Mythology in Polar Svalbard [WIP]

Second Wave blend

Diverging Beliefs

Dying out as Christian and Athara Magarat Missionaries came through

Hold outs with First Wave peoples

Due to the First Wave tribes not developing a written language until well after the conquests of the second wave peoples, Svalbardian Archaeologists will never know the actual names of the deities that these peoples worshiped. That does not mean though that they do not have ideas on how these peoples worshiped.

To start off this is a broad generalization of the myths and religious figures that these peoples worshiped, the Zazchey archipelago is large and was home to many tribes who may have worshiped in different ways. Furthermore the majority of this information is gleamed from pottery and monuments found by archaeologists searching all across the archipelago.

One key thing that most archaeologists agree on is that water deities held specific importance for these peoples. Large amounts of pottery show scenes of water and many of those show what appear to be deity figures. Along with that many monuments are found near water ways, with many being in coastal spots. One notable find was an altar found on a cliff overlooking the sea on the Island of Kadmo. Archaeologists debate whether or not this altar was used for prayer or sacrifice. Human sacrifice has been largely ruled out due to the fact that the First Wave peoples were relatively peaceful it would appear and were spread out in hunter-gatherer communities or in small villages.

Speaking of that peace, that idea was proposed quickly due to the notable absence of war imagery on the majority of pottery found from this era. For the most part there is only a small amount of pottery and murals that show signs of war. Due to this it is believed to be unlikely that these peoples worshiped a deity that focused on war.