The 17,000 Year Old European Dragon Ritual, and its ancient mythological origins 

Are there any old rituals you would like to know more about?

My favourite "dragon ritual" is stepping into my local pub, 'The George and Dragon', walking up to the humourless, sourfaced lady behind the bar, and asking "is George in?".

In Poland we have a legend about the dragon living in a cave under the royal castle in Kraków, former Polish capital. The oldest written version is from the 12th century and tells about a dragon terrorizing the population of Kraków, forcing them to sacrifice cattle to him. The king's sons were unable to defeat the dragon in battle, so they fed him a cattle skin stuffed with smoldering sulfur, causing his fiery death. After that younger son killed his brother in order to be able to inherit the throne and told his father that he had died fighting the dragon. The dragon cave under the castle can be visited to this day by tourists and in front of it there is a fire-breathing statue of a dragon.

I can imagine people in the tribe being told this stories deep in the cave by an elder, lighted by torches, with the sound of running water around. It would have felt overwhelming and otherworldly. This series about dragons keeps getting better and better. thank you so much

In romanian folklore there are many stories about this young and handsome man (Făt-Frumos) who fights a dragon-like creature ('zmeu' or 'balaur') because he kidnapped one or three princesses and made them his wifes. With the great help of his wise and magic horse and sometimes of other animals or mythological beings, the hero reaches the Other Realm (Tărămul Celălalt), chops the dragon's head or heads, marry the girls and they live happily ever after. 'Zmeu' is a scale-covered humanoid with one or three heads or even nine in some stories, and has a snake tale, legs, arms, the ability to create and use artifacts such as weapons, and to ride a horse, and has the desire to marry young girls. Sometimes he appears in the sky altough he has no wings, and spits fire, or has the ability to change form. 'Balaur' is a more serpent-shaped creature, with three, seven or nine heads. In some stories it has wings. It kidnapps young princesses, and sometimes lives in a well or a lake. It can be summoned by a wizard (Solomonar), who then rides and use the Balaur to controll the weather. Also when two Balauri meet and fight in the air, there ensues various meteorological damages. Both Zmeu and Balaur die only by getting all their heads chopped off.p I can now link that stories to your neolithic dragon mith as there are many similarilies.

Dude, I wish I knew this when I was teaching Beowulf. So much of what the hero does mirrors Indo-European myth.

I always enjoy how this channel holistically covers mythology/folklore and archeology.

I’m surprised how detailed and realistic the clay bison are. And in such good shape 😍

A quick thought, the serpent has connections with the constellation Hyades. Often with the dragons head, Hyades, being wounded while attacking the foot or heel of a the hero, the constellation Orion. The constellation Eridanus (Jordan) the celestial river is located below and between Orion and The Hyades (and wider Taurus). This has relationships to the story of Adam, Moses and the Serpent staff as well as inability to cross the Jordan, Ra and the Serpent shaped as a dart, Thor and Hrungnir on the boat, among others. The Hyades are the “rainy” or watery constellation.

Interesting. The mention of 'The Tain' pronounced "Toyne" is steeped in ancient Celtic mythology and is translated to 'The Cattle Raid of Cooley' from a time when wealth was measured in herds. If my memory is correct all the hero's battles take place at fords or river crossings. It is part of the Annals of Ulster and only survives today thanks to the early literate Christian monks who wrote them down. Their origins are unknown but considered to be ancient folklore by the time the Celts arrived in Ireland.

Fascinating work as always. I always go back to Persian mythology and find interesting similarities between what you say and what has been recorded in Shahname. Besides the story of Zahhak/Azhidahak which is clearly a dragon figure usurping the throne, I remembered a curious case of Rostam and his superhero horse Rakhsh (meaning light) fighting and slaying a dragon on his seven-phase epic journey to set the captured shah free and it is Rakhsh who kills the dragon 🐉

The appearance of similar motifs in South American and Australian Aboriginal cultures suggests that some of our mythologies are a great deal older than is generally suspected, perhaps even originating in Africa more than a hundred thousand years ago. I'm particularly interested in any insight you may have regarding fire rituals and parables, such as those we find in the stories of Prometheus & Pandora and in some Siberian and Native American raven legends. Just about every culture has/had some kind of fire god, usually associated with cautionary tales about the reckless pursuit of power ("a dangerous servant and frightful master"), and the common threads running through them seem to indicate that we've been sharing these fables for as long as we've been human enough to gather around a hearth.

