Deep Memory/ Clues to a deeper past
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Cluster · 1 line of comparison · 1 without an established route · 1 motif family · 3 registered objects

Assyrian imagery

Neolithic Anatolia

1 separate line of comparison join these two traditions in this collection. 1 of them has no established route.

Motif families: Handled forms

Cultural context

Assyrian imagery

A documented Neo-Assyrian palace context. Earlier Mesopotamian literature is a separate cluster.

Registered dated episodes: 883 BCE to 859 BCE.

  • Nimrud protective figurec. 883–859 BCE · production
Cultural context

Neolithic Anatolia

Regional grouping, not a claim that every site or carving belongs to one homogeneous culture.

Registered dated episodes: 10,000 BCE to 8,001 BCE.

  • Pillar 4310th–9th millennia BCE · site context
Line 01 · Sources partly checked

The so-called handbags

Arched forms and carried containers: how much of the resemblance survives context?

Eagle-headed protective figure holding a bucket; Met 32.143.7
Nimrud protective figureNimrud
Pillar 43, western carved face, photographed at Göbekli Tepe
Pillar 43Göbekli Tepe
What appears to correspond
  • An arch or handle rises over a roughly enclosed lower form in the selected images.
What differs or remains uncertain
  • Pillar 43’s forms are arranged overhead and are not visibly carried.
  • The Nimrud bucket belongs to a cone-and-bucket ritual ensemble.
  • La Venta’s small carried object has its own local interpretation; shared shape does not establish shared function.
Transmission check

No route established in this review

No transmission sequence for this specific comparison has been established in the sources reviewed. That is not proof that contact was impossible.

This comparison also reaches Olmec La Venta.

Open the full dossier: groups, dates and sources →

Keep in the frame

What would move this cluster forward?

Collected comparisons accumulate; they do not compound into proof. Each line still needs its own dated sequence.

  • Collect handled forms and plausible non-container alternatives without selecting only good matches.
  • Trace each interpretation to an object-specific source.
Follow the evidence

Sources & scope

Provisional editorial records with no independent specialist sign-off. Review stages describe how far sources were checked, not the probability of a historical connection.

  1. claim · Ryan Seven; hosted by Graham Hancock

    Secret of the Gods: stone handbags

    Guest article, 11 March 2019. Proposes a shared geometric reading of handled forms, including Göbekli Tepe.

  2. excavation · Oliver Dietrich / DAI

    Pillar 43: of animals and a headless man

    Excavation-team discussion of the depicted animals and competing readings of the disc and upper forms.

  3. museum · The Metropolitan Museum of Art

    Eagle-headed relief · 32.143.7

    Exact object pictured here: Nimrud, reign of Ashurnasirpal II, ca. 883–859 BCE. Bucket and cone in a protective ritual context.

  4. research · INAH

    La Venta Monument 19 in El Tlacuache 1199

    Page 18, figure 17: figure within a serpent and a possible copal bag. This does not establish the meaning of distant handled forms.

  5. project · Deep Memory

    The project’s illustrated comparison archive

    Records comparisons assembled from this repository and supplied material. An external first proposer has not been traced for every pair.