Pillar of the Boatmen

Strap in. This is going to be fun. In this article I am going to talk about the first raw of panel from the 1st c. AD Roman monument known as the "Pillar of the Boatmen" found in Paris, France...

I was prompted to look into it by the posts by this great account @Michssspp82096 about this panel which depicts a bull standing under a willow tree, with 3 cranes perched on his back. The inscription reads "TARVOS TRIGARANOS" or  "Bull and Three Cranes" in Gaulish...

This is a coloured version of this image. 

It looks cool, but the colours are wrong...The only cranes native to France are Common Cranes and their feathers are grey not white and their legs are black not orange...

Common Cranes are highly migratory and follow extremely precise migratory routines, always mating/nesting and wintering in the same locations...

In Northern Europe (Including France, Britain and Ireland), cranes arrive from their wintering sites to their mating/nesting sites in the spring in Mar/Apr/May and they leave their mating/nesting sites for their wintering sites in Oct/Nov...

Which means that their arrival and departure was definitely used as animal calendar marker for the beginning of spring (arrival) and end of autumn (departure)...

Now look at this: In (Celtic) Europe, willow flowers in Feb/Mar/Apr, basically announcing the arrival of spring...

Spring which starts in Jan/Feb, and is marked by Celtic Imbolc festival...

So, spring starts (Jan/Feb), willow starts flowering (Feb/Mar)...Then the cranes arrived (Mar/Apr)...

And started their mating dances followed by mating and nesting...

And then in Apr/May the wild Eurasian cattle (now extinct) calving and lactating season started...This is what the original, Old Taurus marked...I talk about the old Taurus which we find all over Eurasia in many of my posts...

Spring starts (Jan/Feb), Willow (Feb/Mar), Cranes (Mar/Apr), Bull/Calf (Apr/May) Spring ends...

Cool, right? It gets a lot cooler...

Cranes are linked to cattle as animal calendar markers all over Eurasia. I talk about it in several of my posts...

What I found only today is that cranes love hanging around large ruminators, domesticated and wild. They love open spaces created by these animals...

You can read more about this in

"Interactions and impacts of domesticated animals on cranes in agriculture"

"Eurasian crane (Grus grus) as ecosystem engineer in grasslands ‒ conservation values, ecosystem services and disservices related to a large iconic bird species"

Which is why cattle and cranes together are a very common sight...

And why why we see things like these

Crane animal calendar marker:

A Terracotta Bowl, Mehrgarh, Balochistan, Indus Valley, 3500–3000 BC...

Decorated with zebu bulls, each with a water bird perched on its back and a leaf motif between the horns...

I talk about this artefact in my post "Mehrgarh crane bowl"...

Cool, right? It gets A LOT cooler...

Interestingly, next to the panel depicting "Tarvos Trigaranos" (arrival of spring) is the panel depicting a young man cutting willow branches. The inscription reads "ESVS"...

There are several prominent spring rituals in Europe involving the cutting and usage of willow branches, particularly in Central and Eastern European Slavic (ex Celtic) lands...

These traditions, now linked to Easter (Mar/Apr), are generally rooted in pre-Christian fertility rites, marking the arrival of spring and symbolising health, growth, renewal...

And there is a very good reason for it: Spring willow is full of growth hormones...Which is why I put the spring branch cuttings into water for watering my flowers...I talked about this in my post "Willow in Slavic folklore": 

I also talked about the use of willow trumpets in May day/Beltain/St George's day rituals in

In the past in the Balkans, during the night before St George's day, processions of men and boys roamed the villages blowing willow bark trumpets "to scare the witch (winter) away"...The same ritual was performed in Cornwall too on May Day. I talk about this in my post "May horns"...

May day/Beltain/St George's day is the day which in South Slavic and Celtic calendar marks the end of cold, dark half of the year, and the beginning of the hot, light half of the year...

