A man riding a leopard

Exceptional discovery at the Neolithic site of Karahantepe, in Turkey! 

"An 11,000-year-old composite statue, depicting a human being seated on a leopard, has just been unearthed. Announced today by Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, this piece adds to the remarkable human and animal figures already discovered at Karahantepe (Taş Tepeler)"...

A god riding on an animal (calendar marker) from which it was derived through anthropomorfisation is one of the standard stages of god development. 

People notice overlap between a significant event related to agriculture (start of rain season, start of snowmelt, start of annual flood, time to sow or harvest particular type of grain, reeds, fruit, vegetable...) and an annual lifecycle event of a common animal (mating, birthing, migrating, hibernating...).  

People start using the annual animal lifecycle event (when leopards mate Jan/Feb) as an animal calendar marker for peak rain season in the Şanlıurfa area...  

As I said already: Mythology is a result of people being very good at noticing patterns in nature and very bad at distinguishing between correlation and causation...  

People start believing that mating leopards actually cause rain to fall...  

When rain doesn't fall when it is supposed to fall, people start praying to the leopards for rain...  

Of course it is much easier to pray to a human, so leopard gets anthropomorphised into a leopard headed human god, like on Sayburç relief, and then into fully human god riding a leopard, or wearing leopard skin...  

Gods ride their animal calendar markers everywhere. This is a symbolic equating of the animal and its anthropomorphic god twin...

So is god standing between two of their (deified) animal calendar markers...

This is the same guy, but this time standing between the leopards, which is the calendaric equivalent of riding a leopard...

The "earliest known narrative scene, telling an ancient story", at the 11,000-year-old site of Sayburç in south-eastern Turkey.

Of course, "no one" knows what the story is about...I give full analyis of this relief in my post Oldest narrative scene...

Leopards have a special place in later Çatalhöyük mythology too...Or should I say deified animal calendar...

There we find fat (fertile) woman (earth) sitting between leopards or on leopards in Çatalhöyük. Art by @AthopeMarie

Remember this: "When I was a kid, I was very poor and always hungry. All I ever wanted to be when I grew up was to be fat" -  BB King from one of his interviews...

These Çatalhöyük "goddesses" are actually the depictions of the Fat (of the land) Goddess of (grain) Fertility...

I talked about this symbolic depiction of the fertile earth as a fat and most likely pregnant woman in my posts Palaeolithic Venus figurines and The faceless one where try to answer the question: Why were (most) European Palaeolithic female figurines made faceless and fat with super exaggerated sexual characteristics? Cause (maybe) they don't depict real women. Cause (maybe) they depict an idea of fertility...Goddess of Fertility...

Çatalhöyük figurines do have faces, but they are rudimentary and the emphasis is on fertility and prosperity body features...

That these are definitely not just random nudes can be seen from the fact that several of these figurines are depicted with leopards and leopard cubs...

Why leopards?

Leopards are solitary animals and only come together during mating season, Jan/Feb

 which coincides with middle of the wet season in the area of Çatalhöyük...

Leopards are everywhere in Çatalhöyük...Usually in pairs...Here is a leopard shrine where the focal point is a pair of facing (mating) leopards...I believe that they were deified animal calendar markers marking the wet half of the year...

Leopard and rain...This time in Iran...

It is this rain (and snow) that makes land in the areas of  Çatalhöyük fat and fertile...Also, the mating of local leopards marked the beginning of the rise of the level of the local rivers...You can read more about this in my post Crane symbolism in Catalhoyuk 

What is also very interesting is that Eurasian leopard gestation period is about 100 days. That means that cubs conceived in Jan/Feb are born in Apr/May...

Right on time to mark the most important event for the Neolithic Anatolian farmers: beginning of the grain harvest season...

I talked about this in my post PPN snake calendar marker, in which I talk about the  (symbolic) link between the beginning of the (wild) grain harvesting season and the mating of the most common Anatolian snakes, vipers, which both start in Apr/May...

So the fat mother of grain and fat leopard mother both gave birth at the same time...

