Apkallu

Gold and lapis lazuli carps found in the grave of the Sumerian Queen Puabi who was buried in Ur around 2500BC...

Gold for sun and blue for water...

The latest data from Ancient Mesopotamian city of Girsu  shows that agriculture built around system of irrigation canals existed for a 1000 years before the first city was built...

Which is "surprising" as it was believed that it was agriculture that was the catalyst for emergence of the first Mesopotamian cities and civilisation...Apparently something else triggered this development, "but we don't know what"...

Maybe city building fashion was brought to Mesopotamia by outsiders? Ever heard of Apkallu, the "seven sages (demigods)" who brought civilisation to Sumer?

Their names are very interesting:

"He who finished the plans for heaven and earth",

"He who was endowed with comprehensive intelligence",

"He who was allotted a good fate",

"He who was born in a house",

"He who grew up on pasture land",

"He who built the city of Eridu",

"He who ascended to heaven"

I wonder if these were 7 sages, or just 7 epithets of the original culture heroes, who brought civilisation to Mesopotamia...From the same place from where grain was brought to Mesopotamia...From Levant via Anatolia...I talked about it in my post "How grain came to Sumer"...

Anatolia is where before any city was built in Mesopotamia, we find cities like Çatalhöyük...

Where people "endowed with comprehensive intelligence", who were "born in a house" and "grew up on pasture land" and who were "allotted a good fate" to bring them to Sumer where they "conjured the city of Eridu" before they "ascended (went back) to heaven"...

BTW, heaven was by Sumerians seen as a mountain...Most likely the Northern Mountains from which Tigris and Euphrates emerge...So "ascending (going back) to heaven" just means "going back north"...I talked about this in my posts "When Utu steps into heaven", "Eagle dance", "Descending to Hades"...

Ok...I can hear you mumbling...Where are the animal calendar markers? How disappointing... 🙂

Guess what Apkally were depicted as? Fish men...You know "The Amphibians aliens"...

They were of course aliens...But in a sense "not from lower Mesopotamia" and not "not from Earth"...

And they were not fish-men. They were men wearing skins and heads of giant Mesopotamian carps. These monsters...

Remember my post "Goatfish" about the meaning of the symbol of Goatfish? 

Symbol for the wet season in Mesopotamia, which starts with rain, when goats mate, and ends with flood, when carps mate...

In it I talked about the fact that carp swimming upstream for spawning was believed to be them "swimming back to their master, Enki/Ea, god of fresh water and annual flood, who resides in Abzu, source of fresh water"...

That identifies Abzu as the Northern mountains and highlands. I talked about this in my post "Problems with Abzu" and "The great imposter"...

In the "Poem of Erra", we can read this line:

"Where are the seven Apkallu of the apsu, the holy carp, who are perfect in lofty wisdom like Ea's their lord..."

This clearly states that apkallu belong to Enki/Ea...And that they are fish (men)...

Enki/Ea, god of sweet water and the annual flood is shown here holding two jars with water flowing out of them, which represent the sources of Tigris and Euphrates...Standing on a carp fish...I talked about this in my post "Carp surfer"...  

Now Enki/Ea was seen as the actual source of wisdom and civilisation, and Apkallu were just his proxies, through whom he transmitted knowledge...

And considering that Enki/Ea was in Abzu, which was up north, somewhere at the "source of sweet water", Apkallu made their annual upstream "pilgrimage" from which they returned with more "knowledge from the source"...

And so did the actual giant carp. They swim up the rivers, towards river sources, towards Abzu, for spawning, every Apr/May, during the annual Tigris and Euphrates flood. Which is why in "A study of Sumerian faunal conception..." we can read that an Ur III text calls Enki "the (wielder of) the a-eštub (carp flood)”...

Back to our golden (sun) and lapis (water) fish. Why sun and water and fish? 

It is Utu/Shamash who releases Enki/Ea, the sweet water, from his icy prison on top of the sacred mountains, Abzu...

Over 70% of all the water flowing down Tigris and Euphrates comes from the snowmelt. Snowmelt which is caused by Utu/Shamash. I talked about this in my post "Shamash young and old"...

The snowmelt peaks at the beginning of summer, Apr/May, in Taurus... 

Which is why Tigris and Euphrates flood also reaches its peak in Apr/May, in Taurus... 

Which is why Utu/Shamash was depicted as a golden bull (Sun in Taurus) with flowing lapis lazuli beard (flowing water)...

I talked about this in my posts "Solar bull", "Elamite water bull", "Butt chewing", "Killing of the bull of heaven"...And many others...

By the way, this is the old Taurus, the original Taurus, which has nothing to do with constellations. The old animal calendar marker, marking the beginning of the calving period of the wild Eurasian cattle. I talked about it in my posts "Ram and bull", "Cow and calf ivory"...And many others...

Anyway, I think this is kind of interesting...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...

PS: Before there were fishmen in Mesopotamia, there were fishmen in the Balkans...I talked about this in my post: "Mesolithic sturgeon fishermen"