Black basalt stone of Esarhaddon

This rectangular-sided monument made of black basalt in 670 BC, records Assyrian King Esarhaddon's restoration of Babylon, after it was destroyed by his father Sennacherib in 689 BC. Currently in The British Museum, London...

The top side of this memorial (or foundation) stone is carved with a very interesting relief whose meaning is not understood...

I came across the paper "The black stone of Esarhaddon" by D. D. Luckenbil, which claims to have found the solution to the relief riddle. First, here is what the author says is depicted on the relief:

In the upper register we have a shrine surmounted by the horned headdress, symbol of deity. Next a man, probably a king, with hand upraised in adoration. Back of him stands the conventionalized sacred tree. And at the end a bull...

In the lower register there comes, first of all, a symbol of doubtful significance; next a plow with seed drill attached; then a palm tree with two clusters of dates. And, finally, another enigmatic symbol consisting of four circles at the corners of a square...

In the paper, the author then says: "Assuming that the explanation would most probably be found in the texts accompanying the symbols, I made a search which almost immediately led me to what I regard as the solution of the problem"...

"The general meaning [of this sentence] is, I believe, perfectly evident: 'Pictures in colored clay (in the form of) constellations, the likeness of the writing of my name, I engraved (or impressed) thereon'"...

The author of the paper then interprets this as "the symbols on the relief on the black stone of Esarhaddon represent constellations, which have been chosen because each looks similar to one of the cuneiform characters spelling Esarhaddon's name"...

And so the rest of the paper is his attempt to identify which constellations these symbols represent...You can read the full paper here...

However, in the paper, the author says that "The colored' clay does not, of course, fit into a description of the symbols found on the stone or metal memorials. But it does for that impressed upon the clay prisms"...What prisms?

This is the cuneiform prism describing the restoration of Babylon by Esarhaddon, stamped with Assyrian hieroglyphic inscription dated to 676-672 BC. Currently in the Met Museum...

It also has pretty pictures on its top, some of the them the same as the ones found on the top of the black basalt stone. And the guys from the Met say that "Together, the signs are thought to form a cryptographic writing of Esarhaddon’s name and titles"...

Which is possible...Esarhaddon himself said he impressed his name in constellations on colored clay...But I don't think that the symbols on The black stone of Esarhaddon are constellations and that they spell Esarhaddon's name...

Here is what I think that relief means...

In the above clay prism, Esarhaddon, while rebuilding the city, ascribes Babylon’s destruction not to his father, but rather to the anger of Babylon’s chief deity, Marduk, provoked by the Babylonian people’s neglect of their gods and rituals...

In the paper "The black stone of Esarhaddon" we can read about a brick inscription which tells how "for Marduk, his lord, Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, king of Babylon, had made new bricks for Esagila and Babylon"...

The author of the paper then says that "Schmidke's conclusion that this text must come from the end of Esarhaddon's reign, since, 'so long as city and temple lay in ruins, there could be no king of Babylon' is a marvelous bit of reasoning"...

So, were the inscriptions stamped on the bricks after they were in the walls of the restored temple and city? And is the temple shown on the black stone of Esarhaddon, the rebuilt temple of Marduk? I think so...

The temple is "surmounted by the horned headdress, symbol of deity"...The etymology of the name Marduk is conjectured as derived from amar-Utu ("immortal son of Utu" or "bull calf of the sun god Utu")...

The same Sun God Utu depicted as the golden bull with lapis lazuli beard...Why?

Well because It is Shamash/Utu, the sun, that melts the snow on the mountains that feed the sacred rivers, Tigris and 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...

Symbolically, Utu (Sun) climbs to Abzu (Melts the snow on Zagros mountains) and frees Enki from his icy prison (Snowmelt runoff)...

I talked about this in many of my posts. For instance "Maran", "Utu or Enki", "Goatfish", "When Utu steps up to heaven", "Shamash young and old", "Problem of the Abzu"...