Very difficult not to notice, if you were a hunter-gatherer turned farmer in the Neolithic Çatalhöyük...

Hence fat Çatalhöyük goddess giving birth sitting between two leopards...

Finally, look at this mural depicting a bull hunt. Now that you know what raging bull (Jul/Aug, beginnign of wild cattle mating season marked by vicious bull fights) and leopard (Jan/Feb, beginning of leopard mating season) represent as animal calendar markers, you will understand why raging red (fire) bull (drought) is being hunted by hunters wearing leopard (rain) skins...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, which are at the root of all our mythologies, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Leopard priest

Priest wearing leopard skin, New Kingdom, 19th–20th Dynasty, c. 1200BC. Tomb of Nakhtamon (TT335), Deir el-Medina...

The earliest depiction of a priest wearing leopard skin can be found on the Narmer Palette, dated to c. 3100BC...

Leopard skins were worn by Sem-priests during the "Opening of the Mouth" ceremony, a crucial ritual that enabled the deceased to live, eat, and breathe in the afterlife...

A mural depicts King Ay (right) wearing a leopard skin, performing the "Opening of the Mouth" ceremony on Tutankhamun (left) depicted as Osiris. Tomb of Tutankhamun (KV62), Valley of the Kings, West Thebes...

This makes me wonder what is exactly depicted on the Narmer Palette. But that is another story, for another time...

In ancient Egyptian religion, leopard skin was linked to rebirth, transformation, and the afterlife. The skin was believed to act as a magical guardian, protecting the body against the fragmentation of death, allowing the deceased to be reborn...

Pyramid texts describe the king wrapping himself in a leopard skin to travel with the sun god Ra, emerging rejuvenated and "reborn" at dawn...

"...[King] will live with his ka, his leopard-skin on him, his staff in his arm, his baton in his hand..."

Now here is an interesting question: Why was leopard linked with rebirth? Leopards never lived in Egypt and leopard skins were imported into Egypt from down south, Nubia and Sudan...

So why leopard? I am boring myself at this stage repeating the same thing over and over and over again...But I think it is because of animal calendar markers. Check this out:

In Ancient Egypt, rebirth was directly linked with water and terrestrial and celestial Nile. I talked about it in my post Nut...

Ra-Horakhty (Ra as Horus) in his Solar Barque, traversing the horizon on a Heavenly Nile, during the day (the time when we can see the world) from east, dawn (left eye) to west, dusk (right eye)...

Ankh, symbol for life and eternal life was also directly linked with water. 

Ankh symbolises union of father sky and mother earth...

Ankh was known as the Knot of Isis...

Ankh was also called the Key of Life...

Ankh was also known as the Key of the Nile...

Ankh Symbolises union of father sky and mother earth...

In Sumerian: Father sky (An) + Mother earth (Ki) = Life (AnKi) = Ankh? 

I talked about this in my posts Riddle, Square and compasses, An-Ki Ankh, Living nature

Sumerians in Egypt? Check this out:

Rediscovery of, now buried, branch of the river Nile that once flowed right next to 31 pyramids, including Giza ones...

And my articles Giza lioness and Sphinx about why the pyramids were built on the  Giza plateau. Spoiler: cause sphinx was already there...

Ankh was known as "the Knot of Isis"...

Interesting...This knot? Like Inanna's knont? A relief from the ancient Egyptian Temple of Hatshepsut. It shows a platter with food arranged to look like a duck by making an ankh knot using lotus, the symbol of the Nile flood without which there will be no food in Egypt...

Ankh was also called the Key of Life...

In Egypt, like everywhere else, drinking water is the key of life. Hence Ankh as symbol for water...

Sycamore tree goddess, Hathor, Isis, Nut, all goddess of flood, pouring water which is depicted with ankh (life) symbols inside it...Tomb, Siwa Oasis, 400-600 BC. Egypt...

I talked about this in my post Sycamore tree goddess...

Ankh was also known as the Key of the Nile...

