Mythology from the Standard of Ur

One of the side panels of the Standard of Ur "depicting mythological scenes...Of unknown meaning..." Found at the Royal Cemetery of Ur, dated to the Early Dynastic (ED) Period (c. 2900–2350 BCE). 

Of course these are not mythological scenes. These are animal calendar markers for the major climate seasons in Mesopotamia...These are the four seasons with their corresponding animal symbols:

Animals which symbolise each season either mate or give birth during that season...You can read more about in my post "Symbols of the seasons". These are not the only animals used in Eurasia and North Africa as the symbols for the seasons, but they are most common ones. 

For instance you can replace wild goat with gazelle as they have the same mating season, starting in Oct/Nov and are interchangeable as animal calendar markers...

I talked about goats and gazelles as animal calendar markers in many of my posts. For instance this one: "Pissing gazelle"...

Ok, so let's analyze the Scenes from the standard of Ur from the animal calendar markers point of view:

Bottom: Autumn: symbolised by a bull (summer) being killed by a winged lion (autumn)...

I talked about the winged lions killing bulls (well chewing bull's butts to be more precise 🙂) in my post "Butt chewing"

That winged lion (actually creature with lion's head and eagle tail) is autumn...Chewing on the butt of summer...

Autumn which starts "when lions begin to mate"...

I talked about this in my post "Entemena vase"....

And ends "when vultures begin to mate"...

I talked about this in my post "Double headed eagle"...

Middle: Winter, rain season, symbolised by a Goitered gazelle, a green bush on a mountain, and a person holding a drinking cup. 

I talked about why Goitered gazelle is the symbol of winter and rain in my post "Two headed dragon"...

Goitered gazelles mating season starts in early winter (Oct/Nov)...At the same time as Ibex (Bezoar) goat. Our "Goat of Rain"... This is why both of these animals are the symbol of winter, more precisely the beginning of winter...

Top: Spring/Summer: Rain and snow which fell on the mountains during winter (prancing gazelle on the left) is melted by the sun of the spring and summer (prancing bull on the right) causing Tigris and Euphrates flood which peaks in Taurus (bull). 

I talked about this in my post "Rain and flood"

Interesting...Mythological...Well, you can make mythology from it if you want to earn a living from being a priest...

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...