This flood peaks during Taurus (Apr/May)...The golden bull (sun in Taurus) brings flood (lapis lazuli beard in a shape of the flowing water)

Taurus of course originally had nothing to do with stars...This part of the year (Apr/May) is marked by a bull, Taurus, Because this is the beginning of the calving season of wild Eurasian 

Which is why 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..."

Oh by the way, the flood peaks in Apr/May, the beginning of summer, when Aurochs calve, and ends in Jul/Aug, the end of summer, when Aurochs mate...Which is why the symbol for summer is Bull...You can read more about this in my post "Symbols of the seasons"...

The flood is what makes the fields (the square) fertile...I talked about square as the symbol for a field in my post "Arjune venus"...

Having fun so far? Let's continue...

Right after the end of the flood, during the driest and hottest part of the year, Jul/Aug, Leo, is time to pick dates...I talked about this in my post "Lion killing bull under a date palm"...

The hottest, driest part of the year is marked by the lion animal calendar marker...Leo...The reason for this is that this is when the Eurasian lions main mating season starts...

The lion mating season lasts throughout autumn (Jul/Aug-Oct/Nov)...Which is why the symbol for autumn is a lion...

At the end of autumn, Oct/Nov, is when the first rains arrive, brought by the goat of rain. Here is rain god Ninurta/Ningirsu, who was, in the earliest records, also agriculture god, giving plough to the people...

He is sitting on a throne, behind which we can see a mountain and an ibex goat. Why? Because in Mesopotamia, ploughing is done after the first rains, which arrive in Oct/Nov, when Ibex, Goat of rain, climbs to the mountain tops and starts mating...

Like on this Akkadian seal, dated to 2250–2150 BC, currently in the Met Museum

The seal doesn't depict hunting scene, like the Met guys think. No one hunts goats with a scimitar...The dude with a scimitar is Nergal, the god of destructive sun, the hot, dry, yellow part of the year. He is killing Ibex, symbol of the cool, wet, green part of the year...

Old Babylonian cylinder seal from Larsa, depicting the underworld (the god of death) Nergal, holding his distinctive scimitar and the double lion headed scepter.  I talked about Nergal and his symbols in my post "Winged superhuman hero"...

I think we covered all the symbols depicted on The black stone of Esarhaddon 🙂 And so here is how this relief "can be" interpreted:

Esarhaddon rebuilds the temple of Marduk, the bull calf of the triumphant bull god Utu. The old faith has been restored...He prays to Marduk, to support (the tree of) life in his kingdom, and his prayers are heard...

The bull calf of the triumphant bull god Utu releases Enki, the (God of) flood from his icy prison, during the time of the calving of the wild Eurasian cattle, which feeds the tree of life...The king is happy...

It is this flood that supports (the tree of) life in Mesopotamia, irrigates the grain fields and date gardens...The food is plentiful and the kingdom is happy...And the king is even happier...

Right after the bull (flood) dies, the date harvest begins...Then the ploughing and sowing of grain begins...

And then the snow covers the mountains...Enki retreats to Abzu...And the year ends...Until the prayer to Marduk, the bull calf of the triumphant bull god Utu, stars the whole cycle again...

That's it, I think...What do you think? No need for stars?

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...

Makara

Hindu god Varuna, riding Makara, "a mythical being" which was sometimes (like on this 17th century illustration) depicted as a crocodile...

So why would Varuna ride on a crocodile? To answer this question, we first have to look into who Varuna is. Actually who he was, at the time when his mythology and symbolism was developed...

During the Vedic period, Varuna was "The Man", the Sky God who controlled "The Waters": sea, rivers, rain...As one would expect from a Sky god in India, where rivers are filled with the rain that arrives with the monsoon winds from the sea...

In Vedas, Varuna was also twinned with Indra, the Storm god, and together they are referred to as Indra-Varuna. In Rg Veda 4.42, Varuna explicitly states the connection between himself and Indra:

"I, Varuna, am king...I, Varuna, am Indra [too]"

Eventually, through some political machinations, Indra became the overall ruler of the skies and rain...And Varuna was officially relieved of his "water duties"...