Interesting that one man, Melanthios, cut his hair to triumph, but another man, Samson, lost his strength when his hair was cut. I was always interested in the two dragons who fought in the Merlin tales. I assumed they were thought to cause earthquakes and toppled the castles built above. Of course I only read of this story as written by Mary Stewart. I understand that even today, some Asian countries still construct dragon holes in tall buildings so that the wind dragon will not topple them. Which I consider to be at least partly ritual behavior.

Crecganford has become a staple of my weekend viewings. Cannot thank you enough for the wonderful content, Jon!

Incredible how much we can reconstruct from this ritual using other myths. I love this channel!

I have casually noticed a lot of "dragon guards a magical item usually involving knowledge" usually associated with some sort of knowledge tree. It's curious to see other dragon motifs.

The “fish” talked about in the art areactually symbols representing signs. Like chevrons on a Sargent, or stars on an admiral, they convey the meaning of social placeholder. There are many reoccurring symbols in the caves that use symbols that translate a message into the current occupier of the cave since most were used as shelters in winter but were mostly empty when times were good. They could’ve even be a shopping list traveling merchants that spoke a different language but recognized the universal symbols. Yes, that means ancient man had a form of writing, and were in contact with other clans over vast distances.

I'm rewriting these into my own stories as a way to try to keep them alive. Keep up the good work, my friend! And thank you!

While you were explaining, i remembered another such myth from the puranas/upanishads(which comes after vedas)... This isnt about Indra killing Vrtra, but its about Krishna(Vishnu) harming Kalinga. This myth is waaay younger and newer compared to the Vrtra slaying myth. I think the people adopted this myth when gods like shiva, vishnu and brahma were taking over the main head pantheon which consisted of indra before.. (Although Indra, Agni, Varuna and other gods are still there, they are only prayed during religious ceremonies... A local man(nowadays) does not pray to these gods, they mainly pray to the Trinity{shiva, vishnu, and sometimes brahma}), but we do know that long time ago, atleast according to the rig vedas, the ancient gods like Indra, Agni, etc were prayed to more In this myth we see that a snake has taken control over this huge river, and anyone who drank from it died due to the snake's poison. The snake is depicted as having many heads. Krishna had enough of this snake, and went to slay it... He dove into the waters and came up to the surface while dancing on the many heads of the snake. The snake begged for krishna to stop dancing, and thats when krishna struck a deal with the snake to never enter the waters again, and therefore freeing the river!

I hope all the research you are doing for this series is something you will be collating into a popular book on history and dispersal of dragon mythology.

This is amazing! The presents of the horses is extraordinary. This is long, long before the domestication of the horse. Now horses don't like poisonous snakes and will stomp them to death striking with there front feet. Here in America we have water snakes, cottonmouths and water moccasins. Both of these are deadly. It would be interesting to see if they could get any DNA off of the sacrificed snakes to see if they were indeed a poisonous species. But the horses are really important. About 6 months ago it came out that the current domesticated horses did not come from the horses that were first domesticated. These were the ancestors of the Przwalski Horse who moved to east and eventually let them run wild again. So they are beginning to try to figure out where the current horses came from. This bone may be an indication of it. Interestingly enough the spotted horses on the caves in Spain prove the existence of the Leopard gene that is present in several breeds currently. All of those breeds trace back to Spain. It is a recessive gene so it can hide for generations and crop up again if you are deliberately breeding for it. The snowy conditions would have favored that pattern for a camouflage. These horses are certain to be part of the answer to the puzzle. You should check out the people doing the work on the horse DNA. I think it may point them to places to search that will help them.

