Feline head
Readers of Ana's stories know that Ana is descended from humans who, some thousands of years ago, were transplanted to the planet Thomo, 25 light years away. The first to find her way back, she has been eager to pursue what few clues there are as to just where on Earth her people originated.
An argali (mountain sheep)
For the most part those clues are linguistic: her language, Luvit, has been shown (in Distant Cousin) to be an early spinoff of the large Proto-Indo-European language family, originally spoken by the peoples living north of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. They were nomadic and preliterate and thought to have left few durable items that might have survived to interest modern archaeologists--no cities, bridges, aquaducts, statues, or the like.
A raptor head
But that notion may be mistaken. There is now an exhibit in New York City of works of art discovered in kurgans (burial mounds) in Khazakhstan, the ninth largest country in the world, north of the Caspian Sea. These works were created from the ninth to the first centuries B.C. (slightly after Ana's people are thought to have been removed).
A feline attacking a horned animal
As you can see, they are are remarkable, and reveal a love of the natural world and a wonderfully creative artistic instinct. If you care to note some of the art that Ana has loved elsewhere in this blog you can see how she might like these ancient treasures as well. And not only that--you might also come to understand why she loves cats!
Two deer heads
See more of Ana's taste in art in the right column under the picture of the blue-eyed kitty, and under the photo of the LOVE sculpture, including:
