Alma (cryptozoology)
The Alma or Almas ( Mongolian "wild man") is a mythical creature who is said to live in the Altai , Tianshan and especially in the Caucasus .
Surname
The name Almas (Алмас) comes from Mongolian and can be roughly translated as "wild man" or "the savage". Other regional names are Tungu , Zana or Abnauayu .
description
The creature should reach a size of up to two meters and have covered the body with fur, the color of which should range from red-brown to reddish-black. Her long arms and flat forehead are described as striking. In addition, they should have a cone or cone-shaped back of the head. You should be able to walk on two legs and be able to get very fast.
Almas are described in lore as very shy and mainly nocturnal. These characteristics and their speed, together with the nomadic life of the beings, are said to be the reason for the rarity of the sightings.
Sana case
Reports of Almas exist in many local legends of the Caucasus. The Soviet scientist Boris Porschnew caused a sensation, who collected and summarized some reports about an alleged female Almas named Sana (also Zana ). Sana is said to have been imprisoned for years in a Caucasian village in Abkhazia , where he gave birth to children, four of whom survived. She died in the 1880s. According to legend, Sana should have prominent cheekbones, gray-black skin and thick body hair. Nor should she ever have learned to speak. Porschnew even claims to have spoken directly to Sana's two grandchildren. Sana's skeleton itself is missing. However, the skull of her son Khwit could be exhumed and was examined by the human geneticist Bryan Sykes , who was able to prove that the mitochondrial DNA originates from sub-Saharan Africa . The theories therefore go in the direction that Sana was probably a fled and feral slave of the Ottomans , but about 30 km away there was a village with a partly Afro-Abkhazian population who had been living in Abkhazia for a long time as integrated Abkhazian - speaking people. In the Caucasus War 1817-64 and the following major Abchasenaufstand 1866-67 , however, tens of thousands of people were uprooted. Another, questionable theory, which is based solely on the unusual appearance described in legends, describes the possibility that an ancient culture of people existed in Abkhazia, who came from Africa with very old migration flows before modern humans and survived there in isolation could. This alleged culture has not been described by any other archaeologists in the region. All of Sana's children, two boys and two girls, are described as normal, albeit a little darker-skinned and stronger than the local population, and they founded normal families.
In 1991, the Russian scientist Gregori Pachenkov claimed that he had been able to observe an Almas for six minutes in the Caucasus . Pachenkov described the creature as not clearly ape-like, but also not human. It is said to have had a resemblance to a prehistoric man.
research
One of the first reports of Almas making their way west comes from the 1420s. A certain Hans Schildtberger was told during a trip to Mongolia about a being that did not resemble any of the previously known human-like apes. Locals referred to the creature as "wild man".
Since that time, cryptozoologists have undertaken many expeditions allegedly recovering footprints , tufts of hair and hidden food supplies believed to have come from Almas. They were carried out by the Soviet Snowmen Commission , founded in 1954 , which was set up to investigate the numerous reports by ape men. A started yet in the founding year of the Commission expedition with Tarnzelten , telephoto lenses , extra on apes trained dogs and sheep and goats was equipped as bait, was unsuccessful. The commission was dissolved shortly afterwards, but the researchers involved have continued their work to this day.
Some cryptozoologists believe that Almas are descendants of prehistoric humans . The British professor Myra Shackley, who researched in this area until the late 1980s, put forward the theory that Almas were surviving Neanderthals . Others consider it Homo erectus .
Myth and popular belief
Almas belong to a group of demons with similar characteristics that are common in the popular beliefs of Christians and Muslims over a wide area from the Caucasus to Central Asia to Iran and Afghanistan . Most demons are female. The in Iranian folklore occurring Āl are female childbirth ghosts who steal the fetus of the pregnant woman or snatch the newborn child organs and then quickly disappear. If you replace the stolen baby with its own changeling , it is sick and weak. In Iran, Āl appears as a thin old woman with a red face and a basket over her shoulder in which she transports the stolen organs. In some regions of Iran Āl often occurs with its male counterpart Tschal ( čāl ). In Armenia the spirit is called Alḱ , in Azerbaijan Xāl .
In Central Asia, the names Āl, Almasti and Albasti are a fat, very hairy, old woman with long drooping breasts, one of which is thrown over one shoulder. Over her other shoulder she is carrying a wool bag with the stolen organs in it. In some tales, oil has many breasts all over its body. The stolen baby dies as soon as she feeds it on one of her breasts. In the high mountains of the Pamir , Albasti is sometimes presented as a stinking old man with a boar's head and black hair, more often Albasti appears there as a female demon who kills men or drives them crazy with nightmares.
The Almaste the Tajiks has colorful hair, small claws and looks intimidating, though she is afraid of dogs, goats, sheep and hot blades. It can also appear to a man as a snake. An almaste or albaste described in this way occurs in practically all Turkic peoples of Central Asia.
literature
- Dmitri Bayanov: In the footsteps of the snowman. The Russian Yeti . Kosmos, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-440-07123-5
- Michael Schneider: Traces of the Unknown - Reloaded . Twilight-Line Verlag, Krombach 2008, ISBN 978-3-941122-25-3 . Pp. 132-134.
- Michael Schneider: Zana - The secret of a wild woman . In: Der Fährtenleser 9. Twilight-Line Verlag, Krombach 2010, ISBN 978-3-941122-65-9 . Pp. 17-26.
- Myra Shackley: And yet they are alive. Bigfoot, Almas, Yeti and other mysterious wild people . Harnack Verlag, Munich 1983, ISBN 3-88966-006-1
- Richard Williams (Ed.): Man and Beast . From the series: Quest of the Unknown . London 1993. pp. 70-71.
Movie
- Almasty - The Snowman's Trail (France, 2008, 79 min), director: Jacques Mitsch
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Traces of the Unknown - Cryptozoology: Monsters, Myths and Legends, Michael Schneider, March 2, 2009, ISBN 978-3941122253 , page 133
- ↑ What is Russian 'Bigfoot' actually an African slave? Channel Four Television, Nov. 1, 2013
- ↑ Myra Shackley: And yet they are alive. Bigfoot, Almas, Yeti and other mysterious wild people . Harnack, Munich 1983
- ↑ Victoria Arakelova: Spirit Possession. The Caucasus, Central Asia, Iran, and Afghanistan. In: Suad Joseph (Ed.): Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures, Volume 3. Family, Body, Sexuality and Health. Brill, Leiden 2006, pp. 426-429