As we have seen so far, once there were a culture and societies of which the history books don´t talk about. This culture came to an end leaving practically no trace. Only in this last century, mainly due to archaeology, we are beginning to glimpse what was hidden from us. But, what happened in Europe, and in the world, that drove the different social, artistic and cultural expressions of the so called Cultures of the Celebration of Life to their gradual disappearance?
“Actually, the first chapters of patriarchal civilization in Old Europe date back to the middle of the 4th millennium BC, and will continue to develop until 500 BC when it consolidates as the current civilization, with the rules and laws that cover all aspects of human life and the modern social contract. We know that our law system is based on the Roman law, which in turn derives from the Greek one. So far, human civilization and history drew from there.
But nowadays, thanks to the archaeological revolution, that supports all the other indications (mythological, psychoanalytic, anthropological and biological), it is within our capabilities to know how the inhabitants of these places lived between 7000-3500 BC, when a human way of life of essentially different characteristics prevailed. And how and what happened in the Old Europe during a period of 3000 years, from the middle of the 4th millennium BC, when the wave of invasions from the north began, until 500BC” Casilda Rodrigañez “El asalto al Hades”.
"From 4,400 BC Europe begins to be attacked by nomadic herders who gradually brought to an end the Neolithic culture of Old Europe in three stages: 4400-4200, 3400-3200 and 3000-2800 BC These early stages did not bring, or hardly brought the historical Indo-Europeans we know of, but rather the Greeks, Latins, Celts, Germanics and Slavs overlapped previous groups and languages. The Indo-Europeans as a whole seem to be characterized by a change of habits and habitats: new male religion, patriarchal society with its social institutions and social specialization as shows the presence of warriors, warrior society and thus fortified settlements on high and predominantly strategic places." Francisco Villar, "The arrival of the Indo-Europeans in Greece."
"The oldest archaeologically recorded looting took place in the lower reaches of the Dnieper and the Danube, and it has been radiocarbon dated between 4300 and 4000 BC. That is to say, it occurred 6000 years ago, at the height of the Chalcolithic civilization. Although, this is an isolated incident and has not been found anywhere else in the world; evidence of military invasion of such remote antiquity. Once again it was the work of Marija Gimbutas that revealed the existence of these invasions, and many features of the identity of their perpetrators. These were semi-nomadic people from the steppes of southern Russia, north of the Black and Caspian seas, which left behind very characteristic archaeological remains, that Gimbutas called the Kurgan Culture. A Kurgan is a burial mound. That is a log cabin buried under a mound of earth and rocks. These burials are also first evidence of social stratification: In the largest and most sumptuous mounds often there are found skeletons of men exceptionally tall or big-boned with knives, war axes, horse bones, skeletons and even people probably killed in sacrifice placed around them, usually women and children." Joan Coy,"La historia oculta"
According to the Great Larousse Encyclopaedia: "The Indo-European warrior tribes were well organized, they knew the horse and the metallurgy of iron (Aryans, Hittites and Achaeans). Their original habitat is a controversial matter; it might have been the steppes that extend from the Dnieper to Khazajstan. The study of Indo-European lexicon has allowed us to determine their way of life (livestock), social structures (patriarchal organization, hierarchy of estates: religious, warrior and farmer) and religion (ancestor worship, worship of a heavenly God)"
OLD EUROPE CULTURE |
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KURGAN CULTURE |
Economy: Agricultural, sedentary.
