7 maidens

Recently I watched a tv program called "The Silk Roads - Wonders of Azerbaijan" by Bettany Hughes. In it she talked about this ancient petroglyph from Gobustan, which, if I remember correctly, she called "7 maidens"...

Unfortunately I can only find this copy of this program online in, I guess, Azerbaijani, so I can't confirm this myself. If anyone has access to the English version, I would really appreciate if you cold confirm this for me. Thanks. Or alternatively, I would rally appreciate if @bettanyhughes could confirm that this is indeed what she called the petroglyph in question. And if she could clarify if this was a nickname given to the petroglyph by the local archaeologists, or was it her own poetic invention 🙂

The reason why I ask is that on the highlighted image from the program, I could only see 6 figures, not 7. Is there a 7th figure that wasn't highlighted, or that is not visible from the angle from which the petroglyph was filmed?

Why I would like to determine if there are indeed "7 maidens" depicted on this petroglyph, is because in the program, Bettany proceeded to talk about how "the meaning of the petroglyph is unknown".

Now if there are indeed 7 female figures depicted on this petroglyph (I guess we think they are females because of the public triangles ???, but they could just be as easily men wearing some kind of weird loincloths), then maybe I could offer a possible explanation...

Is this a bovine, depicted behind the human figures? It certainly looks like one. If so, then the meaning of the "7 maidens" petroglyph could be the "7 sisters", the Pleiades, which rise with the sun in Apr/May...

Apr/May, when wild Eurasian cattle start to calve...

Which is why this time of the year is is still marked with a bovine, Taurus...

I talked about this animal calendar marker in many of my posts, for instance "Cow and calf ivory", "Foundation peg of the goddess Nanshe", "Elamite water bull", "Human bull hybrid", "White calf", "Calydonian boar"...

According to this paper, "Agricultural Practices at Mentesh Tepe (Kura Valley, Azerbaijan) during the Neolithic, Chalcolithic and Bronze Age: An Overview from Sickle Elements and Botanical Remains", the main Neolithic, Bronze Age crop grown in Azerbaijan was barley, which was sown in the Oct/Nov, and harvested in May/Jun...Using sickles with composite stone blades...

Basically small sharp stone flakes, inserted into crescent shaped wooden frame...Something like this.

These sickles evolved from wild ass, deer jaw bones. 

We know that some primitive jaw bone sickles actually had long handles.

The sickles then evolved into wild ass, deer jawbones with artificial flint teeth

Then into artificial wooden jawbones with artificial flint teeth

And finally into serrated (toothed) jawbone shaped piece of metal...

I talked about the evolution of sickles in my post "Sickle"...

So it is quite possible that the things held by the figures are long handle sickles...Or maybe what is depicted on this rock engraving from Azerbaijan is something like this: Cain (farmer) killing Abel (shepherd) with a "ass jawbone", [my comment: the earliest form of a sickle]. 

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library: Ms 43, Huntingfield Psalter, XII Century, fol. 8. Pic from "Cain's Jaw-Bone that Did the First Murder"

Taking all this into account, is this image a calendar marker for harvest your barley when wild cattle starts to calve and Pleiades rise with the sun? I talked about Pleiades, barley harvest and animal calendar markers in my post "Pleiades". In it, explained why, according to the Greek mythology, the Pleiades, the seven daughters of Atlas, were transformed by Zeus first into doves, and only then into stars...

It's all to do with the link between doves and grain harvest (goddess)...Like Demeter, who was depicted on this terracotta statuette enthroned with a turtle-dove on her lap. The cult image of the harvest goddess was likely venerated in a sanctuary. From Sicily, 5th century BC. Milan Archaeological Museum. Pic by Gareth Harney

I explained this link in my posts "Demeter and dove" and "Cup of Nestor"...

This link between grain goddess and doves also existed in Mesopotamia, where Inanna was also linked with doves. 1800-1600 BC pottery cup, Syria. The rounded body tapering to a flat base, with 26 bird heads. Similar objects were interpreted as votive objects dedicated to Ishtar/Inanna. 

I talked about this in my post "Inanna and dove"... 