I love this channel. So we’ll researched and we can learn so much from our ancient ancestors. They were Homo sapiens - just as curious and creative and intelligent as we are - you can see that in these myths. And the routes to various permutations of myths including dragons, storm gods, snakes, floods seem so clear now. Fascinating. Thank you.

Thank you for promoting and discussing the beliefs of our ancestors and bringing them to life for our folk in these modern times. It is important to discuss the ways of our European forebears. Thank you again.

I'm happy to see you have a production team. Congratulations. Takes off some of the stress of balancing this with the duties of teaching.

This really has some value in todays world, you’re doing a great work here

Absolutely love this channel. Thank you for the vids you keep on making!

What's incredibly interesting is in Welsh myth, the dragon is a representation if the people, who's home is located in the Eyri. The dragon essentially is a protector, and a being that holds all our strength. It's why the red dragon is on our flag, with the story coming from at least the middle ages.

Perfect timing, I just got back from a fair about Eastern cultures and bought an Italian pizza. I thought "this would be the perfect moment to watch a Crecganford video" and you released a new one today. Thanks

Thank you so much for this. Fascinating. During your talk I thought of related/ derivative stories such as Perseus-Pegasus-Medusa/snake, Eve/ wife-Serpent-knowledge, Dian Cécht (Irish healer god)-slays the triple snakes/Méche-scatters the remains in a river (Berba)... It makes me think of how important are the findings of such caves, with their wall art, carvings and bones to our modern interpretation of ancient culture and beliefs. I look forward to further findings that can allow specialists such as "Crecganford" to confirm, revise and elaborate further. Thanks again. I love your channel !

Oh man, you have such good content but your voice is so soothing that I end up in a daze and don't remember a thing!

Love your channel, you really bring the past to life! I am always curious about what the day to day experience would have been like for our ancestors and how they would have viewed the world. Thanks for sharing this research!

In Altay (Turkic) mythology there're plenty of dragons but there's a specific story of 2 dragons figthing each other for 9 years. Before the times of man there were dragons roaming the land. The most powerful among them was ''Sangal'' the evil one, it dominated all others and stole their ''Töz'' (somethimes it means the soul sometimes its just jewels in the story). Sangal lived in a cave, stashing all the töz he stole deep down, thinking ''Tengri'' (God) would not see him there. One day ''Büke'' (sometimes referred to as Bükrek) the youngest among them climbed up to a mountain and called for Tengri, when Tengri answered him he told him about Sangal. Tengri descended from the sky, and asked all the others if Büke was telling the truth. In fear of Sangal, they all kept their silence, then Tengri told Büke that he was jelous of Sangal as he was the youngest and Sangal was the eldest. Tengri told Büke that he should be ashamed he called his name and only told lies to his face. After Tengri ascended to sky, Sangal came out of his cave and jumped on Büke, starting a fight. Büke knew he did not have a töz, it was stolen by the Sangal, if he were to die it would be his end. So Büke kept fighting evasively. 2 dragons kept fighting each other for 9 years. One day Tengri would hear the voices of roaring dragons on the land, he would descend from the sky to see them fighting. The others would now tell Tengri all the truth. Tengri then gave Büke ''wings made out of heavenly clouds'' in the midddle of the fight. Büke overcame Sangal and pierced his chest with claws and teeth. All the blood and flesh bursted out of him spread all across the existence creating the life. Tengri said he would only give Büke his töz back, the stolen töz of the others were given to the life created by the blood and flesh of Sangal. This new life would be named Ebren (Evren in todays Turkic langs. and it means universe). Tengri ascended to skies taking Büke with him. And this is how the life is created. (according to this story) I also know the metaphoric meanings of this story but I better keep it short. Source: All the Turks living around Altay mountains today, it is still told by the elders to kids as a bedtime story.