But, the Vedic Varuna, is being revered even now as the God of Rain...

When it rains for the first time during the monsoon, tillers of agricultural fields still say, “Varuna-demudu-karunichaadu” (God Varuna has shown empathy)...

But sometimes Varuna gets angry, monsoon rains are late or not as plentiful...

And when there is a low rainfall, because the Rain-God is angry or upset, the Varuna Yajna ritual is performed, during which temple priests immerse themselves in huge barrels of water, chanting Lord Varuna’s name...

So here we have a rain god. And he is riding on a crocodile...Why? 

Remember when in my post "Musth" I explained why Indra, Varuna's alter ego, is riding on an elephant?

It is all because Indian elephants mate between Jun and Sep, during the monsoon season...

With the peak of the mating season coinciding with the peak of the rain season, Jul/Aug...

So elephant that Indra rides on is just an animal calendar marker for rain season...So why is Varuna riding on a crocodile? Again, crocodile here is an animal calendar marker for the monsoon, rain season...

Remember my post "Blue boy" about the crocodile related folklore from China? The post about Kiao (Jiaolong)...

While I was researching it, I learned that there are three main crocodile types that live in India: gharials, muggers and salt water crocodiles...

And then I came across this paper "Aquatic Faunal Diversity in Eastern Ghats" which said that in India: "Hatching occurs during June and July in gharials and muggers and July and August in salt water crocodiles."

Considering that the crocodile eggs incubation period is between 55 and 85 days, that means that the eggs are laid from around the beginning of summer, Apr/May...And the beginning of the monsoon season...

And as the crocodile mothers stay around their nests, and guard them ferociously, the sudden appearance of all these irritable crocodile mums on river banks is the sign that "Varuna the Rain God" is on his way...

The crocodiles river bank invasion lasts until the last croc baby is born, around the peak of the monsoon, Jul/Aug...And then they disappear into the churning waters of the overflowing rivers (river water levels peak during the peak monsoon)...

Hence Varuna rides on a crocodile...Except he isn't really riding on a crocodile. He is riding on a Makara, "a mythical being" from Hindu mythology. Which is sometimes depicted as a crocodile...But mostly it is a composite animal, half terrestrial and half aquatic...

But don't be fooled by the priests...What I will to show in this post is that Makara is not "a chimeric mythical being". Instead, it is a complex animal calendar marker for the monsoon season...

In its simplest form, Makara is "Half elephant, half fish"...

Well we have seen that Elephant mating season overlaps with the monsoon season. So that explains the elephant part. But what about the fish part?

Remember this post, "Dragon gate" about fish animal calendar marker from China? Which was based on migratory carp, which starts swimming up the rivers at the beginning of the monsoon season in China...

Wherever we find big migratory fish, we find them also embedded into local mythology as deified calendar markers...

Remember this post, "Fig with bulls" (and fish)?

In it, I talked about Indus river migratory "palla" fish and all the fish depictions on Indus Valley civilisation artefacts...

"Palla" fish migrates into and out of Indus River during the monsoon season which in Indus Valley lasts between Jun and Sep. So is the fish part of Makara animal calendar marker "palla" fish? I originally thought so...

Possibly. But today I discovered another migratory fish that lives in Indian rivers: mahseer.  This giant fish migrates upstream at the beginning of the monsoon and spawns during the period between Jul to Sep...Peak monsoon season...

So considering that mahseer is much bigger than palla, and much easier to spot migrating, I think that this is even better candidate for the fish animal calendar marker for monsoon season...And the tail part of Makara...

But there is actually another migratory aquatic animal, that swims up Indian rivers during monsoon season. South Asian river dolphin, also known as Ganges dolphin.

During monsoon season, these dolphins migrate to tributaries of the main river systems, "sometimes swimming along with their beaks emerging from the water, and jumping partly or completely clear of the water"...

Not something you would miss if you lived by the river...

So we have mad rampaging mating elephants and giant fish swimming up rivers, as the rain pour down from the sky...Hence Varuna riding on Makara, a "mythical beast", half elephant, half fish...

