Scarlet-Ware harvest vase

This is one of the so called Scarlet-Ware vases, dated to between 2900-2750 BC and found in Tell Agrab, a tell settlement in the Diyala River valley, Iraq...

This is a fascinating object. Beautiful "decorations" are actually panels of an ancient comic strip depicting grain harvest. And telling people when to harvest...Using animal calendar markers...

Here is the part of the Sumerian agricultural calendar which shows the harvest time. The harvest starts at the beginning of summer (Apr/May) and ends at the end of summer (Jul/Aug)

Here is the full unrolled "comic" from the vase. You read it from right to left...

1. Grain is growing tall. That this is indeed symbol for grain, can be seen from the fact that the same symbol was put on grain granaries in Kurdistan until 20th century. Aliabad women standing beside a grain bin, Iranian Kurdistan...From "Home is where we keep our food: The origins of agriculture and Late Pre-Pottery Neolithic food storage". Very important image, as it confirms that this design pattern, found on pottery and figurines since the Earliest Neolithic all over Eurasia, means "grain"... 

2. Summer (symbolised by a bull and the suns above the bull) begins. I talked about the symbols of the seasons in my post "Symbols of the seasons"...

3. Bull is the symbol of summer, because 

It begins with the calving season of the wild Eurasian cattle 

Ends with the mating season of the wild Eurasian cattle

Unfortunately the Aurochs (wild Eurasian cattle) are extinct now, so I used pics of domestic cattle...I wrote about it in my post "Ram and bull"...

4. The beginning of the summer, Taurus, is symbolised by the head of the bull. Is the wavy line coming out of the bull's mount the Diyala river, whose water level peaks in Apr/May, in Taurus? 

I talked about this link between bulls and flood in Mesopotamian mythology and art in my post "Elamite water bull"...

The end of the summer is symbolised by the aroused penis of the bull, symbolising the beginning of the Auroch mating season...

5. Bull season (summer) is the harvest season...Hence many artefacts where ripe grains are depicted together with cattle...

I talked about this in my posts "How grain came to Sumer", "Bulls and grains bowls"...

6. Above the bull are pests 🙂 birds and rats...Watch out for pesky pests, so they don't run away with your grain...

7. In the next panel, are the cut off ears of grain...Harvest is finished...The final panel of this amazing ancient comic strip depicts three women doing what? I would say winnowing with trays, a job usually done by women...

What do you think?

This is seriously cool...

The vase images are from this great publication by the University of Chicago: "OIP 63 Pottery from the Diyala Region"...

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...

Elamite water bull

c. 3000BC, Proto-Elamite silver figurine of a clothed kneeling bull which "shows a curious blend of human and animal traits"... holding a spouted vessel. Currently in the Met Museum... The artefact page says: "possibly a symbol of a natural force"...So who (or what) does this figurine represent?

My guess is either Enki (Sumerian god of sweet water) or Utu (Sumerian sun god)...Or their unnamed Elamite equivalent who possibly combines both of them in one...

What do either Enki or Utu have to do with bulls?

In "Enki and the world order" we read: "...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..."

You have to imagine this, no pics 🙂

In the same text we also reed: "Enki placed in charge of the whole of heaven and earth the hero, the youth Utu (Shamash), the bull standing triumphantly, audaciously, majestically...the great herald in the east of holy An...with a lapis-lazuli beard, rising from the horizon..."

Hence Shamash depicted as a golden (solar) bull with lapis lazuli (water) beard... 

These identifications of these two gods with a bull is not coincidental. These are yearly charts of the water levels in Tigris and Euphrates. You can see that they both peak in Apr/May, Taurus, Bull...

Tigris 

Euphrates

This is the result of the heating up of the mountains which are the source of the two great rivers: Anatolian highlands and the Zagros mountains...Which causes the snow to melt, which causes the rivers to swell...

Snow cover (inverted snowmelt), Zagros

River flow, Zagros

Sun (Utu), "the triumphant bull" melts the snow and fees the water (Enki) who then fills the two rivers, right at the beginning of the calving season of the wild Eurasian cattle, when "wild cows moo for their young in the wild grass"...

I talked about this in my posts "Solar bull" "Shamash young and old", "Butt chewing", "Green pastures", "Rain and flood"...

Hence Enki, bull who ejaculates two rivers...Hence Elamite bull holding a water vessel with a spout, pouring rivers in Taurus...

The link between Taurus and the maximum river water levels is also found on the artifacts of the Jiroft culture, which flourished in the Zagros mountains in the 3rd millennium BC. 

Rivers flowing out of bulls. Held by a figure dressed just like the Elamite bull. I talked about this in my post "Jiroft flood vase"...

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...

Golden eagles from Costa Rica

Article about animal calendar markers from Central America. Today @dalaygiz posted a very interesting tweet (which unfortunately I'm not allowed to retweet) with pics of Gold "Double Headed Eagles", made in Costa Rica between 700 and 1530 AD by people of Diquis culture...

Diquis culture is best known for their stone spheres, which are littering Cost Rican landscape...But I will leave the discussion about these artefacts to others...I have nothing really to contribute to it... 🙂

Instead I will concentrate on their gold eagle pendants...Cause I think I can shed some light on their meaning 🙂...By the way they also made single headed eagle pendants too...

So what's all this about? Well remember my article about the "Double Headed Eagle" axe head, made between 2500-1500 BC in Bactria? I talked about it in my post "Double headed eagle"...

