Ponte Sodo fibula

Etruscan gold disc fibula, from the Necropolis of Ponte Sodo, Vulci, Etruria, Italy. 650 BC, from the "Orientalizing period". Currently in the Antikensammlungen, Munich, Bavaria, Germany. 

WTH is all this stuff depicted on it? Here is the official description:

"Around a central cross, above, are several birds in flight and, at the sides, two lions with a pendent tongue and serpentine tail; in the centre, two helmeted warriors, with short sword and shield, fight surrounded by a bird respectively." That's it?

Yes, but what does this mean? Apparently no one knows...So let me try to decipher this...

First the central cross. The cross is a solar symbol, and more precisely symbol of the Mesopotamian sun god Shamash...I talked about this in my posts "The cross of Shamash" and "Sun god tablet"...

Here is the same cross on a late 7th c. Boeotian clay pyxis, currently in the Antikensammlung Berlin (thanks twitter friends🙂)  depicting the "Mistress of the Animals and some animals 🙂" (sure sign that "we have no idea what is really depicted here").

But I can tell you few things about the decorations: They are all solar symbols. You can find detailed analysis of these symbols in my post "Beotian solar pyxis"

In Greece, the sun god Shamash, more precisely the "terrible" sun, Shamash as Nergal,  became Apollo. The "terrible" sun god Apollo...I explained why terrible in my post "Lions of Delos" about the lions from the 600 BC Temple of Apollo from Delos:

So I believe that the cross here is the symbol of Apollo...

The "Mistress of the Animals" is Artemis, the the original, archaic, "terrible" twin sister of the "terrible" sun god Apollo...Definitely not moon goddess here with all these snakes. And lions (wink wink, notch notch)

And "some animals" are all solar animal calendar markers...

Sooo, if the central symbol on this Etruscan fibula from the "Orientalizing period" 🙂 is a cross of Shamash as Nergal / Apollo, then could we assume that the rest of the stuff is also somehow "solar"? You bet!

But before I explain what everything else means, do you see how the central cross is actually swastika too? Remember that on the Boeotian clay pyxis we see both crosses and swastikas...Swastika is a solar symbol too...Symbol of ever spinning solar wheel. Solar year...

I talked about it in my post "Kolo-vrt", about this ancient (officially medieval???) standing stone, Bosnia. Depicting solar wheel (swastika) and solar dance (kolo)... Pic by Kemal Čolak...

So what is depicted on both sides of the Shamash as Nergal / Apollo cross? Two lions...So sun cross between two lions...Sun in Leo...

Nergal, the deified destructive "burning" sun, was depicted as a lion man, because Jul/Aug, Leo, is the hottest and driest part of the year in Mesopotamia...Talked abut him in my post "Winged superhuman hero"...

And these are not just any lions...They are lions with "serpentine tails"...Why? Maybe to emphasise the "solarness, solarity, solaritude 🙂 of the lions". Cause:

Snake is a pure solar animal. It is in our world when sun is here (day, hot half of the year) and it is in the underworld when sun is there (night, cold half of the year)... talked about it in many of my posts...

Where did I see lions with serpent tails before? Oh yeah, here

Chimera, mythical beast or complex animal calendar marker for "hot dry season", Apr/May (mating of snakes), Jul/Aug (mating of lions), Oct/Nov (mating of goats)? 

The hot season ends in Oct/Nov, hence Bellerophon killing Chimera by spearing the goat.

I talked about this in my post "Pegasus and chimera"...

So what about "several birds in flight" 🙂? It's actually 7 birds in flight...It's not so difficult to count them. But I guess no one thought the number of birds was significant...Could these be 7 doves? Why? Cause in Greek mythology, the Pleiades are the seven daughters of Atlas

whom Zeus transformed first into doves

and then into stars...

Why first into doves and then into stars? Well, he is Zeus, he doesn't have to explain himself...(Hint: animal calendar markers) I talked about this in my post "Pleiades"...

Pleiades rise with the sun in Apr/May, at the beginning of the summer...So they are another (important) solar symbol...

But what about the two birds at the bottom? Well, could this be a symbolical depiction of migratory birds?

Like this? 

