Dancing goat men from Luristan

Ok how cool is this? Bronze top for a standard. ca. 8th–7th century BC. Luristan, Iran...Two male (judging by the sticky-outy bits 🙂 but I am not sure, more later) human figures with Ibex goat ears and horns holding hands...Met Museum...

So what's this about?

Ibex is the most depicted thing on ancient artifacts in Iran from Neolithic until the arrival of Islam. I talked about this in my post "Goat petroglyphs from Iran"...

And the 1st millennium BC Luristan is no exception. Ibex is everywhere...As a matter of fact some of the most amazing bronze Ibexes I have seen were made in Luristan at that time. Like this staff top depicting two male ibex goats holding "hands" from Lacma collection... 

Why? Because the beginning of the rain season (Oct/Nov) in Western Iran

coincides with the beginning of the mating season of the Ibex goats...Which starts with vicious male goat fights for females...

See how only male Ibex goats have big horns...

This is why I think that both human figures with male Ibex horns on the original staff top are actually male. And if the the one on the left once also had "a sticky-outy bit, well, sticking out" but it got broken off...Look at the above staff top with two ibexes, not ibex men, from LACMA collection...They both have "sticky-outy bits" 🙂...

Rain, heavenly semen, is what impregnates Mother Earth who then gives birth to life...And that heavenly semen starts flowing when Ibex semen starts flowing. Which is why in Iran we find a direct symbolic link between Ibex semen, rain and flowing water...I talked about this in my post "Vessel from Tepe Hissar" about this amazing object...

More ejaculating goats from Iran can be found in my post "Iranian goat of rain" about this amazing book...

Ibex goat eventually became "The goat of rain" and then it became "The god of rain" with goat horns...The "goat man", with the same goat horns, 3000BC, Persian Gulf...

I talked about this figurine in my post "Strider"...

And finally goat (ibex and markhor) became "the sacred animal" of the gods. I talked about this in my post "Goat carrier"...   

So finally what does this staff top depict? A ritual performed by men with Ibex goat headgear? A rain invocation ritual? Pretending to be "fighting" or "dancing" virile goats of rain? 

If you are interested in animal (and plant) calendar markers, start here, then check the rest of the blog posts I still didn't add to this jump page (I got lazy after a while), and finally check my twitter threads @serbiaireland I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 11 months behind now...