But believe or not Makara can get even more elaborate than this. It is "also shown in an abstract, chimeric form with head and jaws of a crocodile, an elephant trunk, lion's feat, fish scales and a peacock tail"...This thing...

Insane, right? If you didn't know about complex animal calendar markers, you would think that these guys must have been smoking some really strong stuff when they invented something like this...🙂

But we know that elephant and crocodile and fish are all animal calendar markers for monsoon season. So what about lion and peacock?

Well, why is Leo marking Jul/Aug? Cause this is when the main mating season of Eurasian lions starts. And has always started...Leo originally had nothing to do with stars...

And guess what happens in Jul/Aug in India? Monsoon peaks...

What about peacocks? Well, the breeding season of the Indian peafowl is closely related to the monsoon. It starts just before the monsoon arrives, in Apr/May in southern India and in Jun in Northern India...

The loud peacock's call, resembles the "miaou" of a gigantic cat. In Northern India it is said to form, the syllable “Menhao” meaning “Come Rain!” for the peacock is especially noisy at the approach of the rainy season...

Sooo...Another two animal calendar markers for the monsoon season...So every one of the animal bits that were used to create magical vehicle of Varuna, the old god of monsoon, is an animal calendar marker for monsoon season...

Oh by the way, Makara is not only the vehicle of Varuna. The personification of the River Ganga also rides on Makara? 

Why? Because Ganges river water level peaks during the peak of the monsoon season...I talked about this in my post "Ardhanarishvara"...

And why is goddess Ganga holding a lotus flower while riding on a crocodile? Cause lotus peak flowering season is July-August, the peak monsoon season in the Ganga river catchment area...When crocodiles hatch...

Lakshmi (I talked about here in my post "Modesty"), the goddess of prosperity and wealth, who is associated with elephants and lots, also rides on Makara...

Prosperity in India is directly dependant on agriculture which is dependant on the monsoon...Hence all the plants growing out of Makara's body and pouring out of Makara's mouth...

BTW, goddess Sarasvati ("Monsoon flood") also rides on Makara...I wonder why? 🙂 I talked about Sarasvati and her sisters in my post "Bitch of the gods"...

Anyway, just when you think Makara can't get any crazier, it turns out it can...

In even more complex form, Makara is said to have: "the crocodile jaws, elephant trunk, lion's feet, wild boar's tusks and ears, monkey's eyes, fish scales and peacock's tail". 🙂

Ok, here we go again...Monkey...If I was a betting man, I would bet that the monkey here is sacred Hanuman langur... 

And this monkey's peak mating season is Jul-Oct, peak monsoon season...

So that fits...

Oh BTW, isn't Hanuman, divine monkey from Vedas, "who was stealing offerings dedicated to Indra, the God of Rain"? The monkey whose father was Vayu, the God of (monsoon) Winds? I mean Hanuman monkeys are all conceived during the time when monsoon wind blows and rain falls...

Finally what about the boar...This was really annoying. The Indian wild boar (seriously cool looking beast) starts mating in Oct/Nov, like all the other wild boar, hence wild boar being pretty universal animal calendar marker for Oct/Nov and winter...

This is after the monsoon season ends...so this doesn't fit...

I was about to give up, and admit that I really have no idea why boar was used as part of the Makara complex animal calendar marker for monsoon season...

And then I remembered my post "Lei Kung" about thunder god from Chinese folk religion. Where we discovered that in China it was wild boar birthing, not mating season, that was the important event used to create calendar marker.

Remember, animal calendar markers are created from both mating (Leo, lion mating season) and birthing (Taurus, auroch calving season). 

Indian wild boar piglets are born between Mar and May. Just before the beginning of the monsoon season...So is this why wild boar?

And, there is another wild pig species in India, which gives birth to piglets exactly at the beginning of the monsoon, in Apr/May: Pygmy hog...

Soooo....I think this fits too...

That's it...What do you think? Cool? 

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...