The Vettersfelde Treasure is a treasure trove of gold objects, which was found by chance in what was then Vettersfelde in the Province of Brandenburg (modern Witaszkowo, near Gubin, Poland) in 1882. The treasure is now in the Antikensammlung Berlin...
The main objects in the trove are: a fish shaped plaque, four discs plaque, and a cover of a dagger sheath. All these objects are dated to the early 6th century BC, are decorated in the steppe "animal style", and are believed to be "of Scythian origin"...
How they ended up in the North Poland is still debated. Original theory was that during a Scythian expedition into central Europe, a Scythian prince died and was buried near Brandenburg with the trove forming part of his grave-offerings. But this is today disputed...
As interesting as the origin of the hoard is, I find what is depicted on the objects more interesting...From the point of view of animal calendar markers and their presence in Scythian (???) culture...
I already talked about the presence of animal calendar markers in the steppe "animal style" decorated objects in two previous articles.
In my article about "Combs from Tuva"
And in my article about "Tasmola talisman"
In them I showed that that animals used were not depicted together randomly. Rather, the animals that are depicted together, are the animal calendar markers, used to mark the same part of the year...
In the paper "Der Goldfund von Vettersfelde" (in German) we can find high definition drawings of the objects from the Vettersfelde Treasure which allow us to see precisely what animals are depicted on them...
In the rest of this article I will analyze the scenes depicted on these objects and will try to explain why they were decorated the way they were...
The cover the of the dagger sheath.
On top we can see a lion chasing the sun. Lion is primarily symbol of autumn (Aug,Sep,Oct) because this is when the main Eurasian lion's mating season takes place. This is what Leo marks 🙂. Start of lion mating season.
Below the lion chasing sun, in the top strip, we see a wild boar (mating season, beginning of winter, Nov/Dec/Jan) being chased by a Eurasian leopard (mating season, end of winter, Jan/Feb). So the top strip symbolises winter...
I talked about boar as a symbol for the beginning of winter, and winter itself, in my posts "Tasmola talisman","Calydonian boar", "Double headed eagle", "Overpowering"...
I talked about leopard as a symbol for the end of winter, and winter itself, in my posts "Leopard and tiger", "Furious Maenad", "Spots and stripes", "Two headed dragon", "Griffin killing lizard", "Vessel from Tepe Hissar"...
Below that, in the bottom strip, we see a Persian fallow deer (mating season, autumn, Aug/Sep) being chased by an Eurasian lion (mating season, autumn, Aug/Sep/Oct). So the bottom strip symbolises autumn...
I talked about deer as a symbol for autumn in my posts "Mycenaean ostrich egg with seasons", "Queen Puabi's cylinder seal", "Entemena Vase", "Upside down"...
I talked about lion as the symbol for the beginning of autumn (Jul/Aug) the hottest time of the year, and for autumn itself in my posts "Mycenaean ostrich egg with seasons", "Musth", "Lions vs buffalos", "Summer and winter seal", "Winged superhuman hero"...
Interestingly, the mating seasons of wild boar and Eurasian leopards overlap at the end of winter, the coldest part of the year. While the mating seasons of the Persian fallow deer and Eurasian lions overlaps at the beginning of autumn, the hottest part of the year...
So it is possible that these two scenes actually depict the two "old" seasons: summer (Apr/May-Oct/Nov) and winter (Oct/Nov-Apr-May) with coldest part (Leopard) and Hottest part (Lion)
Why are fishes there? Well, it is possible that some migratory fish, which lived in the rivers flowing through the territory where the artist that made this object lived, migrated up the river "after autumn and winter", which is why the fishes are depicted following the other animals??? That this is indeed the case becomes clear when we see the next object.
Fish shaped plaque.
In the top strip on the fish's body, we find the same two pairs of animals we find on the dagger sheath cover. From the head: lion chasing deer (autumn), leopard chasing boar (winter).
In the bottom strip on the fish's body, we find fish, fish, fish...Lots of fish swimming together. And dolphins...And a fish man...Strange things for steppe nomads to be into, right? But not for people living around the Black and Azov seas and along the great rivers that empty into them.
