Inanna and dove

A pottery cup, Syria, dated to 1800-1600 BC. The rounded body tapering to a flat base, with 26 bird heads. Christies auction... 

Doves??? Similar objects were interpreted as votive objects dedicated to Ishtar/Inanna, whose sacred bird was dove...

And Demeter...

I explained why dove was sacred to Demeter in my post "Demeter with dove"... 

Demeter was the goddess of grain (harvest)...And European doves nesting season overlaps with the grain harvest season in Europe...So...

Interestingly, Inanna/Ishtar, was in "A song of Inanna and Dumuzid" described as: "Maiden, glossy mane, lovely beauty...colourful as a pile of grain, fit for the king, fit for Dumuzid! Maiden...a stack of...barley, fully developed in loveliness"...

I talked about this in my post "Demeter riding a panther"...

Remember this thread about the grain symbol? See all these female bodies with grain symbol on their bellies?

This is Inanna/Ishtar speaking: 

"...Before my lord, Dumuzi,

I poured out plants from my womb.

I placed plants before him,

I poured out plants before him.

I placed grain before him,

I poured out grain before him,

I poured out grain before my womb..."

I talked bout this in my post "Mother of grain"...The symbolic link between women and earth depicted on this Early Vinča Culture terracotta figurine from Jela, Iron Gate region of the Danube, Serbia, c. 5200 BC, H. 5.3 cm, which has a branching plant (grain?) growing out of the womb...

This is Inanna again:

...

As for me, Inanna,

Who will plow my vulva?

Who will plow my high field?

Who will plow my wet ground?

...

I talked about this in my post "Mother of grain from Yarim Tepe". Figurine of a nude woman form Yarim Tepe, 5000-4000 BC. Iraq Museum...

This is threshing floor, somewhere in Mesopotamia, recently...

This is threshing floor, in upper Mesopotamia, Arslantepe, Turkey, 4th millennium BC

If it works...🙂

From "Insights from a tribological analysis of the tribulum"...

In "Threshing floor in reality and metaphor", we can read that "The annual sacred marriage reenactment between Ea/Enki and Ishtar/Inanna was performed on a threshing floor"...

Fitting for the goddess that "pours grain out of her womb"...And is as lovely as as ripe barley...

Homer says this about Demeter, the goddess of grain harvest, and threshing floors:

"And even as the wind carries chaff about the sacred threshing-floors / of men that are winnowing, when fair-haired Demeter / amid the driving blasts of wind separates the grain from the chaff"...

Which is why Eugene Vanderpool in "ΕΠΙ ΠΡΟϒΧΟΝΤΙ ΚΟΛΩΝΩΙ: The Sacred Threshing Floor at Eleusis" proposes that threshing floors were sacred to Demeter and were in fact her temples...

I talked about this in my post "Sacred marriage on the threshing floor"...

And here I come back to doves...

The breeding season of most common Eurasian doves, collared dove (top) and turtle dove (bottom) starts in Apr and lasts until Sep. So it overlaps with the grain harvest season in Europe and Western Asia...Which is why, I think, this bird is associated with Demeter...Goddess of grain harvest...

Is this why dove was also sacred to Inanna, who is as lovely as ripe barley and who pours barley out of her womb and who marries the god of water on a threshing floor?

I think so...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...

Arjoune venus

An early Halaf culture figurine from the Arjoune site in Syria. Pic from: Embodiment of the Halaf: Sixth Millennium Figurines from Northern Mesopotamia.

It is made from a natural pebble, and it depicts a female form, with large eyes with eyelashes and long hair. The very very very interesting bit is the pubic area, which is depicted as a square...

The Halaf culture is a neolithic early farming culture which flourished in the Fertile Crescent, in south-eastern Turkey, Syria, and northern Iraq, between about 6100 BC and 5100 BC...

The people from the same area, just slightly later, made this figurine which I interpreted as the depiction of the Fertile Mother Earth between two great rivers, Tigris and Euphrates

Figurine of a nude "woman" form Yarim Tepe, Iraq. Ubaid period, 5000-4000 BCE. Iraq Museum...

I talked about this in my post "Mother of grain from Yarim Tepe"...

So I am convinced that whoever made this figurine in Arjoune, knew very well what vulva looks like...The fact that here we have vulva depicted as a square, makes me believe that what we have here is a depiction of the fertile Mother Earth, and more specifically Mother of grain...Where the square vulva represents a grain field...

Remember this:

Inanna spoke:

...

As for me, Inanna,

Who will plow my vulva?

Who will plow my high field?

Who will plow my wet ground?

...

