7 heads

Good morning. Old Assyrian (2000 BC-1800 BC) cylinder seal. Currently in the British museum...

Official description: Man in a chariot driving four horses; before him seven human heads and two birds; one other bird is above the two horses

Hmmm...

Quadriga in 2nd millennium BC Mesopotamia... Interesting...A man? Or a God? Like Sun god? They love horse drawn chariots...Like Helios depicted in his horse drawn quadriga on this Apulian vase dated to 350BC...

Why would sun gods like horses so much? The natural breeding season of horses starts in Apr/May and ends in Sep/Oct spanning the sunny, hot half of the year in the continental Eurasia, and is marked by wild stallion fights for mares...

The horse fertility is governed by the sunlight and peaks on summer solstice. I heard summer solstice was a big thing for sun worshipers....

Hence solar horses all over Eurasia...

Articles about solar horse (equid):

Iran "Water carrier equid", "Dioscuri plate from Iran"

Mesopotamia "Shamash playing with the solar horse", "Sun god from Tell Brak"

India "Hayagriva"

China "Longma", "Three legged crow", "Mythical beast from Xian"

Levant "Alexamenos graffito", "Goddess on a horse", "Unicorn"

Europe "Archaic rider", "Beotian solar pyxis", "Pegasus and chimera", "King John", "The horseman"

But the quadriga rider depicted on this Assurian seal can't be Helios...And his quadriga can't be pulled by horses...

He is most likely Sun God Shamash who was depicted on this 3rd mill BC cylinder seal imprint found in Tell Brak, Syria riding on a quadriga. Quadriga pulled not by horses but by "kungas", donkey hybrids so highly regarded, that "they were the preferred draught animal for drawing the chariots of kings and gods"... I talked about this in my post "Sun god from Tell Brak"...

Shamash rides on the quadriga pulled by donkeys, because donkeys are also solar animals, just like horses. This is because just like the mating season of horses, the mating seasons of donkeys is directly linked with the amount of sunlight and peaks on Summer solstice... 

Interestingly: In a letter dated to 1775 BCE, Bahdi-Lim, governor under the Mari king Zimri-Lim, insists that the king should not ride horses in his capital, as it was considered uncivilised. Instead, he urges the king to honour his royal status by riding in a donkey-drawn wagon...

From my post "Alexamenos graffito" about this:

Christ riding into Jerusalem on a donkey by Oleksandr Antonyuk. 

Why did Jesus have to ride into Jerusalem on a donkey?

People say: He was fulfilling a scripture prophecy.

"Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey" Zechariah 9:9

God/King riding on the favourite ride of the old Gods/Kings... 

And this:

Christ is born on Winter Solstice, (re)birth day of the sun (god), he enters Jerusalem on a donkey, "animal of the (sun) gods and kings", and gets put on a cross, symbol of the sun (god)...Interesting...Early Christian "Alexamenos graffito", Rome. 

Anyway, back to our Assyrian seal. Why 7 human heads? Maybe 7 months of Mesopotamia summer? 

I talked about this first in my post "Seven headed dragon" The oldest depiction of a Hero(es) killing a 7 headed dragon dragon...Mesopotamia, 2200BC...With 7 snake heads...One for each hot month of Mesopotamian summer...They are killing the 4th head. Apr/May, May/Jun, Jun/Jul, Jul/Aug...  

Leo...The time when Sirius rises with the sun..There is also a princess (Inanna/Ishtar) standing under a star (Sirius) 🙂...

Here is Inanna/Ishtar, deified Sirius, which rises with the sun (morning star) in Leo, Jul/Aug, the hottest time of the year. Which is why she is depicted standing on a lion with the sun above lion's head and is known as "The Lioness of heaven"...

I talked about Inanna/Ishtar as Sirius in many of my posts...

Same girl, same beast (summer)...

Woman of the Apocalypse...I gave Full symbolic analysis of the Chapter 12 of the Book of Revelation in my post "Apocalypse"...

Anyway, back to our Assyrian seal. Why birds? Originally I thought that maybe these are migratory birds, cause migratory birds announce the start and end of summer, the domain of the Sun god?

I talked about migratory birds in Mesopotamian mythology in my post "Nanshe'. In Sumerian mythology, Nanshe was the daughter of Enki (god of water) and Ninhursag (earth goddess). This 3rd Dynasty or Ur plaque depicts goddess Nanshe with geese.

 

This is because the arrival and departure of migratory geese marks the beginning and end of the wet half of the year in Mesopotamia. On the flip side the departure and the arrival of the migratory geese marks the beginning and the end of the dry half of the year in Mesopotamia.

