Introducing The Mythological Crescent

Download Introducing The Mythological Crescent full books in PDF, epub, and Kindle. Read online Introducing The Mythological Crescent ebook anywhere anytime directly on your device. Fast Download speed and no annoying ads. We cannot guarantee that every ebooks is available!

Introducing the Mythological Crescent

Author : Harald Haarmann
Publisher : Otto Harrassowitz Verlag
ISBN 13 : 9783447058322
Total Pages : 192 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (583 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Introducing the Mythological Crescent by : Harald Haarmann

Download or read book Introducing the Mythological Crescent written by Harald Haarmann and published by Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. This book was released on 2008 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: There is a broad cultural region with related traditions of mythical beliefs interconnected by long-term contacts during prehistoric times. This area - called here the "Mythological Crescent" - is a zone of cultural convergence that extends from the ancient Middle East via Anatolia to southeastern Europe, opening into the wide cultural landscape of Eurasia.The very old interconnections between Eurasia and Anatolia are explored in this study for the first time. In a comparative view, striking similarities can be reconstructed for the ancient belief systems and the imagery of both regions which suggest convergent cosmological conceptualizations of high age. The beliefs and ritual practices of the indigenous peoples of Eurasia are rooted in the shamanism of the oldest cultural layers of the Palaeolithic. Although socioeconomic development in Anatolia was markedly different from cultural evolution in Eurasia, the hunters and gatherers in Anatolia who adopted sedentary lifeways did not entirely lose their ancient beliefs during the transition to plant cultivation (in the eighth millennium BCE). Archaic beliefs and imagery fused with new practices and innovations during the development of agrarian societies. One diagnostic motif which was perpetuated from the Palaeolithic to the Neolithic and beyond is represented by the production of female figurines (statuettes). Their significance for communal life has been linked to spiritual concepts of the continuity of life, the vegetation cycle, and the protection of the natural habitat of all living things as recorded in myths and historical folk art of Uralic and other peoples. The bear plays a significant role as a mythical animal in the imagery of Eurasia whereas this motif was lost in Anatolia during the transition from antiquity to the Middle Ages.

The Woman Who Married the Bear

Author : Barbara Alice Mann
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0197655440
Total Pages : 297 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (976 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Woman Who Married the Bear by : Barbara Alice Mann

Download or read book The Woman Who Married the Bear written by Barbara Alice Mann and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-11-10 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stories of the primordial woman who married a bear, appear in matriarchal traditions across the global North from Indigenous North America and Scandinavia to Russia and Korea. In The Woman Who Married the Bear, authors Barbara Alice Mann, a scholar of Indigenous American culture, and Kaarina Kailo, who specializes in the cultures of Northern Europe, join forces to examine these Woman-Bear stories, their common elements, and their meanings in the context of matriarchal culture. The authors reach back 35,000 years to tease out different threads of Indigenous Woman-Bear traditions, using the lens of bear spirituality to uncover the ancient matriarchies found in rock art, caves, ceremonies, rituals, and traditions. Across cultures, in the earliest known traditions, women and bears are shown to collaborate through star configurations and winter cave-dwelling, symbolized by the spring awakening from hibernation followed by the birth of "cubs." By the Bronze Age, however, the story of the Woman-Bear marriage had changed: it had become a hunting tale, refocused on the male hunter. Throughout the book, Mann and Kailo offer interpretations of this earliest known Bear religion in both its original and its later forms. Together, they uncover the maternal cultural symbolism behind the bear marriage and the Original Instructions given by Bear to Woman on sustainable ecology and lifeways free of patriarchy and social stratification.

Encyclopedia of Women in World Religions [2 volumes]

Author : Susan de-Gaia
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1440848505
Total Pages : 993 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (48 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Encyclopedia of Women in World Religions [2 volumes] by : Susan de-Gaia

Download or read book Encyclopedia of Women in World Religions [2 volumes] written by Susan de-Gaia and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2018-11-16 with total page 993 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This reference offers reliable knowledge about women's diverse faith practices throughout history and prehistory, and across cultures. Across the span of human history, women have participated in world-building and life-sustaining cultural creativity, making enormous contributions to religion and spirituality. In the contemporary period, women have achieved greater equality, with more educational opportunities, female role models in public life, and opportunities for religious expression than ever before. Contemporaneously with this increased visibility, women are actively and energetically engaging with religion for themselves and for their communities. Drawing on the expertise of a range of scholars, this reference chronicles the religious experiences of women across time and cultures. The book includes sections on major religions as well as on spirituality, African religions, prehistoric religions, and other broad topics. Each section begins with an introduction, followed by reference entries on specialized subjects along with excerpts from primary source documents. The entries provide numerous suggestions for further reading, and the book closes with a detailed bibliography.

Popular Controversies in World History [4 volumes]

Author : Steven L. Danver
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1598840789
Total Pages : 1516 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (988 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Popular Controversies in World History [4 volumes] by : Steven L. Danver

Download or read book Popular Controversies in World History [4 volumes] written by Steven L. Danver and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-12-22 with total page 1516 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Covering prehistoric times to the modern era, this fascinating resource presents pro-and-con arguments regarding unresolved, historic controversies throughout the development of the world. Popular Controversies in World History: Investigating History's Intriguing Questions offers uniquely compelling and educational examinations of pivotal events and puzzling phenomena, from the earliest evidence of human activity to controversial events of the 20th century. From the geographic location of human origins, to the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin, to the innocence—or guilt—of Sacco and Vanzetti, Popular Controversies in World History: Investigating History's Intriguing Questions provides four volumes on the ongoing debates that have captivated both the historical community and the public at large. In each chapter, established experts offer credible opposing arguments pertaining to specific debates, providing readers with resources for independent critical thinking on the issue. This format allows students, scholars, and other interested readers to actively engage in some of the most intriguing conundrums facing historians today.

Modern Finland

Author : Harald Haarmann
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 1476625654
Total Pages : 257 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (766 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Modern Finland by : Harald Haarmann

Download or read book Modern Finland written by Harald Haarmann and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Providing a multifaceted view of modern Finland, this book describes its history, culture, language, geography, natural history and the mythology of early peoples. Topics include Fenno-Scandia inhabitants and their environment, traditional naturalism and modern environmentalism, and the salient features of "Finnishness," including an analysis of the Finnish educational system and gender equality. Finland's art, architecture and music are highlighted, along with its peace-keeping missions worldwide. The country's several ethnic groups and their languages are discussed--the Saami, Finns, Finland-Swedes, Russian-speaking peoples, Jews and Gypsies. The author examines Finland's late but rapid development in commerce and industry, with a focus on the history of Nokia Corporation, which grew from a 19th-century manufacturer of pulpwood and rubber boots to a 21st-century international digital communications company.

Plato's Philosophy Reaching Beyond the Limits of Reason

Author : Harald Haarmann
Publisher : Georg Olms Verlag
ISBN 13 : 3487155427
Total Pages : 373 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (871 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Plato's Philosophy Reaching Beyond the Limits of Reason by : Harald Haarmann

Download or read book Plato's Philosophy Reaching Beyond the Limits of Reason written by Harald Haarmann and published by Georg Olms Verlag. This book was released on 2017-02-01 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Platon zählt zu den einflussreichsten Philosophen aller Zeiten. Er beeinflusste maßgeblich Profil und Kanon der westlichen Philosophie. Die Kritik am sogenannten Platonismus wurde kontinuierlich von den Schwierigkeiten gespeist, die die Interpretation der philosophischen Schriften Platons bereitet. Gemeinhin wird er als rein rationaler Philosoph gesehen. Ein Philosoph war er in der Tat, ebenso jedoch ein Experte in der Annäherung an das Nicht-Rationale, unter anderem in Form von Mythen. So wurde er auch als "Mythenerfinder" und "Mythologe" bezeichnet. Platon war ein Visionär, der es wagte, das Reich des Nicht-Rationalen auf systematische und disziplinierte Art zu erforschen. Insgesamt lässt sich Platons philosophisches Vorhaben als Streben nach einer umfassenden Sicht des organischen Ganzen klassifizieren. Der Ausdruck „Gestalt“ scheint die Ganzheit am ehesten zu beschreiben. Platon kann als prominentester und auch als letzter Repräsentant der antiken Philosophie angesehen werden, der die Entwicklung einer Gestalt-Philosophie anstrebte. Plato is one of the most influential philosophers of all time. He decisively shaped the profile and canon of western philosophy. Criticism of what has become known as Platonism has been continuously nourished by the difficulties of interpreting this philosopher's writings. Plato is commonly viewed as a purely rational philosopher. A philosopher he was indeed, but Plato was also an expert in approaching the non-rational, in the form of mythology among others. Plato has been called a "mythmaker" and a "mythologist". Plato was a visionary who dared to explore the realm of the non-rational in a systematic and disciplined way. In an overall comparison, Plato's philosophical enterprise strives for a comprehensive perspective on the organic whole. The expression "Gestalt" seems to come closest to describing the wholeness. Plato may be considered to be the most prominent representative of classical philosophy to develop a Gestalt philosophy and also the last to do so in antiquity.

