Fox representations have great antiquity in the world, but their accompanying verbal explanations have not often survived. The oldest fox representations from archaeology are those at Góbekle Tepe in Turkey, but any accompanying verbal explanations of these stone sculptures did not survive as myths or stories into post3 Neolithic Mesopotamian cultures (Peter and Schmidt 2004, p. 210). The Sumerian myth of Gilgamesh may date from the second millennium BC (North 2008), but surviving versions of the Indo‐European myths are that are still are known in only few limited small and isolated regions (Gimbutas 2008). On the other hand, the Andean fox myth is still widespread in South America. This paper describes that mythical fox from South America and relates its mythology to recent archaeological finds in Peru that fix its origins at more than 4,000 years ago. It introduces the cosmology of Mesoamerica and South America, especially the origin accounts and the myth of the Andean fox.
JOURNAL OF COSMOLOGY
