Oldest narative scene

Archaeologists have discovered what may be the earliest known narrative scene, telling an ancient story, at the 11,000-year-old site of Sayburç in south-eastern Turkey. 

The two panels depict people interacting with dangerous animals. In one, a human grasps their penis whilst leopards approach from either side. In the other panel, a squatting male holding a rattle or snake faces a bull. 

What could this all mean? We don't know, but it sure must mean something...

You can read the full article about this archaeological site in "The Sayburç reliefs: a narrative scene from the Neolithic". 

The "earliest known narrative scene, telling an ancient story" is actually a complex animal calendar depicting seasons in the Sayburç area: 

Here is the climate chart for the Sayburç area:

Hot/Dry Season (Apr/May-Oct/Nov)

Cool/Wet Season (Oct/Nov-Apr/May)

But how can this scene be related to this climate chart? Well, through animal calendar markers, which mark either mating or birthing or migrating time of the depicted animal...

So let's analyse the animal calendar markers depicted on the Sayburç relief:

Charging bull

Bull is the most common animal symbol for summer (May/Jun/Jul)... 

I talked about (most common) animal symbols for seasons (still imbedded into out zodiac today), found all over Eurasia and North Africa since Neolithic, in my post "Symbols of the seasons"...

Summer starts in Taurus (Apr/May), the ancient animal calendar marker which marks the time of the year when Wild Eurasian cattle used to start calving... I talked about it in many of my posts, like "Bull carrying granary", "Cow and calf ivory", "Ram and bull"...

The summer, which started in Apr/May with the calving of Wild Eurasian cattle, ended in Jul/Aug, with mating of Wild Eurasian cattle...Mating which was marked by vicious bull fights...Where bulls "charged" at each other...

I talked about this in my posts "Alidjun" and "Bull leaping in Syria"

Snake is a pure solar animal. It is in our world when sun is here (day, hot half of the year) and it is in the underworld when sun is there (night, cold half of the year)...I talked about it in these posts:

"The chthonic animal", "Enemy of the sun", "Letnitsa treasure"...

This is why we see sun gods depicted with snakes. A seal depicting the sun god (see heat rays emanating from his shoulders) holding snakes, symbols of sun's heat...You know, like Utu/Shamash, the sun god? 

 

I talked about this in my post "Nude winged hero dominating snakes", "Snake god from Hatra", "Sun god from Tell Brak"...

Also, the beginning of the mating season of the most common Eurasian snakes, vipers (Apr/May), coincides with the beginning of the drought season in Mesopotamia and surrounding regions...

This is why we find Snake as a symbol for sun's heat, and an animal calendar marker, of "sunny, hot" half of the year world over...

Examples:

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 about it in my post "Eagle snake struggle"

A "Scythian" gold belt buckle depicting a "fight between a wolf (winter) and a snake (summer)"...Made between 7th c. BC and 2nd c. AD... 

I talked about this in my post "Wolf vs Snake"...

Now bull is running towards the man (god) holding a snake with a snake pointing downwards (If I can see correctly). A dead snake? Representing the end of the sunny, hot half of the year...

Leopard: 

According to the article about this relief, one of the leopards is male and the other is female. Leopards are solitary animals which only come together during mating season...

Eurasian temperate climate leopards mated in Jan/Feb...So I believe that the leopards mark this time of the year...Which just happens to be the peak of the rain season in the Sayburç area...

And this this then raises the question: who is the masturbating dude standing "in leopard" (Jan/Feb), which is what "standing between the two (mating) leopards" means...

I am not sure if I am seeing things, or the great masturbator has a feline (leopard) features? Look at the ears and the shape of the face...To me it doesn't look "completely" human...

If so, we have here the earliest clear depiction of the deification of an animal calendar marker: leopard, marker for the Jan/Feb peak of the rain season, being turned into the leopard-man sky/rain god...Rain being the sky/rain god's semen, which makes the barren earth fertile...

BTW, the link between leopard's semen (mating season) and rain (heavenly semen) is still there in Mesopotamia thousands of years later

It is depicted explicitly on this vessel from Tepe Hissar, dated to 4500-4000 BC...Both Ibex goat (main rain season animal calendar marker from Western Asia and Mediterranean, check "Shell plaque with ibexes") and Leopard/Cheetah are actually ejaculating rain...

I talked about this in my post "A vessel from Tepe Hissar"...

So...Back to our "narrative scene, telling an ancient story": 

The furious bull of dry, hot summer is stopped...The sun's heat has died down...The leopards of the rain season are mating, the (leopard) rain god has arrived and is spreading his holy semen on the land...Rejoice...

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...