How Are the kerdžius and the Cattle Herd Related to Time? The Mystery of the Prussian Word kerdan

Abstract

This article offers an interdisciplinary analysis combining Indo-European comparative linguistics, Baltic mythology and folklore, cognitive archaeology, and semiotics with the aim of explaining the semantic connection between the Proto-Indo-European root *kerdh-/*kerdho- and the concept of time. In the Baltic languages (especially Prussian kerdan – ‘time’), this root is associated with a herd of cattle (kerda), a herdsman/kerdžius, and sequence/order. The article raises the question of why livestock-related vocabulary became so closely linked to the measurement of time.
Based on the research of Sergejus Temčinas, Vladimir Toporov, Vytautas Mažiulis, and others, the article reconstructs the ancient Baltic concept of time as subjective and limited – that is, ‘what remains’ (cf. Lithuanian laikas from likti, palaikai as remnants or the body of the deceased on the one hand, or descendants on the other). The Prussian kerdan is contrasted with kisman (the present moment), and the semantic field of the root kerdh- encompasses: (a) a herd of cattle, (b) a herdsman, (c) sequence/order, and (d) time. The Slavic čerda (herd → row → order) and its Germanic and Celtic equivalents confirm this connection. Linguists have explained this temporal connection as the transfer of spatial categories (‘row’) into temporal categories, a phenomenon well-known in both linguistics and anthropology. However, livestock and herds are not associated with orderliness and sequence; on the contrary, herds are difficult to control and chaotic. What then could be the solution to this riddle?
The main explanation is based on the observation of the moon’s phases as the oldest method of measuring time (Alexander Marshack, Boris Frolov, et al.). The lunar cycle (waxing–full moon–waning–new moon) is metaphorically equated with the cycles of animals. In the riddles and proverbs of the Lithuanians, Slavs, Latvians, and other Indo-European peoples, the moon and stars are constantly depicted as animals: a field horse/ox/foal, sheep, a deer, a bear. The sky is a meadow where a herd grazes, and the moon is a horned herdsman (cf. Lithuanian: ‘The field is unmeasured, the sheep uncounted, the herdsman horned’ = the sky, the stars, the moon).
This imagery has deep Indo-European parallels (Sanskrit ṛ́kṣāḥ – bear/star, the moon as ruler of the stars; Roman septentriōnēs – seven oxen; Avestan and other sources). It is linked to the ideas of totemism and structural anthropology (Claude Lévi-Strauss): the classification of animals allows one to ‘think clearly’ about abstract concepts, including time.
On a practical level, the cycle of the cattle herd (reproduction in spring–summer, slaughter in autumn, preservation of the remains for winter, and renewal) corresponds to the seasonal cycle of the year and the phases of the moon. Time here is the ‘remaining herd’ (palaikai), which must be managed, counted, and utilised for survival. Kerdan thus becomes not only an abstract concept of time but also a concrete cycle of survival.
In the article, the hypothesis is extended to the Late Palaeolithic. Based on the Lebombo bone (~42,000–43,000 BC), finds from Abri Blanchard, and other artifacts, it is argued that the lunar calendar was already known tens of thousands of years ago. Vogelherd and other sites of the Aurignacian culture indicate that hunter-gatherers planned their seasonal migrations using lunar calculations.
Of particular importance is the 2023 hypothesis by Bennett Bacon and colleagues regarding proto-writing in the Swabian caves (dots, lines, and ‘Y’ marks near animal drawings), interpreted as a phenological calendar recording animal mating, migration, and calving. Although this interpretation has been criticised (April Nowell et al.), it reinforces the semantic connection: time – moon – animals/herd. The author emphasises that the semantics of the Proto-Indo-European language may have inherited elements from earlier hunter-gatherer cultures through a symbolic revolution (Jacques Cauvin) and cultural practices (Steven Mithen).
The article argues that the semantic connection of the kerdan type is not accidental but stems from mythical-magical thinking in which celestial bodies are identified with animals, and the practical cycle of animal husbandry (or hunting) became a model for measuring time. This allows for a better understanding of the archaic concept of time as subjective, cyclical, and tied to survival.
Such an approach demonstrates the benefits of interdisciplinary semiotic analysis: linguistics, folklore, and archaeology complement one another, enabling the reconstruction of our ancestors’ mental world. The hypothesis raises new questions about the continuity of semantic structures from the Palaeolithic to the Indo-European era and calls for further research – etymological, archaeological, and cognitive psychological.