The cross of Shamash

Beaker, Sialk South Mound, Kashan, Isfahan, Late Calcolithic period, Sialk III7 period, ca. 3750-3350 BC, the National Museum of Iran, Tehran, Iran. Pic by Michele Mitrovich

Why are there crosses under Ibex goat horns?

first asked this question in my post "Maltese cross seal from Elam" about this Proto-Elamite cylinder seal found in Jemdet Nasr and dated to 3100BC-3000BC. 

At that time I wasn't sure what the cross meant... 

The second time I asked this question was in my post "Iranian goat of rain" about the depictions of the Iranian Goat of Rain. 

I still didn't know what the cross under Ibex goat horns meant.  

But I knew very well what the ibex goat represented. In Mesopotamia and in Iran, Ibex goat was the most depicted animal during Neolithic and Bronze Age...I talked about this in my post "Goat petroglyphs from Iran"...

Because in Mesopotamia and Iran rains arrive when Ibex goats start mating, in Oct/Nov...

Super important event, because it is the rain and snow that fall during the goat mating season that support life in Mesopotamia and Iran. 

I talked about this in several of my posts: Problems of Abzu, Goatfish, Goat carrier, Iranian goat of rain, Strider, Goat petroglyphs from Iran, A vessel from Tepe Hissar

And many more...

This is why Ibex was venerated in Iran, and this is why it is in Iran that we find the first Goat man...The earliest transition from Goat of rain to God of rain...

Which eventually lead to Pan and Zeus, Thor, Perun, Perkunas riding on goats or goat pulled chariots...And to this...I talked about this in my post Goat in European culture

Anyway, considering how important rain was in Iran, I thought that maybe the cross under the horn of the Ibex goat just meant "VERY IMPORTANT!!!" 🙂 But then I learned that crosses like these were in Mesopotamia/Iran used as a symbol of the sun god (!)...

This version of the Sun God symbol combines a sun, cross (solstices and equinoxes???), and wavy lines representing sun (heat) rays...

I talked about this in my post "Canals": 

Sun God Utu/Shamash with sun (heat) rays emanating from his shoulders, standing in in an empty canal, in Leo (between the lions), the hottest, driest time of the year in Mesopotamia, and the time when canals were repaired, holding reed cutting knife...

And in my post "Nude winged hero dominating snakes":

This is 3rd millennium BC, Bactrian seal depicting the sun god (see heat rays emanating from his shoulders) holding snakes, symbols of sun's heat...See snakes, Solar animals number one, the symbols of sun's heat... 

So how does this fit together?

The Ibex goat mating season in Mesopotamia/Iran spans the whole of winter, Nov,Dec,Jan. And in the middle of the Ibex goat mating season is the Winter Solstice...The (re)birth of the new sun (solar year)...

Is this why cross, the symbol of the sun god, was placed under the horns of an Ibex goat, the animal calendar maker (symbol) for winter?

Early Mesopotamians/Iranians definitely had a notion of young and old sun...I talked about this in my post "Shamash young and old":

When I am young, I fill the rivers with water. When I am old, I dry them...Utu/Shamash, young and old... 

And I talked about it in my post "Descending to Hades": 

The Sumerian poem "Enki and the World Order" exclaims: Young Utu (the sun), father of the Great City (the realm of the dead)...Young Utu here meaning both morning sun and spring sun...

So this is why I think we see cross depicted under Ibex goat horns. BTW, for people who still doubt if swastika is a sun symbol. Another Neolithic Iranian goat of winter with swastika under its horns where sun cross usually is...

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...