Symbolic Meaning of the Image of the Bird as a Reflection of the Religious and Worldview Notions in the Paleolithic Art

Abstract

Formulation of the problem. Most of the Paleolithic animalistic drawings not only reproduced the visual images of nature, but also had a symbolic and semantic load and were used as zoomorphic codes of the tiers of the universe. The image of the bird served as a symbol of the upper part in the vertical model of the universe. However, its semantics is not limited to this value and is not an entirely elucidated problem. Its solution should be related to another problem that has been raised in the scientific literature of recent decades and refers to the reflection of the leading religious worldview ideas of a particular period of history in the characterization of the dominant sign of the Zodiac (under which at that time was the point of intersection of the ecliptic and celestial equator during 2150 years). There is no doubt that in the civilized societies with the dominant constellation in which the sun rose on the day of the vernal equinox, ancient astronomers linked a number of concepts and principles that corresponded to the main religious worldview ideas of their time. But the problem of matching the characteristics of the dominant signs of the zodiac with the leading cults in earlier periods of the primitive history remains open. The purpose of the article is to determine religious ideas related to the bird image in the Paleolithic and to investigate whether they were reflected in the characteristics of the zodiac signs that dominated at the time of the emergence of these ideas. Results. The analyzed artifacts show that in the minds of the Paleolithic people the bird was perceived as the only one of natural beings able to overcome the earthly gravitation and ascend to heaven. As a result, its image acquired significance not only as a zoomorphic code of the upper part of the universe but also as the symbol of the soul of man who, after death, ascends to the higher world. In addition, the image of the bird could be combined with the image of the woman because she was considered a bearer of the soul of a child. Religious ideas related to the image of birds were reflected in the characteristics of zodiacal signs dominant at the time of the emergence of these ideas. The earliest evidence of the association of bird with soul and woman as a carrier of children’s souls (the image of a woman-bird on a bone plate from the Hayensenklosterl) falls on 38 millennia B.C., the astronomical era of the zodiac sign of Virgo, positioning the female maternal principle. The most ancient image of a bird as a zoomorphic code of the upper part in the symbolic model of the universe, made on stone from the settlement of Mala Siya, dates back to 33rd–32ndmillennia B.C. This coincides with the time of the Earth being under the zodiac sign of Gemini, positioning the pair principle. The most ancient laying of sculptures of birds in the burial place, as the cult analogues of the soul of the deceased (in the settlement of Malta) testifying to the awareness of the connection of the soul with the spiritual world of the sky, falls on 23rd - 22ndmillennia B.C., on the astronomical era of the zodiacal sign of Aquarius, positioning a special susceptibility to the supernatural spiritual reality. The awareness of the three-tier vertical model of the universe, where the bird played the role of a zoomorphic symbol of the upper zone, occurs in the 16th–15thmillennia B.C., the astronomical era of Scorpio, and is reflected in the characterization of this zodiacal sign which has three hypostases: a snake, a scorpion, and a bird, positions the combination of three tiers of the universe. The reflection of leading religious ideas in the characteristics of zodiac signs before the appearance of astronomy suggests that this phenomenon was a consequence of not a human thought but higher intelligence.Article received 16.04.2019