The Most Ancient Creation Story?

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Pamho, agtSP!

 

I thought some might find this intersting...

 

The Most Ancient Creation Story?

by Joy

 

In the rugged Tsodilo Hills region of the Kalahari Desert in northwestern

Botswana, the San people [a.k.a. "Bushmen"] claim a python god first created

humanity.

Today it was reported that a rock carving of a python's head and neck as

tall as a man and 20 feet long was discovered inside the Rhino Cave along

with artifacts at least 70,000 years old.

"You could see the mouth and eyes of the snake. It looked like a real

python," said Sheila Coulson of the University of Oslo. "The play of

sunlight over the indentations gave them the appearance of snake skin. At

night, the firelight gave one the feeling that the snake was actually

moving."

 

Charring of the artifacts indicates some sort of ritual according to

Coulson, making this site evidence for human religious behavior 30,000 years

before scientists previously believed human beings evolved the intelligence

to perform group rituals. Some of the spearheads buried near the python are

particularly beautiful, and were brought to the site from hundreds of miles

away.

Behind the python carving, scientists found a secret chamber that showed

signs of having been used continually over a long period of time. It also

contained a secret exit!

"The shaman, who is still a very important person in San culture, could have

kept himself hidden in that secret chamber," Coulson explained. "He would

have had a good view of the inside of the cave while remaining hidden

himself. When he spoke from his hiding place, it could have seemed as if the

voice came from the snake itself. The shaman would have been able to control

everything. It was perfect.”

The cave comports to the full creation mythology of the San people, making

it a most extraordinary find. From the LiveScience link:

While cave paintings are common in the Tsodilo Hills, inside the python cave

there are just two small paintings, of an elephant and a giraffe. The images

were painted at the exact spot where water runs down the wall.

One San story has the python falling into water, unable to get out. It's

saved by the giraffe. The elephant, with its long trunk, is often a metaphor

for the python in San mythology.

"In the cave, we find only the San people’s three most important animals:

the python, the elephant, and the giraffe," Coulson said. "That is unusual.

This would appear to be a very special place. They did not burn the

spearheads by chance. They brought them from hundreds of kilometers away and

intentionally burned them. So many pieces of the puzzle fit together here.

It has to represent a ritual."