Pre-History Around the World by Amy Parks

India

2021-01-14 02:13:06 UTC

Gulu, Uganda

2021-01-14 23:15:04 UTC

Newgrange, Newgrange, Donore, County Meath, Ireland

2021-01-14 23:38:39 UTC

This is the location of the oldest and most famous Ancient Irish Temple, dating even before Stonehenge.

Newgrange, Newgrange, Donore, County Meath, Ireland

alyssaeverettbca — 2021-01-14 23:44:28 UTC

Celtic Druids were among some of the most high ranking people group in ancient society and used stone carvings for rituals as well as oral story telling. These stories are responsible for many folklore stories we still know today, only because other societies (like the Romans) decided to annotate some of the details of this mystical ancient culture.

Newgrange, Newgrange, Donore, County Meath, Ireland

alyssaeverettbca — 2021-01-14 23:46:15 UTC

These temples were used by ancient Irish Druids for spiritual purposes. Druids were believed to be the intermediaries between the Celtic Gods and the people. They played a huge role in Celtic culture.

Dendera Temple Complex, Qism Qena, Qena, Egypt

2021-01-15 00:05:28 UTC

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

aarongaticabca — 2021-01-15 01:00:50 UTC

Khoomei and The Morin Khuur: Of all the arts, the Mongols themselves loved and cultivated music, developing a unique form of singing known as throat singing or Khoomei. The origins of their musical arts dates back about 5000 years ago. The long vibrating notes gives these songs a deeply meditative quality that carries over the grand distances of the steppes. Mongolian songs express the singer’s deep feelings for their horses, natural beauty, love of family or the nomadic life.

Long songs may be accompanied by the other key element of Mongolian traditional music, the Morin Khuur or horse-head fiddle. These Chinese-derived two-string fiddles have elaborately carved horses’ heads crowning the fiddle. The Morin khuur can sound the deep tones of the cello or it can emulate the neighing of a Mongolian horse. This instrument is highly honored and respected as the symbol of The Nation of Mongolia.

Apache Tribe: Covering parts of AZ, TX, CO, NM, and Northern Mexico

jonahgilmorebca — 2021-01-15 01:13:04 UTC

They believed before each annihilation (the great flood), instructions for survival were given by spirit powers and as the new world began, the tribe received songs and ceremonies designed for living in the newly formed world.
https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2329&context=gradschool_dissertations

jonahgilmorebca — 2021-01-15 01:28:54 UTC

Tuva, Russia

aarongaticabca — 2021-01-15 01:31:14 UTC

Aohan, Chifeng, Inner Mongolia, China

aarongaticabca — 2021-01-15 01:35:12 UTC

Greece, Fournas, Greece

sarahauserbca — 2021-01-15 02:19:17 UTC

Turkey

sarahauserbca — 2021-01-15 02:42:12 UTC

Interesting! Belly Dancing as a community style for several different occasions, influenced from African styles of dance as well. Folk dancing in Turkey was one of the most popular ways to initiate rites of passage in life, celebrations, weddings, funerals, and other cultural events.

Greece

mariahhardybca — 2021-01-15 04:10:16 UTC

Greece

mariahhardybca — 2021-01-15 04:10:56 UTC

In Ancient Greece, artists created practical vessels to hold oil (lekythos) or water (hydra). But, as the Greeks do, they painted stunning depictions of their culture on the outside of them. This includes everything from an athlete running to stories of ancient Greek mythology. The pottery was so well constructed that archeologists have been able to recover over 100,000 of them. Ancient Greek pottery dates all the way back to 1000 BC. These pieces of pottery have helped historians put together a clear picture of the Greek's everyday life as well as the wild mythical beliefs that dictated their behavior. Lastly, they added inscriptions that can date all the way back to the 8th century bc. These point to the earliest versions of the Greek alphabet.

Dionysiades, Sitia, Greece

bayleetoney — 2021-01-15 04:13:39 UTC

This is so interesting! Although through digging up more research, I found that this was very cult-like, it was still so interesting. I found that a festival that was held here was actually the birth place of tragedy, comedy, and satyric drama. The festivals were for poets to come and write, produce and (probably) act in three tragedies based on a single theme. Each poet would also present a satyr play "which treated a heroic subject in a burlesque fashion," (sounds a lot like Saturday Night Live if you ask me!) Check this link out if you want to read a bit more about the festival!