The reason why doves are linked with grain goddesses and with pleiades is because doves, both European and Asian, nest during the grain harvest which starts in Apr/May, when pleiades rise with the sun, in Taurus...

But maybe there are no 7 but indeed only 6 figures depicted on this petroglyph, and they are not female but male figures with (admittedly weird) loin cloths, and these are not sickles they are holding but battle axes...

In which case this is just a depiction of a bovine hunt 🙂

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Malatya relief

A while back @PIELexicon posted this image:

With this description: A Luwian Storm-God conquers a sea-dragon, called Illuyanka in Hittite in this Malatya relief. The Luwian designation, unless the same, remains unknown. If the name was included in the relief, it was contained in the section broken off, now unfortunately permanently gone and lost...

He then said that the first deity spearing the dragon is Hitt.-Luw. Tarhunza = Hurr. Teshub and the second one is Sarma = Sarruma, the mountain God...

At which point someone joined the conversation and said that Illuyanka is not a dragon but a snake. He argued that Illuianga has the determinative MUSH "snake", which is why Friedrich call it "ungeheure Schlange" (monstrous Snake). 

Snake is a solar animal, pretty much a universal symbol of the sun's heat. Snakes follow sun everywhere. They are in our world when sun is in our world (day, summer) and in the underworld when the sun is in the underworld (night, winter)...I talked about this in many of my posts. 

Which is why the terms "snake" and "dragon" are fluid in the vocabularies and mythologies. For instance, according to Slavic folklore, (Fire Breathing) Dragon (the symbol of the destructive summer sun's heat which burns everything and brings drought) is just "an old snake" (symbol of sun's heat)...

I talked about the link between snake and sun in many of my posts...

Also Slavic "zmaj" (dragon) is masculine form of "zmija" (snake). 

I talked about this in my post "Letnitsa treasure", about the 4th c. BC Thracian treasure found in Bulgaria, which among other artefacts contained this metal plaque which depicts a common theme from Balkan fairytales: a princess being kidnapped by a dragon...And she seems to like it...Please note that the dragon was depicted with a snake body...

@PIELexicon replied that drawing distinction between "snake, snake-demon, and dragon" is "splitting hairs": Tischler gives all alternatives as the translation of Hitt. illuyanka- (c.) "Schlange, Schlangenungeheuer, Drache" (Snake, Snake demon, Dragon), (HHand2: 67), as people interpret a snake-demon as a dragon.

@PIELexicon also pointed at the article "The Serpent-Fighting Imagery of Anatolia in the 2nd Millennium BC and Malatya Serpentine Monster in the Light of Newly Published Old Assyrian Seal Impression from Kültepe" which actually states that the current understanding is that the closer examination of the Malatya "monster" shows that it has paws and multiple heads...

And that the existence of paws and multiple heads is confirmed by the recently seal impression from the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts...

And that "Paws are also mentioned in other Hittite texts for creatures designated by the Sumerogram MUŠ ‘snake’, for example, MUŠ[-aš] GÌR.MEŠ ‘snake paws’ in the Pittei ritual, because this Sumerogram could cover the entire range of reptiles"...

And "The Serpent-Fighting Imagery..." article also states that some of the Hittite legends about Illuyanka mention the monster being tied with a rope before being killed, tying which is usually done to tie paws, legs...

Mesopotamians depicted dragon with lion body and snake heads...Cause dragon is a snake is a dragon...

The oldest depiction of a Hero (actually two Heroes) killing a Dragon...Mesopotamia, 2200BC...Seven headed dragon to be more precise...With seven snake heads...One for each hot month of Mesopotamian summer...Analysis of the meaning of this image can be found in my post "Seven headed dragon"...

Bactrians depicted dragons as winged snakes. No legs...Cause dragon is a snake is a dragon...I talk about this in my post "Bactrian snakes and dragons"...

So it is definitely a dragon, not a snake...

But what kind of dragon? 

I asked @PIELexicon what he thought the dots above the dragon represent. 

@PIELexicon then said that he thought that what was depicted above the dragon were thunderclouds, rain and raindrops. He then again pointed to the article "The Serpent-Fighting Imagery..." which contains the analysis of this relief in which rain/hail was mentioned as one interpretation. 

