Winged Artemis

Shard of a late 7th c. BC amphora, found on the island of Paros, showing a winged Artemis holding a lion by its tail and ear, surrounding by what looks like sun symbols, swastikas and crosses...

What does this all mean?

Well, if we want to figure this out we have to start in Mesopotamia, with Nergal. 

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 for the first time in my post "Winged superhuman hero"...

BTW, Leo (Jul/Aug), originally had nothing to do with stars either. It is the ancient animal calendar marker marking the beginning of the main mating season of the Eurasian lions. 

Talked about lion as an animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

This is why "Behind a lion", "On a lion", "Between lions" means in Jul/Aug, in Leo. I talked about this in many of my posts, like this one for instance, about this interesting shard from a Hittite vessel with a depiction of a god (?) standing on a lion with a plant above lion's head. Currently Museum of Anatolian Civilisations, Ankara, Turkey. 

Anyway, in Greece, the "terrible" sun god, Nergal, became The "terrible" sun god Apollo...

I explained this in detail in this series of post about the link between Nergal and Apollo:

1. "Palil". About "Palil" a nickname of Nergal, the terrible, burning, destructive sun of Jul/Aug, Leo...And about the origin of the name Apollo and its meaning...

2. "Lord of the flies". About Nergal and Apollo as "The lords of the flies"...And about Jul/Aug, Leo, being the peak of the fly and fly born diseases season in Northern Hemisphere...

3. "Lions of Delos". About the Lions of Delos, the burning destructive sun in Jul/Aug, Leo, and the fact that both Nergal and Apollo are linked to lions. 

4. "Apollo and dolphins". About Jul/Aug, Leo being the "best time to sail in Eastern Mediterranean", and the link between dolphins and Lions...and Apollo...

5. "Marble throne of Apollo". About snakes (symbols of sun's heat), dragons (symbols of burning sun's heat) and terrible sun gods, Nergal and Apollo who are dragons themselves...

6. "Apollo and Python". About why Python followed Apollo after his birth? Cause snakes are solar animals...According to the Delphian tradition, Apollo was born on the 7th day of the month of Bysios (Jan/Feb)

7. "White raven". About the black and white raven legend which is found in both Nergal and Apollo mythology, Egyptian vultures and the twins that guard the gates of hell. And some other weird stuff...

8. "Threshing floor of Apollo". About the threshing floors as solar observatories/temples, about the threshing floor of Apollo from Delphi, about Jul/Aug, Leo, being the holy month of Apollo, and about solar bonfires...

9. "Apollo the great archer". About why Apollo was the terrible "far shooting" archer...About arrow and bow constellation from Mesopotamia, Ishtar, Sirius, and Jul/Aug, the season of Perseid meteor shower...

10. "Apollo Sminthius". About Apollo his arrows that cause plague and peak infectious diseases season, Jul/Aug

This transformation of Nergal into Apollo went through an an intermediary, Syrian god Resheph...I talked about this in my article "Apollo - Resheph"...

Now Artemis, the Twin Sister of Apollos, is holding the ear and tail of the lion deliberately, to indicate that she is standing in Jul/Aug, in Leo...Lion here is symbolic depiction of the sun in Leo...Apollo...Nergal...

So if Apollo is Nergal, Sun god Shamash in Leo, Jul/Aug, who is Artemis, Apollo's twin sister? Well, who is the twin sister of the sun god Shamash?

She is this girl

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

For those who will still say Ishtar is Venus and not Sirius. This post, "Sirius the mother of Venus", and linked articles might be of interest: You know how everyone thinks that Inanna/Ishtar (Morning Star) is Venus and how I think that it was originally Sirius, and only later became Venus? 

Well, it seems that Ancient Egyptians preserved the proof of this switch in their mythology. 

Meet Sopdet...

Sopdet, the personification of Sirius, was the consort of Sah, the personification of Orion. And their child was Sopdu, the personification of Venus, "Lord of the East" (Venus as morning star)....

Ta Ta Taaaaaaa!!!!

Identification of Artemis as Greek version of Ishtar is not that difficult really when you think about it...I talked about the identity of Artemis in Detail in my post "Artemis Orthia", about this drawing of an archaic carving of a chariot on ivory plaque from the Sanctuary of Artemis Orthia in Sparta. The chariot is pulled by winged (solar) horses and is driven by a female (goddess?) charioteer. A lion is depicted lying behind the horses...Again, in Leo...

Finally, about suns, crosses and swastikas. Check this post, "Boeotian solar pyxis", about this late 7th c. BC Boeotian clay pyxis depicting the "(Mysterious) Mistress of the Animals and some animals" 🙂 that explains the reason why cross and swastika are solar symbols, just like horses and serpents...

