 OK, so good afternoon to everyone. First, I would like to say that the main author of this presentation is my friend and colleague, Paolo Jelinek, who unfortunately couldn't be here today. So it is up to me to present our work. Hope I can do it. In our presentation, we focus on the bird's tree and its use and symbolism, especially in the Bronze Age. We're also working on an article on this topic. Hopefully, we'll finish it at some point. We focus on several areas that we found interesting, which includes practical use of bird products, practical use of bird products such as peach, sap, wood, or bark, which was used for vessels or other types of ornaments, or jewelry, possibly. Bird products were and still are used in carpentry, tannery, textile production, food production. Some of these products are related also to health or used in cosmetics. And there's also a possibility of apotropite function of bird products, which, well, this idea is based mostly on analogies documented in recent ethnographic research, which is such as birch brooms, which are used, for example, to eradicate evil spirits from houses. For this purpose, the birch was the tree that was often selected in Slovakia. So the question that we try to answer was, did bird's tree have some symbolic meaning in the Bronze Age? We had to include not only birch artifacts, but also analogies made of similar items, made of other materials, as organic products in our items in general are very rarely preserved in a very good condition. So we also work with analogies from iconography, from other parts of the world, recent oral traditions. And we came to a conclusion that birch possibly had symbolic meanings in the Bronze Age, and it was possibly related to female world, or some items were possibly seen as some feminine attributes. So what got us interested in this topic in the first place was a set of items found in prehistoric well of Ottoman culture dug out of a travertine mound in Ganocse in Slovakia. This well was 4.7 meters deep from the current surface. There were several stratigraphic layers that were excavated. And among other artifacts, there were several birch bark vessels, whole or fragmented. And also some other objects that resembled or were interpreted as resembling earrings of a sea view type that are typical in the Bronze Age in Slovakia, especially in the Ottoman culture. This set of finds and also the whole situation was never completely published and examined in some complex way. So that's what we are attempting. So first, we had to use or focus on birch products in prehistory. There were several items that were found in several contexts. For example, in the Palaeolithic period, the mostly birch pitch was used, for example, for fixation of stone blades in the wooden handles. Similar use, this material was used in a similar way, also in the Neolithic period for reparation of pottery. And in some cases, pitch was also found in burial contexts with imprints of teeth. So the idea was that it might have been used for fixation of joe in burials, or possibly it had some health-related function. We will probably never know for sure. We can try to find out. In Slovakia, birch bark artifacts are rather rare. In fact, the only more complex situation where these type of artifacts was found was this well I mentioned before. As I mentioned, it contained these wastefuls and earrings. So how we came to the idea that these artifacts were related to female world, or that how can they be attributed to or connected with some feminine attributes? As I mentioned before, some of these items that were found there are resembled, in a way a type of earring that was common in this period in the Ottoman culture in this area. You can see a picture probably, you know them. This type of earring was usually found in contexts that were related to females, mostly in female burials. That's why we formulated this hypothesis that it probably could be a feminine attribute. We made this assumption also, or supported by analysis of a Ottoman burial ground in Nizhna Mishla, which was one of the most thoroughly excavated and published burial grounds from this period in Slovakia. 792 burials were excavated and published. Earrings of this, well, not made of perch bark, but similar made of bronze or gold, were found in 91 female burials and 17 male burials, which suggests that there's some gender-related pattern there. Also, this pattern is also apparent in a way how this type of earring is positioned in a grave. For example, in female burials, they are more often worn in pairs, while in male burials, if they are present, there's only one present. And also, the morphological typology of these earrings, as there are several types, suggests that this type of earring that possibly is linked to the birch artifacts that we are discussing could be associated with females, not with males. Of course, interpretation of birch earrings is problematical due to the fact that they are absolutely unique. So there are several possibilities, like why these imitations were made. Possibly, they could have been an imitation made by members of some lower social classes or ranks because they were made from cheaper materials. Or this material, the birch bark, was chosen for some specific meaning, possibly symbolic. Another type of artifact that we were discussing was a type of birch vessel, which was not directly documented in female burials, but a similar imitation made of clay with decoration that resembles the stitching on the bark vessels that were found in several female burials as well. So if this vessel was an imitation of birch bark vessel, it would also suggest that there might be a connection. And how we got to anthropomorphism from there, which is the topic of this section. As I said, we discussed the possibility that birch artifacts or birch tree is associated with females. And sometimes, possibly the tree or the birch tree was or might have been anthropomorphized as a female. Well, the whole concept of anthropomorphism is natural for human