I also talked about the use of willow in spring fertility (sexual) rituals among the Etruscans in my post "Whipping fresco", where I give full symbolic analysis of this 5th c. BC Etruscan fresco, Tarquinia, Tomb of the whipping...Depicting...Well you can all see the obvious bit that it is depicting...Right? 🙂

BTW, the now tame Slavic spring willow rituals could once have been equally as explicit as the Etruscan ones...Considering the beliefs like this:

In Serbia people believed that women become very horny and very fertile in spring, when willows started putting out new green shoots ...So this was the best time to make babies...🙂 

And rituals like this:

Willow, the tree which grows next to water, is associated with rain, water and female fertility, female sexuality...Hence ritual whipping of teenage girls by teenage boys using willow whips, performed in the Czech Republic, Slovakia on Easter Sunday...

I talk about this in my post "Willow in Slavic folklore" about willow and fertility in Slavic folklore. 

Anyway...

Esus was Gallic god whose Romans equated with either Mercury or Mars...Which is it? It doesn't mater...

In Roman times, Mar/Apr-Oct/Nov was the "war season", which was opened and closed with the appropriate religious festivities presided by the Salii priests...

As I asked in the comments to this post, but didn't get any answer, I wonder if Celts also had "War Season"?

The Gallic chieftain Dumnorix, literally "king of the world" in Gaulish, of the Aedui tribe, is depicted holding a severed head on a silver coin (first half 1st century BCE)

I would say yes, they did. I think that the Celts, like many societies in antiquity, had their "war season" aligned with the agricultural and weather cycles...

Warfare was most common during the warmer months, roughly from after spring agricultural work, planting, ended until before autumn agricultural work, harvest, began...

So Esus could have been a war god, Mars, announcing (by cutting the willow branches with cranes in Mar/Apr) the start of the war season, starting (most likely) in Apr/May...

Here he is depicted on another panel from a four sided column dedicated to Mercury, dated to the early Roman imperial period, and found in Trier, France. He is depicts as a young man chopping a willow tree, which holds a bull and three birds...

Also, according to the Irish tradition, before the Tuatha De Danan went to war against Fomori, Lugh, the leader of the Tuatha De Danan danced the "Corrghuineacht" (crane dance) around his warriors on one leg, with one eye closed and one arm outstretched, while cursing their enemies...

So the arrival of cranes and their mating dance was also an announcement of the beginning of the war season...

But ESUS could have also been Mercury/Hermes...

Hermes himself was a deified calendar marker for Apr/May...Every single plant and animal that features prominently in his mythology is a calendar marker for Apr/May...I talk about this in these articles:

Happy birthday Hermes! According to the "Homeric hymn to Hermes", Hermes was born "on the fourth day of the month" but the name of the month was never mentioned...So a mystery...Solved using animal and plant calendar markers: it's 4th of May. I talk about this in my post "When grapes flower"...

What did Hermes do first after he was born? 

He stole Apollo's cows. 

He then invented fire drill, made fire, and sacrificed one of the cows to the gods...

I talked about this in my post "12 Olympians" about (apparently inexplicable 🙂) link between Hermes and Hestia (fire)

What did Hermes do after that? He invented a lyre which he gifted to Apollo...A very special lyre...In exchange, Apollo gave him Caduceus topped with two snakes...

I talk about this in my post "Lyre of Apollo", in which I present the analysis of the animal and plant calendar markers embedded into the story about the birth of Hermes, particularly the part related to him making the first lyre, which he later swapped with Apollo for the caduceus...Bull, Tortoise, Snake are all animal calendar markers for Apr/May, the time of Hermes...

Finally, are the wings on the hat worn by Hermes/Mercury actually cockerel wings? Cockerel is also an animal calendar marker for Apr/May, the time of Hermes...I talk about this in my post "Cock fight mosaic", where I talk about the link between Hermes/Mercury, cockerels and (god of rain) thunder storms...

Remember, Mercury/Hermes was Herald of the Thunder God Jupiter/Zeus...Guess when the thunderstorm season starts in Europe? In Apr/May, the months of Mercury/Hermes...And peaks in Jul/Aug...

So Esus could have been Mercury, the herald of Jupiter...Which is interesting, cause the next panel in the same row on the Pillar of the Boatmen, next to the one with Esus, depicts Juptier, standing, holding a spear and a thunderbolt. The inscription reads "IOVIS"...

How cool is this? It get EVEN EVEN cooler...