I also talked about solar cross in my post "Ponte Sodo fibula" about this amazing Etruscan gold disc fibula, from the Necropolis of Ponte Sodo, Vulci, Etruria, Italy. 650 BC 

And I talked about solar cross in my post "Alexamenos graffito" in which I explain why this graffito depicting Christ with a donkey head is not actually a mockery of Christ...

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)...

BTW, cross was originally symbol of Mesopotamia Sun god Shamash...

You know Shamash, the solar deity of the early Hebrews, to whom they dedicated their first temple (according to their own scriptures)...

I talked about this in my posts "The cross of Shamash" and "Sun god tablet" and "Temple of Isis on Philae Island"...

Shamash, whose destructive aspect is Nergal, Shamash in Leo...

Anyway, I think that all of this makes it pretty clear who is depicted on the Paros amphora. 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...

Teaching Rocks solar boat

The "Solar Boat" petroglyph from the Teaching Rocks site in Peterborough, Ontario. 

Vastokas and Vastokas (1973) dated the entire site to ca 500-1100 C.E., though other researchers, such as Jack Steinbring (1975), note its resemblance to known Archaic rock art at the Jeffers Petroglyph Site in southwestern Minnesota. 

Sources:

Vastokas and Vastokas, Sacred art of the Algonkians: A Study of the Peterborough Petroglyphs, 1973, pp. 121-129

Jack Steinbring, Taxonomic and Associational Considerations of Copper Technology During The Archaic Tradition, 1975

What is the meaning of this scene?

Lake Ontario is generally navigable for small boats from late May through Sep, with the peak boating season occurring between Jun and Aug...

Hence "sun boats"...

I talked about the navigation on the great lakes and animal calendar markers used to depict sailing and mining calendars in this post "Mishipeshu", about this amazing deified composite animal calendar maker from Great Lakes, USA...

Some people, are of the opinion that the Teaching Rocks site's boats have much more in common with Neolithic-Bronze Age rock art traditions of Siberia, northern Russia, and the Baltic's hunter-gatherers and pastoralists than they do with historic Algonquin boat art. 

The ground stone and slate toolkit used around eastern Ontario during the Mid-Late Archaic also matches those other regions, too. So they propose that the site is multi-component site, spanning the Mid-Late Archaic to late Mississippian times...

And they say that if some of the boats from the Teaching Rocks site do date to the Archaic period, then they're the only know petroglyph representations of Old Copper Complex boats...

Some other people say that the boats depicted on Teaching Rocks could be bark canoes (like the ones depicted below in the Codex Canadensis), which were very widespread in the region and almost never survive in the archaeological record...

They also say that boats depicted in Siberian petroglyphs seem different. They often had a rectangular silhouette and almost always an elk head shaped figurehead...

BTW, I talked about Northern Russian Bronze Age petroglyph animal calendar and why Elk was used as symbol for sailing in my post "Bes" about petroglyphs from Lake Onega in Russia. In it also explain why elk head was used as a symbol for the sailing season...

The proponents of the Siberian - North American cultural link point at the Altai region or the Amur River region petroglyphs. The image shows two boats from Shalabolino, Krasnoyarskiy kray, Russia. Similar, but different, showing regional variants going from west to east...

Very interesting. And these boats seem to have the sun column too...I talked about the sun boats petroglyphs from the Baltic region in my post "Sun eyes" about the solar cult in Early Bronze Age Baltic.... 

The sailing in this part of the world is also only possible during the hot half of the year, Apr/May - Oct/Nov...

Anyway, I don't know how old the Teaching Rocks site solar boat petroglyph is, but I definitely know what it depicts...

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...

PS: Speaking of Ontario, who here remembers "The wolves of Ontario"?

Bison man

An amazing pic by Mike Wilson of an amazing petroglyph from Utah, SW USA, depicting what???

Well, I think these are SW Monsoon "rain bombs"...

Which are symbolically depicted like this: A "mysterious" creature depicted on the rocks of North Eastern Arizona. Holbrook area. Pic by Mike Davenport...You can read more about this in my post "Rain cloud", in which I talk about rain bombs...And how (why) they look like corn knobs... 

The rain bomb dude is accompanied by a big horn sheep...Why? Well cause the rain bombs fall from the sky during the SW monsoon season, which overlaps with the big horn sheep mating season...I talked about this in my post "Alosaka", where I also talk about Alósaka/Muyingwa, two aspects of The Corn God of the Hopi pantheon: The God of Germination and The God of Growth (of corn). And why he has big horn sheep horns...