Leto, Slavic name for summer and year is most likely derived from the word "let" meaning flight...Leto (the old summer, the hot, sunny half of the year) is the period between the arrival and departure of the migratory birds. I talked about it in my post "Leto"...

The two identical birds are facing each other. They are also flanking two identical "warriors" who are facing each other. And the "warriors" are in turn flanking what looks like a pyramid with the sun (cross) right above it...Hmmm...

So sun, lions, pyramid...I talked about the pyramids (and lions, sphinxes) in my posts "Sphinx" and "Giza lioness" where I explained why (sun in) Leo (Jul/Aug) was so important to Ancient Egyptians...

What's that got to do with our Etruscan fibula? Remember we are Orientalising here 🙂

So this could be a pyramid with the sun in Leo (Shamash as Nergal / Apollo) cross above it...

But what about the two identical warriors facing each other?

Well, if we have calendar marker for the beginning of summer (7 birds, Apr/May), and if we have calendar marker for the end of summer (two lions, Jul/Aug), what's missing? A calendar marker for the midsummer, summer solstice...

Well...How about these dudes? The twins...In Etruscan version without horses...

Horse zodiac symbol is disguised as Dioskuri, divine twin horsemen. The guys who wanted to marry "the daughters of the white horse". They mark Summer Solstice, the peak of the horse mating season, characterised by wild stallion fights for mares...

I talked about solar horse (more precisely equid) in many of my posts...

BTW, twins, always linked to summer solstice are also found in India (this time as horse headed twins)

Surya's wife Saranyu transforms into a mare and runs away from her husband. Surya eventually finds her, turns himself into a white stallion and...

After which Saranyu delivers horse head twins called Ashvins...

I talked about this in my post "Hayagriva" about the Indian solar horse mythology...

In Mesopotamia, you'll find them "guarding the gates of hell". In my post "White raven" about Apollo-Nergal, I talk about the Sumerian twin gods, identified as Gemini constellation, and associated with Nergal, which "guard the gates of hell"...Are they holding torches? Or keys?

In Egypt, where we find god Hapi, the god of the annual flooding of the Nile, who was "often depicted as twins, tying papyrus and lotus flowers together". Papyrus flowers in Apr/May, and lotus in Jul/Aug...I talked about him/them 🙂 in my post "Lotus and papyrus"...

In Central America as Hero Twins who pour the water of heaven (rains there arrive in Jun/Jul). I talked about this in my post "Resurrection of the maize god"...

We find them in Sasanian Iran, on this plate with youths and winged horses drinking water from a jar ca. 5th–6th century AD. I talked about this in my post "Dioskuri plate from Iran"...

And in Gotland. Together with horses. And pile of soar symbols...I talked about this in my post "Gotland sun stone with Dioscuri"...

Aaaaanyway...The twins on our Etruscan fibula, are standing facing the moment when the sun is in it's highest position in the sky? That pyramid...With the sun above...Maybe...

God most high...  

Snake: Apr/May, beginning of the main snake mating season, beginning of summer. 

Lion: Jul/Aug, beginning of the main lion mating season, end of summer.  

And in the middle, summer solstice, sun most high. 

I talked about this in my post "You will trample great lion and serpent"...

Which reminds me of the "lions with serpentine tails" 🙂 Are they also symbols of summer, the period between Apr/May (mating of snakes), Jul/Aug (mating of lions)?

Maybe they don't mean sun in Leo, but sun in summer? Middle of summer? Summer solstice?

BTW, probably totally unrelated, but just thought to throw it in for fun...

8000 years ago, people of Lepenski Vir culture in Serbia, built houses in the shape of the hill shaped like a flat top pyramid they could see from their settlement. 

Why? Because every summer solstice, the sun rose on top of it...

I talked about this in my post "Sun on top of pyramid"...

But then, (sun) god works in mysterious ways...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...

I talked about this in my post "Alexamenos graffito"...

Anyway, what do you think? Makes sense? Or not? 

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...

PS: Some people pointed out that the animals flanking the sun cross could be horses. With sharp teeth and snaky tails? But actually...They could be...A kind of chimera, with horse/equid body, lion head and snake tail...Even more amazing...

This would explain why horses are "suspiciously" missing from the fibula. Considering that Horse/Equid is one of the main solar symbols...

