Evolving Brains, Emerging Gods

by E Fuller Torrey

  At least 90 plastered skulls have been found, widely distributed in southwest Asia and dated to between 10,000 and 8,500 years ago. According to British archeologist Jacquetta Hawkes, “The best skulls are so finely modelled and life-like that they are works of art as well as cult objects.” The effect of these skulls on viewers is striking. When the first such plastered skull was uncovered at Jericho, the lead archeologist described his research colleagues as being stunned: “None of us were prepared for the object [plastered skull] … produced in the evening.” Archeologists at other sites have also described the finding of plastered skulls as “a highly emotive experience”: “We are drawn toward faces, and these are, literally, ‘faces from the past.’ ”38

  The widespread display of human skulls in southwest Asia during the agricultural revolution has been referred to as a “skull cult.” Studies of the wear pattern of these skulls suggest that they were not only displayed but also handled by many people. Some archeologists have cited this as definitive evidence of ancestor worship. Mike Parker Pearson suggested that such skulls “are representations of dead people who were formerly alive and they constitute an embodiment of how the living perceived their ancestral dead.” Karina Croucher similarly noted that “death did not mark the end of the body’s engagement with the living world, but rather marked a new phase of activity and interaction with the living.… They may have been considered active members of the household beyond death, perhaps seen to influence decisions, and play an active role in the events and consequences of the living.… The skulls signify the continuing role of the dead in the lives of the living.” Indeed, a skull so displayed in a home could quite literally be regarded as the head of the household.39

  Also of interest in southwest Asia are statues and masks, the majority of which have been dated to the latter phases of the agricultural revolution. The statues vary from small human figurines, such as seated women or standing men in a group, to human figures more than three feet tall with painted facial features and seashells for eyes. For example, at Ain Ghazal, a Jordanian village dated to between 9,250 and 8,000 years ago, 13 36-inch full body statues and 12 18-inch busts were found and are generally regarded by archeologists as “ancestral portraits.” At another archeological site, 665 figurines were found. Few in number but of great interest are limestone masks, with accentuated holes for eyes, a small nose, and a mouth that on some masks includes teeth. Twelve such masks, each different in appearance, were found in one region of Israel and are dated to about 9,000 years ago. Some masks were also perforated along their edges, suggesting that they may have been tied around a human head or possibly around a plastered skull. One mask “is made of limestone with red limonitic inclusions [giving] the mask the appearance of a human face covered with blood.” This mask also includes small lumps of asphalt with pieces of hair attached, suggesting that it had hair attached in its original state.40

  What is the meaning of these enigmatic statues and masks? Some archeologists have suggested that “plastered skulls, statues, and masks [form] a common theme” and are interconnected. The frequent finding of them together at the same archeological sites supports the possibility that all are associated with ancestor veneration in some form. Given how masks have been used in many other cultures over the centuries, it is possible that the wearer of the mask represented the deceased, perhaps in a public ceremony.41

  Kfar Hahoresh, a village in Israel dated to approximately the same period as Ain Ghazal, is unusual in having no evidence of people living there. Instead, it is “thought to have been primarily a place of burial and treatment of the dead.” A headless human skeleton was found there, overlying a pit containing the bones of eight wild cattle. Nearby “was an oval arrangement of 15 human mandibles and other remains that included a possible depiction of an animal outlined using human and animal bones.” One grave yielded “a headless gazelle carcass with a plastered human skull.” Researchers have speculated that this village was a “regional funerary and cult center that served the surrounding villages.”42

  Çatalhöyük, a village in central Turkey dated to the period between 9,000 and 8,000 years ago, also illustrates the spiritual concerns of its inhabitants at this time. It had approximately 5,000 people, who grew three kinds of wheat, barley, and a variety of vegetables, collected wild fruits and nuts, and kept sheep and goats. According to Jacquetta Hawkes: “Among the population were highly skilled wood workers, textile and basket weavers, stone polishers and potters.” Obsidian, a black volcanic glass used to make razor-sharp blades for tools and weapons, was mined nearby and traded as far as Syria, Lebanon, and Cypress; flint, wood, and other raw materials were received in return. This was part of an extensive trade network and, according to science writer Michael Balter, “trade may have been a key to Çatalhöyük’s wealth.”43

  Death was clearly a major preoccupation for people in Çatalhöyük. Over five hundred burials have been unearthed from the small portion of the village that has been excavated, mostly buried in the floors of the homes; each house has averaged eight burials, but the number ranges from none to sixty-four. Most of the skeletons have been found intact, and one plastered skull has been found, its features painted with red ocher. Grave goods unearthed at Çatalhöyük have included stone mace heads and bone-handled daggers in men’s graves and beads and shell necklaces, bracelets, pendants, and copper and bone rings in women’s graves. The most unusual grave goods have been “circular mirrors of obsidian set in neat plaster backs,” the earliest mirrors known. These presumably were put in the grave to allow the dead to gaze upon themselves in the afterworld.44

