War season

Today I came across this article "The natural order and an apparent anomaly" which presents the symbolic analysis of this 12th c. BC Mycenaean stone stele covered in plaster with painted decoration in bands, currently in the Hellenic National Archaeological Museum. Which I don't agree with 🙂

And here is why:

The article authors proposed that what is depicted is the "natural order": 

Top: Gods/Rulers

Middle: Army

Bottom: Nature

Really? 

I don't know for sure what all three freezes put together symbolise, but I am pretty sure what the bottom one symbolises: It's an animal calendar marker for the war season...

What we see is

A hedgehog

Three stags following a doe/hind.

The article says, "...hedgehogs hibernate [between Nov and Mar] and that’s why they were considered symbols of [spring] throughout time..."

Basically, hedgehog is an animal calendar marker for Feb/Mar/Apr...

The article doesn't put forward any explanation for the deer...But stags only follow does/hinds during deer rut. Deer rut starts in Sep, peaks in Oct and ends in Nov...

Meaning deer is animal calendar marker for Sep/Oct/Nov...

Put together, from left to right these animals mark the period between Feb/Mar and Oct/Nov. In Roman times, Mar-Oct was the "war season", which was opened and closed with the appropriate religious festivities presided by the Salii priests...

Did Mycenaeans also have a "war season" which started when hedgehogs reappeared from their hibernation (Mar) and ended when deer rut peaked (Oct)?

Why am I asking?

The Mycenaean stele depicts

Top: Some religious ceremony (According to the article)

Middle: Warriors/War (Obvious)

Bottom: War season, Mar-Oct (Not so obvious unless of course you know about animal calendar markers)

As I said, I don't know "for sure" 🙂 what the artist wanted to actually depict on this interesting stele, but I think this explanation makes a lot more sense than the explanation put forward in the quoted article...What do you think?

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, which were the key to deciphering all this, 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...