The article he also stated that "It can be that lines and circles shown above the serpent’s figure represent rain and hail caused by the Storm-God and directed by his assistants from heaven just onto the monster as an additional weapon against it".

The dots are definitely rain drops. I have found this interpretation in many places. For instance, in my post "Lapis lazuli water seal" I analyse the scene depicted on this amazing Lapis lazuli seal from the point of view of the local climate and animal calendar markers. The seal was made between 2400BC and 2000BC in Eastern Iran. British Museum.

But I don't think that the rain is "a weapon used against the monster". As I already said, (Fire Breathing) Dragon (the symbol of the destructive summer sun's heat which burns everything and brings drought) is just "an old snake" (symbol of sun's heat)...So Dragon "steals the rain" and the Thunder God kills the dragon and "releases the stolen rain" with the help of his assistants. 

I talked about this in my post "Scaring off the dragon" in which I analyse this interesting Bulgarian ritual: 

In Bulgaria, at the start of summer, all the strong and healthy village men would gather at midnight, strip naked and walk the village land in ritual silence brandishing axes or cudgels, weapons of thunder gods "to scare the dragon who steals the waters"... 

The reenactment of Teshub killing Illuyanka, or another version of this pretty universal Eurasian (And not only IndoEuropean) myth?

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

7 heads

Good morning. Old Assyrian (2000 BC-1800 BC) cylinder seal. Currently in the British museum...

Official description: Man in a chariot driving four horses; before him seven human heads and two birds; one other bird is above the two horses

Hmmm...

Quadriga in 2nd millennium BC Mesopotamia... Interesting...A man? Or a God? Like Sun god? They love horse drawn chariots...Like Helios depicted in his horse drawn quadriga on this Apulian vase dated to 350BC...

Why would sun gods like horses so much? The natural breeding season of horses starts in Apr/May and ends in Sep/Oct spanning the sunny, hot half of the year in the continental Eurasia, and is marked by wild stallion fights for mares...

The horse fertility is governed by the sunlight and peaks on summer solstice. I heard summer solstice was a big thing for sun worshipers....

Hence solar horses all over Eurasia...

Articles about solar horse (equid):

Iran "Water carrier equid", "Dioscuri plate from Iran"

Mesopotamia "Shamash playing with the solar horse", "Sun god from Tell Brak"

India "Hayagriva"

China "Longma", "Three legged crow", "Mythical beast from Xian"

Levant "Alexamenos graffito", "Goddess on a horse", "Unicorn"

Europe "Archaic rider", "Beotian solar pyxis", "Pegasus and chimera", "King John", "The horseman"

But the quadriga rider depicted on this Assurian seal can't be Helios...And his quadriga can't be pulled by horses...

He is most likely Sun God Shamash who was depicted on this 3rd mill BC cylinder seal imprint found in Tell Brak, Syria riding on a quadriga. Quadriga pulled not by horses but by "kungas", donkey hybrids so highly regarded, that "they were the preferred draught animal for drawing the chariots of kings and gods"... I talked about this in my post "Sun god from Tell Brak"...

Shamash rides on the quadriga pulled by donkeys, because donkeys are also solar animals, just like horses. This is because just like the mating season of horses, the mating seasons of donkeys is directly linked with the amount of sunlight and peaks on Summer solstice... 

Interestingly: In a letter dated to 1775 BCE, Bahdi-Lim, governor under the Mari king Zimri-Lim, insists that the king should not ride horses in his capital, as it was considered uncivilised. Instead, he urges the king to honour his royal status by riding in a donkey-drawn wagon...

From my post "Alexamenos graffito" about this:

Christ riding into Jerusalem on a donkey by Oleksandr Antonyuk. 

Why did Jesus have to ride into Jerusalem on a donkey?

People say: He was fulfilling a scripture prophecy.

"Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey" Zechariah 9:9

God/King riding on the favourite ride of the old Gods/Kings... 

And this:

Christ is born on Winter Solstice, (re)birth day of the sun (god), he enters Jerusalem on a donkey, "animal of the (sun) gods and kings", and gets put on a cross, symbol of the sun (god)...Interesting...Early Christian "Alexamenos graffito", Rome. 