It is the Nile river flood that makes life in Egypt possible. Hence the sacred knot = Ankh = Nile flood = Life

Ankh = Life = Water...

Papyrus - Lotus Ankh. The Nile water level starts to rise when the Papyrus flowers and peaks when the lotus flowers...

I talked about this in my post "Crux Ansata"...

Ok, what does any of this have to do with leopards?

The mating season of African leopards in Nubia and Sudan peaks in Apr/May, at the beginning of the rainy season in Nubia and Sudan...

And the birthing season peaks in Jul/Aug, the peak of the rain season in Nubia and Sudan...

Climate Nubia/Sudan

African leopards are typically silent, solitary, and elusive, but become exceptionally loud, vocal, and aggressive during mating season. Not something you would miss easily...

So, I could bet that, leopard soon became the animal calendar marker for the rain season in Nubia and Sudan.  And it is this rain that revives the dead parched land and causes its rebirth...

I already talked about plant calendar markers linked to the rain season in Nubia in my post Meroitic language, where I analysied very interesting offering tables (altars) from the Ptolemaic Period, 306–30 BC. Like this one frome Northern Upper Egypt, Dendera, currently in the Met Museum, New York...

I also talked about animal calendar markers linked to the rain season in Sudan in my post Sacred Ibis, in which I analysed this fresco from the Temple of Isis at Pompeii, built at the beginning of the 1st c. BC. Currently in the Archaeological Museum in Naples...And the reason why ibis was a sacred bird in Ancient Egypt...

Now I can hear you all ask: What does this have to do with Egypt?

Guess when the rain season started in Green Sahara? You can read more about this here...

You can see that the rain season started in May/Jun and peaked in Jul/Aug/Sep...

Today, the similar rain pattern is still found in Nubia and Sudan, and more importantly in the Ethiopian highlands. It is the monsoon rain that falls in the Ethiopian highlands that feeds the river Nile...

Causing the water level to rise in May/Jun and causing the annual flood in Jul/Aug/Sep...

Annual flood which causes the (annual) rebirth of Egypt...I talked about this in my post Min, the Egyptian god of fertility and his link to the source of the river Nile...

Pleased to meet you. Actually very very pleased to meet you, as you can clearly see. The name is Min. I am Ancient Egyptian god of fertility, but you have probably already guessed that from my main "attribute"...

Is this why leopards were linked to resurrection? Because their breeding season overlapped with the old Green Sahara wet monsoon season?

BTW, the reason why I suspected that leopard from the Egyptian mythology could have originally been linked to rain (water, flowing water), is because leopard has been linked to rain (water, flowing water) in Eurasia too...

Article, The oldest narative scene with symbolic analysis of this 11,000 years old relief from Anatolian Neolithic, where leopard was used as an animal calendar marker for the cool wet season...

Great example of related animal calendar markers used together. Tepe Hissar, Iran, Neolithic.

Mating Ibex (Oct/Nov, start of winter) followed by Mating Leopard (Jan/Feb, start of spring). Both winter and spring are rainy seasons...

Symbolically, semen turns to rain which turns into flowing water...

I talk about this in my post A vessel from Tepe Hissar...

And it is because of that link to rain (water, flowing water) that leopard was also linked to resurrection (rebirth) of nature. I talked about it in my post Mosaic floor from Sulcis, Sardinia where I analyis this amazing mosaic which depicts leopards drinking from a krater for mixing wine and water with a grapevine growing from the krater...And I talk about the link between leopards and Dionysus, the god of death and rebirth of Nature...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, which are at the root of all our mythologies, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

A Gaulish coin with a lyre

A very interesting Gaulish coin indeed...

Obverse: Unidentified diademed head, but I can bet this is Apollo (as Maponos, his Gaulish clone), as this is exactly how Apollo was depicted on Macedonian (solar horse) coins which were originally copied by the Celts...

That this is indeed Apollo/Maponos is confirmed by what is depicted on the reverse of the coin: a (solar) horse with the sun above its back, and a (solar) lyre, favorite instrument of Apollo/Maponos, under its belly...

