Lions with grain tails

A while back I wrote an article about the Khafajeh vase, which was made in Iran in the mid 3rd mil. BC by the people of the Jiroft culture...It is still one of the most amazing animal calendars I have seen so far...

This particular scene depicts the driest and hottest part of the year in the Jiroft County, located in the Kerman Province of the South-Eastern Iran...Jul/Aug...Leo...

This is symbolised by the person holding two snakes (symbols of sun's heat) standing between two lions (in Leo)...

This "person" is the sun god, the same dude depicted on this Bactrian seal from the same period. I talked about this in my post "Bactrian snakes and dragons"...

What I didn't notice at the time when I wrote my article were the tips of the lions' tails. They end in what looks like wheat ears...Why? Is this significant?

Well, in my post "Shamash young and old" I talked about young and old sun god Utu/Shamash from Mesopotamian mythology...

He is most often depicted as a man with heat rays radiating from his shoulders...See here, Shamash standing in a dried up canal during the hottest and driest part of the year, Jul/Aug, in Leo, holding a reed cutting knife (that is the best time to cut reeds for making houses and boats)...In Leo is again depicted as "between the lions"...I talked about this in my post "Canals"...

But Utu/Shamash is often depicted as a bull with human face and long flowing beard...

Sometimes Utu/Shamash is depicted as a bull with human face and a long flowing beard having his butt chewed by a winged lion...This is because summer, symbolised by a bull, ends in Leo...I talked about this in my post "Butt chewing"...

Here is another one of those depictions of the sun god Utu/Shamash as a bull with human face and a long flowing beard. But this time he also has a tail that ends in a ear of wheat...Why? Is this significant?

Well it is. Utu/Shamash is depicted as a bull, cause summer starts in Apr/May, in Taurus, the time when Wild Eurasian Cattle begin to calve...I talked about this in my posts "Dairy farming seal", "Green pastures" and many others...Summer as a season is most often symbolised by a bull too...I talked about this in my post "Symbols of the seasons"...

This is also the time of the peak flood of the Tigris and Euphrates, which is caused by the snowmelt on the mountains that feed these two great rivers, which is in turn caused by the sun, Utu/Shamash...Hence golden bull (sun metal) with blue lapis (water stone) beard 

Apr/May, Taurus, is also the time when the grain harvest  begins in Mesopotamia...Hence bulls and grain...And bulls with grain tails...I talked abut this in my posts "Bulls and grain bowls" and "How grain came to Sumer"

But what does this have to do with the lions with grain tails from the Jiroft vase? Well...

I googled Iran grain harvest season and (eventually) found this: "wheat harvest season is approximately 4.5 months in Iran starting in early April up to mid-August, depending on the region and it's local climate"...

According to this paper about the affect of the global warming on grain agriculture in Iran, "...most of the wheat in Iran is cultivated in October and harvested in July..."

Finally I found this: "KERMAN, Aug. 13 (MNA) – Farmers of Deh Ziyar village in Kerman province, harvest wheat using traditional methods"... 

Basically they are harvesting grain in Leo...

Is Jul/Aug really grain harvest season in Kerman province? Is this why lions on this vase made by the people of the Jiroft culture from the Kerman province of Iran have tails that end in grain ears?

PS: I just looked at the pictures of the wheat being harvested in Kerman province. It looks like one of the old wheat types, emmer, durum, which are both awned (with bristles). 

Durum wheat is the predominant wheat type grown in the Middle East. And it is traditionally a "spring wheat" which is sown in Feb/Mar and harvested in Jul/Aug. It has lower yields, thick husks, long bristles and is resistant to high temperatures...

It fits...