NOTE: These revelations can be subjugated to
change & modification in light of any new information; but I will not be
putting notes on the updates I make to avoid repetition and wasting time. Additionally,
anything that isn’t referenced here is something you can easily look up.
Furthermore, I only mentioned eras & civilizations instead of dates &
numbers because the latter are highly fluctuant with each study that’s being
put up every single day. Finally, all of this is just an esoteric narrative that questions the similarities between primeval symbols, and attempts to shed some light into whther symbols similarities and similar symbolisms are linked to our primitive mind, primal mind, or civilisations' contact; take everything you read here with a grain of salt.
I-
Introduction
Ancient Amazigh
Mythologies, Religions, Archetypes, and Symbolisms had been adopted & taken
by Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, Jews, and aaaaall Mediterranean civilizations[1];
which subsequently led to their propagation in the entire world, thus
kickstarting myth, religion, and organization & functioning of
civilizations the way they do for at least 15000 years.
The image above is that of my hand
made pendants representing Amazighs symbols across time. The image will be used
to present certain speculations on the origins of some of these symbols. Please
correct me if I’m wrong on anything here.
II- Tamazight letters ⵜ (t) and ⵔ (r): Building World’s Brain Right Hemisphere
1)
Stories: Starter
of every Civilization
In the The Amazigh sub-ethnic group
called Touareg (ⵉⵟⵡⴰⵔⴳⵏ), there is a
myth speaking about the origin story of a traditional Touareg ornamentand it
comes in two versions:
·
Version 1: A young Touareg warrior wanted to confess his
love to a girl, the problem was that the girl was locked up in her home, and
can’t see her as a man. But then the warrior had an ideas to use a blacksmith
as a messenger between him and the girl; because Touargian blacksmith had a
high status in Touareg societies, so he could he was allowed access to people’s
homes even if he is a man. What the warrior did was asking the blacksmith to
forge him an ornament & deliver it to his beloved young woman; the jewel
combines the Tamazight letters (aka Tifinagh) ⵜ (t) and ⵔ (r). [2]
The two letters are the root for many words that have to do with love,
coupling, bounding, marriage, gathering, and unification; for instance ⵜⴰⵢⵔⵉ
(tayri) means “love”.
·
Version 2: they say that a warrior loved a princess, and
to show his love to here, he went to a blacksmith asking him to make her a ring
out of the two Tamazight letters ⵜ (t) and ⵔ (r), which
makes up the word ⵜⴰⵢⵔⵉ (tayri),
meaning “love” (there weren’t consonants in a lot of ancient languages,
including Tamazight); and after the king’s acceptance of the marriage, they
decided to make the ring a pendant & add to it the Touareg’s Tifinagh-specific
letter ⴾ for (k).
And as the ancient world has no vowels, these two letters would basically be a root for many words that have to do with love; such as ⵜⵔⴰⴽ (trak), meaning “she wants you”, or ⵜⴰⵢⵔⵉ ⵏⵏⴽ (tayri nnk), meaning “your love”; but either ways, its name became the coupling of male & female, fertility, and prosperity. This version is the one I represented in [0].
2)
Touareg’s Ornament
But such thing I represented based on Touareg myth isn’t
actually what Touaregs were talking about or wearing, nor is it even something
that exists to begin with, I just made it based on the description in the myth.
The actual traditional Touareg ornament that has this origin story is
actually called Agadez (ⴰⴳⴰⴷⵣ) [5].
Agadez is a traditional pendant in the Touareg
culture; and there is a lot of progress & innovation that departs from the
primeval design; it’s so much so the case that there are a multitude of variations
of this pendant as each Touareg tribe/region could have its own motif.
That has been said, the one I made is generally
the most basic & original one: 1 cross-like plate at the base, 1 circle
above it, and 3 spikes above the circle.
Given that Tamzegha is linked and the origin of certain love &
fertility symbolism & mythologies in Mediterranean civilizations, I wouldn’t
be surprised is the root ⵜⵔ (tr) we previously mentioned accompanied
with the name of west and north west Tamzegha maur/moor (ⵎⵓⵔ)could be etymologically the origin
of the word amor in Latin, which means “love”, the latter being the word that
trickled down to nowadays European languages, such as “amour” in French. It still a speculative idea though that I
hypothesized.
