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TRACKING THE Ancestral Bear

Cultural Continuity & Differentiation in Bear Rites & Stories of Eurasia & North America.

This research database compiles sources of information that significantly inform investigations on bear ceremonialism in ancestral cultures of the northern hemisphere. Multiple types of data are represented in this database, including paleontological, archaeological, literary, historical, ethnographic and biological data. These and other sources are currently being applied to address long-standing questions in scientific discourse on the widespread distribution of bear ceremonialism on three continents. 

OrIginal Works

A Paleolithic Origin Story?

Recent paleontological discoveries address long-standing questions about the earliest evidence of bear ceremonialism in human heritage.

Ullr & Iron Age Bear Rites in the Story of Volund

A skaldic metaphoric tradition raises the question if Ullr is conflated with the "master of elves," Volund. Details elucidate a clear association between Volund and bear-hunting rites of iron-age ancestors of modern Sami or Finnic people. Searching deeper into the forest of time, Volund and Ullr's tracks become obscured, but intersect with a widespread mythic motif in which the bear is born from a sky or thunder deity and a forest deity.

THE ANCESTRAL BEAR IN THE SAGA OF KING HROLF

In this tale from the legendary Saga of King Hrolf, a Sami sorceress named Hvit causes a man named Bjorn to transform into a bear. Later, Bjorn's lover, Bera, gives birth to three unusual children.

Featured Videos

BEAR RITES OF THE KHANTY

The Sons of Torum is a powerful and insightful ethnographic documentary detailing a Khanty (Siberian Native) bear ceremony.  

BEAR DANCE IN UTE SOCIETY

Introduction to contemporary bear dance ceremonies of Ute people.  Informants relate the renewing power of these ceremonies for Ute society to the renewing power of the bear's hibernation cycle.    Produced by Voices of America

PRIMARY SOURCES: Bear RITES & MYTHS

Boaz, F., Tate, H. (1916). Tsimshian Mythology (Vol. 31). Washington: The Bureau.


Byock, Jesse, translator. (1998). The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki. Penguin.
 

Crawford, Jackson, translator. (2017). The Saga of the Volsungs: With the Saga of Ragnar Lothbrok. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. 


Crawford, Jackson, translator. (2021). Two Sagas of Mythical Heroes: Hervor and Heidrek & Hrólf Kraki and his champions. Hackett Publishing Company. 


Crawford, John. M. (1891). The Kalevala, The Epic Poem of Finland. Columbian Publishing Co. 


Deans, James. (1889). The Story of the Bear and His Indian Wife. A Legend of the Haidas of Queen Charlotte's Island, B. C. The Journal of American Folklore Vol. 2, No. 7 (Oct. - Dec., 1889), pp. 255-260. Retrieved from  https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/136a4356-5da2-4921-b871-ac72598a7ee4/downloads/The%20Story%20of%20Bear%20and%20his%20Indian%20Wife.pdf?ver=1648023709672


Euripedes (1930). Alcestis. Translated by R. Aldington. F.P. Chatto & Windus.
(original work 438 BCE). Retrieved 2022, from  http://classics.mit.edu/Euripides/alcestis.html 


Euripedes (1884). The Alcestis of Euripides: Translated From The Greek Into English, Now For The First Time In Its Original Metres, With Preface, Explanatory Notes, And Stage Directions Suggesting How It Might Have Been Performed. Translated by & Lennard Henry Barrett Lennard. London: R. Bentley and Sons.  (original work 438 BCE). Retrieved 2022, from https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=A9cIAAAAQAAJ&pg=GBS.PA52&hl=en


Linnaéus, Carl Von. (1811). Lachesis Lapponica; or, a Tour in Lapland. White and Cochrane. (original work  1732).  Retrieved March 16, 2022, from  https://archive.org/details/lachesislapponic01linn 


Murray, G. (1910). The Iphigenan Tarus of Euripedes. Oxford University Press. https://resources.warburg.sas.ac.uk/pdf/ekh238b2759709.pdf
 

Scheffer, J. (1673). The History of Lapland. The Project Gutenberg eBook. Retrieved March 31, 2022, from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/59695/59695-h/59695-h.htm 


Sturluson, S., (1916). The Prose Edda. (Translated by A.G. Brodeur). Penguin Books. (Original work circa 1272)


Sturluson, S. (1936) The Poetic Edda. Translated by H. A. Bellows. Princeton University Press. (original work circa 1272 CE). 


