Bird hills

A map from "Tičnice iz naravoverja: zanesljivi kažipoti v slovensko prazgodovino" [Bird-hills from Natural Religion: Reliable Waymarks of Slovene Prehistory] self published book by Leopold Sever in 2013. 

It is showing "gradišča" [hill-forts] (blue circles) and "tičnice" [bird-hills] (red circles) in the historical  Slovene regions in Slovenia and southern Austria...

In Slovenia, there are currently more than 200 hill-forts known as (gradišče) and more than 200 bird-hills known under various names (Tičnica, Tičn’ca, Tičistan,  Tičerca, Tičnik, Tičevo, Na tičnici, Tičjak, Tičjek, Križ na tičnici, Ptičjek, Za tičnico, etc).

According to local lore, these were the hills where people once performed religious ceremonies (???), fed birds (???) and "exposed their dead to the birds so that the birds could carry the soul of the  deceased into the sky" (???) before burials...Oh and they believed that these hills were haunted and should be avoided after dark...

Thanks to @another_barbara for alerting me to this.  The book is mentioned in this paper:

Staroverstvo - the Old Religion - the Slovene Pre-Christian Religion

In several parts of Eastern Bosnia and Hercegovina, at the end of the wheat harvest, a patch of wheat is left unharvested "for God's birds". 

In pre-Christian times, Slavs believed that souls of their dead entered birds and through birds entered heaven, Iriy. So feeding birds with grain was basically a form of feeding the ancestors, sacrificing to the ancestors...

Scandinavians did the same, although they don't seem to remember why...

I talked about this in several of my posts: Nav, Bird wedding, Julenek...

Slavs also believed that the bountiful grain harvest was direct result of the good will of the dead ancestors...

And that good will was the result of their descendants remembering them and providing them with food (grain, bread) and drink (water, milk, red wine).

So...

I talked about the importantce of feeding the dead with bread in several of my posts like "Soul breads" "Dead man loaf"... 

According to the Serbian folklore, it is important that the food served to the dead contains "a bit of everything that land gives birth to". It was believed that the dead are the source of life and that they give back manyfold what we give to them...

It is important that the food for the dead contain especially "a bit of all the grains" again because the dead will give us back manyfold of what we give them... 

This is the root of "Koljivo" the meal made from boiled grains, nuts, raisins and sugar used in the Eastern Orthodox Church for commemorations of the dead...

The origins of koliva predate Christianity. In the Ancient Greece, panspermia, a mixture of cooked seeds and nuts, was offered during the pagan festival of the Anthesteria, which was primarily concerned with placating ancestral spirits...  

So when a priest tells you that you should not bring food to the grave for your dead, because that is a pagan custom, and that instead you should make koljivo, which is Orthodox Christians custom...

Serbian ethnographer Veselin Čajkanović believed that originally the sacrifice offered to the dead included blood sacrifice as well. The meal contained not just plant food, but also one of each type of farmed animal, ritually slaughtered, drained of blood, and roasted...

Blood was given to the dead, as it was their favourite drink...I talked about blood sacrifices in many of my posts...

 And the meat was eaten by the living...

Again all of this was done because people believed that their dead are the ones who "make the crops (and especially grain) grow"...

Depiction of Diduch (grandfather), symbolic representation of the ancestral spirit which governs the lives of the living (and most importantly determines how good grain harvest will be). From Central European Slavic mythology / folklore. 

I talk about Diduch and it's symbolic representation in my post "Diduch"...

Ibex cup from Susa

Cup with zoomorphic handle in a shape of an Ibex, wild goat. Discovered in Susa, Iran and dated to 2100-1550 BC. Currently in Louvre... 

On the back of the cup are two Ibex, wild goats, carved in bas-relief, kneeling on either side of a (palm) tree, and forming the palm tree branches with their horns...

This back "decoration" is very interesting indeed. Palm tree was the symbol for the "Tree of Life" in the region where this cup was found...The fact that the Ibex goats were positioned in such a way as to form the branches of the "Tree of Life" is not accidental...

In the region where this cup was found, the climatic year is divided into hot, dry summer and cool, wet winter.

The rain season starts in Oct/Nov, which coincides with the beginning of the mating season of Ibex, wild goats...Mating season which is marked by vicious male goat fights...

This is why Ibex, wild goat, became a symbol of the cool, wet half of the year...And life that the rain that falls during the wet season makes possible...Hence, Ibex, wild goat, symbolically forming the branches of the "Tree of Life" with their horns...

The same symbolism can be found in Iran 2500 years later. Two Sassanian wall relief slabs dated to the 5th-6th c. AD, depicting rampant ibex goats flanking "the tree of life"...

I talked about this in my post "Sassanian goats with the tree of life"...

I talked about the significance of ibex goats in the mythology of Susa in my posts "Jackals from Susa" and "Flamingoes from Susa" in which I provide symbolic analysis of these two super cool vessels made between 4200BC and 3500BC...

I also talked about Ibex mythology in Eurasia in many of my other posts...

That's it. 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...

Dog coin

Coin minted in the 3rd century BC on the Greek Island of Kea depicting Dog Star Sirius...

