Caves
The causal fluid of breath or wind has a significant ancient history. The English word “spirit” actually derives from the Latin “spiritus” meaning breath. In Akkadian it is represented by the word Gi meaning "emotional energy" from which English gets the word "energy." In Chinese culture this the similar sounding Chi which suggests this concept goes back to the dawn of humanity.
Image of a monograph published by West Virginia Caver about a well known breathing cave. Image from https://www.facebook.com/wvcaver/
Ancestral and Animal Spirits - Caves as One Source of Motion Power (43,000 to 24,000 BCE)
(Feb, 7 2023) Ancient people believed that every change on earth was caused by some divine power. They further observed that such changes eventually affected the cycle of life in some way and that all life required a masculine trigger and a feminine time of maturation and growth. Yet the natural division of the life powers would have been between the plant and animal kingdoms
Caves generated a spooky feeling. It was dark and in the torchlight images of animals seemed to flicker in and out of existence on the walls. The earliest cave paintings in France and Spain were painted on these naturally formed wall patterns to bring out the animal spirits those patterns represented.
Because of these visions and because caves breathed caves became the place of dead spirits awaiting to be reborn. These dead spirits were still alive but they had no form, no invisible "platonic" image. They were pure sparks of life and represented a motion source of the goddess Selu (Selene). Cave-like dark spaces such including space under the earth plane (the underdome) represent the dark place powers of the life goddess Kate (Hekate). The Hebrew word sheol translated as "the place of the dead" seems to derive from the Akkadian selu (šelû).
Paleolithic cave art is found worldwide with the paintings in Europe being the most numerous and skilled. (See Don’s maps). These European cave paintings peaked around 30,000-28,000 BCE and around 25,000-24,000 BCE.
Cave paintings were likely used in rituals to atone for the animal lives the tribe took during the hunt and to encourage the animals to return next year. Eventually the cave artists would paint animals on any cave surface as they ran out of room, even over older paintings so important was the ritual. Human spirits were represented more abstractly as hand prints probably because humans were not prey.
Evidence for ancestral human spirits is also found in caves in the form of painted hand and abstract figurines. They seem to have appeared later but lasted longer than the animal paintings having a date range of 30,000 to 12,000 BCE.
Leang Tedongnge Cave in Indonesia (43,000 BCE)
Cave art of pigs from the Leang Tedongnge cave in Indonesia dating to 43,000 BCE. Photo is color enhanced. (from Brumm and all, Science Advances 13 Jan 2021, Vol 7, Issue 3 Online at: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abd4648)
Bison in Altamira Cave in Spain (30,000-24,000 BCE)
Hands from Altamira Cave in Spain (30,000-24,000 BCE)
These European cave paintings peaked around 30,000-28,000 BCE and around 25,000-24,000 BCE.
https://donsmaps.com/altamirapaintings.html
Göbekli Tepe (9600 to 8800 BCE)
Caves also contain wide circular rooms
Gobekli Tepe Ritual Center Being Excavated
These rooms were likely used by extended family groups on an annual basis. When that family group was absorbed by others the ritual room was closed by being buried.
(Photo at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:G%C3%B6bekli2012-15.jpg)
Most Pillars are Undecorated
Tourist picture of Gobekli Tepe
