Animals march three by three

Sumerian limestone bowl fragment with three ibex goats following a lion...3300-3100 BCE, Currently in the Detroit Institute of Arts...

What's all this about?

Well, I think, climate in Mesopotamia and annual lifecycle of the depicted animals...

I am so sorry only a fragment of this bowl has survived. But I could bet that the original bowl had 

3 ibex goats, following 3 lions, following 3 bulls, following 3 leopards...

Why?

Check this post out. It is about a copper bowl from the same period and the same area...And about the climatic year in Sumer and Elam, and local Sumerian/Elamite animal calendar markers for the four seasons...

A Sumerian or Elamite Copper Bowl. Early 3rd Millennium B.C.E., H. 9.2 cm., D. 16.2 cm.

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Clay boat from Shuruppak

Clay boat model dated to 2200-2000 BC from Shuruppak, modern Tell Fara, an ancient Sumerian city situated about 55 kilometres south of Nippur on the banks of the Euphrates. Currently in the Penn Museum...

Here's the real thing, a boat made from reed bundles...

I talked about these boats in my post "Canals" where I talked about how knowing the best time to cut reed for boat building can helps us understand why the sun god Shamash is depicted with reed cutting knife.

This is the same type of boat in which the god of water and annual flood is depicted sailing down Tigris and Euphrates...2300–2150 BC. 

Talked about it in my post "Enki's little boat" where I discussed interesting animal calendar markers from the poem describing Enki's boat trip...

Here is the same Enki's flood boat, from a Sumerian Early Dynoastic seal, also depicting the goat (mating of wild goats, Oct/Nov, beginning of the wet season) and bull (calving of wild cattle, Apr/May, end of the wet season, beginning of the annual flood). 

I talked about it in my post "Rain and flood"...

This is also the same boat shown here as being Enki...I talked about this amazing seal in this post "Fertility goddess with poppies". Lots of animal and plant calendar markers everywhere...Including grain (important 🙂)...

And the same flood boat depicted on this perforated votive limestone plaque dated to ca. 2700-2650BC currently in Louvre...I talked about this in my post "Feast plaque from Louvre"...

So boat from Shuruppak is the symbol of???

Look at this: "Shuruppak became a grain storage and distribution city and had more silos than any other Sumerian city"...

Boat in the Grain storage...Check this post, "A person in a little boat", about the same "Little boat" depicted on this Proto-Elamite tablet from Iran, dated to 3400-3100 BC...

Is that grain sticking out of the butt of the "person in the little boat"? Apr/May, the beginning of the flood, is also the beginning of the grain harvest, and Jul/Aug, the end of the flood, is also the end of the grain harvest...Interesting...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Kassite bird demon

A Kassite period (1595-1155 BC) seal depicting a "bird-demon" 🙂, holding two ibexes, by their hind legs. 

Found in Iraq, UChicago, A29439. The description reads: "Marduk, great lord, on the servant who reverences you show mercy."

What is really depicted here?

First, who is the birdman? Did you know that originally rain god was in Mesopotamia imagined as a giant storm bird, giant black eagle? Why?

Eagle dance...

Montenegro 1963AD

Syria, 1800BC

Eagle (vulture) couples dance above the mountains at the beginning of their mating season, which coincides with the beginning of the rain season in Fertile Crescent...I talked about this in my post "Eagle dance"...

The storm bird eventually became anthropomorphised, and became first a birdman and then a storm god with a pet eagle...

Who is the mysterious "birdman" depicted with his hands tied behind his back, being judged by Enki, Sumerian god of water and the annual flood? This article, "The judgement of the birdman" tries to answer this question...

Birdman=Old thunder god, starts flying over Mesopotamia in Oct/Nov. The rain that the Birdman brings supports the tree of life. This is also when Ibex goats start to mate. 

Which is why ibex became "The goat of rain"...

I talked about symbolism of ibex goats in many of my posts, like 

Europe:

"Pitys", "Goat in European culture", "Patera of Rennes"... 

Levant:

"The tree of life/light", "Lachish animal calendar"...

Mesopotamia:

"Feast plaque from Louvre", "Green pastures", "Problems with Abzu", "Relief from Dur Sharrukin", "Goatfish"...

Iran: 

"Flamingos from Susa", "Goat carrier", "Iranian goat of rain", "Strider", "A vessel from Tepe Hissar"...

This is also when gazelles start to mate. 

Hence gazelles flanking the tree of life on this Akkadian cylinder seal which also depicts a birdman. I talk about this seal in my article, "Mysterious creature"...