Like Greek colonists from many Greek cities dotting the Scythian coast...And they were into fish and fishing. And dolphins. And probably the fish guys (any idea who he could be?).
This is why I believe that these gold objects were made in one of these cities, by a Greek...
The tail is made up of two ram heads and a bird in flight. Ram is usually used as a symbol for spring (Feb/Mar/Apr). You can read more about the symbols of the seasons in my post "Symbols of the seasons"
The lambing season of the wild Eurasian sheep takes place in (Mar/Apr). I talked about this in my post "Ram and bull". The end of the lambing season is the beginning of the milking season. This important event is marked by Aries (Mar/Apr), which has to die in order for Taurus (Apr/May) to begin...Which is why we sacrifice lambs at this time of the year...I talked about this in my post "Aries must die"...
So why are these ram heads here? Well, they represent spring (Feb/Mar/Apr) which follows winter, represented by leopard killing boar (Nov/Dec/Jan), which follows autumn, represented by lion killing deer (Aug/Sep/Oct)...More specifically, they represent Aries (Mar/Apr) which follows Pisces (Feb/Mar)...
What about the bird? What kind of bird is it? It looks like a raptor. Is it possible that this is some kind of migratory raptor that arrives back to the steppe in spring? Or nests in spring?
Interestingly, there is an eagle that nests in Mar/Apr and which fishes during the warm part of the year. And even eats dolphins (dead, stranded ones to be fair). White tailed eagle which lives along the Black and Azov sea coast...
And Pontic Greeks depicted it on their coins both
eating fish
and eating dolphins
I talked about this in my post "Eagle eating dolphin"...
Cool, right?
The discs.
Top left, boar facing leopard (we have seen this already here, end of winter), and lion facing bull (we haven't seen this here so far, but it represents the end of summer)...
Summer (May/Jun/Jul) starts in Taurus (Apr/May). Taurus, which marks the beginning of the calving season of the Eurasian wild cattle. I talked about this in my post "Ram and bull". This makes bull the most common symbol for the beginning of summer and the summer itself. I talked about this in my posts "Symbols of the seasons", "Green pastures", "Rain and flood", "Dairy farming seal", "But chewing", "Holy cow", "White calf"...
Here we could be looking again at the depiction of winter vs summer: coldest part of the year (Jan/Feb, wild boar and leopard mating season) and hottest part of the year (Jul/Aug, wild cattle and lion mating season)...
Top right, wolf facing ibex goat, and two rams facing each other...
Ibex goats mate during winter (Nov/Dec/Jan) and just like wild boar are common symbol for winter. Actually the most common symbol for winter. I talked about Ibex symbolism in my posts "Combs from Tuva", "Goat riding thunder god", "Krampus" "Goat petroglyphs from Iran", "Tanngnjostr and Tanngrisnir"...
Wolves mate in Jan/Feb/Mar, at the end of winter. Which makes them a very good symbol for the end of winter and winter itself. I talked about this in my post "Tasmola talisman"
So that part depicts winter.
What about two rams? This can either be the mating season of the wild sheep (Nov-Jan) or lambing season of the wild sheep (Mar/Apr)...I am not sure...Most likely spring...
Bottom left. Dog chasing hare. The hare mating period starts end of January, beginning of February. I talked about this in my post "Winter spirit". Hare is one of the most common symbols of spring...
The mating season of hares ends at the end of July, beginning of August...Right when the mating season of the old primitive dog breeds starts, in dog days...I talked about this in my post "Dog days"...
Which is also when the mating season of both Persian fallow deer and Eurasian lions starts...I talked about this in my post "Entemena vase"...
So both dog/hare and lion/deer point to the same time of the year, beginning of Aug...
Bottom right...Four leopards facing each other...I have no idea what this could be. Maybe whoever made this object just liked leopards very much 🙂 Or maybe they loved sturgeon fish very much, which start migrating upstream (when it is the best time to catch it), in Feb/Mar, right after leopards finish their mating season in Jan/Feb...
That is not really that important...
Important thing is that these objects were not decorated with a random depictions of animals. Whoever made these objects used the same old animal calendar markers in the same way all the ancient cultures used them to create their "religions"...
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...
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