On the Trail of the Indo-Europeans: From Neolithic Steppe Nomads to Early Civilisations

Author : Harald Haarmann
Publisher : marixverlag
ISBN 13 : 384380656X
Total Pages : 277 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (438 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis On the Trail of the Indo-Europeans: From Neolithic Steppe Nomads to Early Civilisations by : Harald Haarmann

Download or read book On the Trail of the Indo-Europeans: From Neolithic Steppe Nomads to Early Civilisations written by Harald Haarmann and published by marixverlag. This book was released on 2021-01-26 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For more than 3000 years, Indo-European languages have been spoken from India through Persia and into Europe. Where are the origins of this language family? How and when did its different linguistic branches emerge? The renowned historical linguist Harald Haarmann provides a graphic account of what we know today about the origins of Indo-European languages and cultures and how they came to be so widely disseminated. In this impressive study, he succeeds in drawing connections between linguistic findings, archaeological discoveries and the latest research into human genetics and climate history. In addition to linguistic affinities, he shows the economic, social and religious concepts that the early speakers of Indo-European languages had in common all the way from the Eastern Mediterranean to the Indus. Particular attention is devoted to the processes of assimilation with pre-Indo-European languages and civilisations. The result is a fascinating panorama of early "Indo-European globalisation" from the end of the last ice age to the early civilisations in Greece, Italy, Asia Minor, Persia and India.

Kairos

Author : Harald Haarmann
Publisher : Georg Olms Verlag
ISBN 13 : 3487423731
Total Pages : 217 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (874 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Kairos by : Harald Haarmann

Download or read book Kairos written by Harald Haarmann and published by Georg Olms Verlag. This book was released on 2023 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Kairos ist fest in unserer Psyche verankert. Forschungen zum Kernbegriff kairos haben eine verlässliche Einschätzung für eine wirkungsstarke Triebkraft im Bereich der Kulturgeschichte ermöglicht. Die wesentlichsten Eigenschaften von kairos sind das Erleben im Fluss der Zeit als soziales Konstrukt und der Umgang mit dem individuellen Energiefluss, worüber kairos zum Navigator für die individuelle Selbst-Identifikation wird.Diese Selbst-Identifikation ist Ausdruck der synergetischen Wechselbeziehung zwischen Körper, den Sinnen und unserem Bewusstsein, und im Streben des Selbst nach sozialer Interkonnektivität wird kairos zum Maß für Beziehungen in der Dimension des Miteinander. Die individuelle Erfahrung mit der Wirkung kultureller Traditionen und mit der Bindung an die natürliche Umwelt im Fluss der Zeit dient als Basis dafür, dem persönlichen Lebensbereich Sinn zu geben, ein Prozess, der von kairos gesteuert wird.Die Erschließung von kairos als Organisationsprinzip des Selbst im kommunalen Netzwerk einer Zivilisation aus früher Zeit - mit besonderer Berücksichtigung von Alteuropa (respektive der Donauzivilisation) - könnte verglichen werden mit der Entdeckung einer Pflanze, deren positive Wirkung für die allgemeine Ernährung sowie deren Heilkräfte unbekannt geblieben waren, bevor diese durch die moderne Forschung bestätigt worden sind.

World History Encyclopedia [21 volumes]

Author : Alfred J. Andrea Ph.D.
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1851099301
Total Pages : 8025 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (51 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis World History Encyclopedia [21 volumes] by : Alfred J. Andrea Ph.D.

Download or read book World History Encyclopedia [21 volumes] written by Alfred J. Andrea Ph.D. and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2011-03-23 with total page 8025 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An unprecedented undertaking by academics reflecting an extraordinary vision of world history, this landmark multivolume encyclopedia focuses on specific themes of human development across cultures era by era, providing the most in-depth, expansive presentation available of the development of humanity from a global perspective. Well-known and widely respected historians worked together to create and guide the project in order to offer the most up-to-date visions available. A monumental undertaking. A stunning academic achievement. ABC-CLIO's World History Encyclopedia is the first comprehensive work to take a large-scale thematic look at the human species worldwide. Comprised of 21 volumes covering 9 eras, an introductory volume, and an index, it charts the extraordinary journey of humankind, revealing crucial connections among civilizations in different regions through the ages. Within each era, the encyclopedia highlights pivotal interactions and exchanges among cultures within eight broad thematic categories: population and environment, society and culture, migration and travel, politics and statecraft, economics and trade, conflict and cooperation, thought and religion, science and technology. Aligned to national history standards and packed with images, primary resources, current citations, and extensive teaching and learning support, the World History Encyclopedia gives students, educators, researchers, and interested general readers a means of navigating the broad sweep of history unlike any ever published.