From: "The Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi"

More about depictions of Mother Earth, Mother of Grain, can be found in my article "Altyn Tepe mother of grain", in which I talk about this BMAC figurine...Again Mother Earth, Mother of Grain, Goddess, just different mountains and rivers...

Another Early Halaf figurine depicting female form with square pubic area. Tell Kurdu...Pic from: Embodiment of the Halaf: Sixth Millennium Figurines from Northern Mesopotamia.

Late Halaf figurine. Discovery location unknown. Pubic triangle on front with line representing vulva and dots representing pubic hair. On back, two ears of grain...

Pic from: Embodiment of the Halaf: Sixth Millennium Figurines from Northern Mesopotamia.

Mother Earth turned Mother of grain, true and true...

Most common Halaf figurine depicted voluptuous female form covered in horizontal stripes. Are these supposed to be furrows?

Altyn Tepe Mother of grain

How to depict "Mother Earth", more specifically "Mother of Grain"? Like a voluptuous woman (Mother) whose vulva (where new life come from) is horizontal (like Earth, Field) with horizontal lines (furrows) with plant (Grain) growing out of them...

This statuette is from Алтын-Депе (Altyn Tepe), Turkmen "Golden Hill", a Bronze Age (BMAC) archaeological site in Turkmenistan, inhabited from c. 3200 to 2000 BC...

How do we know that this is grain?

That this is indeed symbol for grain, can be seen from the fact that the same symbol was put on grain granaries in Kurdistan until 20th century. Aliabad women standing beside a grain bin, Iranian Kurdistan...From "Home is where we keep our food: The origins of agriculture and Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic food storage". Very important image, as it confirms that this design pattern, found on pottery and figurines since the Earliest Neolithic all over Eurasia, means "grain"... 

This is an article about the same kind of "Mother of Grain" figurines from Neolithic Balkans...MOTHER Earth...The symbolic link between women and earth depicted on this Early Vinča Culture terracotta figurine from Jela, Iron Gate region of the Danube, Serbia, c. 5200 BC, H. 5.3 cm, which has a branching plant (grain) growing out of the womb...

Here is the same idea in Neolithic Levant. What is the best way to symbolically depict "Mother Earth"? 

Well, place mountains, plants and animals between wide open eyes and vulva...Simple...

Decorated bone depicting slightly bewildered "Mother Earth", 6th - 5th millennium BC, Hagoshrim, Southern Levant.

You can read about it in my article "Eyes"...

Similar thing from Neolithic Iraq. Figurine of a nude woman form Yarim Tepe, 5000-4000 BC. Iraq Museum...

You can read about this in my article "Mother of grain from Yarim Tepe"...

But this gets better and better...Here are two more similar figurines from the same area. 

I love the hairstyle...The two wavy "plaits" (?)...Strangely like the symbol for flowing water...Rivers?

There are actually two rivers, flowing parallel to each other in Central Asia...Amu Darya and Syr Darya...

They flow from tall Hindu Kush and Pamir mountains...And are fed primarily by the snowmelt...And make the area around them and especially between them fertile...

I talked about this in my article about the "Tulip goddess"...

Seated female figure (goddess? ) drinking out of a goblet - next to a tulip, bronze seal, late 3rd - early 2nd millennium BC, (BMAC), Afghanistan. Currently in a Private collection Linenthal, San Francisco. 

Here are the original figurine's front and back

Is this a mountain depicted on the Goddess's back? So is the Mother Goddess also "The Mountain Goddess"? Are her two plaits the two great Central Asian rivers? With the fertile area between them?

This would make this BMAC figurine the equivalent of this Mesopotamian figurine, also depicting two rivers coming down from the mountains and the fertile land between them...

Same Mother Earth Goddess, just different mountains, rivers and fertile land...

Mother of grain from Yarim Tepe

Figurine of a nude "woman" from Yarim Tepe, Iraq. Ubaid period, 5000-4000 BCE. Iraq Museum...

Pic by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin

Here is the drawing of this figurine with the dimensions form this paper: Understanding symbols: putting meaning into the painted pottery of prehistoric northern Mesopotamia

Really cool...

But, potentially, this figurine could be really really really cool, if I am right...🙂

Look at this: Yarim Tepe was an early farming settlement situated between Tigris and Euphrates...

Now have a look at the figurine again... Is this really just a figurine of an ordinary woman with an extraordinary large "V", or is this a depiction of a fertile land between two great rivers? A "fertile mother earth"...

Inanna spoke:

...

As for me, Inanna,

Who will plow my vulva?

Who will plow my high field?

Who will plow my wet ground?

...

From: "The Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi"

BTW, did you notice that the figurine is headless? Remember my post about Palaeolithic Venus figurines from Europe: 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... 