Sturluson, S. (2005). The Prose Edda: Norse Mythology. (Translated by J.L. Byock). Penguin Books. (Original work circa 1272)


Sturluson, S. (2015). Prose Edda Stories of the Norse Gods and Heroes. Translated by Jackson Crawford. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. 
 

Contemporary Sources

Bednarik, Robert. (2007). Antiquity and authorship of the Chauvet Rock Art. Rock Art Research. 24. 21-34.
 

Blundell, S., & Williamson, M. (1998). The Sacred and the Feminine in Ancient Greece. Routledge. 


Bonifay, E. (1965). Un Ensemble Rituel Moustérien à la Grotte du Régourdou (Montignac, Dordogne). Actes du IVème Congrès de l'UISPP, Rome, vol. II, pp. 136-140.


Bower, B. (2020). This Cave Hosted the Oldest Known Human Remains in Europe. Science News for Students. Retrieved 2022, from  https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/earliest-known-human-remains-europe-bacho-kiru-bulgaria 
 

Bradshaw Foundation. (n.d.). Gallery of Cave Art Paintings. Retrieved March 16, 2022, from https://www.bradshawfoundation.com/chauvet/chauvet_cave_art/index.php 


Brunning, S. (2016). A ‘Divination Staff’ from Viking-Age Norway: At the British Museum. Acta Archaeologica, 87(1), 193–200. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0390.2016.12171.x
 

Chang, Will, Chundra, Cathcart (2015). Ancestry-Constrained Phylogenetic Analysis Supports the Indo-European Steppe Hypothesis. Language. 91 (1): 194–244. Retrieved 2022,from  https://www.linguisticsociety.org/sites/default/files/news/ChangEtAlPreprint.pdf
 

Celoria, F. (1993). The Metamorphoses of Antoninus Liberalis. Classical Review, 423-424. ISSN 0009-840X, 43(2), 423–424. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315812755 
 

Davis, W. (2016). The Wayfinders: Why Ancient Wisdom Matters in the Modern World. Access and Diversity, Crane Library, University of British Columbia.


Diedrich, Cajus G. (2015). ‘Neanderthal bone flutes’: simply products of Ice Age spotted hyena scavenging activities on cave bear cubs in European cave bear dens. Royal Society Open Science. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.140022
 

Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (n.d.). Beaker Folk. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved March 16, 2022, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/Beaker-folk 


Gardela, L. (2008). Into Viking Minds: Reinterpreting the Staffs of Sorcery and Unravelling seiðr. Viking and Medieval Scandinavia, 4, 45–84. https://doi.org/10.1484/j.vms.1.100306 


Gardela, L. (2009). The Good, the Bad and the Undead: New Thoughts on the Ambivalence of Old Norse Sorcery. Á Austrvega Saga and East Scandinavia. Papers from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. The 14th International Saga Conference, 1(14). 


Germonpré M. and Hämäläinen R. (2007). Fossil Bear Bones in the Belgian Upper Paleolithic:The Possibility of a Proto Bear-Ceremonialism, Arctic Anthropology, 44, 1–30 https://www.academia.edu/488075/Fossil_bear_bones_in_the_Belgian_Upper_Palaeolithic_the_possibility_of_a_proto_bear_ceremonialism
 

Griffin, J. (1986). Greek Myth and Hesiod. In Greece and the Hellenistic World. In J. Boardman, J. Griffin, & O, Murray. (Eds.). Oxford University Press. 


