available data on the cross symbol proves that this symbol, invented by our distant ancestors and consisting of two perpendicular line segments mirrors the human’s essence to its fullest. That is why it has spread so quickly around the globe and became the main symbol of the world’s most prevalent religion, Christianity.

The author expresses gratitude to museums, scientific foundations and web resources, such as Pinterest, Google Culture and many other, for numerous exhibited images of archaeological findings or traditional clothes of different peoples of the world featuring a cross symbol. Shown in the chronological order, these images, or their details, graphically reveal a lot of secrets, including that of the mystery of homo sapiens’s nature and mission.

Chapter I. Earliest Crosses

The earliest scientifically dated cross is about 39-46 thousand years old. It was engraved in the bedrock of Gorham’s Cave in Gibraltar (pic.1).

Pic.1. The cross engraved in the rock of Gorham’s Cave in Gibraltar. 3900046000 y.o. Image: Stewart Finlayson.

This cave is located on the Mediterranean coast and is known for the fact that it was a home for Europe’s first inhabitants, Neanderthals for more than 10,000 years (pic.2).

Pic.2. Gorham’s Cave entrance.

Ruth Blasco and Stewart Finlayson from the Gibraltar Museum, who were first to discover this cross-hatched pattern, claimed it to be ‘the first known example of an abstract pattern engraved by Neanderthals’²². The researchers concluded that the engravings were scratched in the rock with some pointed lithic tool. To replicate the deepest grooves the scientists had to make more than 50 strokes. The longest horizontal lines were made first and engraved from left to right. As for the vertical lines, Neanderthals also made them the way we would make them today - from top to bottom.

The next few crosses, discovered in Europe, have been made by our direct ancestors - representatives of the homo sapiens genus. Here are some of the most famous of them (pic. 3-4).

Pic.3-4. Mammoth ivory figurines from the Vogelherd Cave. 33000-30000 y.o., Swabia, Germany.

These small mammoth ivory figurines are clearly amulets called to help in hunting for these animals. Let's compare them with the reindeer bone from Eastern Europe, excavated at a Palaeolithic hunters’ camp found near Lviv (pic.5).

Pic.5. Northern reindeer bone. XII millennium BC. The Lviv Archaeology Museum. Ukraine.

As we see, there are cross symbols carved on both the mammoth ivory figurines and the northern reindeer bone. They can only mean that hunting these animals was the main occupation for Europe's inhabitants of that time, hence these animals provided them with food. Meaning "main" seems to be the first meaning implied in the cross symbol. We can also spot isolated complex crosses, consisting of rectangles, squares and dots on the caves’ walls (pic.6).

Pic.6. A complex cross from the Castillo Cave. 19000-16000 years BC. Cantabria, Spain.

The cross symbol was also well known and revered by inhabitants of Çatalhöyük, one of the first city-temples in world history (pic.7-8).

Pic.7. The figurine of a goddess with a leopard. Çatalhöyük, Erdinç Bakla archive. VI millennium BC. Turkey.

Pic.8. Wall painting. Temple VI.A.50 at Chatal Guiuk, Erdinç Bakla archive. VI millennium BC. Turkey.

Next few millenniums after the glacial period saw growth in Europe’s population. First of all we are talking about the Pryazovia region, where local population was the first on the continent who 9,000 years ago began to breed cattle and grow barley⁶. And that was the time when local priests began to scratch crosses on the walls of grottoes and caves of the ancient Kamyana Mohyla (i.e. Stone Grave) temple ⁷ (pic. 9).

Pic.9. An animal, probably, a goat inside a fenced pen. Scribbled stone. VI millennium BC. The Kamyana Mohyla National Historic Park, Ukraine.

There’s a cross carved above the goat. It must mean that raising cattle was main occupation for inhabitants of the Pryazovia region back in those times. Dozens of stone plates with crosses and other symbols carved on them have been found in grottoes and caves of the Kamyana Mohyla sanctuary⁷ (pic.10).

Pic.10. Stone disk with a cross image. VI millennium BC. The Kamyana Mohyla National Historic Park, Ukraine.

Very similar stone plates from Mesolithic and Copper Ages marked with ritual symbols are exhibited in many museums throughout Europe. Most likely they were compact size data bank to store information our ancestors found important. Later ancient Europeans invented yet better and more advanced devices to store information. And this is what will be discussed in the next section.

Chapter II. Solar Crosses of Trypillian cities

Starting from the second half of the sixth to the beginning of the third millennium BC the Cucuteni-Trypillia archaeological culture