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...