3)
Moorish Ornament
Now, this word for love that’s made of two letters
that creates a symbol of a cross & circle didn’t just influence Agdz, but
it extends aaaall the way to other symbolisms inside & outside Tamzegha.
One of these symbolisms is that of ⵜⴰⵥⵕⵥⵉⵜ (Tazerzit) [6] .
Tazerzit is an Amazigh brooch ornament. Tazerzit is known in many
regions of Tamzegha, especially in Morocco, followed by Algeria; and it comes
in countless shapes & sizes.
But arguably the most famous variations of them all is that Souss (ⵙⵓⵙ) region in Morocco
It also would seem that the shape of Souss one is the most ancestral one
too! Because apparently, a rock engraving of Tazerzit was found in Ait Wa’aziq's
hamlet, in Tazarine's Commune, Zagora's Province, Daraa-Tafilalt Region.
4)
Religious Effigy
Another –speculative- influence of Touareg’s myth is in ⵜⴰⵏⵏⵉⵜ Tannit (or ⵜⴰⵏⵉⵜ Tanit ) [3].
Tannit is the Amazigh
Goddess of Fertility & moon, she gets depicted in so many shapes, sizes,
and variations; but the most complete one would be that of her in a stick-like
figure, accompanied with a Crescent & star [9], one or two doves, and a
hand.
That one hand above it will be known afterward as
ⵜⴰⴼⵓⵙⵜ Tafust [13];
That hand will be known more in the future in
its simpler shape..
It’s also on& & the same hand that
will be famous for the eye inside it to repeal & protect its holder from
evil eyes & evil in general.
And then it will wrongfully be associated with
Sephardim Jews[3].
Moreover, if you think
the shape of Tannit reminds you of the stereotypical one given to a female stick
figure; well, there is a reason for that!
Also, the dove holding an olive branch as a peace sign is said to come from Christianity..
They claim it came from Christianity in the
story of Noah’s ark, and that’s when Noah sent a dove to inspect if the flood
has ended, and the dove confirmed that by bringing back an olive branch, thus
symbolizing the end of a crisis, and the ushering of new era of peace.
Buuuut, here is the thing, Noah’s story came
from The Old Testament, which is Jewish in origin as Jews precede Christians;
and Amazighs precedes them both.
The flood myths too are millenias old and appear actually everywhere in the world[4], which might not be surprising given the number of lost, mythical, and sunken cities archeologists finds day after day[5]. Even the cross that’s claimed to be a Christian symbol [1] is nothing but a mere tool of torture used by the Romans, and it just happens that one of those crosses had Jesus on it; so it was taken as a symbol of salvation, forgiveness, and suffering. Furthermore, the cross symbol wasn’t just a physical functioning tool of The Romans, but is also something that existed for millennias in other close proximity civilizations, including the symbol of Tannit that can sometimes be so shrunk in the lower half that it looks almost like a cross.
Additionally, both doves’ and the olive’s
(trees) symbolism & appreciation have existed in the Mediterranean region
for millennias, such as in Ancient Greek where there are many myths related to
them.
For example, in Ancient Greek we had the sacredness
& appreciation of olive wreaths, aka kotinos (κότινος)..
They were worn by important figures like the Governor Archeptolis..
And had been crowned to Olympic games winners since antiquity.
The olive wreath will after that became a ubiquitous symbol, especially in modern times; although some might speculate that the symbol is actually that of laurel wreath, a wreath that Military commanders and emperors wore (mainly after battles). Either ways, the Roman wreath has become a global symbol.
As for doves, there is the example of the myth that doves fly around Aphrodite.
And it’s for all of these reasons that, besides the female stick-man silhouette symbolism, I also speculate that Tannit is the primordial of the dove peace symbol, and potentially that of a cross too. The coming revelations about Tannit’s influence will make it clear that this isn’t an outrageous claim at all.