Mercury/Hermes was the protector of trade and traders. During Celtic/Roman/Greek times, long distance trade in Europe started in Apr/May. After the snow melted, making roads passable, after ice melted, making rivers passable, after winter storms passed, making seas passable...

Which is quite interesting, considering that all of this is depicted on a Roman column erected in Lutetia (modern Paris) in honour of Jupiter by the guild of boatmen...

How cool is this? It gets EVEN EVEN EVEN cooler...

In Irish myths, Lugh, Thunder God, carried his most precious magical relics in a crane skin bag, the corr bolg, as did Manannan mac Lir, the Sea and Warrior God!

As I said, Trading, War and Thunderstorms all stared in Apr/May, right after the arrival of cranes...

How cool is this? Well, here is the coolest part...

The last panel in this same row depicts Vulcan/Hephaestus, standing, with hammer and tongs. The inscription reads "VOLCANVS"...

Why Vulcan/Hephaestus? 

Cause he was a Holy Craftsman...

So?

When were boats repaired during Roman times? Well of course, during the "non sailing season", Oct/Nov - Mar/Apr...

Which makes me wonder if the first row of panels on the Pillar of the Boatmen is actually a calendar:

TARVOS TRIGARANOS: Spring (Jan/Feb-Apr/May)

ESUS: Summer (Apr/May-Jul/Aug)

IOVIS: Autumn (Jul/Aug-Oct/Nov)

VOLCANVS: Winter (Oct/Nov-Jan/Feb)

I told you...I think we just managed to decipher the meaning of the first row of panels form Pillar of the Boatmen. What do you think? I will leave deciphering the rest of this pillar for some other time. I think this is quite enough for today...

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...

Shaking the olive tree

Mosaic of Farming Activities from Julia Caesarea, Algeria. Agriculture was paramount to the Numido-Romans.

Numidia was successful in becoming a main provider of agricultural surpluses to other parts of the Empire, and this achievement was depicted in many very fine floor mosaics

This Roman mosaic is depicting two people ploughing the field and sowing grain. Behind is an olive tree full of dark coloured almost ripe olives. Cherchell, Algeria.   

In Algeria grain is sown starting in Oct/Nov and olives are harvested also starting in Oct/Nov...

Here is an interesting use of ripe olives as a plant calendar marker: 

Persephone "...cried out...calling upon her father... But no one...heard her voice...nor yet the olive-trees bearing rich fruit..." That's just before olive harvest, which starts in Oct/Nov...I talked about this in my post "Abduction of Persephone"...

Persephone, deified grain seed...Abducted and taken "under ground"...Sown...Grain sowing season in Greece starts in Oct/Nov...And so does the olive harvest season...

Here is a much much older example of the use of olive tree full of ripe fruit as plant calendar marker from Knossos, Crete: Minoan fresco, depicting ibex goats (Mating starts Oct/Nov) flanking the (olive) tree of life (harvest starts Oct/Nov) while crocuses are blooming all around (blooming and harvest starts Oct/Nov)...I talked about this in my post "Goat riding thunder god"... 

Now check this out: 

A while back I came across this X post by @Michssspp82096:

Numerous Minoan gold rings  depict individuals shaking trees. This could represent the main form of divination in Bronze age Crete...

So I replied: 

You shake trees to get fruit down...Like olives...Look at these beauties. Almost ready to be harvested...

In Crete, Olive harvest starts in Oct/Nov, which is also the beginning of the rain season...Super super important...

And now that I thought about it, these trees from Minoan seals, that always looked weird to me

do look like olive trees...

On Minoan Crete it was Goddess who was linked to rain, goats, crocuses and fertility...Talked about it in my posts "Mesa Mouliana vessel", "Anavlochos mountain", "Goat riding thunder god", "Male female Minoan bowl", "Minoan flying goddess with griffin", "Saffron", "Origin of saffron"...

I now think she was also linked to olives...And shaking of olive branches might have indeed been a ritual linked with rain and fertility...

Shaking of olive branches makes olives fall and they only start to fall when they are fully ripe and when they are fully ripe, in Oct/Nov...rain starts to fall...Fucking cool...

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...

A toast to Inanna

A small lapis lazuli disc, 2100-1900 BC, Trans-Elamite period, Southeastern Iran. Currently in Louvre...

