[Author’s Note: In May 2018, I set out on a 3 month pilgrimage to Greece, Turkey and the prehistory sites of “Old Europe”. Once again my main focus was “visiting with the Grandmothers”.]
Magura Cave, Bulgaria
The Magura Cave (Rabisha Cave) is located in north-western Bulgaria close to the village of Rabisha in Vidin Province.
The total length of the 15 million year old cave is 2.5 km with one main gallery of six halls and three lateral galleries. The average temperature is 12°C, although I was so entranced by the art that I didn’t feel cold at all. There are also beautiful natural vaults and spectacular stalactites and stalagmites. In one of the caverns there are prehistoric paintings carved into the walls and decorated with bat guano (droppings). The paintings depict the silhouettes of people dancing and hunting, people wearing masks, animals, stars, tools, and plants. The paintings date from different eras – the early Paleolithic, the Neolithic, the later Neolithic, and the beginning of the Bronze Age. A solar calendar from the late Neolithic is the earliest solar calendar discovered in Europe.
The images of figures with hands raised above their heads appear in most of the paintings.
This motif appears in other cultures from as early as 40,000 BCE through to c400 BCE:
The “Adorant” (mammoth ivory, c 40,000 BCE) was found in the Geißenklösterle Cave near Blaubeuren, Germany.
Another motif from the Magura Cave paintings is remarkably similar to the contemporary pictogram (Venus symbol) representing woman:
Meet Mago Contributor Kaalii Cargill