What does this mean?
I would first suggest that the bull depicted on this seal is an animal calendar marker, Taurus, which has been used as a marker for Apr/May all over Eurasia and North Africa since at least Early Neolithic in the Fertile Crescent...
Now this "Old Taurus" has nothing to do with stars. It is the marker that marks the be part of the year when Wild Eurasian Cattle begin to calve...
Check my post "Cow and calf ivory" to see what I mean:
Taurus also marks the beginning of summer (May,Jun,Jul), which is why bull is the most common symbol for summer. I talked about this in my post "Symbols of the seasons"
Which is why in Mesopotamia Utu/Shamash, the sun god, the ruler of summer, is depicted as a bull...I talked about it in my post "Butt chewing"...
Apr/May, Taurus, is also the time when the grain harvest begins in Mesopotamia...Grain harvest which lasts throughout the summer, the season of the bull...
Hence all these depictions of bulls and grain...I talked about this in my posts "Bulls and grain bowls" and "How grain came to Sumer"...
And bull gods with grain tails...I talked about grain tail symbol in my post "Lions with grain tails"...
Which leads me to believe that the plants growing out of the building being carried by the bull are symbolic depictions of grain ears...
BTW, here is another amazing seal from "Die Entwicklung der Glyptik während der Akkad-Zeit" by Boehmer, R. M. published in 1965...
It depicts sun god Utu/Shamash, recognisable by sun rays emanating from his shoulders. Here Shamash is depicted in his role as the god of justice...I talked about this in my post "Bribing Shamash"...
This is a common depiction of the sun god in Mesopotamia but also in Central Asia.
A great example of the use of related animal calendar markers. Bactrian two side seal. Sun god with sun rays emanating from his shoulders (like Shamash/Utu), with snakes, symbols of sun's heat and winged lion, Nergal, symbol of hottest part of the year...I talked about this in my post "Summer and winter BMAC seals"...
Back to the second seal from "Die Entwicklung der Glyptik während der Akkad-Zeit". Now that we know what all these symbols mean, the meaning of the whole scene becomes clear: The sun god stands "between two bulls", which means "in Taurus" (Apr/May). Out of the bulls grows grain, which means beginning of grain harvest in Apr/May...
All that leads me to believe that the building full of grain carried by the bull, symbol of summer (May,Jun,Jul), which is also the harvest season, could be a granary full of grain harvested during the season of the bull...
PS: I want to thank @another_barbara for this comment: Can't stop staring at ... the divining rod?
The snowmelt on the north eastern mountains, that feeds Tigris and Euphrates, peaks at the beginning of summer, Apr/May, in Taurus.
Which is when Tigris and Euphrates flood reaches its peak.
Which is why Utu/Shamash was depicted as a golden bull (Sun in Taurus) with flowing lapis lazuli beard (flowing water)...
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...
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