This video made me think of several things. The first thought I had was about how medieval dragons spit poison rather than breathe fire, as there are cases currently in study about spitting snakes whose biological mechanism is literally for attacking human/primates eyes with poison. Secondly, I immediately thought of St. George slaying the dragon as now being more connected to an older myth versus simply an analogy to a Roman Commander besieging a city. Thirdly, birds also got mentioned, so I started thinking about Native American Thunderbird striking down Uktena, as well as how St. Micheal being a human figure with bird-like wings striking down the Devil (extremely different stories, but they resemble bird-like entities striking down dragon-like entities). Fourthly, I think of potential subconscious replication of snake slaying myths in caves and/or near water in modern media, such as Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Not to jump into a European biased perspective of a Beiring Strait theory, but these dragon slaying myths might be evidence for homo sapiens deriving from one place on our planet.

When I was younger I had a dream that I was in a sort of colosseum or arena seemed like made of stone and I defeated a large snake in a pool of water. This is freaking me out but also shedding light on perhaps some of the symbolism behind my dream.

Its my first time seeing a video by you and I'm loving your breakdowns step by step. This video made me subscribe. I really like history and mythology.

The song about the Lambton Wyrm springs to mind.

I was so looking forward to this! This really made my day, thank you! ❤🐉🐉🐉

Always good to hear you tell us tales. I wish I had been listening to tales like this since childhood, but have no problem catching up now lol.💚🐢

Heck… these videos are always so friggin good

Man I'm glad I found this channel. All four videos I've watched have been just top-notch. New sub incoming!

As usual this was fascinating. I appreciate your amazing wealth of knowledge and the ease with which you explain myth and all its various connections. I'm curious about the relationship between the snake, water, moon, bull and labyrinths as symbols in myth. Would you consider that as a future topic? Thanks for contributing to my lifelong learning.

Awesome video, Jon. Thanks for doing all that hard work and research. This is fascinating. If you know of anymore Stone Age proto myths and rituals, I’d love to hear them.

Ooh, so cool! Definitely do more videos on Paleolithic Europeans! This is so interesting!

@Crecganford Having just finished watching all of your content over the last few weeks, it is nice to see someone dive so deep into mythology and its origins. As a christian (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), I do not feel offended by your opinions on Christianity, but enjoy the opportunity to see how things are connected and how far back the origins of belief and myth can go. Thank you for your efforts and time in developing this content!

Well said Jon! My wife would approve of the decapitation of snakes. She can't even look at a picture of one! I mentioned before the serpent Bakunawa in Visayan mythology. The moon-eating serpent that lives in the ocean. That one was never killed, and at least until recently people used to call out "Iuli kanamo ang among buwan" ("Return our moon") whenever there was a lunar eclipse, so that Bakunawa would spit out the moon. There is also a lingering belief in the provinces here that when there is an earthquake, it is caused by a giant crocodile ("buaya") under the ground. So the people rush out of their houses and call out "Bua! Bua!". My wife Ling Ling heard people doing this as recently as late 2019. "The footsteps of the ancestors are still to be seen"!

It is also consistent with the snakes representing a destructive comet and/or meteors. See also the Lascaux shaft scene and Gobekli Tepe where it is clear snakes represent meteors. Comet impacts generate water - rain, floods, tsunamis etc.

I hope you cover more cave art in the future.