5) Civilizational Affluence & Influence
We previously mentioned that the effigy of
Tannit usually has a crescent & start above it
But why would it have a specific star above
it? Is it the Pole Star? The brightest star in the sky; or is it something
else? Is it even a star to begin with? Well, in the past, stars & planets
were the same for many cultures, and that’s even if we assume they had a way to
observe them. This is due to stars & planets not affecting peoples’ daily
lives that much like the sun & moon would do, their usage was basically
limited in navigation, Astrology, night sky watching, and stargazing. But
anyway, the star next to a crescent is a symbol that went from Amazigh
civilization, to Mediterranean cultures around it & beyond; and it is
generally agreed upon to that the star next to a crescent in all its worldwide
depictions is actually a planet, more specifically Venus.
In Mesopotamia, specifically among Sumerians,
planet Venus has in its northern hemisphere a goddess that’s called by Inanna.
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Inanna will later be known as Ishtar amongst the Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians.
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Ishtar is the goddess of love, beauty, war, and fertility. These functions are close to those of Tannit. In fact, if we take into consideration that Ishtar poses the same way Tannit does, and that Ishtar lies in the northern hemisphere of Venus just like how Venus & the crescent are next to Tannit in its effigies; we would then suggest that Ishtar might have been adopted from Tannit. This is backed up by the fact that the Goddess of war and sexual love Astarte (with all its complex functions & different name spellings) was adopted from Tannit in Ancient Near East region.
Because Astarte was the Hellenized form of the Ancient Near Eastern goddess ʿAṯtart; and ʿAṯtart is the Northwest Semitic equivalent of the East Semitic goddess Ishtar.
As a side note, Astarte was worshiped by the Canaanites
and Phoenicians in Ancient Levant, which might suggest that the
way Tannit was adopted by that region of the world was through Phoenician
merchants learning about Tannit in Carthage.
Ishtar by the way was also adopted as the Arabs’ Goddesses of Love, sex,
Strength, and protection called Al-Uzza (العزى), one of their 3 Godesses; the other 2 others being
Manat (مناة) and Allat (اللات). This means Arabs too adopted & got
influenced by Tannit.
After discussing the planet
Venus in Ancient world, Let us now talk about the name Venus itself
where it came from in that world.
Venus is the name of the Roman Goddess of love, beauty, desire, sex, fertility, prosperity, and victory.
Venus symbolizes ROME’S IMPERIAL POWER, and is called The Mother of Rome (Rome is the capital of The Roman Empire).
Venus’s symbol in Astrology is ♀ [4] (while that
of Mars is ♂).
This is why ♀ is the symbol
of female & femininity..
It’s also where -the apparently subverting & subverted- Feminism movement and women empowerment groups got their
inspiration from.
Venus was actually an Adoption of the Greek goddess
of love, beauty, pleasure and procreation called Aphrodite, which is the goddess
of sexual love and beauty.
Seeing the similarities
between the Amazigh symbol in Touareg myth and one that’s given to a planet
& to Femininity for their relation to a strong Roman Goddess, one might
think that the Romans too have adopted & worshiped Tannit.. which is
CORRECT!! They worshiped it under the Romanized name Juno.
Juno was titled Juno Caelestis. Caelestis is a title that means "Heavenly" or "Celestial", and it is a privilege to goddesses related to the skies, supremacy, unity, and heavens. She is one of the most interesting, intriguing, and complex goddesses one can come across; because it holds so many titles, positions, and meanings that it would be hard to give her justice to what ot is and what ot represents. Juno symbolizes femininity & fertility, while also symbolizing youthfulness, liveliness, and strength; hence why Juno isn’t only seen related to marriage & birth, but also to power & war. She was the protector and special counselor of the state, the patron goddess of Rome and the Roman Empire, member of the Capitoline Triad (Juno Capitolina), called Regina ("Queen"), and is equated to Ancient Greek's Hera the Queen of the Gods.
Juno was mainly depicted many
times armed and wearing goatskin cloak, but was also depicted wearing a diadem.
This depiction was taken from the Greek goddess Athena, who bore
a goatskin, or a goatskin shield.