In this post I explained the emergence of a "Vulture" animal calendar marker in the area of Mesopotamia, Iran and and Central Asia...It's all to do with the local climate and the mating behaviour of old world vultures...

The climatic year in the region is divided into hot, dry half of the year (Apr/May-Oct/Nov), and cool, wet half of the year (Oct/Nov-Apr/May). And right at the beginning of the wet season, Vultures begin to mate...

During their mating season, which spans winter months (Nov, Dec, Jan), they perform courtship aerial displays, where the pairs fly together over one another with outstretched wings...

Which look like this from the ground...

Hence eagles dance

Syria, 1800BC. Eagle (vulture) couples dance above the mountains at the beginning of their mating season, which coincides with the beginning of the rain season in Fertile Crescent...

Montenegro 1963AD. Newly married couple dance Oro, Eagle Dance

I talked about this in my post about the "Eagle dance"...

And why we find that in Mesopotamia the Rain God was originally imagined as a "great black bird with outstretched wings". 

I talked about it in my post "Mysterious creature". BTW, Gazelles, the animals depicted around the tree (of life) also begin mating in Oct/Nov...

This is also why we find Eagle Dudes all over this area. Left Aleppo. Right Nimrud...Why are they hiding the same bags and pine cones? Pine cone harvest season starts when vultures begin to mate and when grain sowing takes place...I talked about this in my post "Eagle dude from Aleppo"...

And in general why we find eagle dudes all over this area...I talked about this in my post "Eagle calendar marker"...

Different climate, different eagle, marking different time of the year, the same meaning: Eagle = Thunderstorm season...

Eagle-Snake struggle mosaic from the palace of the Emperor Justinian I  (527-565), Istambul...This is actually a complex animal calendar marker for the thunderstorm season in Europe Apr/May -  Sep/Oct, when migratory snake eagles can be seen in Europe...I talked abut this in my post "Eagle snake struggle"...

This is also why (most likely) Slavic Thunder God is called Perun...My article "Pero" is about feathers, ferns, lightning, feather/fern like lightning scars and thunder gods...Also about "pero" (feather) being the root of the name of the Slavic thunder god "Perun" which would make him "The Feathered Dude" or "The Eagle Dude"... 

Ok...This is all very cool...But what does this have to do with Costa Rican eagle pendants? How are they related? Well, this morning, when I saw original tweet by @dalaygiz I had no idea if these two eagle symbols are in any way related...Now I know.

They are both animal calendar markers for the beginning of the rain season in the area where they were made...I already explained why this is true in Eurasia...Let me explain why this is true in Costa Rica...

Let's start with saying that there are two main vulture types living in Costa Rica:

Black vulture 

Turkey vulture

And it seems that both of these vulture species start mating in their northern ranges in March...Costa Rica falls into "northern ranges"...

At the beginning of their mating season, both species perform courtship aerial displays. And they also dance on the ground, with their wings spread wide... 🙂 You can see a video showing it here...

And this is climatic year in Costa Rica...The rain season starts right after the vultures start dancing...

Oh and guess what. During the whole rain season, you can see this: vultures standing with their wings spread to dry them, before soaring into the air...

So if you wanted to symbolically depict "rain season" in Costa Rica, you could use a vulture with spread wings...Right?

Well, that's that...My first application of the animal calendar marker theory to American artefacts and mythology, and bingo...

It shows that this is a natural was to make calendar symbols. Using annually reoccurring events from local animal and plant life (mating, birthing, migration, flowering, fruiting) to map significant climatic and agricultural events (rain, drought, sowing, harvest)...

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...

PS: I mean, knowing when the rain is going to come means nothing, unless you actually need it...For instance for farming maize...

And we know that maize has been farmed in Costa Rica and surrounding areas since at least 2nd millennium BC...You can read more about it in "Pre-Columbian agriculture, fire, and Spanish contact: A 4200-year record from Laguna Los Mangos, Costa Rica"...

Now in Central America, the main crop growing season, called "The Primera" season, starts in Mar with corn planting taking place between Apr and Jun...Just after vultures start dancing...

Which is kind of very important...

Solar wheel from Luristan

Wow. Luristan (Western Iran) bronze wheel, 2nd millennium BC. Still trying to establish where is this artifact was found and where it is currently kept...

But this is truly an extraordinary artifact. Hers is why:

All these animals are animal calendar markers...

At the top are ibexes, which represent the cool, wet half of the year (Nov-Apr), because ibexes start to mate at the beginning of the rain season...

I talked about Ibex goats as animal calendar markers in my post about "Dancing goat men from Luristan"

At the bottom are lions, which represent hot, dry half of the year (May-Oct), because lions begin to mate at the beginning of the drought season...

I talked about this in my post about "King killing Angra Mainiu"...

In between are birds, migratory birds. Migratory birds fly over Iran twice: 

Sep-Nov, Autumn, between Lions and Ibexes

Feb-Apr, Spring, between Ibexes and Lions

And all this on a wheel. Ever spinning solar wheel. Representing solar year, with endless succession of winter-ibex, spring-birds, lion-summer, autumn-birds, winter-ibex...

And the wheel has 12 spokes for each month of the year...

Oh, and who's the "Master of the animals"? Have you seen this article about "Goat carrier"?

Interesting, right?

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...