"In Bulgarian folklore the image of the dragon appears as a creature called “Zmey”. The female Lamia or Hala is also present in Bulgarian folklore. While the male zmey could have human features and even sometimes help people, the female Lamia is always dangerous and malicious. However, the zmey can also look like a person - a young, handsome, strong man with wings under the arms. The dragon has a fiery nature and can sometimes be seen as a flash of lightning or a ball of fire. Elsewhere people even call it "a cloud" and believe that it appears in the sky as a large cloud. Dragons usually inhabit the forests and mountains. That is why people often speak of “Zmey Gorianin”, which means “forest dragon.” Zmeys are usually believed to live in caves, holes, or cracks in the rocks. Even today, dragon legends are related to the Rabishka cave and the cave near the village of Pirin in the region of Sandanski. Dragons can also live in water - lakes, wells, rivers. At various places in Bulgaria names such as Dragon’s House or Dragon’s Well still exist. The dragon looks like a man in many ways: it eats, drinks, gets married, and has offspring. Despite having their own dragon women, zmeys can often fall in love with human girls and young brides and begin to secretly visit them at night. Such women gradually begin to stay away from others and not care much about their appearance as the zmey lover takes all their powers. Many folk songs, performed mainly on Easter, and St. George’s Day, tell the story of dragons descending from the sky and snatching their beloved girls. In other stories the zmey arrives with a whole wedding party of other zmeys riding horses. The dragon’s relationship with his human wife leads to children who look human but have wings under the arms and extraordinary power. People even speak about famous rebels as having wings under the arms and being invulnerable to enemies. In order to protect a young woman from these unwanted lovers a mixture of herbs is used and the girl bathes in it. In folk tales, the Lamia looks like a huge lizard with a dog’s head. Her mouth is so big that it can swallow a whole man and her body is covered with yellow scales. The Lamia also has wings, four legs, sharp claws, and a long tail. Often songs tell us about three-headed, seven-headed or 9-headed Lamias. The Lamia often appears in the form of a storm or hail and destroys crops. Zmeys sometimes fight the Lamias to protect the crops. Folk tales also tell the stories of famous heroes fighting with lamias, such as Krali Marko, who released girls and young men enslaved by the female dragon. One of the most popular Bulgarian tales, "The Three Brothers and the Golden Apple," tells the story of a brave young man who descends to the lower land and saves the king's daughter, shortly before she is eaten by the Lamia. The story is also depicted in many of the later icons of St. George due to the influence of oral traditions on Christianity." Credit: English version: Alexander Markov

Great video, the first I've seen but now subscribing and ready to enjoy more videos! Thanks for the interesting information!

This is incredibly fascinating, I will binge watch your videos later

So glad you made a video on this, i was so interested when i first saw the clay bison thingies :D

I cannot help but see the Indo-European dragon-slaying myth partially play out here: Two clay cattle represent the animals stolen by the dragon. Two headless snakes would be the heads of the dragon which were killed by Trito. There would also be a third snake, let loose into the depths of the cave (explaining it's absence), representing the last head of the fleeing dragon Ngwhi. At the end of the ritual, the source of water would be safe to drink for the tribe, and their animals would be free from harm.

iv'e been waiting on this vid! thankyou so very much!

This tells me more about the psychology of the researcher than the beliefs of anyone in the ancient world.

The myth of Perseus decapitating Medusa is also a version of that dragon slaying story it seems to me. Doesn't he afterwards also marry a princess?

Hi John, Your videos are amazing, they are informative and entertaining, I like to watch your videos. I have one complaint. The Hindi subtitles are a little confusing though, the grammar and sentences are not coherent sometimes. The spellings of words are good though. Please take cognisance of this 🙏 I have been watching your channel from the past 6 to 7 months now and I love your oldest myths video series, especially the origins of religion one. Thanks 🙏👍

Another solid video, Jon!

I think you're right on the snake being related to the story of the boy who fights a dragon for access to water. However I think the headless snake near the water source is to ward off other dragons/ creatures Speculating even further, maybe they thought a dragon would see the headless snake as a castrated dragon phallus and run.

Love the channel, amazing content. I would love to see you explore some of the myths and archeological sites you speak of physically. Is travelling around an option for you?

I have been bingeing your videos, I don't think I have much tea left at this point

Thanks. I've always thought that dragons might be associated with rivers particularly. The long, meandering shape of a river is just too suggestive to pass up. Also, early hominins might well have viewed snakes as baby dragons who hadn't got their wings yet. They would've noticed that tadpoles grow legs, and that caterpillars get wings. It wouldn't take much imagination. Much later peoples (right up to today!) have certainly thought crazier things! One could easily speculate that killing the 'babies' would ruin the nest and run the 'dragon' away. Of course, it would be fiendishly difficult to back up such ideas, and impossible to prove. As to the cave drawing, I notice the snake is on its back, and is placed below the person (with whom the horses are level), and the buffalo are also upside down, but in the 'sky'. Hmmm... tavi.