These "beasts" would then be incredible composite animal calendar markers for summer (I have never seen one like this before): 

Start of summer: when snakes start mating in Apr/May.

Mid summer: when horses mating season peaks, Summer solstice.

End of summer: when lions start mating, in Jul/Aug.

With the addition of a horse (usually linked to summer solstice, like through Dioskuri) in the mix just confirms my interpretation of the whole scene...

An angel

@another_barbara alerted me to this cave painting from the La Pileta Cave, Province of Malaga, Andalusia, Spain, dated to c. 20,000BC...

She said: "...There is a mention of an early idea of an angel, but I bet @serbiaireland knows better 😇"

I didn't at first, but now:

After quick googling this is what I found out:

This is where Malaga is on the map. It lies at the bottom tip of the Iberian peninsula...

It also lies on the main bird migration route between Europe and Africa. Every autumn, between Jul/Aug and Oct/Nov, millions of birds fill the skies over Malaga heading south...And they did too at the time when the people painted the bird man on the walls of the La Pileta Cave.

The last birds to migrate are the most spectacular: Vultures. Today, they gather in the skies of Andalusia in their thousands and are a spectacle not to be missed. At least according to this page...

During Palaeolithic there were probably hundreds of thousands, or more vultures circling over the heads of the Malaga cave painters, right at the time when the first rains arrived to the region. Well if the climate was in anyways similar to the today climate.

I talked about migratory birds as animal calendar markers in many of my posts...

Interestingly in Mesopotamia vultures are linked with storm, rain gods...I talked about this in my post "Eagle dance"...

Eagle dance...

Montenegro 1963AD

Syria, 1800BC

Eagle (vulture) couples dance above the mountains at the beginning of their mating season, which coincides with the beginning of the rain season in Fertile Crescent...

I also talked about this in my post "Kassite seal with Apkallu", about this Kassite seal (18th-12th centuries BC) from Syria. National Museum of Damascus...

And in my article "Judgement of the birdman"...

So I wonder...

You also might find this interesting...Article "Pero" (feather), in which I proposed that the root of the name of the Slavic thunder god Perun is "pero" = feather, which would make Perun = Feathered one, and not from PIE perkwus, meaning "oak" or "mountain". Zeus, Jupiter, Perun were all linked to eagles. Why?

And I want to thank @another_barbara for alerting me to this amazing rock painting of a (maybe the earliest) "bird man", "eagle man"...vulture turned storm/rain god???

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...

Mountain god with streams

Fragments of an ivory frieze, representing a "mountain god with streams, surrounded by trees". Middle Assyrian Period (14th century BC.). Found in the New Palace of Assur. Vorderasiatisches Museum of Berlin...

Who is this "Mountain god"? And what is really depicted here?

Let me try to explain:

Remember this:

Why did so many Mesopotamian "Supreme" gods have an attribute "The Great Mountain"? Cause they all wanted to be Enki...But there is only one Enki, who is (in) Abzu, "place that is a big mountain"...All the others are just imposters...I talked about this in my post "The great imposter"...

So this is Enki, the god who is simultaneously said to "rule Abzu" and "to be Abzu", Abzu being the source of Tigris and Euphrates"...

I talked about this in my posts "Problems with Abzu", "Shamash young and old", "When Utu steps up into heaven"...

In them I explained that because the source of Tigris and Euphrates is in the mountains north east of Mesopotamia, Abzu is described as a mountain...

You can see that on both depictions, there are two jars in the sky pouring water and two jars in on the ground gathering water. What does this mean?

I already talked about this in my post "Water basin from Assur" about the 7th century BC basalt water basin from Assur, Iraq. Pergamon Museum, Germany...

Basically he two jars in the sky are clouds, and the two jars on the ground are human water receptacles... And Enki, who is (in) Abzu, is the intermediary...

I also talked about this in my post "Kassite seal with Apkallu", about this Kassite seal (18th-12th centuries BC) from Syria. National Museum of Damascus...

And in these posts I also explain the meaning of the fish men, if anyone is interested...

Oh, and the two trees on the ivory freeze...They are the trees of life. Life which exists in Mesopotamia because of the grace of Enki, who is (in) Abzu...

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...

Happy to see you

3000 year old petroglyph "of a man running away from a big snake". It is one of the many Rock carvings in Tanum, Sweden. 

