Neolithic OfferingIn the Dutch city of Vlaardingen, an interesting find has been found dating back t
Neolithic OfferingIn the Dutch city of Vlaardingen, an interesting find has been found dating back to the Neolithic era belonging to the Vlaardingen culture (3,500BC-2,500BC). This predates the Germanic culture for about 2,000 years but the find gives us an unique insight into the religious beliefs of our prehistoric ancestors. The object found is a wooden box made from birch bark, it is quite rare for a wooden object to survive that long in the ground. Next to the wooden box, a skull of a bear has been found as well. Both objects were placed on purpose in a creek so it is believed that these objects were offerings of some kind. The belief in Gods did not yet exist back in the neolithic era but the belief in nature spirits, ancestor spirits and animal spirits did already exist, all of these beliefs continued to exist before, during and after the Germanic era. Amulets made of bear teeth have also been found which can be traced back to this Vlaardingen culture which suggests that the bear, which still existed in the Netherlands back then, was viewed as an important spiritual animal. Maybe they were worn in order to gain some of the strength of a bear? Why someone deposited this wooden box with the bear skull in a creek 5,000 years ago, is still a complete puzzle. It probably had an important spiritual meaning to them but sadly we will never know what it exactly meant to them, they perhaps were part of a bear cult. Photos of:Wooden box,Bear tooth amulet,Bear skull,Brown beer (the same species that once lived in the Netherlands) -- source link
#europe#prehistory#neolithic