Dawn Of American Religion Found (2,250 BC)

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 4-15-2003 | Roger Highfield

[blam]

Dawn of American religion found

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 15/04/2003)

The oldest image of a deity in the Americas has been discovered by archaeologists - pushing back the origin of religion there by 1,000 years.

A 4,000-year-old gourd fragment bearing an image of the Staff God

A 4,250-year-old gourd fragment found in a looted cemetery on the Peruvian coast, 120 miles north of Lima, bears an archaic image of the Staff God, which was the principal deity in the region for millennia.

"Like the cross, the Staff God is a clearly recognisable religious icon," said Jonathan Haas, of The Field Museum in Chicago. "This appears to be the oldest identifiable religious icon found in the Americas. It indicates that organised religion began in the Andes more than 1,000 years earlier than previously thought."

The Staff God is an iconic motif long associated with several Andean cultures. The figure is commonly shown in a frontal view, with a fanged mouth and splayed and clawed feet. Snakes are often part of the figure's headdress or integrated into its garments. Most commonly, the deity is depicted holding a staff.

The newly found fragment has been radiocarbon-dated to 2,250 BC, the journal Archaeology reported. It bears a simple, incised and painted image of the deity.

[AppyPappy]

, the Staff God

I used to work for him.

[Illbay]

Jaredite Bump!

[Illbay]

"Staff God Source," right?

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[El Sordo]

"with a fanged mouth and splayed and clawed feet..

Performance reviews must have been fun.

[Fiddlstix]

Bump

[AppyPappy]

Try walking out at 5. You get disemboweled......at first.

[Quix]

I suppose this

100% conclusively could never have had even 0.0000000001% of anything to do with

the serpents on a staff during the time of Moses in the wilderness when God sent snakes to kill the lot of them for their grumbling--then responded warmly to Moses' interceding for the people by having Moses put--what--golden serpents up on a pole for the people to look at and be healed--in a prophetic type of Christ on the Cross.

I don't know the relative timelines.

But stranger things have happened.

[blam]

"I don't know the relative timelines. "

This Peru god is 500-1,000 years before Moses' time.

[Quix]

Ah well,

so much for that conjecture!

THANKS.

[blam]

"Ah well,

so much for that conjecture!

THANKS".

Well, you got me thinkin'. Where did the doctors staff with the snakes originate?

[Grig]

"Well, you got me thinkin'. Where did the doctors staff with the snakes originate?"

From the same Moses and the brass serpent part of the Bible is what I've been told.

A winged serpent was also a representation of God to ancient natives of central and south America and is frequently seen in old ruins.

[blam]

"A winged serpent was also a representation of God to ancient natives of central and south America and is frequently seen in old ruins."

A number of anthropologists think that images of serpents,snakes,dragons and etc, represent comets.

[strela]

Dawn Of American Religion Found (2,250 BC)

Criminy, did they have Armani suits, bad toupees, and Southern accents back then too?

[blam]

"Criminy, did they have Armani suits, bad toupees, and Southern accents back then too?"

Nah, sounds more like the 'snake-charmer' variety.

[APBaer]

"Where did the doctors staff with the snakes originate?"

Try here, Bill"
http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20001109.html

[blam]

Thanks, AP.

[SunkenCiv]

A Blast from the Past.

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[SJackson]

The Rod of Asclepius in Greek mythology

though often thought to be from the Rod of Caduceus

who was the god of commerce, not medicine. Mercury carried a similar staff. Lots of snake gods/cults during the bronze age throughout the Mideast and Africa