Speaking of gazelles, you'll like this 🙂:

This is a wall painting from a provincial palace on the Assyrian borderlands, c. 9th - 7th century BC, depicting a "demigod holding animals that urinate on him to purify him". OMG...Winter animal calendar markers (gazelle) and winter moon...Rain season...I talk about this in my post "Pissing gazelles"...

Gazelles, are identical calendar markers as ibex goats depicted on the Kassite seal. They both have the same mating season, starting in Oct/Nov, when rain (bird) arrives...

Anyway, the same "birdman holding ibex goats" scene is also found in Bactria.  Here is winged vulture guy holding two winged ibex goats...From Bactrian seal, end of 3rd beginning of 2nd millennium BC...I talked about it in my post "Fluffy"...

Finally, this Kassite seal, (18th-12th centuries BC) from Syria, currently in the National Museum of Damascus, spells the link between vultures, ibex goats and Enki, the God of the source of fresh water...The full analysis can be found in my post "Kassite seal with Apkallu"

See the same tree of life? Anyway, time to go. 

For the end: My post "Pero", in which I proposed that the root of the name of the Slavic thunder god Perun is "pero" = feather, which would make Perun = Feathered one, and not from PIE perkwus, meaning "oak" or "mountain"...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Tree huggers

Moulded plaque, Babylonian, ca. 2000–1600 BC. Currently in the Met Museum, New York.

"Bull-men flanking a tree trunk surmounted by a sun disc"

That's all you have to say about this? And even that little you said is wrong.

Let me try:

First, this is not a sun disc. This is the star of Inanna/Ishtar...

Utu/Shamash sun disc

Inanna/Ishtar star disc

Why is the star of Inanna/Ishtar standing on top of a DATE PALM tree trunk (IMPORTANT!!!)? And why it is flanked by two HORNY bull men (IMPORTANT!!!)?

Well as soon as I saw this plaque I was reminded of this 3rd millennium BC seal found in the Hurian city of Urkesh located in northeastern Syria. I did the analysis of it in my post "Date beer"...

On this seal, we can see a pot standing on a palm tree trunk, which is in turn standing on a cut off head of a bull, whose body is also depicted. We also see a goddess (Inanna/Ishtar), pounding something in a mortar positioned right under the star of Inanna/Ishtar...

You can read the full analysis in my article. Long story short, this depicts making date alcoholic drink, which is made by pounding ripe dates and then mixing this paste with water and letting it ferment...So to make this drink, you first need to harvest ripe dates.

In Mesopotamia, the dates are harvested in Jul/Aug, when the bull of summer dies...Hence on this seal we see Lion (Autumn, starts in Leo, Jul/Aug) killing (ending) Bull (Summer, starts in Taurus, Apr/May). In dog days. Under a palm tree. More in my post "Lion killing bull under date palm"...

Date harvest took place when "Ishtar was the morning star". In Leo (Jul/Aug), when Sirius rose in the morning before the sun...Which is why Ishtar stands on a lion (with sun above the lion) and is known as "The Lioness of heaven"...More in my post "Inanna and Sukaletuda"...

Ok, so what does this have to do with our Babylonian plaque?

Well, we have the star of Inanna/Ishtar standing on a date palm trunk, where dates usually are. So I would guess that this means Jul/Aug.

But what about the fact that all this is flanked by two bull men. Doesn't "between the bulls" mean "In taurus"? Well usually it does. But these two bull men have erect penises. Like during wild cattle mating season...

At the time when this plaque was made, 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...I talked about "charging bull" as animal calendar marker for Jul/Aug, and its link to "bull leaping" in several of my posts, like "Alidjun", "Bo-Vo", "Oldest narrative scene", "Bull leaping in Syria", "Theseus ring"...

So does "between two bull men with erect penises" actually mean "in Jul/Aug"? The time of the year when Sirius, the true start of Inanna/Ishtar rises in the morning with the sun, when dates are harvested and wild cattle mate?

Maybe.

In "Enki and the world order" we read: "...Father Enki...he stood up full of lust like a rampant bull, lifted his penis, ejaculated and filled the Tigris with flowing water [after filling Euphrates]". 

This actually happens in Taurus

This is also why Enki, the god of fresh water and the annual "carp flood" is standing on a bull, while fish swim towards him. Tigris and Euphrates flood in Apr/May, in Taurus, when big carp swim upstream for spawning...I talked about this in my post "Adda seal"...

This flood is what supports the Tree of Life, which in Mesopotamia was imagined as a date palm tree...

The flood time is also when Inanna oversees birth to grain and calves...I talked about this in my posts "Inanna in Egypt"...A depiction of the Inanna's "nuptial hut" as a calving hut, on a carved stone vase from  Khafajah...

