Buffalo licking a jar

This is an impression of an Akkadian cylinder seal, c. 2217-2193 BC, currently in Louvre Museum. This also is one of the best examples of animal calendar markers I have seen...

It shows the same scene, a water buffalo licking a jar, held by a kneeling "man", from which water flows in two streams. The scene is depicted twice symmetrically around the inscription that reads "The Divine Sharkalisharri Prince of Akkad"...

So first, what's the meaning of the jar with two streams flowing out of it? The two flowing streams are two great Mesopotamian rivers, Tigris and Euphrates. And the jar is symbolic depiction of their source...Abzu...

The mountains north of Iraq. 

I talked about this in my posts "Eagle dance" and "Shamash young and old"...

Now the mythological source of Tigris and Euphrates is God of fresh water, known to Sumerians as Enki and to Akkadians as Ea...

Which is why Enki is either depicted sitting on his throne, holding a jar from which water flows out in two streams, like on this cylinder seal...

Or he is depicted sitting on a throne with two streams flowing out of his shoulders...

So the "man" depicting on the seal is Enki...Or someone who wants to show that he has received Enki's blessing (flowing water)...

Ok, so what about the buffaloes? Why are they licking the mouth of the water jars? It's all to do with Mesopotamian climate. The climatic year in Mesopotamia is divided into two halves: summer, hot and dry half (Apr/May-Oct/Nov) and winter, cool and wet half (Oct/Nov-Apr/May)...

The rain and snow that fall during the wet season, and subsequent snowmelt, are the real source of the two great rivers...And the life in the region...

The mating season of the water buffaloes begins in Oct/Nov...

Which coincides with the beginning of the cool, wet half of the year in Mesopotamia...

So the reason why the water buffalo is depicted licking the jar, symbolic source of Tigris and Euphrates, is because the water buffalo is the animal calendar marker which marks the beginning of winter, the wet season, the real source of Tigris and Euphrates...

I talked about water buffalo as an animal calendar marker for winter in Mesopotamia already in the article "Lions vs buffalos" about this amazing Akkadian seal...

One last thing. There is a story about Enki which says: "...Father Enki...he stood up full of lust like a rampant bull, lifted his penis, ejaculated and filled the Tigris with flowing water. He was like a wild cow mooing for its young in the wild grass..." Why?

The rain season in Mesopotamia does start with the mating season of water buffaloes (Oct/Nov). But Tigris and Euphrates reach their peak water level 6 months later, in Apr/May...

Pics: water flow charts

Tigris

Euphrates

This time of the year, Apr/May, is marked by Taurus, Bull...Why? Because this is the beginning of the calving season of the aurochs, Wild Eurasian cattle...I talked about this in my posts "Green pastures", "Rain and flood", "How grain came to Sumer", "Bulls and grain bowls"...And many others....

Hence Enki, the god of fresh water, was at the moment of his ejaculation, at the moment of his climax, at the moment of the peak water levels in the rivers he fills with his heavenly semen, "like a lustful bull" and "like a wild cow mooing for its young in the wild grass"...

So the wet season, the real source of the two great rivers, starts with buffalo and ends, culminates, with bull...