In the Lascaux Cave in France there are a series of paintings dating back to sometime between 15,000 BCE and 13,000 BCE.  Hundreds of miles away, in a corner of present-day Turkey, there exist the remains of an ancient settlement, one of the first “permanent” settlements ever established by man.  It is known as Catal Hoyuk, and it dates back to a time around 6,000 BCE.  Now of course, the question becomes, what might these two things, separated by hundreds upon hundreds of miles and thousands upon thousands of years, have in common?  Why mention them both together?

The answer is “bull”.

In both locations we see images of bulls.  What’s more, in both cases the bull seems to have been given an almost mystical significance.  For instance, Lascaux is an underground cave system.  It is difficult to access and would not have been the ideal location for a public mural.  Also, researchers have discovered that the images at Lascaux were likely created over a period of dozens, or even hundreds, of years.  All of this points to the caves having some religious or spiritual purpose, thus suggesting that the bull, which is a strong motif of the Lascaux cave paintings, was revered in some way.

Then in Catal Hoyuk, thousands of years later, we see this same thing again.  Bull-headed wall ornaments of a presumably ceremonial nature.

The real question is whether this is merely coincidence, or possibly indication of some ancient connection between the two.  True, the bull is a common enough animal, but consider this; Catal Hoyuk is closer in time to present day than it is to Lascaux.  Even if the bull was a relatively universal animal, worshiped by numerous cultures, this still suggests that over a period of roughly 9,000 years, mankind had hardly changed his worshiping practices.  In the 8,000 years since then, we’ve come a long way.