Here is another great pic, this time by Randy Langstraat, of another one of the rain bomb dudes and his pet horned snake with hands, spewing water...Why horned snake spewing water?

Well the horns are the horns of the big horn sheep, which is an animal calendar marker of the SW monsoon season...But why snake? Cause the SW monsoon season is also the time when snakes are most active...I talk about this in my post "Horned serpent"...

The SW monsoon season is also the time when rattle snakes dance...

Which is what snake dancers imitate...

In order to bring rain...

I talked about this in my post "Snake dance"...

Ok so we can explain everyone on the original pic, except this dude? Who is this dude? Who (what) does he represent?

His horns don't look like big horned sheep horns

or pronghorn antelope horns (equivalent animal calendar marker). 

Both are found in SW Indian rain related mythology and petroglyphs cause they mate during the SW monsoon season, Jul-Sep...

There is another animal, which originally lived from Canada to Mexico...American bison. 

Check the horns and tail. And guess what: Male and female herds usually do not mingle until the breeding season, which can occur from July through September...

Which is when the snake dance and the rain bombs freak the shit out of the local SW USA Indian corn farmers...Enough for them to deify them...

So I think we have just, by chance, discovered another animal calendar marker...

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...

Mesa Mouliana vessel

A very interesting Minoan vessel found in Mesa Mouliana and dated to 1200-1100BC. Do you see the two nipple like things just under the spout? And wavy lines originating from each "nipple " and [my interpretation] symbolising the flow of water (milk of Mother Earth)?

This object is extremely stylised version of this. Ceramic vessel form Crete dated ca 2200-2000 BC. Probably during rituals the liquid would pour out of her breasts symbolically providing nourishment. It’s believed to represent the mountain goddess of Crete...

Both objects are in the Archaeological museum in Heraklion, Crete, Greece. 

What was poured out of this vessel was drinking water. I explained why in my post "Anavlochos mountain" about ancient Mother Earth sanctuaries found on it.

Now here is something that just occurred to me. Look at this beauty: Minoan jug decorated with flying swallows and small breast-like buttons - 1700-1650 BC, discovered in Akrotiri, Santorini. Currently at the Prehistoric Thera Museum, Santorini, Greece

Similar kind of jug, with nipples, but instead of water pouring out of the nipples, a swallow in flight is depicted  on the jug's belly. Why? I already talked about swallows as animal calendar marker for Apr/May, the beginning of summer, in Minoan art in my post "Minoan spring fresco". In it I analysed the animal (swallow) and plant (lily) calendar markers depicted on the "Spring Fresco" from the Akrotiri Site at Thera (Santorini), dated to 1550 – 1500 BC, and I suggested that based on the link between swallows nesting season and the lily blooming season, the fresco should be called "Summer fresco"...

But just now, I discovered that swallows were also linked with saffron crocuses. This is a strainer found in room 3 of the Xeste 3 house in Akrotiri. It is decorated with swallows flying over flowering saffron crocuses...The pic is from this paper...

Crocus flowers in Oct/Nov and is used in Minoan art as a plant calendar marker for Oct/Nov. I talked about this in my post "Male - female Minoan vessel", where I analysed this 16th c. BC Minoan vessel found on Thera, Akrotiri, depicting (according to the museum curators) on one side wild goats and saffron crocuses and on the other side dolphins and sea grass...

What is very very interesting is that swallows are summer visitors to Crete, arriving in Apr/May and leaving in Oct/Nov...

Minoans were maritime people and the swallow migrations marking the beginning and the end of the sailing season must have had a special place in Minoan culture...This veneration of swallows was also found in Ancient Greece. I talked about it in my post "Herald of spring". Did you know that Ancient Greeks had a constellation swallow (Ancient Greek: χελιδών). "...The sun entered into this constellation, when the swallow appeared in Greece as the herald of Spring..." 

And the same link between swallows and sailing was found in Roman culture and later European cultures...I talked about it in my post "Swallow tattoo"...

The period between the arrival of swallows (Apr/May) and the departure of swallows (Oct/Nov) marks the hot, dry half of the year on Crete.

How can this explain the nipple jugs with swallows? Well, the swallow migrations divide the year into female (Wet, Cool, Yin, Sowing - Creating life, No Sailing, Peace) and male (Dry, Hot, Yang, Harvesting - Destroying life, Sailing, War) halves...

The wet half being linked to the (earth) goddess, symbolised by saffron crocuses, goats and boobs 🙂 and the dry half being linked to the (sea/sun) god, symbolised by lilies, bulls and no boobs 🙂...

This is seriously cool...BTW, I already talked about the calendric symbolism of flowers in Minoan art in my post "Three Minoan flowers"...

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...