Anyway, back to our Assyrian seal. Why 7 human heads? Maybe 7 months of Mesopotamia summer? 

I talked about this first in my post "Seven headed dragon" The oldest depiction of a Hero(es) killing a 7 headed dragon dragon...Mesopotamia, 2200BC...With 7 snake heads...One for each hot month of Mesopotamian summer...They are killing the 4th head. Apr/May, May/Jun, Jun/Jul, Jul/Aug...  

Leo...The time when Sirius rises with the sun..There is also a princess (Inanna/Ishtar) standing under a star (Sirius) 🙂...

Here is Inanna/Ishtar, deified Sirius, which rises with the sun (morning star) in Leo, Jul/Aug, the hottest time of the year. Which is why she is depicted standing on a lion with the sun above lion's head and is known as "The Lioness of heaven"...

I talked about Inanna/Ishtar as Sirius in many of my posts...

Same girl, same beast (summer)...

Woman of the Apocalypse...I gave Full symbolic analysis of the Chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation in my post "Apocalypse"...

Anyway, back to our Assyrian seal. Why birds? Originally I thought that maybe these are migratory birds, cause migratory birds announce the start and end of summer, the domain of the Sun god?

I talked about migratory birds in Mesopotamian mythology in my post "Nanshe'. In Sumerian mythology, Nanshe was the daughter of Enki (god of water) and Ninhursag (earth goddess). This 3rd Dynasty or Ur plaque depicts goddess Nanshe with geese.

 

This is because the arrival and departure of migratory geese marks the beginning and end of the wet half of the year in Mesopotamia. On the flip side the departure and the arrival of the migratory geese marks the beginning and the end of the dry half of the year in Mesopotamia.

 But now, I am thinking that based on the shape of the birds they could actually be doves. 

Dove was sacred to Inanna/Ishtar. 1800-1600 BC pottery cup, Syria. The rounded body tapering to a flat base, with 26 bird heads. Similar objects were interpreted as votive objects dedicated to Ishtar/Inanna, who was also linked to grain and doves. 

The reason for that is that nesting season of doves overlaps with the grain harvest season. 

Which brings me to: is that grain depicted just above the two birds? Right in front the chariot...

We know that this has been a grain symbol in Eastern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, Central Asia, Iran, since at least Sumerian times...

I talked about this in many of my posts...

Mesopotamian harvest coincides with the beginning of summer (Apr/May), the beginning of the mating of wild donkeys and the beginning of summer, the domain of the Sun God...

Maybe I am just reading too much into this. Maybe it is a man, a king, riding triumphantly over severed heads of his enemies which are being pecked by vultures and ravens....That's kind of cool too...

PS: A 5,000-year-old toy chariot found during the excavations in the ancient city of Sogmatar in the southeastern Turkish province of Sanliurfa...With what looks like grain symbols?

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Seefin passage tomb

This is Seefin passage tomb located atop Seefin Hill, County Wicklow, Ireland. The tomb was built circa 3,300 BC. It was excavated by R. A. Stewart Macalister in 1931, but no artefacts or human remains were found inside...

Several theories have been put forward to explain the empty tomb:

Maybe the remains were removed by the decedents of the people who were originally buried in the tomb, when they moved away...

Maybe the grave was, at some unknown time in the past, desecrated, looted, with all traces of the those interred removed and destroyed...

Or maybe, no-one was actually ever buried in the Seefin passage tomb, because this is not actually a tomb...So what was this structure then?

Here is the last theory I heard that tries to explain what the Seefin tumulus was actually built and used for:

Well, you know how all these passage tombs look like bellies of pregnant women? And how entrances of the passage tombs look like vaginas? 

Well whoever built Seefin passage tomb made sure that nothing was left to the imagination...

A very narrow entrance with labia like door pillars and clitoral lintel...Behind this vulva like entrance, just like in all the other passage tombs, is a long narrow passage (a birth canal), ending in a large chamber (womb)...

Anyone entering this "passage tomb" would have been, symbolically, entering the womb of the mother earth...