  One of the most interesting findings in Çatalhöyük has been approximately 40 structures referred to by archeologists as “shrines,” “history houses,” or “cult centers.” These structures often include “intricate arrangements of cattle skulls and horns” and plastered walls with paintings and engravings on them. A major theme of the paintings is death, such as paintings of “vultures with vast wings, their hooked and feathered beaks pecking at headless human bodies.” In the realm of the grotesque are “carefully modelled female breasts within which are hidden the skulls of corpses of scavenging creatures—fox, weasel and vulture.” Aurochs (wild cattle) are also prominent, with a mural of a huge bull in one house covering an entire wall. According to Ian Hodder, the archeologist in charge of excavations, “In many dwellings, one seems hardly able to move without facing some bull’s head or painting.” Jacques Cauvin noted bulls to be “an almost obsessive theme at Çatalhöyük” and described several frescoes in which “the beast is surrounded by men in movement, armed with bows and throwing sticks.” In addition to the bulls, female figures and figurines are common. These include a figurine of a seated woman, flanked by two leopards, with a round object between her legs. This has been interpreted by some as a woman giving birth and gave rise among some contemporary archeologists to the idea of a Çatalhöyük mother-goddess. Others have suggested that the round object between the woman’s legs is a human skull.45

  What is the meaning of these “shrines” at Çatalhöyük? Since they were scattered throughout the town, they have been called “kinship-cult centers” for “venerating ancestors,… loci for venerating activity over a long period of time.” Like the plastered skulls, figurines, and masks, the shrines were probably associated with ancestor worship. What would have been asked of the ancestors? Based on what is known about ancestor worship in contemporary agricultural societies, there would have been requests for good rains, abundant harvests, and an increased fertility of the land. Ancestors were probably also asked to ensure the fertility of domesticated animals and perhaps women as well. On the other side of the ledger, people would also have asked their ancestors for protection against drought, storms, and other natural disasters, diseases, and, above all, death. Thus, the core concerns of people 12,000 to 7,000 years ago for which they sought the assistance of their ancestors would have been the elementary issues of life and death.46

  It thus se
ems likely that during the agricultural revolution, the worship of ancestors became increasingly important in the Fertile Crescent and adjacent southwest Asia. Since the domestication of plants and animals took place in several other parts of the world independently, did the worship of ancestors also accompany the development of agriculture in those places as well?

  In China, the veneration of ancestors does appear to coincide with the development of agriculture. At Jiahu, on the Yellow River flood plain, graves have been uncovered dating to 9,000 years ago, at which time millet and rice were first being cultivated. In some of the graves, “the head of the deceased was carefully removed … and replaced by six or eight pairs of whole tortoise shells.” Some of the shells contained up to hundreds of “small, round white and black pebbles.” Other grave goods included utilitarian items such as awls and millstones, jewelry made of jade and turquoise, and bone flutes thought to be among the earliest musical instruments in China.47

  The archeological site at Jiahu, as noted previously, is also known for having the first known evidence of Chinese winemaking. According to Patrick McGovern, the wine was probably used at feasts for the deceased, where a descendant of the deceased was appointed to communicate with the ancestors. After fasting for seven days, the appointed person drank the equivalent of two bottles of modern grape wine and then commenced communicating. As described in a later Chinese ode:

  The rituals are completed;

  The bells and drums have sounded

  The pious descendant goes to his place,

  the officiating invoker makes his announcement:

  “The spirits are all drunk.”48

  Given the paucity of archeological research and absence of written records, little information is available on the history of ancestor worship in other areas where agriculture was first developed. It is clear that burials with grave goods were taking place at the same time that plants and animals were being domesticated, but it is not possible to know how the deceased were regarded by the living. Burials in Peru have been dated to 8,000 years ago; in some areas intact corpses were buried, while in other areas they were interred as “disarticulated bones jumbled together sometime after the flesh had decomposed or been removed,” similar to what was found in southwest Asia. In the Sahel region of Africa where farming began, multiple burials have been found, some dated to 9,500 years ago; grave goods included pots and beads made from eggshells. Early farming in Pakistan’s Indus Valley was accompanied by human burials containing exotic grave goods, such as turquoise, lapis lazuli, and conch shells, some of which had come from more than 300 miles away. And when farming began in Egypt 6,500 years ago, the “evidence of funerary goods from tombs of the Badarian period onward indicated a very early belief in life after death.” Ancestor worship would become an obsession in Egypt, as will be discussed in the next chapter.49

  THE EARLIEST GODS

  The agricultural revolution, which took place in several parts of the world between 11,000 and 7,000 years ago, resulted in the domestication of plants and animals. As we have seen, it was also accompanied by a revolution in the relationship between the living and the dead that resulted in the domestication of ancestor spirits. Although the latter revolution has been less chronicled, both revolutions would profoundly affect the future development of modern Homo sapiens. Agriculture and ancestor worship developed together, the former for sustenance, the latter for succor.