This is also when Sirius disappears from the night sky and spends the summer in the day sky with the sun...

So does this plaque mean: when Inanna (star) is the life giving (tree of life) goddess, in Taurus, when the two rivers flood?

Maybe 🙂

But this is where I will leave it.

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Inanna in Egypt

Inanna in Egypt? Hmmm...

Recently, I discovered that Inanna was "associated with cattle and particularly calves"...Here is a depiction of the Inanna's "nuptial hut" as a calving hut, on a carved stone vase from  Khafajah. Pic from "The Three Faces of Inanna: an Approach to her Polysemic Figure in her descent to the Netherworld."

One of Inanna's appellations was "wild cow", and wild cows start calving in Apr/May, the time of the year marked by Taurus, the animal calendar marker which today means Bull, but which originally most likely meant Calf...

Inanna was also associated with grain and grain harvest.

This is Inanna speaking:

"Before my lord, Dumuzi,

I placed grain before him,

I poured out grain before him,

I poured out grain before my womb..."

Mother of grain...Link between female fertility and earth/grain field fertility...

Some posts about the symbol for grain and the Mother of grain in Neolithic Europe, Central Asia, Mesopotamia, Iran, Levant: "Mother of grain", "Altyn Tepe mother of grain", "A person in a little boat", "Sabi Abyad venus", "Hathor grain pendants"...

Apr/May, Taurus, is also the time when the water levels in Tigris and Euphrates peak. The time of the annual flood, and it is this flood that makes the land fertile...

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

I talked about this in many of my posts. Like: "Lyres of Ur", "Shamash young and old", "When Utu steps up into heaven", "Butt chewing", "Maran"...

This is also the time when Sirius, the true star of Inanna (Elaborated on this in my post "Inanna and Sukaletuda") is last seen in the night sky, just before the sunset. Between Apr/May and Jul/Aug, Sirius is in the sky during the day, with the sun, and therefore invisible...

Sirius reappears in the night sky, just before dawn, in Jul/Aug...This is Ishtar, the destructive form of Inanna...

For those who will say "Ishtar was the morning star", yes she was, in Leo (Jul/Aug), when Sirius rose in the morning before the sun...Which is why Ishtar stands on a lion (with sun above the lion) and is known as "The Lioness of heaven"...

Destructive why? Cause of the Mesopotamian climate and the hydrology of Tigris and Euphrates. Jul/August is not just the hottest and the driest time of the year, but this is also the time when the two great rivers have the lowest water levels...

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...I talked about this in my post "Canals"...

The destructive sun in Leo is also symbolically depicted like this

Nergal, the deified destructive "burning" sun, was depicted as a lion man, because Jul/Aug, Leo, is the hottest and driest part of the year in Mesopotamia...

Talked abut him in my posts "Winged superhuman hero", "Lord of the flies"...

So here we have the same goddess with two faces, life giving (holy cow, Inanna, good) and life taking (holy lioness, Ishtar, bad)...And this switch can be perfectly explained through the Mesopotamian climate and Tigris and Euphrates hydrology...

And interestingly, we find the same thing in Ancient Egypt. A goddess with two faces, life giving (holy cow, Hathor) and life taking (holy lioness, Sekhmet)...I talked about this in my post "Holy cow"... 

Except, this switch can't be explained through the Egyptian climate and Nile hydrology...

The holy cow, the life giving Hathor, linked to water, grain, milk (calving), and her symbolism is easy to explain...

I talked a lot about it in "Holy cow" "White calf" "Cow and calf ivory", "Lotus and papyrus"

Hathor marks the "return of waters of the Nile".

The holy lioness, the life taking Sekhmet not so easy...Actually it is impossible to explain this switch in Egypt. Lioness should be a super positive, life giving goddess, because it is Leo, Jul/Aug, when the Nile flood peaks...

I already started wondering about the lion mythology in Egypt, and whether it originated in Mesopotamia in my posts "Sphinx" and "Giza lioness", "Sirius the mother of Venus"...

In there I explained why Atum, the Creator God of Egyptian world, created himself as a lion (Leo, Jul/Aug), after emerging from the primordial (read annual) flood (starts in Leo, Jul/Aug), the flood which makes land fertile without which there would be no Egypt...

I then talked about the Egyptian holy lioness, the precursor of the Sphinx, which again fits into the whole "lion(ness) good in Egypt"...

But for some reason, while writing these articles, I completely forgot about the murderous, destructive, Sekhmet...

"Cow good - Lioness bad" makes a lot of sense in Mesopotamia. 

"Cow good - Lioness great" would make a lot of sense in Egypt.

But...

What do you think?

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...