I would strongly disagree with the interpretation. Here is why:

Does this man really look like he is running away from the snake? Of course not. He is not running away from the snake. He is welcoming the snake...

Why would he do that?

Cause of this:

Snake is a pure solar animal. It is in our world when sun is here (day, hot half of the year) and it is in the underworld when sun is there (night, cold half of the year)...I talked about it in many of my posts...

Snakes appear in the spring, with the sun...That's probably the sun above the snake...

And the man is welcoming the return of the sun and the snake, happy that the winter has ended and that the world had survived...Cause sometimes it doesn't...

Sometimes the sun and the snake go away and don't come back...For a very very very very long time...

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...

Anavlochos mountain

This is The Anavlochos mountain range, located in the Lasithi, Crete. This naturally defensible ridge controls the major communication axis linking Central and Eastern Crete...

Between 1200-1100 BC, small settlement sites were scattered all along the ridge. At around 1100 BC most of them have been abandoned and a large settlement that remained continuously occupied until around 650 BC started developing in the highest part of the central valley...

oldeuropeanculture

Archaeologists from the University of Cincinnati, are currently involved in the excavation of the site known as Deposit 1, a bedrock outcrop with deep crevices. 3D animated model of Deposit 1 showing some of the teracottas...

There, they have discovered huge number of figurines and moulded plaques embedded deep in the crevices of the bedrock.

All were depictions of women or female sphinxes...

What is interesting, is that Anavlochos was settled between 1200 and 650 BC. The figurines date between 900 BC and 350 BC, which means that many of them were deposited after people left the settlement..

Which means that people considered the actual ridge bedrock sacred...And sacrificed to it. Or should I say to her...Mother Earth...Cause:

Great pic by @another_barbara Bedrock is in the Balkans known as "živi kamen, živa stena" (living stone, living rock) because it is believed to be still part of the living body of the Mother Earth which gives birth to all life...I talk about this in my post "Living stone"...

Again this ritual deposit site from Crete proves that people saw symbolic link between earth and female fertility. 

Among Slavs, the last sheaf of wheat was commonly called Baba. 

This word means grandmother, mother, midwife, birth giver...In some places the woman binding the last sheaf the last sheaf of wheat is also called Baba...

I talked about this link in my posts "Baba - the last sheaf of wheat" and "Baubo"...

I talked about the link between the veneration mountain peaks and female and earth fertility in Minoan Crete in my post "Sanctuary rhyton", about this amazing rhyton, discovered in the palace of Zakros, the most isolated of all the Minoan Palaces and was dated to 1550-1500 BC. The decoration on the rhyton depicts a "mountain sanctuary". Were these mountain sanctuaries centres of Ibex "goat of rain" cult? 

As we can see, it seems that this veneration continued after the collapse of the Minoan civilisation...

As we can see from the type of figurines deposited in the bedrock, people saw symbolic link between female lactation and earth producing spring water...

How do I know this? Rain, Water magic was among Slavs always female magic. I talked about this in my post "The last megalithic ritual in Europe", about a ritual which was until recently performed during severe draughts in Belarus to appease the Slavic Sun God Dabog (Giving god) who was also known as Daždbog (Rain giving god). 

And in my post about the "Weather stones", stones used in weather magic...

I talked about women being in charge of weather magic in Europe in my post "De Lamiis et Pythonicis Mulieribus" about this depiction of the two witches conjuring a hailstorm from a medieval manuscript on witchcraft. 

BTW, did you know that the sudden climate change which resulted in the medieval mini ice age was blamed on the weather controlling witches and was the excuse for the subsequent witch-hunt? 

I also talk about this in my post "Pozoj" about male and female dragons from Slavic folklore. In South Slavic folklore, it is a female dragon, ala, that brings hailstorms and unseasonably cold, wet weather during summer months, which destroys crops...In South Slavic folklore, cold, wet weather is "feminine"...

So Mother's milk = symbolically = Mother Earth's spring water...

More about Anavlochos excavation project can be found here.

PS: Just remembered I wrote about this a year ago in my post "Goddess of Myrtos" in which I analysed this 3rd millennium Minoan rhyton in the form of a female deity with pitcher.