Crecganford is an insanely cool guy. This is suchhhhhhhhhh rad subject to cover

Insights into cave art meaning is so rare. This is great.

Great channel with excellent commentary. Formula for success.

Excellent! Very interesting as always 👌

Sorry to post something of a digression here, but it is tied to the subject of different names and interpretations of the same manifestations, be they creatures such as dragons, or divine beings such as Yemo, the lord of the underworld, known as Yama in the eastern tradition, and Enma in Japan, which you have already covered in great depth. In Japan, the Boddhisatva Jizo is more widely known through Asia as Kṣitigarbha, the patron of travellers and children. Now, his job description is very, very similar to that of Saint Christopher, AND rivers are a key part of their legend, too. Now, try as I might, I can't find anyone online who claims they are connected, beyond their job descriptions, but I'm sensing something more - to me, even the consonant sounds of the names "Chrisopher" and "Kṣitigarbha" hint at a common root. Am I completely barking madly up the wrong tree, or maybe, just maybe, like Yemo and Yama, are they both pointing towards a common, primordial Indo-European root?

the story with the imposter that marries someone else while the hero is away to slay the dragon reminds me a lot like oddyseus myth. where he and his men are captured by the cyclops which trick and blind with a spear before they return home.

I'm so glad I found your channel. When you mentioned the cup of tea I was actually dunking a Rich Tea biscuit in me cuppa !!

Brilliant insight!

Did you see the Yucatan Pyramid video with the dirt devil that looked like a serpent rising into sky? It's quite something.

Hey, with that art of the supine snake over the river, with the man and the horses, you COULD interpet the underside of the front horse's neck as ALSO forming the outline of a second snake head. Sort of like two faces close to each other looking like a goblet.

Oog: Hey Unk, Oog kill snake. You want? Unk: No want, snake give Unk heartburn, throw in back of cave

Perhaps this is a case of sympathetic magic. Another thought is that it's more esoteric and that the cave represents the self and the dragon (snake) represents what must be overcome in order to have access to the water (life). As in Alchemy, Nigredo is the cutting off of the Raven's head (Caput Corvi). Interesting thoughts none the less. Thank you.

Great stuff!

Reminds me of the Eastern Slavic 'Zmei Gorynich" -- the three headed dragon, an intelligent creature that lives in a cave. He kidnapps the Russian princess with the goal of either making her his wife, or sacrificing her like he does to the many other women he's kidnapped and ate (theres different versions of the story). A strongman (bogatyr) from the village goes and rescues her. The snake's heads regrow once cut off, but the bogatyr manages to kill it, and gets to marry the Princess. I wonder how old all these legends are , facinating. Thank you for the video!

Absolument passionnant !

I enjoyed this video a lot! As usual! General question, but do you have advice about gathering credible resources for making historian fiction set in prehistory?

The presence of the bison is also interesting as there was an identification of cattle with the water in Vedic mythology.

What a wonderful teacher!

Really enjoyed the video, thank you. Here in Hungary they have lots of folk tales of dragons with multiple heads, something I'd never heard of growing up in England. Great to have learnt it isn't so rare.

I would absolutely love to see you and Aaron Ra sit down and have a discussion on these old texts. You really seem to have studied your ancient writings closely. And I think it would be a interesting conversation. Thank you for all the great info! Love the channel!

Fantastic. Thank you!

Funny. My grandma lived in place StGeorgen where indeed not far from the church was a small hill with a spring on one side and a small cave on the other where it was said "the dragon lived". Damn never thought of it that way. But now you have told rhe stiry it looks obvious that the saint should have slain the dragon to free all the waters around, as there are numerous small creeks

20:17 Perhaps the headless snake was left as a warning to other dragons to stay away and not make their home in this cave for they know how to kill dragons?

