Saturday 11 May 2019

Bird torcs

Very interesting La Tène bronze torcs from Marne region of France. 

The first two are decorated with two birds, most likely ducks, holding a disc. Solar disc? 

Tthe third one is again decorated with birds (ducks?). And triskele (trinity) between them?  



The fourth one is decorated with two birds holding a tree of life?

What is the meaning of these decorations?

Arrival and departure of the migratory birds demarcate the "sunny" part of the year in Europe. Which is also the part of the year when plants grow and give fruit...


This is reflected in Slavic languages. The word for summer "leto" is derived from the word for flight "let" precisely because the summer, the sunny part of the year is demarcated by the arrival and departure of migratory birds. You can read more about in my post "Leto".

Is this what the above torcs are symbolically depicting?

4 comments:

  1. nice !
    however, I think that the word "leto" means as much as warm, not as much as flying.
    In polish we have a "letni" adjective, which also means as much as warm, and it's warm in the ... summer :)
    Meanwhile, birds nest in the summer and rather do not fly anywhere.

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    1. Letni meaning hot is kind of obvious :) The original meaning is summer and warm means "like in the summer". Leto - summer is time between the arrival and departure of the migrating birds. Leto is the time when they are here... You should read about the Macedonian Letnik, which is celebrated every year on March 1 in the old calendar and is associated with the return of migratory birds from southern regions to Macedonia...

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  2. Awesome post.Thanks for sharing.This is so nice.

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  3. I’ve definitely picked up something new from right here.

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