Same thing here?

Eyes

What is the best way to symbolically depict "Mother Earth"? 

Well, place mountains, plants and animals between wide open eyes and vulva...Simple...

Decorated bone depicting slightly bewildered "Mother Earth", 6th - 5th millennium BC, Hagoshrim, Southern Levant.

Decorated bone depicting Mother Earth with a stern "I am watching you!" expression, 6th - 5th millennium BC, Neve Yam, Southern Levant...

Reconstruction of a stone palette depicting Mother Earth who...well...had enough and is ready for bed...6th - 5th millennium BC, Ein Zippori, Southern Levant...

This symbolic depiction of the Mother Earth later found its way to Upper Euphrates. Stele of Mari, found in a pit at the temple of Ninhursag...

Now remember this? 6th mil BC, Balkans. No eyes, but the "important" bit, plants growing out of the vulva, is there...Early Vinča Culture terracotta figurine from Jela, Iron Gate region of the Danube, Serbia, c. 5200 BC...

The oldest European one from Lepenski Vir is from c. 8000BC. Anyone knows of any Levantine examples from before 8000BC?

These Levantine Mother Goddess depictions are from this article:  "Iconographic motifs from the 6th–5th millennia BC in the Levant and Mesopotamia: Clues for cultural connections and existence of an interaction sphere"...

BTW, these guys were farmers, grain farmers...This is very important...So this Mother Earth is Mother of Grain...This girl

Left: Anthropomorphic vessel with breasts, Neolithic Lengyel culture (5000-3400 BC)

Right: Anthropomorphic vessel with breasts and grain ears (?) instead of hands, Chalcholitic Baden culture (3600–2800 BC) which developed from Lengyel culture.

Both from Central Europe...

I talked about this in my post "Femal pots from Europe"...

Female pots from Europe

Anthropomorphic vessel with breasts, Neolithic Lengyel culture (5000-3400 BC)

Anthropomorphic vessel with breasts and grain ears (?) instead of hands, Chalcholitic Baden culture (3600–2800 BC) which developed from Lengyel culture

I wrote about these two vessels in these posts, "Baden culture grain maiden" and "So Indoeuropean" and I asked the question: are we looking at this, grain goddess, later known as Demeter/Persephone? See the posture?

If you are interested in Demeter/Persephone you might also find this article "Who are Persephone's parents" interesting. It talks about snakes in Persephone/Demeter cult...

Now have a look at this:

Left: Anthropomorphic vessel with breasts, 3000-2000BC Troy, Turkey

Right: Anthropomorphic vessel with breasts and vagina, 3000-2000BC Lemnos, Greece

Interesting, right? This is obviously the same cultural trait, which first appeared in Neolithic Central Europe and then traveled down to Anatolia and Greece during Chalcolithic and Bronze Age...

We know that these areas were connected. The same type of butter churners was found from Central Europe, through Greece (Lemnos), Asia Minor (Troy) to Levant (Gilat) during the period 5000-1000BC...I talked about this in my post "Milk, butter, cheese"...

The distribution of butter churns could be just a sign of technological exchange along trade routes, if it wasn't for the fact that milk consumption was rare during this time, as it depended on milk tolerance, which is a genetic trait passed from parents to their children...

Does this mean then that these cultures were somehow related? I mean not just culturally, as seen by the female vessels found in both Central Europe and Greece and Anatolia, but also genetically? I know Lengyel and Baden genes (I2a, G2a). What about Troy, Lemnos, Gilat?

Maybe there are other examples of these "female pots" with raised arms? I didn't spend much time looking into this so any additional info would be appreciated...

Female pots...Female pots...Have you seen these female pots from Late Neolithic Chalcolithic Central Europe? With birth diver "M"(ama) symbol depicted on them? I talked about these pots in my post "Mama"...

Female pots...Female pots...Did you read my post "The female pots from Sudan", about the female pots with boobs used as granaries and the (likely) remnants of the Neolithic grain goddess cult found in Sudan?

Interestingly the female pots we are talking about served as urns...Remember the link between the pot and the "womb (of the mother goddess)" preserved in Nigeria, also (likely) remnant of the Neolithic grain goddess cult?

The same Neilithic grain goddess cult found all over Eurasia too. This cult probably originated in the Fertile Crescent in the first farming communities, and was from there spread to Europe, Asia and Africa...

The female pots symbolising the body of the grain goddess, mother earth, would explain all the pithos (large storage vessels used as granaries) burials found all over Western Anatolia in the 3rd millennium BC. You can read more about it in "Early Bronze Age Burial Customs in Western Anatolia"...

When and where did this custom appear first?