I enjoy you videos very much, and have been trying to catch up with them all. I am not there yet, and maybe you have addressed this before, but what is the significance of the name of this excellent channel? Is it a favorite battle of yours?

I might not be interested in all your content but i do enjoy listening to relaxing and soothing way of relating the information your putting out. 😉 Thanks

Can you talk about more iconography, archeology, symbolism....like the sun disk, etc.?

over 3.9k people here that like either drinking tea or dragonslaying

Symbology is even more amazing when it makes sense.

I like your work, thanks ! That being said, nobody lived in either of these caves. In fact, cavemen have never existed. We sometimes find temporary campsites under some entrance porches, but almost never deeper. In le tuc d'audoubert, we have some hearths, but these refer to quick stays, probably in relation with the making of the decoration. One noticeable exception is the deep campsite of Enlene, another cave of the same Volp network it shares with le tuc d'audoubert and les trois frères.

God, how I love this channel.

The symbol of the serpent in South American history and mythology is so prevalent that I know I do not need to explain much to express that fact. What I would like to mention though is the hundreds of decapitated heads that have been found throughout South America, in particular Peru. There was a group of people there that practiced cranial deformation. Some of the skulls seem to have been shaped intentionally to produce the elongated effect. Some of the skulls appear to have been born that way and exhibit anatomical features not found in homo sapiens. There was clearly an association between the serpent and this so called "elite" class of people. The fact that the remains are always found decapitated and now you show me evidence of snake decapitation rituals being performed it is more than coincidence in my opinion. Why this age old idea of "cutting the head off of the snake" has stuck with us for so long. Great channel by the way.

Great video! While other people have added some more about the dragon mythology, I'd like to point out we are talking about the Pyrenees here. Not so far from Carcassonne, Rennes Le Chateau, Cathar & troubadour country, and on the other side, the West side of the Pyrenees, is Basque country, another enigma of history, with its language we still can't categorize properly, and apparently lots of Dolmens and Cromlechs in Basque country as well! I always find the Pyrenees really exude mystery to anyone who visits them!

Very good video, full of interesting things about our past. 👍 I've seen first hand what a horse that hates snakes can do, it's not pretty or finished until snake pulp is properly created. Horses in general can be amazingly vicious fighters and become a whole different beast when doing so. Which makes me all the more amazed that we can ride them and that they can actually love you and will fight for you.

i'm not really sure about the horses - surely people's relationship with horses was very different 17000 years ago compared to during the bronze age because horses were domesticated around 3000BC. So back in 15000BC there was no such thing as a warrior horse.

The idea of a multiheaded snake carving out rivers is intriguing. Maybe they thought by cutting off the head, they could prevent the fresh water from reaching the sea where it becomes undrinkable.

Mind-boggling, thx! Btw, heard somewhere that snakes are teachers, is that later, or perhaps much later?

Thoughts: 1- Yellow rat tailed snakes live in caves, and since there were rivers associated with he caves, this opens it up to aquatic snakes who hang out in flooded caves, as anyone in Texas might know. 2- The snake might have been killed in a boring old fight. Claiming the lack of broken bones means the snake wasn't attacked means nothing. _The snake had it's head cut off._ So clearly, it was attacked. There's no difference if you cut off a snake in a fight or in a ritual from the snake's perspective. He's not going to lie still because you tell him it's a tradition. Most likely story of the snakes: The snake was in the cave, and the people were working in it. They saw the snake, and killed it. The fact that it's 500 feet from the entrance means it's annoying to take the body out, so if you were working in the cave for say, 4 days, you may take the snake's body out the first 3 days, as likely there were more than one snake, but if you're wrapping up, and another last snake comes too close, chop it and go. leave the body. You see headless snakes in barns and outbuildings like this all the time man. I feel you spent too much time in the library and not enough outside in the field.

There are innumerable examples of snakes living in and around caves. Even very deeply within. The thing that sets this apart is its condition and the missing head.

In Serbia one of most popular saint is St. Georg killing a dragon, word zmaj (dragon) comes from word zmija (snake) which comes from zemlja (ground, earth .. )