Another civilization that was influenced by Tannit,
but don’t seem to fit into any of the civilizations mentioned before is that of
Ancient Egypt. If you remember the cross & circle shape in Touareg’s
mythology relating to love, marriage, sex, life, and fertility (and war too in
some of its adoptions); you’ll know that Ancient Egypt’s Ankh [2] has that same shape & meaning too[6] [7].
There is even an older version of the Ankh that was unearthed in 2009 that looks exactly like Tannit[8]!!
Because Ankh is the key of life, and it is the representation of eternal life in Ancient Egypt. In fact, the Ancient Egyptian Goddess of war and weaving Neith can always be seen holding an Ankh.
Not only that, but Neith is actually an adoption of the Amazigh Goddess Tannit.
Amazighs having such relationship with Ancient Egypt isn’t actually as
weird as it may seem; for once, we both used carvings on rock[9] [10] [11] [12],
we both had obelisks[13] [14] [15] [16] [17],
we both had pyramids[18] [19],
and we Amazighs have conquered & ruled Ancient Egypt once when Sheshonk I
who then founded the 22nd Dynasty of Egypt[20].
Ancient Egypt seemed also to have toponomy & etymology that potentially
originates from ours; or at least have a common denominator with our Amazigh
one; and example of that is the God Amon that was worshiped in all Tamzegha
(but known more in Egypt) has a name reminiscent of ⵜⴰⵎⵓⵏⵜ (Tamont), a widely used feminine Amazigh word whose masculine
is ⴰⵎⵓⵏ (amon), and
both means gathering, companionship, and unification.
III-
Tamazight letters ⵣ (z): Building World’s Brain Left Hemisphere
1)
Tridents
Tannit wasn’t the
only deity the Mediterranean civilizations have taken from us, they actually
adopted most of their important ones from us. For instance, our God ⴰⵏⵥⴰⵕ (Anzar) was adopted
by Ancient Greek as Poseidon.
And Poseidon itself was adopted by Romans as Neptune.
Poseidon was known for his weapon the trident [7];
But his Trident appears even in Ancient Hindu civilization as
Lord Shiva’s Trishula,
And also as the Trident of a Rakshasa (i.e. demon or unrighteous spirit) called Madhu that was given to him by Shiva as a boon.
2)
Double-ended Forky
Scepter
Additionally, there are cross-civilisational similarities with Zeus’
thunderbolts weapon he used to defeat hundred-headed serpent Typhon,
and mythological artifacts from other civilizations.
For instance, in Ancient Hindu civilization, the Vedic king of the devas and heaven named Indra has a weapon called Vajra. It looks exactly like Zeus’s thunderbolts, and its characteristics are linked to diamond & thunderbolt.
Indra used the Vajra to kill the human-like serpent Vritra (which personified drought).
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Also in Sumeria's Enuma Elish (aka the Babylonian Epic of Creation), Ea's son Marduk fought the serpent Tiamat using a similar object.
And many many many more myths similar to that of Zeus; for example we have such myth in the Norse, Irish, Slavic, South American, and Chinese mythologies.
And as you may have noticed, the 3 tridents and the 3
thunderbolt-related weapons looks exactly like the tifinagh letter ⵣ (z) [8], which
reminds us of the 3 Amazigh letters about love that –allegedly seems to - have
unleashed whole religions in the Mediterranean region. This is evidence of the
Tamazight’s resilience, Tamazgha’s strength & sacredness, and overall the
–spiritual- energy of Amazigh Mythos.
IV- Amazigh Moorish Geometry: Building World’s Symmetrical/aesthetic Brain
A novice inquirer might think that the Amazigh Moorish Moroccan symmetrical geometric stars & designs [10] [11] [12] only go back to when we concurred south west Europe under the Andalusian structure:
The thing is, they existed here in Morocco for thousands of years, we
had them for example in:
1) Lixus:
• A Mosaic of the god Neptune (pictures before its destruction):
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• A Mosaic of the goddess Medusa:
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2) Volubilis:
3) And they even existed in our prehistorical rock peytroglyphs..