Grugni, V., Raveane, A., Ongaro, L. et al. Analysis of the human Y-chromosome haplogroup Q characterizes ancient population movements in Eurasia and the Americas. BMC Biol 17, 3 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12915-018-0622-4
 

Günther, T., Malmström, H., Svensson, E. M., Omrak, A., Sánchez-Quinto, F., Kılınç, G. M., Krzewińska, M., Eriksson, G., Fraser, M., Edlund, H., Munters, A. R., Coutinho, A., Simões, L. G., Vicente, M., Sjölander, A., Sellevold, B. J., Jørgensen, R., Claes, P., Shriver, M. D., … Jakobsson, M. (2018). Population Genomics of Mesolithic Scandinavia: Investigating Early Postglacial Migration Routes and High-Latitude Adaptation. PLOS Biology. Retrieved March 16, 2022, from https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.2003703 
 

Hallowell, A. I. (1926). Bear Ceremonialism in the Northern Hemisphere. American Anthropologist, 28(1), 1–175. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1926.28.1.02a00020 


Helmbrecht, M. (2013). Figures, Foils and Faces - Fragments of a Pictorial world. Anthropomorphic Images from the Vendel period and Viking Age found at Uppåkra. Birgitta Hårdh, Lars Larsson (Eds.): Folk, Fä Och Fynd. Uppåkrastudier 12. Acta Arch. Lundensia Ser. in 8, No. 64. Retrieved 2022, from https://www.academia.edu/5577634/Figures_Foils_and_Faces_Fragments_of_a_pictorial_world_Anthropomorphic_images_from_the_Vendel_period_and_Viking_Age_found_at_Upp%C3%A5kra


Hublin, J.J., Sirakov, N., Aldeias, V. et al. (20222). Initial Upper Palaeolithic Homo sapiens from Bacho Kiro Cave, Bulgaria. Nature 581, 299-302.  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2259-z
 

Hultkranz, Å. (1991). The Drum in Shamanism. Some Reflections. In T. Ahlbäck, J. Bergman. (Eds.). The Saami Shaman Drum: Based on Papers Read at the Symposium on the Saami Shaman Drum Held at Abo, Finland, on the 19th-20th of August 1988. essay, The Donner Institute for Research in Religious and Cultural History. Retrieved 2022, from  https://www.doria.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/134162/The%20Saami%20Shaman%20Drum%201991%20OCR.pdf?sequence=2 


Jane, Smiley. (1997). Sagas of Icelanders. Penguin Books. 


Janhunen, Juha. (2003). Tracing the Bear Myth in Northeast Asia. Acta Slavica Iaponica, 20, 1-24. Retrieved 2022, from  https://www.academia.edu/44351187/Tracing_the_Bear_Myth_in_Northeast_Asia


Kozintsev, Alexander. (2020). The Origin of the Okunev Population, Southern Siberia: The Evidence of Physical Anthropology and Genetics. Archaeology, Ethnology & Anthropology of Eurasia. 48. 135-145. 10.17746/1563-0110.2020.48.4.135-145. 

Kuplandeyev, N. P. (1995). Song of the Coming of the Bear. Introductory. Recorded at Larlomkiny Settlement. Translated from Russian to English by Balalaeva, O. E and Wiget, A., 2020. https://eloka-arctic.org/bears/eastern-khanty


Kuplandeyev, N. P. (1995). Song of the Coming of the Bear. Introductory. Recorded at Larlomkiny Settlement. Translated from Russian to English by Balalaeva, O. E and Wiget, A., 2020. https://eloka-arctic.org/bears/eastern-khanty
 

Lamnidis, T.C., Majander, K., Jeong, C. et al.  (2018). Ancient Fennoscandian Genomes Reveal Origin and Spread of Siberian Ancestry in Europe. Nat Commun 9, 5018. Retrieved 2022, from  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-07483-5
 

