Rock-carvings, rostrum, protection formula, marriage code, ritual codes, crocodile, merged symbols, Loke, Goatfish, Capricorn,

The Evenstorp rock-carvings and the Law rock at Haugsbyn are the oldest legal documents in Europe from about 2300 to 2100 BC, I know about may be best to say. Maybe we also should call them oldest rostrums? They show the ritual and the first paragraphs in making laws in our sense. Those were the heydays of Ritual Age in Scandinavia and that means there was no dividing in ritual and legality. They were integrated in each other.

That is why the scientists in history of religions speak about "sacred marriage". I really do not know if it was sacred. The attitudes I see on the rock-carvings in Haugsbyn correspond to that we know from the first written law and other sources. In this marriage is as treaty confirmed with a handtake. The farmers were not interested in the church wedding. However, the marriage at Vitlycke Bohuslaen with Thor as priest looks like a consecrating act.

We have to get the proof from small fragments and build on them to an interpreting of attitudes, their necessary legal and ritual rules as they saw them. A little hint about their ritual thoughts we get through the protection formula.

SU IF NU PA Naked PO LI EK BAN UR PA

As everyone knows, if now (steps) on the Naked (faces ill).

The beginning is clear and gives us the hint what it is about. But after the naked footprints it is more difficult. The footprint is negative BO/PO. The line into the BO is LI/LE and it is in EK i.e. 90 degrees. A bit of the line out is made thicker. Then the line makes a bow BAN and perhaps an UR over the footprint PA.

The place on the rock and the clear beginning make me see it as a protection formula.

NY IB Grebba handtake VE IPA AN IB IB's heel MA KA KA.

Unmarried Ib Grebba handtake sweep married IB (leader) Ib's heel a couple.

The text is shorter in style than the old Vaestgautalagen. However it says what is needed. The young girl is pictured as a crab at the same time as it associates to the symbol for Inanna giving her seed to the earth.

Maybe the first symbol should read OK = and, however it does not alter the message.

Since we know about the ritual from Evenstorp and the old folk memory and symbols in Haugsbyn on several places, we can stand for the unopened girl. There is something electrical between the two symbols, which looks like young love. The word VEIPA is still in the dictionary for old languages. It is the root in the English word sweep. Nowadays maybe we would prefer wrap. It is the act of sweeping the two together as seen on the Vitlycke rock-carvings, where they are tied around the knees. The origin is surely "the knot" or the cloth of Inanna and Isis and symbol for uniting. Then it is another question whether the word "wife" is derived from this?

I tried the logic that less than a half circle bow upwards is AN and downwards NA, which seems to fit in other places. ANIB is the married with the possibility to become the former next leader of the clan or whatever.

The footprint has a marked heel. Then we can suggest that it means to be at the heel of the leader which is one of the old expressions of being a member of a group. In the ritual society the leader in place is the heel of the goddess. Then it was left to give the comb-symbol name MA and KA KA is the plural. The word is the same in Swedish "makar" in our days.

This part alone of the Law, we can see as the oldest law code of marriage in Europe. That is because it seems reasonable to date these rock-carvings to about 2300 - 2100 BC. Like the protection formula we can clearly see text symbols. We can then prove that they had the capacity to make a written language at that time.

Once we have small pieces, it is easier to know that some of the rock-carvings were meant as laws and are written with the aim of eternal laws, where the rock is the supposed eternal part. From the 17^th century we know that the farmers' law of "handtake" was still valid.

Ritual codes of marriage.

Once we know the idea in a text string, it is often easier to tell what we can see in it and then translate syllable by syllable. They were not made for us but for our ancestors and probably only a few could really read. Ideograms and a mix of ideograms and symbols have always been understood. It is like speaking with the hands and the few words we know in a foreign language.

In the upper row we see a clear snake with head and tail. They said probably ADDA and associated to time "towards then" but in this case a defined length. The wavy line ahead shows indefinite time running. Then we can suggest that the marriage be "for a lifetime".

We continue to read from left and use our imagination. Is it an elk head? Does it mean the "elk game" we see as a tramped mystic circle in the woods? Other animals in many things have always inspired mankind. In my youth work stood still when the bull or stallion came to the farm.

