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.
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