Laming-Emperaire, Anette. (1966). Les Religions de la Préhistoire (Paléolithique): Andre Leroi-Gourhan. American Anthropologist. Vol. 68, Iss. 2. Pages 573-574

Lbova, Liudmila. (2021). The Siberian Paleolithic Site of Mal'ta: A Unique Source for the Study of Childhood Archaeology. Evolutionary Human Sciences, 3, E9. doi:10.1017/ehs.2021.5


Liesowska, Anna. (2013). Siberian Times. Beautiful Ancient Ring Found by Archeologists on the Arctic Circle Was not for a Woman...But a Bear. Siberian Times.  Retrieved March 19, 2023, from https://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/features/beautiful-ancient-bronze-ring-found-by-archeologists-on-the-arctic-circle-was-not-for-a-womanbut-a-bear/


Linnaéus, Carl Von. (1811). Lachesis Lapponica; or, a Tour in Lapland. White and Cochrane. (original work  1732).  Retrieved March 16, 2022, from https://archive.org/details/lachesislapponic01linn 

Murray, G. (1910). The Iphigenan Tarus of Euripedes. Oxford University Press. https://resources.warburg.sas.ac.uk/pdf/ekh238b2759709.pdf
 

Matteo, R., Terlato, G., Nannini, N., Tagliacozzo, A., Benazzi, S., Peresani, M. (2015).

Bears and humans, a Neanderthal tale. Reconstructing uncommon behaviors from zooarchaeological evidence in southern Europe. Journal of Archaeological Science. Vol 90. Pages 71-91. ISSN 0305-4403. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2017.12.004.


McClellan, C. (1970). The girl who married the bear. The National Museum of Canada. 

https://img1.wsimg.com/blobby/go/136a4356-5da2-4921-b871-ac72598a7ee4/downloads/3143_837_PUB-E-1970-2E-001_013.pdf?ver=1649069039089


Morrison, W. (2010). Fifth Annual Northwest Indian Storytelling Festival. Portland, Oregon; Lewis and Clark College. 


Murray, G. (1910). The Iphigenan Tarus of Euripedes. Oxford University Press. https://resources.warburg.sas.ac.uk/pdf/ekh238b2759709.pdf
 

Narayan, R. K., & Kampar. (2006). The Ramayana: A Shortened Modern Prose Version of the Indian Epic (suggested by the Tamil version of Kamban). Penguin Books. Retrieved 2022, from http://dt.pepperdine.edu/courses/greatbooks_v/gbv-15/66697602-The-Ramayana-R-K-Narayan.pdf


National Museum of Denmark. (n.d.). A Seeress from Fyrkat. Retrieved 2022, from https://en.natmus.dk/.../religion.../a-seeress-from-fyrkat/ 


National Museum of Denmark. (n.d.). The Magic Wands of Seeress. Retrieved 2022, from https://en.natmus.dk/.../the-magic-wands-of-the-seeresses/ 


National Museum of Denmark. (n.d.). The Golden Horns. Retrieved 2022, from https://en.natmus.dk/historical-knowledge/denmark/prehistoric-period-until-1050-ad/the-late-iron-age/the-golden-horns/ 
 

North South East West. (n.d.). American Indians and the Natural World. Retrieved 2022, from http://nsew.carnegiemnh.org/ 


Orchard, A. (1997). Dictionary of Norse Myth and Legend. Cassell. 

