Ancestral mother murals in Bodensee, south Germany, circa 3700 bce

In the Ceramic Scripture of Signs show, I showed these murals of great grandmother—abstract and painted with white dots) with in-the-round clay breasts modeled over them. They are from the neolithic site of Ludwigshafen in southern Germany, along the Bodensee (Lake Constance, circa 3800-3600 bce). These sculpted breasts had broken off and fallen on the floor of a longhouse, along with other fragments from the murals. They showed a series of outlined ancestral women, each with breasts modeled to stand out from the wall surface. Their radiant outlines were filled with white dots, a common motif indicating vital essence in ancient female figurines, ceramic vessels, and rock art (such as the Lady of Aouanrhet in the Tassili-n-Ajjer, Algeria). Some Indigenous societies paint-up with white-clay dots for ceremony.

Abstract trees of life stand between most of the painted figures, which resemble the female statue menhirs of this millennium in that they are not shaped like the human body but as rounded rectangles. Most are criss-crossed with lines that meet at the center, and all are filled with painted white clay dots. What you see here are reconstructions from the fallen pieces archaeologists were able to recover (the dimly-colored chunks). They seem to have upraised arms or wings, and feet at the corners. Some wear fringed belts or string skirts:

A few show painted heads (some of which didn't survive) and numinous auras surrounding their outlines.

The heads are somewhat sunken into the shoulders. The triangle at the base of this one may represent the female delta (I hate the word "pubic triangle" which comes from a Latin word meaning "shame.")

Tree of Life over mountains.The unusual shape of the branches may be intended to represent open arms and legs of sequential generations.

The breasts were fully modeled in the round, stuck into the wall plaster, and then painted with the white dots.

Another view of the crumbled-off breasts, along with painted patterns from other parts of the grandmother figures:

The point where the crossed lines intersect at the center of the grandmother body:

Triangular pattern with fringe:

More painted fragments from the frieze:

The breasts would have been rather heavy—easy to see how they fell off over time.

The process of reconstructing the friezes (good to see a woman painting):

Molded breasts used to honor the female ancestor in earthen relief on walls of Nuba houses in the Kordofan, central Sudan. This Indigenous people were matrilineal / patrilocal farmers (I'll explain below why the past tense). The women paint the walls in bright ochres and blacks, highlighting the breasts, and above them hang offerings of the millet and beans they raise.

The Nuba underwent immense pressures from the surrounding Muslim Arabized society since the 1960s. Their villages were raided, bombed, and destroyed. Outsiders killed men and took women captive, or sent survivors fleeing into refugee camps. There they were often raped (again) and obliged to put on long skirts and veils in hopes of avoiding more sexual attacks. Some have been forced to undergo clitoral excision and marry Muslim men. The fast rate of change in a short period is shown by these photos, the first of a woman playing a harp with gourd resonator from the 60s, the second some time after 2000.

Nuba men became famous for their wrestling bouts, but the women wrestled too—until they no longer did. They had to adopt full body covering as the surrounding society insisted.

They adapted to that, in their own way, crafting their own adornments from trade beads...

But then came the colonizing wars in the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile region of Sudan, part of the Second Sudanese Civil War (1983-2005). The Sudanese Army was fighting the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). During this conflict, militias of Baggara Arabs backed by the government attacked the Nuba, in whose mountains the SPLA were based. They eventually displaced the Nuba, who were forcibly relocated to camps.

Nuba refugees selling in the marketplace.

In a 2012 report Rania Mahmoud described the bombing of villages in the Nuba Mountains. She fled, walking across the new border into South Sudan; "Because of the war, plus the fact that there was no more food, we had to run away. The enemy was bombing us. You would hear 'boom' and we'd all have to hide. We were really frightened." They were also starving.

"[The refugees] have been hiding out in caves to escape aerial bombardment and ground fighting," [an aid worker] says. "These people are telling me that they're eating leaves and they're boiling seeds, and they've come here just in search of food."

Aggression against Indigenous peoples is one vector of patriarchalization, enforced by rape in war and enslavement, imposition of alien dress codes, laws, and religions. In Kordofan it happened very quickly (which is not to say that earlier patriarchal influences did not take place, including slave-rading).

Earthen reliefs on houses in Bida, Nigeria; Dabba houses, Cameroon.

The female ancestor is placed above the doorway, itself a symbolic vulva, of a roundwalled house. Other deep clay plaster reliefs go around the walls, some suggestive of animals, others the Directions or geometric figures (without doubt holding their own significance).

closeup of Mother and Children above the door

Another view of the house in Bida, Nigeria.
This style of modeled clay exteriors is found across the Sahel,
the savanna region between the Sahara and the rainforests.

Very similar concept here, with numerous birthing ancestors, from Dabba in northern Cameroon.

India is coming!