Such as the Engravings of Ait Ouaazik of Draa Valley (Amezrou) in
Moroccan Atlas Mountains..
And we can find there things like:
• Engravings that are believed to be sundials:
Sundial #1:
Sundial #2[21]:
Both the alleged sundials one next to the other[22]:
• Discs
• Nested circles [23]
• Patterned circles
• Spirals
Spiral #1,
Spiral#2[24],
Spiral#3
• A combination of Discs, Nested circles, Spirals, and Smooth wavy shapes
• And many more complex patterns...
Complex pattern #1,
V- Conclusion
All in all, Amazigh mythology had an intergenerational
influence that continues to this day while the cultures, mythologies, and
civilizations it had influenced have died out. Which is a living proof that we
thrive & survive. Hopefully though that continues & doesn’t stop with
Modernity and Globalization.
[1] The Carthagians too, but they actually are Amazighs who were influenced
by Phoenician merchants; which is already known amongst local Amazigh
historians, but recently more rigorous research had been made that validates
this idea, and scientists will rectifying their mistake in the near future.
[2] Prasse, Karl-G; Alojaly, Ghoubeïd;
Ghabdouane, Mohamed; Ăgg-Ălăwje̳Li, Ghubăyd (1998), Asăggălalaf
tămaže̳q-tăfrănsist De Karl-G. Prasse, Ghoubeïd Alojaly, Mohamed Ghabdouane,
Ghubăyd ăgg-Ălăwje̳li, Museum Tusculanum Press, p. 467, ISBN 9788772894706
[3] Which are Amazighs who converted to Judaism pre-Christianity and
pre-Islam, and who would go afterward to Andalusia, and then subsequently
chased back to Morocco with the other Moresques.
North Africans are called Amazighs; Amazighs
of Mauretania Tingitana (or current day Morocco) are called Moors; and the
Moors who occupied Andalusia are called Moresques after being chased from
Andalusia.
[6] https://www.experience-ancient-egypt.com/egyptian-religion-mythology/egyptian-symbols-texts/egyptian-ankh
[8] Greenberg, Raphael; Paz, Sarit;
Wengrow, David; Iserlis, Mark (2012), "Tel bet yerah: Hub of the early
bronze age levant", Near Eastern Archaeology, Vol. 75, No. 2, pp.
88-107, The American Schools of Oriental Research,
[9] "Tifinagh Alphabets scripts on
Rocks", World Culture, December 2, 2015
https://theglobalculture.blogspot.com/2015/12/tifinagh-alphabets-manuscripts-on-rocks.html
[10] Searight, Susan '2013),
"Morocco’s Rock Art: Age and Meaning", Arts, Vol 2, Issue 1,
pp. 35-43
[11] "Prehistoric Rock Art in
Morocco", By wildmorocco, Wild Morocco, July 27, 2015,
[12] "Written in stone: the
Libyco-Berber scripts", The British Museum,
https://africanrockart.britishmuseum.org/thematic/written-in-stone/
[13] https://www.facebook.com/MythologiekabyleIFLIS/photos/a.865122490212260/2008779892513175/?paipv=0&eav=AfaZ9BbQo6TwgXMpos831aBCeQ6urVQ07TkC_N6p85kpKJ8AMI2hn5cw4TgzOKKJKj8&_rdr
[15] https://www.facebook.com/LhistoireDesBerberes/photos/ob%C3%A9lisque-recouverte-dinscription-libyque-au-mus%C3%A9e-de-chemtou-en-tunisie/1227881817237016/
[18] "The Amazighs’ Pyramids of
Jeddars Tombs", by ARAB Sabrina, About Algeria, May the 12th, 2018
https://www.aboutalgeria.com/2018/05/the-amazighs-pyramids-of-jeddars-tombs.html
[19] "Did you know that Algeria has
pyramids, and Cleopatra is the reason behind them?", by Staff writer, Al
Arabiya English, 23 May ,2017
[20] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoshenq_I
[21] "Echoes of Archaeoastronomy: 2/4 Village of Ait Ouazik, Southern Morocco and village of Oukaimeden, Atlas mountains, Morocco.", 02 November 2016,
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