 

Pekantytär, Niina. (2022). Northern Bear Folklore. Newsbreak. Jan. 24, 2022. Retrieved from https://original.newsbreak.com/@niina-pekantyt-r-1589868/2494102250133-northern-bear-folklore
 

Pentikäinen, J. (2015). The Bear Rituals among the Sámi. In E Comba, & D. Ormezzano, (Eds.). Uomini e orsi: Morfologia del selvaggio. Torino: Accademia University Press. doi:10.4000/books.aaccademia.1379 Retrieved 2022, from https://books.openedition.org/aaccademia/1379?lang=en
 

Pomeroy, E., Bennett, P., Hunt, C., Reynolds, T., Farr, L., Frouin, M., Barker, G. (2020). New Neanderthal Remains Associated with the ‘Flower Burial’ at Shanidar Cave. Antiquity, 94(373), 11-26. doi:10.15184/aqy.2019.207


Price, N. S. (2002). The Viking Way: Religion and War in Late Iron Age Scandinavia. Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University. 


Price, Neil. (2004). The Archaeology of Seidr: Circumpolar Traditions in Viking Pre-Christian Religion. Brathair 4 (2). 2004: 109-126. ISSN: 1519-9053


Raghavan Maanasa, Skoglund P, Graf KE, Metspalu M, Albrechtsen A, Moltke I, Rasmussen S, Stafford TW Jr, Orlando L, Metspalu E, Karmin M, Tambets K, Rootsi S, Mägi R, Campos PF, Balanovska E, Balanovsky O, Khusnutdinova E, Litvinov S, Osipova LP, Fedorova SA, Voevoda MI, DeGiorgio M, Sicheritz-Ponten T, Brunak S, Demeshchenko S, Kivisild T, Villems R, Nielsen R, Jakobsson M, Willerslev E. Upper Palaeolithic Siberian genome reveals dual ancestry of Native Americans. Nature. 2014 Jan 2;505(7481):87-91. doi: 10.1038/nature12736. Epub 2013 Nov 20. PMID: 24256729; PMCID: PMC4105016.


Romandini, Matteo, GabrieleTerlato, NicolaNannini, Antonio Tagliacozzo, Stefano, Benazzi Marco Peresani. (2018). Bears and Humans, a Neanderthal Tale. Reconstructing Uncommon Behaviors from Zooarchaeological Evidence in Southern Europe. Journal of Archaeogical Science. Vol. 90. Pages 71-91. 

Hublin, J.J., Sirakov, N., Aldeias, V. et al. Initial Upper Palaeolithic Homo sapiens from Bacho Kiro Cave, Bulgaria. Nature 581, 299–302 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2259-z


Rulf, R. (2009). Rose High Bear. Founder of Wisdom of the Elders. Personal communication. 


Rydving, H.  (1991). The Saami Drums and the Religious Encounter in the 17th and 18th Centuries. In T. Ahlbäck, J.  Bergman. (Eds.). The Saami Shaman Drum: Based on Papers Read at the Symposium on the Saami Shaman Drum Held at Abo, Finland, on the 19th-20th of August 1988.  The Donner Institute for Research in Religious and Cultural History. Retrieved 2022, from https://www.doria.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/134162/The%20Saami%20Shaman%20Drum%201991%20OCR.pdf?sequence=2
 

Rydving, H. (2010). The ‘Bear Ceremonial’ and Bear Rituals among the Khanty and the Sami. Temenos - Nordic Journal of Comparative Religion, 46(1). Retrieved 2022 from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/297516419_The_'Bear_Ceremonial'_and_Bear_Rituals_among_the_Khanty_and_the_Sami


Sale, W. (1962). The Story of Callisto in Hesiod.  Retrieved March 16, 2022, from http://www.rhm.uni-koeln.de/105/Sale.pdf
 

Swanton, J. R. (1909). Tlingit Myths and Texts, Recorded by John R. Swanton (1909 edition). Open Library. Retrieved March 16, 2022, from https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/534036.pdf 


Tamm, E., Kivisild, T., Reidla, M., Metspalu, M., Smith, D.G., et al. (2007) Beringian Standstill and Spread of Native American Founders. PLOS ONE 2(9): e829. Retrieved 2022, from https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0000829


Todorov, S. (2020). Cave in Bulgaria sheds light on early humans. Balkan Insight. Retrieved March 24, 2022, from https://balkaninsight.com/2020/05/12/a-cave-in-bulgaria-sheds-a-light-on-the-earliest-homo-sapiens/ 
 

Tolley, C. (2007). Hrolf's Saga Kraka and Sami Bear Rites. Saga Book. Viking Society for Northern Research. University College London. , (31), 5–21. 