Re-Thinking Togetherness

Author : LaBGC & Harald Haarmann
Publisher : LIT Verlag Münster
ISBN 13 : 3643913737
Total Pages : 190 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (439 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Re-Thinking Togetherness by : LaBGC & Harald Haarmann

Download or read book Re-Thinking Togetherness written by LaBGC & Harald Haarmann and published by LIT Verlag Münster. This book was released on 2021-02-23 with total page 190 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Our togetherness has become porous. It needs renewal. On the basis of Old Europe, one of the first advanced cultures of humankind, the authors demonstrate how the communities of Old Europe prospered in peace for 3000 years and how everyone benefited from an orientation towards the common good. Mirrored into the present, this can enrich the necessary political, economic and social discourse and provide orientation. This book indicates very concisely and succinctly a real reversal of the way of thinking, it not only shows it, it carries it out! This should assure highest attention! Harald Seubert, philosopher and historian of ideas It is possible! The future belongs to a democratic coexistence. We can and we must find ways to a functioning community." Bascha Mika, editor in chief of the Frankfurter Rundschau (2014 2020)

The Mystery of the Danube Civilisation

Author : Harald Haarmann
Publisher : marixverlag
ISBN 13 : 3843806462
Total Pages : 344 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (438 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Mystery of the Danube Civilisation by : Harald Haarmann

Download or read book The Mystery of the Danube Civilisation written by Harald Haarmann and published by marixverlag. This book was released on 2020-05-29 with total page 344 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Over the last few decades, archaeologists and cultural scientists have come to a better understanding of the extent of Neolithic civilisation on the Balkan peninsula. This Danube Civilisation, thriving between the 6th and 4th millennia BCE, was using a writing system long before the Mesopotamians and is remarkable for its accomplishments in craftsmanship, art and urban development. In this book, Harald Haarmann provides the first comprehensive insight into this enigmatic Old European culture, which is still largely unknown to the greater public. He describes the trade routes, settlements, mythology and writing system of this people, traces the changes resulting from the arrival of the Indo-Europeans, and shows how this first advanced civilisation in Europe influenced its successors.

Voices of the Sacred Feminine

Author : Karen Tate
Publisher : John Hunt Publishing
ISBN 13 : 178279509X
Total Pages : 375 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (827 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Voices of the Sacred Feminine by : Karen Tate

Download or read book Voices of the Sacred Feminine written by Karen Tate and published by John Hunt Publishing. This book was released on 2014-11-28 with total page 375 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most of us have come to realize patriarchy - rule by a male-dominated society revering solely a male God - is not working for Mother Earth or most of the people on the planet. How do we counter beliefs that there is no option but the authoritarian father? How does society go about making a course correction? How do ideas that permeate every level of society from womb to tomb, boardroom to bedroom, voting booth to the workplace shift into a more fair, equal, and just world of partnership, sharing, caring and peace? Those are exactly the questions discussed on the long-running radio show, /Voices of the Sacred Feminine/, hosted by Rev. Dr. Karen Tate in her show dedicated to the Sacred Feminine as deity, archetype and ideal. Never before has an internet radio show cast such a wide net to include so many voices whose ideals are in alignment with “sacred feminine liberation thealogy.” If we can imagine it, vision it, and restore ancient truths swept beneath the rug and kicked to the curb by patriarchy, then we can manifest it! Hear solutions from these visionaries, scholars, wayshowers, foremothers and activists - women and men - dedicated to reshaping our world... Noam Chomsky, Laura Flanders, Gloria Feldt, Jean Shinoda Bolen, Phyllis Chesler, Barbara G. Walker, Riane Eisler, Matthew Fox, Roy Bourgeois, Starhawk, Charles Eisenstein, Genevieve Vaughan, Carl Ruck, David Hillman, Judy Grahn, Nicki Scully, Normandi Ellis, Selena Fox, Patrick McCollum, Jann Aldredge-Clanton, Cristina Biaggi, Charlene Spretnak, Shirley Ranck, Elizabeth Fisher, Amy Peck, Art Noble, Jeanette Blonigen Clancy, Joan Norton, Andrew Gurevich, Gus diZerega, Lydia Ruyle, Vajra Ma, Ava, Donna Henes, Candace Kant, Sandra Spencer, Layne Redmond, Isadora Leidenfrost, ALisa Starkweather, Joan Marler, Tim Ward, James Rietveld and Karen Tate.