 But now, I am thinking that based on the shape of the birds they could actually be doves. 

Dove was sacred to Inanna/Ishtar. 1800-1600 BC pottery cup, Syria. The rounded body tapering to a flat base, with 26 bird heads. Similar objects were interpreted as votive objects dedicated to Ishtar/Inanna, who was also linked to grain and doves. 

The reason for that is that nesting season of doves overlaps with the grain harvest season. 

Which brings me to: is that grain depicted just above the two birds? Right in front the chariot...

We know that this has been a grain symbol in Eastern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, Central Asia, Iran, since at least Sumerian times...

I talked about this in many of my posts...

Mesopotamian harvest coincides with the beginning of summer (Apr/May), the beginning of the mating of wild donkeys and the beginning of summer, the domain of the Sun God...

Maybe I am just reading too much into this. Maybe it is a man, a king, riding triumphantly over severed heads of his enemies which are being pecked by vultures and ravens....That's kind of cool too...

PS: A 5,000-year-old toy chariot found during the excavations in the ancient city of Sogmatar in the southeastern Turkish province of Sanliurfa...With what looks like grain symbols?

Seefin passage tomb

This is Seefin passage tomb located atop Seefin Hill, County Wicklow, Ireland. The tomb was built circa 3,300 BC. It was excavated by R. A. Stewart Macalister in 1931, but no artefacts or human remains were found inside...

Several theories have been put forward to explain the empty tomb:

Maybe the remains were removed by the decedents of the people who were originally buried in the tomb, when they moved away...

Maybe the grave was, at some unknown time in the past, desecrated, looted, with all traces of the those interred removed and destroyed...

Or maybe, no-one was actually ever buried in the Seefin passage tomb, because this is not actually a tomb...So what was this structure then?

Here is the last theory I heard that tries to explain what the Seefin tumulus was actually built and used for:

Well, you know how all these passage tombs look like bellies of pregnant women? And how entrances of the passage tombs look like vaginas? 

Well whoever built Seefin passage tomb made sure that nothing was left to the imagination...

A very narrow entrance with labia like door pillars and clitoral lintel...Behind this vulva like entrance, just like in all the other passage tombs, is a long narrow passage (a birth canal), ending in a large chamber (womb)...

Anyone entering this "passage tomb" would have been, symbolically, entering the womb of the mother earth...

In there in complete darkness, in complete sensory isolation, they would (symbolically) die...

To be (symbolically) reborn after leaving the inner chamber (womb), crawling through the narrow passage (birth canal) and squeezing through the narrow entrance (vulva) into the sunshine...

Well this is just a theory that no one can prove (or disprove)...It's a good one though...

Taranto

A silver didrachm from Taranto in southern Italy minted during the period 355-340 BC. It features on obverse a male youth riding a dolphin.

Dolphins and a dolphin-rider feature so prominently on the coinage of Taranto. This is unsurprising, given the mythological aetiology of the city from the hero Taras, the son of Poseidon (Pausanias 10.10.8). who was shipwrecked and then rescued by a dolphin. 

On this coin from Taranto minted during the period 355-340 BC, Taras is depicted holding his father's trident...

The dolphin-rider motif appears early on the coins of Taranto. For instance, a silver didrachm from Taranto minted during the period 510-450 BC

With a Reverse this time featuring a winged hippocamp symbol of Poseidon.

Poseidon was god of the sea, storms...and horses. This is reflected in his epithets: Nauklarios (Ναυκλάριος) "belonging to the ship-owners", Pelagikos (Πελάγίκος) "belonging to the sea"...and Hippeios (ἲππειος) "belonging to a horse"...

Sailors prayed to Poseidon for a calm seas and safe voyage, "sometimes drowning horses as a sacrifice"...

In Greek art, Poseidon rides a chariot that was pulled by a hippocampus or by horses that could ride on the sea...

Poseidon is apparently "...more often regarded as the tamer of horses, but in some myths he is their father, either by spilling his seed upon a rock or by mating with a creature who then gave birth to the first horse..."

In Arcadia, one of the most conservative parts of Ancient Greece, Poseidon was worshipped as a stallion...

Why? Why?

The natural breeding season of horses starts in Apr/May and ends in Sep/Oct and is marked by wild stallion fights for mares...

The horse fertility is governed by the sunlight and peaks on summer solstice. I heard summer solstice was a big thing for sun worshipers....

Hence solar horses all over Eurasia...