In there in complete darkness, in complete sensory isolation, they would (symbolically) die...

To be (symbolically) reborn after leaving the inner chamber (womb), crawling through the narrow passage (birth canal) and squeezing through the narrow entrance (vulva) into the sunshine...

Well this is just a theory that no one can prove (or disprove)...It's a good one though...

Taranto

A silver didrachm from Taranto in southern Italy minted during the period 355-340 BC. It features on obverse a male youth riding a dolphin.

Dolphins and a dolphin-rider feature so prominently on the coinage of Taranto. This is unsurprising, given the mythological aetiology of the city from the hero Taras, the son of Poseidon (Pausanias 10.10.8). who was shipwrecked and then rescued by a dolphin. 

On this coin from Taranto minted during the period 355-340 BC, Taras is depicted holding his father's trident...

The dolphin-rider motif appears early on the coins of Taranto. For instance, a silver didrachm from Taranto minted during the period 510-450 BC

With a Reverse this time featuring a winged hippocamp symbol of Poseidon.

Poseidon was god of the sea, storms...and horses. This is reflected in his epithets: Nauklarios (Ναυκλάριος) "belonging to the ship-owners", Pelagikos (Πελάγίκος) "belonging to the sea"...and Hippeios (ἲππειος) "belonging to a horse"...

Sailors prayed to Poseidon for a calm seas and safe voyage, "sometimes drowning horses as a sacrifice"...

In Greek art, Poseidon rides a chariot that was pulled by a hippocampus or by horses that could ride on the sea...

Poseidon is apparently "...more often regarded as the tamer of horses, but in some myths he is their father, either by spilling his seed upon a rock or by mating with a creature who then gave birth to the first horse..."

In Arcadia, one of the most conservative parts of Ancient Greece, Poseidon was worshipped as a stallion...

Why? Why?

The natural breeding season of horses starts in Apr/May and ends in Sep/Oct and is marked by wild stallion fights for mares...

The horse fertility is governed by the sunlight and peaks on summer solstice. I heard summer solstice was a big thing for sun worshipers....

Hence solar horses all over Eurasia...

Articles about solar horse (equid):

Iran "Water carrier equid", "Dioscuri plate from Iran"

Mesopotamia "Shamash playing with the solar horse", "Sun god from Tell Brak"

India "Hayagriva"

China "Longma", "Three legged crow", "Mythical beast from Xian"

Levant "Alexamenos graffito", "Goddess on a horse", "Unicorn"

Europe "Archaic rider", "Beotian solar pyxis", "Pegasus and chimera", "King John", "The horseman"

Ok, but what does this have to do with Poseidon? Well, mating season of horses, overlaps with the sailing season in the Eastern Mediterranean. Both start in Apr/May and finish in Sep/Oct...

I talked about this in my post "Trojan horse", in which I asked a question: was Trojan horse "hypos" - a wooden horse left as tribute, or  "hypos" - a wooden boat with a horse head used for transporting tributes...

As for dolphins, they are animal calendar markers for Apr/May-Oct/Nov.

The reason for this is that dolphin mating and calving season in Mediterranean spans period May-Oct.

It takes place in the shallows, and is therefore easily observable by people living and fishing along the coast...

So there is actually a symbolic link between the horses and dolphins. Their mating seasons overlap and they overlap with the sailing season in the Eastern Mediterranean...

I talked about dolphin as an animal calendar marker in many of my posts, like "Boat of Dyonisus", "Apollo and dolphins", "Horned animal attacked by a dolphin", "Minoan dolphin fresco", "Coin from Byzantion", "Eagle eating dolphin"

One other thing...A lot of the coins from Taranto depict a mounted warrior on the obverse. You can find them all here... 

This one even depicts a mounted warrior and Nike, the goddess of victory...

Why?

Because Apr/May - Sep/Oct was not only the sailing season but also the war season...

BTW, some of the Taranto coins only depict horse on both sides, like this one minted during the period  325-280 BC...So horses were definitely important symbol on its own...BTW, one is bridled and the other unbridled...Sailing and non sailing season? What do you think? 

Knowing this makes the original coin even cooler...I think...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...