  It seems likely that one of the consequences of the latter revolution was the emergence of the first gods, using “gods” in the more restrictive sense, as defined previously. This may have happened between 7,000 and 8,000 years ago, perhaps earlier. Before the gods could emerge, however, two things had to happen. First, some of the spirits had to become very powerful. We can imagine how this might have happened. For example, a man who had been an excellent farmer was honored by his ancestors after his death. His spirit was prayed to and gifts left at a tree on his land at the time seeds were being sown. If good harvests followed over several generations, he might have become known as a powerful harvest spirit. Similarly, a man who had been a great warrior was honored after his death and his spirit invoked to lead his people in battle. If military successes followed over several generations, he might have become known as a powerful warrior spirit. Spirits of nature, such as rain, could also have been elevated in status if, over several generations, the sacrifice of a goat or sheep had resulted in abundant rain. This is, of course, not a new idea; 2,300 years ago, the Greek philosopher Euhemeros of Macedonia said that “gods were originally human rulers who were gradually deified by their subjects.” In the nineteenth century, English sociologist Herbert Spencer suggested that “all gods were ancestors, founders of tribes, war chiefs famed for strength and bravery, medicine men of great repute … ancestor worship is the root of every religion.” Similarly, Edward Tylor noted that some ancestral spirits may “ascend to the rank of deities.”50

  Studies of primitive societies have demonstrated that there is often a continuum of spirits and deities. On one end of the continuum are ancestor spirits of parents and grandparents. More powerful spirits may represent ancestors who died many generations ago; still more powerful is the ancestor who is regarded as the first member of the tribe. Deities similarly range from gods with anthropomorphic characteristics who may be personal gods for a particular group or tribe, to higher and even remote gods who created the world but then have little continuing involvement with it. As one moves up the continuum from spirits to deities, one acquires more supernatural powers. The line dividing the most powerful human spirits from the least powerful of the deities is imperceptible, similar to the line between twilight and dusk. Many researchers have struggled with this problem; for example, in his study of Australian Aborigines, anthropologist Herbert Basedow noted that “it is difficult at times to distinguish between an original spirit ancestor and a deity.”51

  An unusual opportunity to witness a society with a variety of spirits, but apparently without any higher gods, was the discovery of indigenous groups inhabiting the highlands of Papua New Guinea. Although these rugged mountain valleys had originally been settled by modern Homo sapiens 40,000 years ago, and agriculture had developed there approximately 10,000 years ago, these groups were unknown to the outside world until the 1930s, when gold- seeking Australian adventurers arrived. What the Australians found were multiple tribes of stone-age farmers living in small villages with well-developed beliefs about an afterlife and about ancestor spirits. Following their discovery, anthropologists studied the tribes and recorded what the people had believed at the time of their first contact with the Australians.

  Although the Papua New Guineans were divided into multiple tribal and linguistic groups, all the people encountered by the Australians believed that their strange, white visitors were returning ancestral spirits. They thought that “they were like people you see in a dream … spirit people coming openly, in plain sight.” One man “wondered if they had come from the sky [or] from under the ground.” Another group “speculated that the pale creatures were ghosts … come back from the land of the dead to find their relatives.” Telenge, a young man of about 18 at the time the Australians arrived, was said to have recalled: “Their skins were so pale they seemed to glow.… The only creatures Telenge knew of who were said to have pale skins were ghosts or powerful spirits. These creatures then must be dama [spirits], a conclusion also reached by other men who gazed in amazement from other parts of the garden.” One group of people decided that the Australians were not spirits, however, after observing them defecating, which seemed inconsistent with having a supernatural status.52

  At the time they were initially contacted, the tribes in Papua New Guinea had an elaborate cosmology that included benevolent spirits and malevolent spirits. Most of the benevolent spirits were ancestor spirits that were thought to intervene in human affairs. Most malevolent spirits were nonhuman in origin and were responsible for sickness and death.

  Particular spirits were asso
ciated with specific localities, and it was said that “spirit people often take the form of birds and call with their voices.” Spirits could also take the form of other animals, including wild pigs or pythons. Some tribes had shrines where the spirits could be honored and where “periodic sacrifices of pork were made.” There were also formal tege ceremonies, “which aimed to appease the ancestors and placate the dama spirits through gifts and sacrifices of pigs.” Some tribes also used masks at ceremonies honoring the ancestors, with the masked person representing the deceased person. Perhaps this is how the limestone masks had been used in southwest Asia 9,000 years earlier.53

  The second thing that had to happen before the higher gods could emerge was the coming together of a critical mass of people. Groups of hunter-gatherers, which usually numbered fewer than 100 people, may have honored ancestor spirits and spirits of nature, but there would have been little reason to elevate these spirits to deities. As groups of hunter-gatherers came together and settled in villages and towns, however, it would have been necessary to establish a hierarchy among the competing spirits, just as it was necessary to do so among the human leaders of the various hunter-gatherer groups. Out of this hierarchy of spirits emerged the first gods, which were simply high-ranking spirits with advanced degrees conferred by a consensus of the people.

  The population increase that took place during the agricultural revolution, fueled by a stable food supply made possible by the domestication of plants and animals, resulted in the coming together of the critical mass of people. When Göbekli Tepe was being used as a ceremonial center 11,000 years ago, the world’s population was, according to estimates, approximately five million. When the world’s first temple in Mesopotamia was being used to honor a god 6,000 years ago, the world’s population, according to estimates, increased to approximately 100 million, and by 2,000 years ago, to 300 million.54