Articles about solar horse (equid):

Iran "Water carrier equid", "Dioscuri plate from Iran"

Mesopotamia "Shamash playing with the solar horse", "Sun god from Tell Brak"

India "Hayagriva"

China "Longma", "Three legged crow", "Mythical beast from Xian"

Levant "Alexamenos graffito", "Goddess on a horse", "Unicorn"

Europe "Archaic rider", "Beotian solar pyxis", "Pegasus and chimera", "King John", "The horseman"

Ok, but what does this have to do with Poseidon? Well, mating season of horses, overlaps with the sailing season in the Eastern Mediterranean. Both start in Apr/May and finish in Sep/Oct...

I talked about this in my post "Trojan horse", in which I asked a question: was Trojan horse "hypos" - a wooden horse left as tribute, or  "hypos" - a wooden boat with a horse head used for transporting tributes...

As for dolphins, they are animal calendar markers for Apr/May-Oct/Nov.

The reason for this is that dolphin mating and calving season in Mediterranean spans period May-Oct.

It takes place in the shallows, and is therefore easily observable by people living and fishing along the coast...

So there is actually a symbolic link between the horses and dolphins. Their mating seasons overlap and they overlap with the sailing season in the Eastern Mediterranean...

I talked about dolphin as an animal calendar marker in many of my posts, like "Boat of Dyonisus", "Apollo and dolphins", "Horned animal attacked by a dolphin", "Minoan dolphin fresco", "Coin from Byzantion", "Eagle eating dolphin"

One other thing...A lot of the coins from Taranto depict a mounted warrior on the obverse. You can find them all here... 

This one even depicts a mounted warrior and Nike, the goddess of victory...

Why?

Because Apr/May - Sep/Oct was not only the sailing season but also the war season...

BTW, some of the Taranto coins only depict horse on both sides, like this one minted during the period  325-280 BC...So horses were definitely important symbol on its own...BTW, one is bridled and the other unbridled...Sailing and non sailing season? What do you think? 

Knowing this makes the original coin even cooler...I 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...

Sun disc between two horses

Ahura-Mazda in a circle "worshiped" 🙂 by two rampant horses, below a flying sun disk with tail and streamers. Impression of the stone seal of Ellil-mukîn-aplu son of Nasir. 413 BC. Image and description from the Penn Museum...

What does this really mean?

The natural breeding season of horses starts in Apr/May and ends in Sep/Oct and is marked by wild stallion fights for mares...

The horse fertility is governed by the sunlight and peaks on summer solstice. I heard summer solstice was a big thing for sun worshipers....

Hence solar horses all over Eurasia...

Articles about solar horse (equid):

Iran "Water carrier equid", "Dioscuri plate from Iran"

Mesopotamia "Shamash playing with the solar horse", "Sun god from Tell Brak"

India "Hayagriva"

China "Longma", "Three legged crow", "Mythical beast from Xian"

Levant "Alexamenos graffito", "Goddess on a horse", "Unicorn"

Europe "Archaic rider", "Beotian solar pyxis", "Pegasus and chimera", "King John", "The horseman"

So prancing ponies under the sun disc...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...

Scorpion under the bed

A drawing of an archaic seal impression from Ur depicting a copulating couple and a scorpion, from "Ur Excavations (Volume 3) Archaic seal impressions".

 

Today I came across this article entitled "Medicine in Ancient Assur..." by Troels Pank Arbøll. And in it, starting from the pate 74, I stumbled across very interesting note about the link between scorpions and snakes and human fertility:

Snakes and scorpions were and still are very common in Mesopotamia. Both animal are normally seen in nature, in fields, gardens, forests, marshes, desert, surrounding the human settlements...

But, the ancient texts and seals also tell us that scorpions could be found under the bed or in store rooms. 

A number of seals with bed scenes display a scorpion underneath the bed. 

I couldn't find any better image of these seals or any info about this seal, so would be grateful if someone could send me a picture of one of them so I can include it here. And, scorpions were referred to as the "wolfs of the storeroom, lions of the larder"...

Snakes were also said to venture into human habitations, usually through drainage pipes and sewers and are said to be sometimes giving birth in people's houses...

According to Troels, scorpions were the symbol of motherhood and were related to fertility and the image of the married woman...And, apparently, one of the symptoms of the scorpion invenomation is priapism (enlarged forced erection)...

Troels then says, "one cannot help but associate the scorpion stings with potency, as well as the various metaphoric relationships inherent in scorpions, such as motherhood and the marriage bed...Scorpion underneath the bed, probably refferrs to the couple's married aspect."

And, "Snakes were used to to describe an infant child coiled up within the mother and coming out slithering like a snake...Snakes may have been related to fertility or youth on the basis of their "renewal" when shedding their skin"...