 Trzaskoma, S. M., Smith, R. S., Brunet, S., & Palaima, T. G. (2016). Anthology of Classical Myth: Primary Sources in Translation. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.  Retrieved 2022, from https://users.pfw.edu/flemingd/Hesiod%20Theogony.pdf

 

U.S. Department of the Interior. (n.d.). Other Migration Theories. National Parks Service. Retrieved March 16, 2022, from https://www.nps.gov/bela/learn/historyculture/other-migration-theories.htm 


Turk, M.; Turk, I.; Otte, M. (2020). The Neanderthal Musical Instrument from Divje Babe I Cave (Slovenia): A Critical Review of the Discussion. Applied Sciences 10, no. 4: 1226. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10041226


Ulriksen, J. (2018).  A Volvas Grave Offa 71 72 07. Retrieved 2022, from https://www.academia.edu/36236815/Ulriksen_2018_A_Volvas_grave_Offa_71_72_0 

UNESCO World Heritage Centre. (n.d.). Rock Carvings in Tanum. Retrieved April 5, 2022, from https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/557/ 


U.S. Department of the Interior. (n.d.). Other Migration Theories. National Parks Service. Retrieved March 16, 2022, from https://www.nps.gov/bela/learn/historyculture/other-migration-theories.htm 


Walbank, M. (1981). Artemis Bear-Leader. The Classical Quarterly, 31(2), 276-281. doi:10.1017/S0009838800009587


Wiget, Andrew; Balalaeva, Olga (2011). Khanty, People of the Taiga: Surviving the 20th Century. University of Alaska Press. ISBN 978-16022-3125-2. https://moodle.swarthmore.edu/pluginfile.php/246427/mod_resource/content/1/Khanty.pdf


Wunn, I. (2000). Beginning of Religion. Numen, 47(4), 417–452.  https://doi.org/10.1163/156852700511612 
 

Wunn, I. (2001) Cave bear worship in the Palaeolithic. Cadernos Lab. Xeolóxico de Laxe Coruña. Vol. 26, pp. 457-463. 

BEAR-CONSTELLATION MOTIF

IROQUOIS

The Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian curates an“Iroquois story about three hunters who follow a bear into the sky and become the stars forming the handle of the Big Dipper.” In this tale, a great bear frightened and eluded the people. Three brothers committed to hunting the bear down but could not catch up to it. The bear led the hunters, along with their dog, to the edge of the world, and they “followed the bear into the sky.” Eventually, the bear tired, and wove an invisible net, which he crawled into and fell asleep. At last, the brothers, thinking they had caught the bear cheered, but roused the bear from its slumber. The bear cast the net over the three brothers and their dog and "dragged them far away." According to the story, the hunters still follow the bear, unaware that they are trapped in the bears net. 


https://www.si.edu/es/object/yt_bH2mCcivliQ?fbclid=IwAR2j1xJvsQLfJZ3aX1kw2MtlkAAAFSDSW2Hl_NgZlbUsVv-xoTU8S7SSc-Y

GREEK

Here is the life-history that would be assigned Arcas: he was born of a bear, captured by goatherds, brought to Lycaon, cut up in pieces and served to Zeus, restored and sent again to a goatherd, returned again to Lycaeus, chased his mother into the sanctuary, and was about to be killed again, when Zeus changed him into the constellation Arctophylax."


See also "Ancestral-Bear Motif"


Sale, W. (1962). The Story of Callisto in Hesiod. Rheinisches Museum 102 (1962). 1 33-1 41.http://www.rhm.uni-koeln.de/105/Sale.pdf

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