Here is English equivalent:

A Celtic coin from Sussex, minted by the Atrebates and Regini tribes, 55-45 BC.   

Obverse: Unidentified diademed head, but I can bet this is Apollo...

Reverse: A (solar) horse with the (solar) wheel above its back, and a (solar) lyre under its belly...

Horse (equid) is one of the most common solar symbols found all over Eurasia since Bronze Age...This is because horse (equid) fertility and their mating season, which is marked by wild stallion fights, is governed by the sunlight. It starts in Apr/May, peaks on summer solstice, and ends in Sep/Oct...

This is why horse (actually equid in general) was the preffered ride of the sun gods (and kings who worshiped them) from Mesopotamia onwards...

I talked about Horse (Equid) as a solar symbol in many of my posts: 

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

Mesopotamia "Shamash playing with the solar horse", "Sun god from Tell Brak", "7 heads"

India "Hayagriva"

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

Levant "Alexamenos graffito", "Goddess on a horse", "Unicorn", "Sun god from the first temple"

Europe "Archaic rider", "Beotian solar pyxis", "Pegasus and chimera", "King John", "White stag" "The horseman", "Artemis Orthia", "Curlew", "Poseidon pursuing Demeter"...

Anatolia "Cilician Nergal"

Another celtic coin, from Eastern Europe, Hungary, this time with the sun depicted as solar rider. With the sun god Apollo depicted on the other side...

Now on the Gaulish coin, the (solar) horse is depicted prancing above the waves...

This scene is actually a complex calendar marker for the sailing season in Gaul, Apr/May - Sep/Oct...

In Roman times, the official and safe sailing season (mare apertum) along the French coast ran from Apr/May to Sep/Oct...I talk about Roman sailing season in my post "Swallow tattoo"...

Which overlaps with the horse mating season...

This is also the reason why horse was the sacred animal of Poseidon (Greek) and Yamm (Phoenician) sea gods. 

Horse mating season overlaps with the sailing season in Eastern Mediterranean too. I talked about this in my posts "Trojan horse", "Three sacrifices"...

BTW, the lyre of Apollo is also a calendar marker. 

The lyre was made by Apollo's younger brother Hermes, who later swapped it with Apollo of caduceus...  

And interestingly, every single plant and animal that features prominently in Hermes's mythology is a calendar marker for Apr/May...Beginning of the sailing season...  

I talk about Hermes in these articles... 

Oh yeah, did I mention that Hermes was patron of commerce, and because most commerce was conducted by boat, by extension seafaring...

Hermes features prominently in Celtic mythology together with Apollo...Sometimes two are actually merged into a single Celtic equivalent...

I talk about this in my post "Pillar of the boatmen" in which I give symbolic analysis of the second row of the 1st c. AD Roman monument known as the "Pillar of the Boatmen" found in Paris, France...

Diodorus Siculus, citing Timaeus of Tauromenium, who lived in 4th-3rd century BC says: "The Celts dwelling along the Ocean have a particular veneration for the Dioscuri; according to one of their ancient traditions, these gods arrived by way of the Ocean"...

The sailing season in Gaul started when horses started mating, in Apr/May and peaked when horses mating season peaked, on Summer Solstice...

I think this is why Dioskuri mark Summer Solstice, and that this is why they were venerated by maritime Celts...

I talked about the (horse) twins marking Summer Solstice in different cultures in my post "Little horses"...

I also think this specific type of gold stater, made in 2nd-1st c. BC by Celtic tribes in Gaul, actually depicts "Sailing season" through depiction of Poseidon (as one of his Celtic clones), in a chariot pulled by a solar horse, depicted above a seahorse...

BTW, I find it really neat that horses and sea horses, which are both linked with sea gods in the Eastern Mediterranean, have the same breeding season, Apr/May - Sep/Oct, which is also the sailing season in the Eastern Mediterranean. Where all these animal calendar markers originate...I talk about seahorses in my post "Seahorse ring"...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, which are at the root of all our mythologies, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...