Interesting...But there is one other, I think, very interesting thing about scorpions and snakes and their link to (human) fertility. This is the climatic year in Mesopotamia. You can see that the cool, wet season starts in Oct/Nov and ends in Apr/May...

Oct/Nov is also when the climate in Mesopotamia gets cool and wet enough for scorpions to start looking either for a hole to hibernate in, or for a dry warm place to live in...Like people's houses...Say under people's beds...

What about snakes? They go to hibernation too, thankfully not inside people's houses...They emerge out of hibernation in the spring, change their skins, and the most common Eurasian snakes, vipers, start mating in Apr/May...

This is why scorpion is an animal calendar marker for Oct/Nov, end of the hot/dry season and the beginning of the cool/wet season. 

This is why snake is an animal calendar marker for Apr/May, end of the cool/wet season and the beginning of the hot/dry season.

Oct/Nov, the time of the year marked by scorpion, was the time of the year when fields were ploughed and grain was sown in Mesopotamia, after the first rains fall (rain was also seen as the heavenly semen, seed of the rain god) that fertilises mother Earth...

Apr/May, the time of the year marked by snake, was the time of the year when the Tigris and Euphrates flood spilled out, and when fertile mother earth gave birth to grain, when grain was harvested in Mesopotamia...

So 

Oct/Nov, scorpion, semen, corn seed, sowing, rain (heavenly seed), fertilisation...

Apr/May, snake, baby, corn ears, sheaves, harvesting, flood (earthly flood is the child of the heavenly seed, spilling of waters), delivery...

Again it seems that in Mesopotamia human and earth fertility was symbolically linked...This time through animal calendar markers: scorpion and snake...

You can find more about the use of scorpion as an animal calendar marker in these posts...

You can find more about the use of snake as an animal calendar marker in these posts...

BTW, I just remembered this drawing of an archaic seal impression from Ur, also from "Ur Excavations (Volume 3) Archaic seal impressions". Self explanatory after what you just read? I think so...

That's 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...

Oldest symbolic monument

According to this paper, the oldest symbolic monument, that is to say, one with no obvious practical use and probably responding to a belief, is this pile of stones piled up next to a spring at El Guettar (Southern Tunisia)...

This pile of stones formed a regular cone 0.75 meters high and 1.50 meters in diameter at the base. At the top were placed a few flint balls, all the others were limestone spheres...

None of these stones are natually found on site, which means that they were deliberately brought there and arranged in a pile by man. This pile of balls was riddled with Mousterian type chipped flint, which dates the pile to 160,000 to 40,000BP...

What is really really cool and interesting is that this pile of stones was topped with flint nodules. Most likely like these ones I have on my desk...

Flint is the thunder stone...Hitting one flint nodule with another one will produce a weak spark...which looks like lightning...and a smell of burning...like when lightning hits vegetation and ignites it making fire...

Fire which our ancestors had to catch before they learned how to make it...

How old are fairytales about "the hunt for the firebird"? Well they could predate the time when people learned how to make fire...Because before people knew how to make it, fire descended from the sky and had to be found and caught...I talked about this in my article "Fire bird"... 

How was fire making invented? Most likely as a wood drilling accident...I talked about this in my article "Drill"...

And when was fire making invented? Can't be that long time ago, considering the worship of fire and fire makers that persisted until very recently...I talked about this in my articles about the fire creation worship and the invention of the fire drill and the tool for making fire: , "Holly fire drill", "Prometheus", "12 Olympians"...

Now if you replace one of the flint nodules with a pyrite nodule, a spherical or ovoid masses of pyrite, often found in sedimentary rocks together with flint nodules...

You can actually make big enough spark that will allow you to ignite dry bark or grass...and make fire...This process is explained in this video

And believe or not, based on the strike marks found on some flint and pyrite nodules from the same Mousterian period found in Southern France, archaeologists have proposed that Neanderthals used flint and pyrite nodules to make fire. You can read about it in this article...

Using human made lightning...Lightning which most often strikes mountain tops...

Lighting which announces the arrival of rain...Rain which is the source of drinking water...Water which comes out of springs like the one next to which the pile of stones we are talking about was made...

Were people who built this pile of stones topped with flint nodules aware of all this?

And does this mean that the myths and the worship of the fire makers could be over 40,000 years old? You might want to read my articles which talk about the age of (some of) our myths: "Mamaragan", "Dreamtime", "Yeti", "Yeti rivisited", "Third death", "The young one", "Sun mountain", "Partholon and the great flood", "How grain came to Sumer", "Fire bird"...