Apparently, the people from Kea "offered sacrifices to the Dog Star, Sirius to bring cooling breezes while awaiting the reappearance of Sirius in summer"...

First, lets answer the question: why was Sirius known as the Dog Star...

When our mythologies were made out of animal calendar markers, Sirius, the Dog Star rose with the sun in Jul/Aug, when mating season of the old primitive dog breeds began...

We find this embedded into myths in:

Egypt: Article about "Dog days"...

Mesopotamia: Article about "Tishtrya"...

India: Article about "The bitch of the gods"...

Second, why were people of Kea praying to the Dog Star for the "cool breeze"...

To understand this we first have to look at the location and climate on Kea. 

You can see that Jul/Aug, the Dog Days, is the hottest and driest time of the year...

Luckily, the cool Meltemi (Etesian winds), seasonal trade winds which blow from the Balkans towards Egypt, peak in their strength during Jul/Aug...Right during the Dog (Star) days...

I talked about these winds in my post "Three sacrifices" about sacrifices performed by the Greeks before sailing to and from Troy. 7th c. BC Mykonos pithos. It contains the oldest depiction of the Trojan Horse, the way Homer described it in Iliad...

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...

PS: I need to read this article thoroughly...when I get time...Very interesting article about winds and currents in the Aegean and how they affected seafaring during 3rd millennium BC...Pic by Zde. Clay boat model, 2300–1900 BC, found on Mochlos, Crete...Greece...

Natufian symbol for grain

Wow...Mortars and pestles from an Early Natufian settlement Wadi Hammeh in Pella, Jordan, dated to about 14,500 to 14,000 BP...These are amazing...

Oh and look at this! Look at this! A scratched depiction of a field with grain growing out of the furrows...From the same site...

Pic from "The Natural Inspiration for Natufian Art: Cases from Wadi Hammeh 27, Jordan"...

How do we know it's grain? 

I talked about this symbol in my posts about the "Mother of Grain"...

The symbol is also found in PPN Anatolian sites. This is a Tell Qaramel shaft-straightener depicting on the left two pair of snakes meeting (usual symbolic depiction of mating), while on the right we see ear of grain growing out of the snake mouth...Grain harvest in Central Anatolia starts in Apr/May, when vipers start to mate...I talked about this in my post "PPN snake calendar marker"...

These are first farmers we are talking about, and they are already using symbol for grain...

They also made stone depictions of grain seeds...I know they are shaft straighteners but they are not just shaft straighteners. 

BTW, Just remembered that I talked about this site already in my original post about the Mother of Grain...

The same type of objects, just made from clay, were found deposited in a sacrificial pit in the 7th mill BC early grain farming Starčevo culture Blagotin settlement in Serbia... 

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...

Dog saves the grain

A folk tale from Solčava, Slovenija:

"When Adam and Eve had to leave Paradise God gave them a hoe and said they're only allowed to cultivate as much soil as they can reach with a hoe without moving from the spot they're standing on. 

Tall wheat grew from hoed ground and it had grain from the bottom to the top. But first people got greedy, they wanted even more and dug further. God got angry, grabbed the wheat at the ground and drew his fingers up, removing the grain from the stem.

Almost at the top God paused, giving people a chance to ask forgiveness. But they didn't! Before God could tear all of the grain off the wheat stem a dog came. It asked the Creator to be merciful toward people and leave them enough grain to make bread.

God listened to the dog's plead and that's the reason wheat only has grain at the top and that's why dog has the right to a piece of bread too."

In this Slovenian legend, presented originally by @another_barbara, a great account well worth following, a dog saves Adam and Eve from god's wrath and stops god from removing all the seeds from grain stalks.  

Traditional wheat harvest in Slovenia started in Jul, traditionally called in local dialects "mali srpan" (little sickle), and peaked in Aug, traditionally called in local dialects "veliki srpan" (big sickle). Which means that threshing (removing seeds from stalks) takes place in Jul/Aug...

The days at end of Jul beginning of Aug, the hottest time of the year, the time of fire breathing dragons which represent destructive sun's heat, are known locally as "kresovi" (fires, torches, bonfires). 

They are also known as dog days. This is because when our mythologies were made out of animal calendar markers, Sirius, the Dog Star rose with the sun in Jul/Aug, when mating season of the old dog breeds began...

We find this embedded into myths in:

Egypt: Article about "Dog days"...

Mesopotamia: Article about "Tishtrya"...

India: Article about "The bitch of the gods"...

This is symbolically depicted here: Medieval standing stone from Ubusko, Hercegovina. Dog fighting horned snake, dragon. Dog days (end of summer beginning of autumn), is the hottest period of the year in the Northern hemisphere, the time of fire breathing dragons. After the dog days, the Northern hemisphere starts to cool...

I think that it is this overlap between the dog days and the harvest/threshing days explains the role dog plays in this Slovenia legend. What do you think?

BTW

Here is a very interesting depiction of the garden of eden story. The tree is oak. And next to Adam and Eve we see grain and a lamb. 

Is the expulsion from the garden of eden faint memory of what happened during Neolithic agricultural revolution? 