Catalan Pre-Coastal Range, Spain

graceyoungbca — 2021-01-15 04:24:22 UTC

There were a couple of things that stood out to me about Spain, the main one being; 'The Dancers of Cogul'. It is one amongst 45 cave paintings in what is called 'Roca Del Moros' a shelter in the rocks in the village of Cogul. The Dancers of Cogul is a drawing of 10 women dancing bare footed in flowing skirts and naked upper body around a nude man. Interestingly, the human figure seems to be of great importance and takes prominent place in these cave paintings which is very reflective of Levantine art. Both men and women are shown to be with skirts whilst displaying a naked upper body. They are also known to be quite phallic. Dance seems to be a main theme expressed even amongst hunting and human battle with 'very wide strides' or 'flying running'.

Epidaurus Theatre, Epidavrou, Tripolis, Greece

abigailduhonbca — 2021-01-15 04:46:26 UTC

Epidaurus is known as a classical Greek Theatre which still exists today. It was built in 340BC and its construction shows the time period of when they did theatre. It is still in use today because of the great structure that it is. The acoustics of the stone seating created amplified sound for all of the audience to hear. This was something people couldn't figure out for awhile, but has shown to be true from studying the architecture of the stone steps. The stage is circular, to keep with the choros (circular dance), and is called the orchestra, orchester - a dancer, showing it is a place for dancing and the chorus singing.

Sanctuary to Theater
(among other uses):
"Located on the fertile plain of Argolida, in the eastern part of Peloponnese, the Sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidaurus was an important sacred healing center during ancient times. Asclepius, also spelled Asklepios, was believed to possess healing powers that he learned from his father, Apollo. Therefore, the area attracted people from all over Greece who came to be treated by the resident priests. And with time, and as the center developed, prosperity increased, which the priests used to build an impressive complex of facilities, including temples, baths, athletic venues, and the theater."

[In link] Greek Theatre 6AD coming from followers of the god Dionysus, cult ceremonies and exciting occasions.

Dendera Temple Complex, Qism Qena, Qena, Egypt

2021-01-15 04:59:07 UTC

In Ancient Egypt they had dramatic performance that were ritualistic in nature and were played for an audience that consisted of the gods and priests in the temple. Their lack of a true audience and dialogue that addressed each other were the reasons it was not considered true theatre.
http://semiramis-speaks.com/from-ritual-drama-to-ancient-theater/from-ritual-drama-to-ancient-theater-egypt/

Anatoli, Greece - The Odyssey

katrinabowenbca — 2021-01-15 05:56:39 UTC

Regarding the Iliad and Odyssey, two of the most well-known Greek stories from which plays and films have been made: “The stories of Achilles and Odysseus would have been passed down orally for about five hundred years before they were written down sometime in the eighth century B.C.“

Athens, Greece - The Odyssey

katrinabowenbca — 2021-01-15 06:04:16 UTC

“Statements made by the 1st century BCE Roman philosopher, Cicero, claim that Pisistratus, an Athenian tyrant who ruled between 546 and 527 BCE, established a Commission of Editors of Homer to edit the “existing” texts of the poems and remove any errors and interpolations, thus canonizing the text specifically for recitation at Athens’ annual Panathenaic festival. Socrates allegedly stated that Pisistratus, son of Hipparchus, was the first to bring the Homeric poems into Athens (Bryce, 14-16, 195-196).”

Australia - Corroboree

katrinabowenbca — 2021-01-15 06:20:48 UTC

Aborigine’s culture of story-telling - “corroboree” - is a multi media art form performed through song, dance, painting of totemic icons, and “dramatic lighting of the moon.”It was compared by English settlers to European theater. Aborigines would travel long distances and thus spend valuable resources to learn new songs and honor talented song men and -women in their theatrical performances.

Masks and Mumming among Nordic Islanders (A little bit of a stretch)

noominielsenbca — 2021-01-15 06:24:15 UTC

This may be a little bit of a stretch, but I really wanted to find some pre historical theatre close to home. Considering the nature of the theatrical findings and how the nordic world has been slightly behind the rest of Europe culturally I think this can be considered pre historic theatre!

Neolithic people settled in Shetland as early as around 2700 BC, and 3500 AD in the Orkney Islands. The first settlements in Iceland were much later in 874 AD with Ingólfur Arnarson, and in The Faroe Islands somewhere between the 8th and 10th Century AD.

Celtic Druids: Ireland

shannonfrohlichbca — 2021-01-15 06:30:47 UTC

The druids believed in protecting their unique society, so they would orally pass down their knowledge rather than keep a written record of their beliefs.