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Economy: Nomadic, extensive livestock farming. |
Habitat: Big settlements of 500 to 20.000 inhabitants. |
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Habitat: Small mobile populations |
Social structure: Egalitarian society, matrifocal. |
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Social structure: Hierarchic society, patriarchal. |
Ideology: Pacific, artistic. |
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Ideology: Military, conquest. |
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"The barbarian invasion and the fall of the Roman Empire were but one episode among Indo-Europeans. A substantial change occurred in Europe several thousand years ago (about 5000 years ago) with
the emergence of the Kurgan people. [...] The Kurgan people were semi-nomadic shepherds who lived in caves or small seasonal settlements, driving the cattle from one place to another along the
wide plains lying between the northern Black Sea and the Caspian, which probably is their place of origin. These tribes were organized by a leadership system and patrilinear descent that
worshiped male warrior gods. The axe, the dagger and sword were the symbols of divine power. They domesticated the horse and learned the metallurgy of bronze from the Caucasians around 3500 BC
and were the first to use metals and animals for war. And the shift happens here. Since then, essentially caused by a population increase and a climatic change from Atlantic to Sub-boreal that
dried up the Steppes of today's Russia, these people began to migrate into Europe. In M. Gimbutas’ opinion, from the Southern steppes of nowadays Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, they spread in three
major invasions, the last of them around 3000-2800 BC.” Josu Naberan “La vuelta de Sugaar”
"There were invasions of Indo-European bandits, of nomadic peoples ignorant of agriculture, who lived in areas where food resources were abundant. When the latter started to run low, needing pasture to feed their livestock they invaded foreign territory. In search of food, they looted, devastating the coveted regions and ended up destroying large numbers of people and changing social structure. They were the Aryans, the Luwians, the Achaeans, the Kurgan, the Hebrews and the Dorians. According to Gimbutas, the waves of migration ravaged Europe in three phases: the first wave around 4300 BC, the second one around 3200 BC and the third wave around 3000 BC. They conquered other regions and destroyed cultures in many more, where they imposed their ideologies. And patriarchy became the rule by means of violence and war: in Gimbutas’ opinion the patriarchal culture of the Indo-Europeans meant the destruction of a uniform culture, matriarchal and peaceful, that had flourished throughout ancient Europe for twenty thousand years, from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic." Francisca Martin-Cano.
“The bronze weapon, the sword, the dagger, the war axe were about to turn all that into dust. Though the conquerors will use the dolmen (built centuries before by the populations now being conquered) for the burials of their own chieftains, they will knock down the statues-menhirs.(...) However, the native population, even the most peaceful ones, didn´t willingly let themselves to be subjugated by those more experienced warriors. Thus, since the beginning of the Bronze Age, there are to be found scattered throughout Western Europe the marks of combat, charred remains, bodies pierced by arrows, and specially the preponderance of a civilization very different from the prior one.” J.C. Perpere, “Les Pierres qui Parlent”
“The bronze daggers, halberds, war mauls and axes, the flint arrow heads, found in several archaeological sites, and masculine idols enable us to follow the tracks of those Indo-Europeans. From then on, it becomes very noticeable the deep change of the archaeological findings: many more weapons appear, while the art and system of symbols of the old Neolithic Europe vanishes; we can perceive the fall of agriculture and the rise of livestock, the decadence of the large settlements and the increase of nomadic lifestyle; the abundance of male idols and the absence of representations of the goddess.” Josu Naberan, “La vuelta de Sugaar”.
“With the emergence of a hierarchical society, struggle for status as well as for hegemony and its permanence arrived; rivalry between groups and individuals, hierarchical obedience and the male dominance. Chieftains acquired their power by violent means (not by matrilineal succession), their authority wasn´t legitimized nor had a divine origin, therefore they couldn´t be immediately recognized. Consequently, they would have to use violence to consolidate their authority, to fulfil their goals; as a mechanism of social promotion; because of rivalry, it would be used to suffocate inner fights for power legitimating the appalling wars and constant confrontation.
And so the tyrants had to rely on military power, many times by means of forced conscription, making legitimate use of physical constrains, to impose law and order. They made war to conquer other people and gain access to their resources possessing someone else´s goods; to domineer neighbouring populations imposing them their beliefs; to protect themselves from other looters and despite of their defences, be overthrown and substituted by others.
And as the war would increase the demographic bleeding, it would be essential to have more descendants, hence the feminine human machines would be enslaved, busy (pregnant) satisfying the male´s desires. So they could face the cultural phenomenon of war.” Francisca Martín-Cano.