beings. It's spontaneous, naturally present in human thoughts. And minds are predisposed for detection of agency and animacy of objects around us based on some similarities that these objects share with people, which can be this similar mechanism can be also observed, for example, in some animal species. I think it was mentioned in some previous presentation, like when you see a car and it looks like it's smiling because it has lights which resemble eyes. So this, from a certain point of view, could be seen as evolutionary advantage. Like if you expect some agent, which can be possibly dangerous for you, and you run away, then you probably have a better chance of surviving if there's no predator there, and you don't run or nothing happens. But if there is. And this idea was linked to, in the cognitive science of religion, to a possible origin of religions, like the religion originates in human mind itself. It was elaborated more by Stuart Guthrie in his book Faces in the Cloud, which is basically he focused on how people are predisposed to anthropomorphize different objects, animate or inanimate, and to treat them as if they were human. Also another idea that we were discussing is that was elaborated by Pascal Boyer, which, and this includes intuitive knowledge domains. I don't know if you are familiar with this concept or not, but I don't know if it's visible. The thing is that also several animate, inanimate objects, animals, trees, rocks, whatever we find in the world around us has some characteristics that we know intuitively. We don't need to explain to children of certain age that animals can move, that they need to eat something. If they don't eat, they die. Also, trees or plants need to be watered. If we stop watering them, they die because they are living, but they are plants, so they cannot move. And this is something that doesn't need to be explained over and over again. It's intuitive knowledge that we obtain as humans doing our lives. And if these domains or some of these aspects get violated in some way, the brain naturally starts to treat these ideas as more significant, more important, which means that, for example, if you saw a flying tree, you would remember it. You don't remember a tree that's in your backyard because there are trees everywhere. These trees are not interesting to you at all. But if you saw a flying tree, then you don't tell your friends or whoever about the tree you saw in the field. But if you saw a flying tree, then you would probably tell other people. So that's how these ideas get transmitted between people. And that's also linked to the origins of religion based in the concept of cognitive science of religion. Also, another idea to elaborate more on that is that this concept needs to be minimally counter-intuitive. This means that if you overdo it, nobody's going to believe that. And these ideas will be disregarded. So if you have a flying table, it's interesting. But if you have a flying table that can pay your rent and talks to you, then probably you'll just treat it as not true at all. But if these domains are violated minimally, then it can contribute to creation of some of ideas that are linked to the origin of religion. And so how did we come to, or how it relates to bird's tree? Well, there are several aspects of this tree that we all thought that would be, that are interesting and probably could relate to anthropomorphism. These are just some examples of anthropomorphization of zone morphization of several natural elements, for example. You can see something that resembles an animal. People tend to see this item or cut in the rock like an animal. But I think I need to just keep a few slides because I don't have time. OK, so why should a bird's tree be seen as more interesting or more important than other types of trees? And what's why we think that this supports our idea? For example, one thing is the idea of people being breastfed by trees, which is not something that we invented. It was also documented, for example, in shamanic traditions in Siberia, in some recent, more or less recent ethnographic research. There are also several documented cases where something similar can be seen in iconography. And this can be related to the fact that the bird's tree, especially in the spring, can give a large amount of sap, which is something that is drunk until today. There are even parts of the world where there is an alcoholic beverage is made of it. You can make several products such as sugar and similar things. So there was this idea that the birch is one of the trees that possibly could be linked to the idea of people being breastfed by a tree. And also another thing, which I think that might contribute to this, is that birch is white, which means it's very different from the other trees you can see in the forest. It separates it from them. It's more radiant, you immediately notice it. So that's probably another thing why also birch bark was selected for some purposes, decorative, or maybe even with symbolic meaning, because it's color that's very radiant and differs from projects of everyday, products of everyday use. So to conclude, we think that, well, we had some several ideas about how birch can be related to females or anthropomorphized as a female based on its physical properties, for example, with the sap that it can give. And also the connection of birch artifacts with a female world or female attributes is apparent in the archaeological context, especially in the warrior also. That's why we think that there probably might be some connection, although we are sure that some of you might object, because, well, these artifacts are very rare. It's very scarce, or they're very scarce in archaeological context, so to make some definitive conclusions, well, if we say that this is it, then probably we would be reaching very far away. But we just figured it's an interesting idea to maybe explore further and see if we can come up with something more definitive maybe in the future. So thank you for your attention.