Within their spirituality, the druids believed in reincarnation, shapeshifting, and magic. Their magic and healing methods were handed down through verses.

One of the most popular modern notices of the druids is their spiritual dances (as seen in "Outlander"). These dances usually involved groups circling around trees in honor of the sun and oak tree.

(other links include: www.buildingbridgeswithirishdance.weebly.com/origin-of-irish-dance.html , www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/history-irelands-ancient-druids , www.druidnetwork.org/what-is-druidry/learning-resources/polytheist/lesson-seventeen/ )

Australia - Songlines

katrinabowenbca — 2021-01-15 06:45:04 UTC

Songs that cross the country: songlines or dreamings were encyclopedic recordings of water holes, hunting grounds, animals and plants, used by various tribes across Australia to survive. They also involved spiritual elements, as many traced the the journeys of ancestral spirits that created animals, land, and lore. Songs were sung to help traverse the land safely as well as perform rituals at sacred sites along the journey.

Australia - Songlines

katrinabowenbca — 2021-01-15 06:45:52 UTC

“Songlines are effectively oral maps of the landscape, enabling the transmission of oral navigational skills in cultures that do not have a written language. In many cases, songlines on the earth are mirrored by songlines in the sky, enabling the sky to be used as a navigational tool, both by using it as a compass, and by using it as a mnemonic”

Noaidi - The Sámi Shaman (2000-700 BC)

noominielsenbca — 2021-01-15 06:54:16 UTC

Like other spiritual mediators in various prehistoric religions and cultures this was kind of like the scandinavian version. It is the oldest nordic history of the use of masks in a presentational way.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/noaide

Prose Edda

noominielsenbca — 2021-01-15 07:06:43 UTC

Or Eddic "poems" about the Old Norse gods and heroes. Terry Gunnell says that they must have been originally presented in a simple dramatic fashion. Especially Lokasenna (Loki’s Flyting), has interest in the present context because of how closely it reflects the disguised house visit as it regularly occurred in the Nordic countries in later times.

The setting of the poem shows the gods sitting down to a feast, something that in itself suggests

a festive gathering of some kind. All of a sudden, a figure (the trickster god-giant Loki) enters the room, apparently in disguise since he avoids giving his own name at first. Loki (as “Loptur”) goes on to state that he has come a long way, and demands something alcoholic to drink:

∏yrstr ek kom
πessar hallar til
Loptur,umlanganveg,
áso at bi∂ia
at mér einn gefi mæran drykk mia∂ar.

He then proceeds to insult each of the members of the banquet, accusing them one by one of various immoral offences, until he is eventually forced to leave. As noted, the parallels that his behaviour presents to the common patterns of later Nordic mumming are striking. This especially applies to the feature of the disguised “supernatural” visitor who comes “from afar” to visit a festive meal, implicitely demanding sustenance and then satirising the hosts before finally being forced to depart. It is also noteworthy how, in Lokasenna, all of those present answer the accusations in an almost ritualistic fashion, and how an identity guessing-game seems to lie behind the poem (see further Gunnell 1995a: 206–212; 225–229; and 238–247).

Faroe Islands

noominielsenbca — 2021-01-15 07:09:57 UTC

All in all, as was been noted at the start, this book should for once and for all banish the notion that the Nordic peoples are and were expressionless, “Bergmanesque” beings. It provides new insight into a whole menagerie of masked figures that have stalked the pathways and main roads of the north, ranging from goats and bulls to cranes and bears, and from ogresses to gypsies, kings and pantomime dames. These figures, which go by such exotic names such as the julebukk/ julbock/ julebuk/ joulupouki/ jõulusokk/ †ingál†/ jólhest- ur/ julegeit; jõulupoisid; Julebisp; stjernegutter/ stjärngossar/ seernapojat; staffansryttarna/ tapaninajo; tapanipukit; nääripoisid; kveldskjøgla; helligtre- konger; Knutgubbar/ Knut/ nuutti; mitaartut; Nuutiparooni; Lusse/ Lucia/ lut- si; noitaämmä; Mattesgubbar; toomased; påskkäringar, grØlur/ grøliks/ skek- lers; kekri; mardi; kadri; busar, dimitendar, and möhippor, just to mention a few, were anything but dull. If nothing else they serve to underline the fact that the spirit of theatre, in one form or another, has always lived in the Nordic blood.