When Life Lives Itself

Author : LIT Verlag
Publisher : LIT Verlag
ISBN 13 : 3643965753
Total Pages : 212 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (439 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis When Life Lives Itself by : LIT Verlag

Download or read book When Life Lives Itself written by LIT Verlag and published by LIT Verlag. This book was released on 2023-10-01 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Teaching is much more than transmitting knowledge. School life, alongside the togetherness in families, holds a key position in society. It is the school, where our future adults grow into the culture in which they actually live. What a task for those in charge! What a challenge! And most of all: what a chance! The book addresses those who shape coexistence in schools and those in administrations and governments who set the formal course for it, and it addresses creative minds. School case studies and a compact history of the origins of human togetherness stimulate reflection.

Die slavischen Sprachen / The Slavic Languages. Halbband 2

Author : Sebastian Kempgen
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110393689
Total Pages : 1187 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (13 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Die slavischen Sprachen / The Slavic Languages. Halbband 2 by : Sebastian Kempgen

Download or read book Die slavischen Sprachen / The Slavic Languages. Halbband 2 written by Sebastian Kempgen and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2014-11-26 with total page 1187 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present second volume completes the handbook Die slavischen Sprachen "The Slavic languages. Ein internationales Handbuch zu ihrer Struktur, ihrer Geschichte und ihrer Erforschung. An International Handbook of their History, their Structure and their Investigation". While the general conception is continued, the present volume now contains articles concerning inner and outer language history as well as problems of sociolinguistics, contact linguistics, standardology and language typology.

Greek Myth and Western Art

Author : Karl Kilinski
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
ISBN 13 : 1107013321
Total Pages : 305 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (7 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Greek Myth and Western Art by : Karl Kilinski

Download or read book Greek Myth and Western Art written by Karl Kilinski and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2013 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This richly illustrated book examines the legacy of Greek mythology in Western art from the classical era to the present. Tracing the emergence, survival, and transformation of key mythological figures and motifs from ancient Greece through the modern era, it explores the enduring importance of such myths for artists and viewers in their own time and over the millennia that followed.

The Mythology of Venus

Author : Helen Benigni
Publisher : University Press of America
ISBN 13 : 0761860630
Total Pages : 117 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (618 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis The Mythology of Venus by : Helen Benigni

Download or read book The Mythology of Venus written by Helen Benigni and published by University Press of America. This book was released on 2013-06-03 with total page 117 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mythology of Venus is a collection of essays that summarizes the archaeoastronomy, calendar associations, religious and cultural icons, and myths identified with the planet Venus. The book concentrates on Western Europe, the Mediterranean, the Near East, and the East from the Paleolithic Age to the Iron Age. It reveals the archetype of a goddess associated with the planet Venus who is identified with transformation, spiritual resurrection, and enlightenment. The characteristics of the goddess are steeped in sexual metaphors which contain images of birth and re-birth, and they reveal a pattern of symbols that follows the journey of the planet Venus through its cycles in the night sky. Moreover, the journey of Venus and the corresponding icons associated with the goddess are part of an intricate pattern of symbolic language that is seen on ancient monuments and on the ancient calendars of several cultures. Temples from France and Ireland to Greece and Malta trace the journey of the planet Venus and the story of the goddess of Venus.

Advancement in Ancient Civilizations

Author : Harald Haarmann
Publisher : McFarland
ISBN 13 : 1476679894
Total Pages : 245 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (766 download)

DOWNLOAD NOW!

Book Synopsis Advancement in Ancient Civilizations by : Harald Haarmann

Download or read book Advancement in Ancient Civilizations written by Harald Haarmann and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2020-09-18 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traditional scholarship on how ancient civilizations emerged is outmoded and new insights call for revision. According to the well-established paradigm, Mesopotamia is considered the cradle of civilization. Following the cliche of ex oriente lux ("light from the East") all major achievements of humankind spread from the Middle East. Modern archaeology, cultural science and historical linguistics indicate civilizations did not originate from a single prototype. Several models produced divergent patterns of advanced culture, developing both hierarchical and egalitarian societies. This study outlines a panorama of ancient civilizations, including the still little-known Danube civilization, now identified as the oldest advanced culture in Europe. In a comparative view, a new paradigm of research and a new cultural chronology of civilizations in the Old and New Worlds emerges, with climate change shown to be a continual influence on human lifeways.