Re: Magdalenian words and compounds 2006/7

Magdalenian words and compounds 2006-8

Yesterday I visited the exhibition of Neolithic art
in Rumania in the Historical Museum of Olten,
together with my younger brother. A marvellous
exhibition! The main hall is dark, the walls and
podests painted black, the objects in vitrines,
illuminated by small spotlights from above,
which creates a dreamlike athmosphere.
Upon entering the hall I had a feeling as if in
an aquarium - an aquarium of the past one may
say -, the beautiful objects swimming in light,
surrounded by the dark. Really stunning. And the
decorations of the vessels of a wonderful dynamic,
as my brother remarked. Spirals are everywhere,
or rather the double spiral, one leading inward,
the other outward, as symbol of the subsequent
generations. The Vinca spiral, in my opinion,
was a symbol of life and had the phonetic value of
Zai for life in the Vinca script. If so, it is a derivative
of Magdalenian SAI for life, existence. And then
one of the last vitrines we saw in the second hall
shows about two dozen small clay figurines of
animals. The ones we could identify are several
cows, a bigger and a smaller bear, an owl (?),
a sheep, a fox and a boar. Only two of them have
indications of fur, the sheep half a dozen long lines,
and the small bear a hundred short lines, carefully
incised, indicating a thick fur, really giving the
impression of a warm fur. So this confirms once
more my interpretation of bear as the furry one,
provider of the best fur, thick, longhaired, soft
and warm.

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Magdalenian words and compounds 2006-8

Magdalenian BIR and English bear (6a)
(a short addendum)

BIR means fur, especially the fur on which a newborn
was laid. Being laid on the fur was the first event in
life, and being carried to be christened in a bearing-
cloth was the first event in religious life. Also the
ordeal first is a dervative of BIR, while Turkish bir
means one.

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Magdalenian words and compounds 2006-8
Part 102

Magdalenian BIR and English bear (6/6)

LAD for hill and LAS for mountain pose a problem.
These words disappeared. My only evidence for
LAS is AD LAS Atlas Atlantis, hypothetical ancient
name of Eurasia, land along the very long mountain
barrier from the Cantabrian Mountains in northern
Spain to the Himalayas in Asia. (English land
German Land Spanish llano 'plain' may perhaps
come from LAN as lateral association to LAD and
LAS, meaning much as land between and along
hills and mountains.) In Switzerland we have
a magnificient mountain group around the Aletsch,
mountain and glacier, the latter a world heritage
site under the protection of the Unesco. Names
in the region are Lötsch- and Lütsch, possible
derivatives of LAD and LAS, while Aletsch may
be another derivative of AD LAS. The name of the
Valais south of the Aletsch means valley, dale,
from DAL, inverse of LAD. In the Valais we have
the villages of Lax and Laden. 'Las' in the Upper
Valais means water flowing down the slopes,
akin to auslassen 'let flow out'. If water was
granted by the gods and goddesses residing
on hills and mountains we would have a reason
why LAD and LAS became taboo, yet these
words would have become English let German
lassen. The early farmers began clearing the
plains, forests survived on hills and mountain
slopes. In Slavic languages les means forest,
and forests are/were the home of bears that
had been worshipped as mountain deities ...
The compound GO) LAS or GOL LAS (gol
with a clicking l) may account for glacier
meaning much as edible mountain made of
stone that can be licked, or melted and drunk
or used for cooking. From GOL LAS we get to
glass, a material resembling ice. Ice Age
hunters lived in a world of glaciers, while our
modern metropoles are dominated by shining
facades of glass. The beautiful new opera house
in Helsinki looks like an artificial iceberg ...

Back to fur. Most furs are brown, but some have
several colors, wherefrom Latin varius English
various vary varied, and German Farbe 'color'.
Even the brown bear Ursus arctus has more than
one shade of color, the back is silvery white,
and the paws are often dark, almost black.
I insist on bear as the furry one, provider of
the best fur, thick, longhaired, soft and warm.

(end of part 6, the end)

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Magdalenian words and compounds 2006-8
Part 101

Magdalenian BIR and English bear (5/6)

Old Indic rksa 'bear' may combine ARC and RAG.
The former is present in Greek arktos and Latin
ursus, the latter in words for bear in several Indian
languages. RAG means the line of head and back
of an animal, the first line drawn by cave painters
according to Leroi-Gourhan, strongly evocative
of the whole animal. RAG has many derivatives,
among them Latin rex 'king', German Recht 'law',
ragen 'loom, tower', Rücken 'back', and ancient
Greek rachis 'back, mountain ridge'. The German
word for mountain ridge is Bergrücken, literally
the back of a mountain. The inverse of RAG is
GAR, meaning fissures and crevices in rock,
wherefrom animals emerge and wherein they
disappear, both in European cave art and in
the rock art of southern Africa. Life emerging
from rock seems to have been a very ancient
idea about the origin of life, and it has a modern
scientific equivalent in Vernadsky's (?) dictum
of life being the metamorphosis of rock ...
German Busen means cleavage but has
become a word for the female breasts. In like
manner GAR became Old Church Slavonic
gore 'mountain, Albanian gur 'rock', Avestan
gairi 'mountain', Sanskrit giri 'mountain.

(end of part 5, to be continued)
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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Magdalenian words and compounds 2006/7
    ... Magdalenian BIR and English bear ... BIR means fur, especially the fur on which a newborn ... LAD for hill and LAS for mountain pose a problem. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Magdalenian words and compounds 2006/7
    ... a lot more possible derivatives of Magdalenian ... and the small bear a hundred short lines, ... LAS is AD LAS Atlas Atlantis, ... land along the very long mountain ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Magdalenian words and compounds 2006/7
    ... LAD for hill and LAS for mountain pose a problem. ... German Land Spanish llano 'plain' may perhaps ... Even the brown bear Ursus arctus has more than ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Laz in Poland?
    ... of laying a newborn on a bear fur in the third century AD. ... German Zottelbär means 'shaggy bear'. ... Greek rachis 'back, mountain ridge'. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Magdalenian experiment (continuation)
    ... 'Berg' became the word for mountain in German. ... Bear comes from PIE *bher-, ... but all of them can be related to fur ...
    (sci.lang)
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