In the earlier forms of Old Norse literature, such a statement would have been unlikely, not least be- cause figures in the sagas are usually identified by their outward rather than in- ner appearance (Gunnell 1995a: 85). Hence, in the main part of the above ac- count, ∏orleifur is not referred to as ∏orleifur, but as Ni∂ungur (the role he is playing).

Iceland

noominielsenbca — 2021-01-15 07:13:40 UTC

∏orleifur now puts together a beggar’s costume, and attaches a goat beard to himself. He then took a large leather bag, placed it under the beggar’s costume, and arranged it so that everybody would imagine that he was eating the food which he threw into the bag, because the bag’s opening was placed by his mouth behind the goat beard. He then took two crutches with points on the bottom of each...

GRÝLA

noominielsenbca — 2021-01-15 07:15:16 UTC

The Grýla tradition known in thirteenth-cen-tury Iceland was also known amongst the Scandinavian settlers in the Faroes and Shetland, and lived on in the shape of disguised figures later known as grýlur in the Faroes, grøliks and skeklers in the northern isles of Shetland, and possibly gyros in Orkney.

Colima, Mexico

lornaramsaybca — 2021-01-15 08:13:08 UTC

300Bc Mexico there is evidence of cultural traditions in the form of dance, clothing etc through their ceramic statues that mostly were in figure form. Clay was the dominant medium used as textiles weren't something discovered in Mexico at the time. Dances that were practised were a ritual part of the religion and fertility cults that was followed. We can see the importance of fertility in the statues of the people of the Colima dancing because of the emphasis on exaggeration of the male and female bodies and the differences between them. Ask me for pictures of these statues if you want to see an example

Bhimbetka rock shelters, Bhojpur Raisen, Madhya Pradesh, India

sharonyostbca — 2021-01-15 09:14:03 UTC

Preserved cave paintings depicting dance

Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh, India

sharonyostbca — 2021-01-15 09:28:08 UTC

“The oldest hard evidence of Indian dance are bas-relief depictions of dance [dating] from the 2nd century B.C. to A.D. third century, and ‘Natyasastra of Bharata’, a treatise on drama and dance written between the A.D. 2nd and 4th century”

Tamil Nadu, India

sharonyostbca — 2021-01-15 09:35:28 UTC

FUN FACT: Gestures play an important role in Indian dance. Some dances feature more 600 gestures, each with a specific meaning. These gestures are still used today even in Indian pop-culture with traditional dance and Bollywood.

There are 4 main points essential to understanding Indian dance. Each movement gives insight to the story, giving details within each facet:

1. Technique of movement (which includes facial expressions, head movements and body movements)

2. All types of vocal and instrumental sounds linked with dance

3. Involuntary actions such as perspiration, trembling and blushing

4. Make-up, costumes and sets; even certain colors have symbolic meaning

HISTORICAL FUN FACT: This area is the birthplace of Bharatanatyam, the main form of Indian classical dance. It is dated as far back as the 2nd century.

France

marlonwilsonbca — 2021-01-15 15:19:27 UTC

This cave, the Lascaux, was discovered in the south of France by four boys chasing after their dog down a fox hole. This cave houses paintings and engravings of mostly animals. The cave also seems to be a dwelling place for the artist decorating it. They both lived in and decorated this cave around 17,000-15,000 BCE.

China

2021-01-15 15:40:42 UTC

It is speculated that one method of ancient storytelling involved having a blind person tell a poem or something uplifting to a pregnant woman during the night as a way to insure she had a healthy baby.

Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, Lasseter Hwy, Uluru NT, Australia

katrinabowenbca — 2021-01-15 18:49:36 UTC

Dream time pathways and cultural passports.

Sweden (between 1700 BD and 200 BC)

noominielsenbca — 2021-01-15 19:01:05 UTC

The real purpose of the rock art remains unknown but the carvings were almost certainly of a religious or sacred nature. The same motifs recur: boats, cup marks, humans, animals, foot prints, musical instruments, weaponry, carts, ploughs, wheels and carriages. Simple daily life events and items such as houses, people at work, children, cows and fish are never depicted.

Again somewhat surprising, very few violent scenes are depicted – no murderous raiding and pilfering Vikings here. Although lots of weapons are shown, very little fighting or even active hunting is depicted. One scene at Fossum shows an animal actually being speared while others hint at dead animals (or people) without showing the actual moment of being killed. The weapons are probably for ceremonial use with swords rarely drawn.