Anyhow we see a real game in the waved line. One of them has a plait. It is the usual attribute to the young girl. Again we can associate to the folk memory and also the Naked Maid as idol for youngsters. To that come that we can expect a ritual bath after they made the law as a "marriage between cultivators and herds". The formula of a marriage and ritual act could be used for several things.

The ritual continues into the ordinary year were the pair "a two-stroked foot print and a negative footprint. They seem to have been responsible part of the year for certain jobs at the farm.

Later I will publish more texts. These here are a few of the normal terms in the ritual year.

First the crocodile from Skepplanda. I call it crocodile because the Egyptian year was symbolised by the crocodile. The original picture is that odd figure, which give the picture of a definite and almost a closed suite. Below are the two wheels, which were used on some late calendar sticks marked in beginning of year in January. Here it they seem to mark beginning of cultivating.

The hand made me see it as a calendar immediately. The picture with meanings becomes clearer when we separate the symbols. Since we know the hand and under it is a symbol for Watersnake we have half of the proof.

We know also the three symbols in the end as EKUR, a herd staff and then a horse. They are then the Pegasus, Aries and the undefined horselike animal.

We do not need more and we can set which numbers or words we like for the moons. In the middle the symbol is an eagle symbol with a circle. If we like we can give it sounds like KER-I-EK. The circle is the Ker and could mean the moon and then it is "in ek" which means at a turning point or corner.

The sound EK is taken from the wheel with spokes and that they have the root EK in northern languages. Then a control in dictionaries of various kind shows it seems reasonable and fit in other places. We have to remember that the original model was a square with right angles. In Egypt they also symbolised the corners with the right angle or sometimes with legs = ben, which happens to be our word for leg. They set some attribute to them to name the different corners.

The highest symbol has a half circle and we can try sounds like AN or NA, because a bow = BAN is usually bigger. Then we get AN IN KER EK, which may mean that the sun is in a certain position.

KE I KER-AK the word associate to Finnish "keika" meaning a seesaw and then spring equinox. The KE was a staff, a pole, a stake for marking or a simple version of the Egyptian djed-pillar. This is from a period when the horse perhaps was the star symbol. By logic we can read the figure inside as KE in the circle with an AK. In reality there is a little bend on the line. That could be read as AK. Then circle stands for the round marked with a KE for that occasion

The harvest rock-carvings are in Haugsbyn. The upper part is waved lines, but if we look closer we see there are separate bits and bits are added. The adda is spliced, but it is difficult to read more than a running season. In the end of the line we see the little girl in a boat and that suggests that it is spring and sowing. The main picture is harvest and we can analyse it bit by bit. The lowest part is wavy lines ending in something that perhaps is the Ramadan dog. Above it is two cupmarks, which we usually see at that time.

KE I BENBEN Usually we see two crossed bones and then we can try the solution to give one "the bones' end" the value KE. Since the situation shows harvest the bones maybe symbolise the harvest and they had a certain stake in the harg or ritual place to symbolise that perhaps. We see this benben in very early Egyptian symbolism and it means the bones were crosswise tied to chosen stars.

This can be seen as the mourning mother at the harvest benben. In front of her are the bones and these legs. One of them is longer than the other. We can connect them to Daddy Longleg, the symbol for going beneath. Now he is fallen in the guise of harvest. If we look closer at the mother, we see that she could be divided into symbols.

From the head a PA, then a stroke LE, a crossing stroke AK connected to I with an UR symbol. The UR-symbol is like a U and read often "out of" or is the nordic word for "the very first origin". The man is also made of the symbols ER I PA legs EK LI AN. It is impossible to say where the ideogram ends and the written words begin.

We can compare it with the same situation on Vitlycke.

 We know that the situation is where the Watergate crosses the ecliptic like the inundation of Nile bringing water in August. On the other side of that known flood we see the ferryman Loke. ER PA AK benben. Benben is the cardinal points. His headgear is a symbol used for the Goatfish/Capricorn. To his leg are added some connected symbols.

  UR BAN EK are the syllables of the separate symbol. That can be understood as the original corner of the astro-square or ritual round. That fits in Egypt and in several places in our rock-carvings.

Some of the words we can solve immediately and plot some words in the language and around the astro-square and ritual round.

Some symbols are connected to an ideogram and it is easy to solve, as in this case with two orbits crossing each other.