What does it depict? Some say "a pair of lovers sharing a drink"...I would disagree. Here is why:

One side of the disc depicts a bare chested woman seating on a stool. She wears a skirt with a hatching pattern. Facing her, a kneeling bare chested man wearing a plain skirt who presents her with a cup...

Crescent moon and star above...

The other side of the disc depicts the man, now seating on a stool. Facing him is the same woman, kneeling on the ground and drinking from the same cup...

Star and crescent moon above...

Now what is interesting is that as the star is always above the woman and the crescent moon is always above the man. Which I think identifies these figures as 

Star - (Elamite version of) Inanna

Crescent moon - (Elamite version of) Sin

Another interesting thing is that the man (Sin) gives the cup to the woman (Inanna) and that she then drinks from it...What could that mean?

To figure this out we need to look at the climate in Mesopotamia/Iran and the way crescent moon sets during the year. 

In Mesopotamia/Iran the climatic year is divided into a hot dry half (Apr/May - Oct/Nov) and cool wet half (Oct/Nov - Apr/May)...

During the winter, the ecliptic plane intersects the western horizon at its steepest, most vertical angle at sunset. Because a waxing crescent Moon follows right behind the Sun along this steep line, it sits directly above the Sun. This makes the crescent look like a upright bowl (the "wet moon") that sinks straight down into the horizon...

So basically, in Mesopotamia/Iran, the crescent moon points upwards during the wet season, the season which turns parched, dry wasteland into fertile grazing and farm land. This is why Moon god Sin was so venerated. I talked about this originally in my post "Moon god Nana - Sin"

BTW, Jan/Feb, when the Wet Moon starts approaching it's most vertical position is also the beginning of the snowmelt in the Iranian mountains...And snowmelt is the main contributor to the annual flood of Tigris and Euphrates...

I talk about the Wet Moon and why Moon Gods were so important in places where winter is the rainy part of the year in many of my other posts too...

Inanna was directly linked to land fertility, particularly with cattle, grain, date fertility. I talked about this in my posts "Inanna in Egypt", "Chalcedony stamp", "Rhomb", "Mother of grain", "Sacred marriage on the threshing floor"...and many others...

"Man — despite his artistic pretensions, his sophistication, and his many accomplishments — owes his existence to a six-inch layer of topsoil and the fact that it rains."

So, for (Mother) earth to become fertile and to produce grain and grass/cattle it needs (to drink) water (rain/snow melt). And I think that this is what is symbolically depicted through "the woman (Inanna) drinking from the cup given to her by the man (Sin)"...

I already talked about this symbolism of drinking from a cup in my post "Tulip goddess", in which I give symbolic analysis of this cool seal depicting a seated female figure (goddess? ) drinking out of a goblet - next to a tulip, bronze seal, late 3rd - early 2nd mill BC, (BMAC), Afghanistan. Currently in a Private collection Linenthal, San Francisco. Tulips as calendar markers for snowmelt/flood season in Central Asia... 

And in my post "Lapis lazuli water seal", in which 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. Currently in the British Museum...

Oh and the fact that the disc we are talking about was made from lapis lazuli (water stone) is another indicator that the scene we are seeing depicted on it is not just a depiction of a couple having few casual drinks...

Tigris and Euphrates annual flood (fed by snowmelt caused by the sun) peaks in Taurus, beginning of summer...

So golden bull's head (sun) with lapis beard (flowing water)  

I talked about this in my posts "Shamash young and old", "When Utu steps up to heaven", "Problems of Abzu", "Butt chewing", "Maran", "Lyres of Ur", "Solar bull"...

So, to conclude, the disc depicts the symbolic drinking of the cup (rain, snowmelt) by Inanna (Earth) filled by Sin (Wet Moon)...

PS: The goddess is probably Proto Anahita who was linked to Isthar/Inanna. Talked about her in my post "Rainbows and peacocks", in which I provide symbolic analysis of this Sassanian dish, 400-600AD, Iran, Currently in Al Thani collection. 

Half way down the post you will see the same Elamite goddess in a skirt with a hatching pattern resembling sheep skin kaunakes holding a rainbow...Proving (at least) 3000 years cultural continuity in Iran...

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...