I talked about this first in my post "Christmas trees from the Garden of Eden"...

Since then I learned that this area of Upper Mesopotamia was indeed the original Garden of Eden where the transformation from hunter-gatherers to farmers took place...

I talked about this in my post "How grain came to Sumer"...

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...

Rider from Erebuni

This is the end of the "bent" silver rhyton which was found in Urartian site Arin-Berd (Ancient Erebuni, today Yerevan) in Armenia, and which was dated to the Achaemenid period...

The pic is from the paper "Riding in Achaemenid Iran: new perspectives" The author of the paper says that "The rider, a bearded individual with a large head and heavy body...was assuredly meant to represent a person of rank..."

There is something strange about this individual of high rank: the decorations on his saddle (behind: Ibex goats, in front: bull) and his hat (Eagle/Vulture)...

This is climate chart for Armenia:

You can see that there are two rain peaks, Oct/Nov and Apr/May.

Oct/Nov, is marked by wild Ibex goat buck fights...I talked about ibex goats as animal calendar markers in many of my posts...

Apr/May, is marked by calving of wild Auroch cattle...I talked about wild Eurasian cattle as animal calendar markers in many of my posts...

What is interesting is that griffon vultures lay their eggs Oct/Nov and the chicks hatch in Mar/Apr...I talked about vultures as animal calendar markers in many of my posts...

So knowing this, is it possible that this "bearded individual with a large head and heavy body" isn't a depiction of a "a person of rank", but in fact a depiction of a rain god in one of his many guises? Who arrives with ibex goats and eagles and departs with auroch cattle?

That's it. 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...

Curlew

60BC-20BC, Celtic Atrebates/Regni gold coin, found in 1873 in Selsey, East Wittering, England, currently in the British Museum.  Official description:

Obv: Abstract design derived from head of Apollo.

Rev: Stylised horse, left; wheel above horse; bird, right below horse.

Basically what the description says is that this Celtic coin is an abstraction of a coin like this: Bronze drachm of the Philip II of Macedon. 359-336 BC. Alexander the Great's father. From this article...

Obv: Head of Apollo

Rev: Naked youth on a prancing horse

Celts are known to have made their own copies of well known Greek/Macedonian coins. More on this great site "Balkancelts"...

But what I find very interesting about this Celtic coin is how it has abstracted the Macedonian one.

The head of Apollo became two sun discs eyes...

The youth on a prancing horse (which was actually a depiction of the Young Sun God Apollo himself riding on a solar horse) became sun disc on a prancing solar horse...

BTW, Celts made another version of this Solar Rider coin, where the rider is still "a young man" but with a sun for a head...Like this Celtic coin from Hungary...

I talked about solar riders, and why was horse a solar animal in many of my posts...

Anyway, the reason why horse is a solar symbol found all over Eurasia, is because horse mating season, characterised by vicious stallion fights, is governed by the sunlight: it starts at the beginning of the summer and it peaks in midsummer, on summer solstice...

Hence these two lads, Castor and Polux, marking the summer solstice...

This is the horse sorted 🙂 But what bird is depicted on the original Celtic coin? 

I think to answer this "important" 🙂 question, we need to look at the reverse of this coin as an animal calendar marker...

Knowing what we know about horses mating season, and how horse was used as a calendar marker elsewhere, I would suggest that the prancing solar horse with the sun disc on the original Celtic coin depicts the hot, sunny half of the year in England, Apr/May-Oct/Nov.

Now usually, the birds associated with solar cult are migratory birds, like swans, which arrive to the areas with the continental climate from their wintering grounds in spring, with the "Young Sun"...

This link is already found in Late Neolithic Northern Europe. Among the Lake Onega petroglyphs, Russia, made c. 4000BC, the only two petroglyphs which were "Christianised" with a cross were "The Devil" and "The Swan"...

Why? Cause "The Devil" is actually the sun god. And (migratory) swans are his birds. These two images are actually part of a large solar year calendar which was encoded using local animal and plant calendar markers. I talk about these amazing petroglyphs in my post "Bes"...

I talk about migratory birds as animal calendar markers linked to the solar cults in many of my posts...

But looking at the bird depicted under the horse, you can see that it definitely isn't a swan. I was first reminded of a common crane, another bird associated with the solar cult

Another bird that looks like the bird standing under the horse, which is also associated with the sun cult is a stork.

But there is a problem here: the curved beak...Now this could be just a bad craftsmanship. But it could actually be an important clue that could help us identify the bird depicted standing under the solar horse...

There is a bird native to England, which (kind of 🙂) looks like this: curlew. This bird is a resident species in England, bit it is also locally migratory: During the warm part of the year, it is found inland, and during the cold part of the year it is found only on the coast...

The reason for this is that curlew "nests on the ground in rough pastures, meadows and heather"...

This is the horses country...

And: "Curlew arrive back at their breeding grounds in late March or early April, laying their eggs between mid-April and mid-May. Chicks hatch between May and June and have typically fledged by mid-July"...

Right during the time when horses are mating (and prancing 🙂).

And when the "Young Sun God" arrives riding on a prancing horse...

That's it. 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...