Rider from Erebuni

This is the end of the "bent" silver rhyton which was found in Urartian site Arin-Berd (Ancient Erebuni, today Yerevan) in Armenia, and which was dated to the Achaemenid period...

The pic is from the paper "Riding in Achaemenid Iran: new perspectives" The author of the paper says that "The rider, a bearded individual with a large head and heavy body...was assuredly meant to represent a person of rank..."

There is something strange about this individual of high rank: the decorations on his saddle (behind: Ibex goats, in front: bull) and his hat (Eagle/Vulture)...

This is climate chart for Armenia:

You can see that there are two rain peaks, Oct/Nov and Apr/May.

Oct/Nov, is marked by wild Ibex goat buck fights...I talked about ibex goats as animal calendar markers in many of my posts...

Apr/May, is marked by calving of wild Auroch cattle...I talked about wild Eurasian cattle as animal calendar markers in many of my posts...

What is interesting is that griffon vultures lay their eggs Oct/Nov and the chicks hatch in Mar/Apr...I talked about vultures as animal calendar markers in many of my posts...

So knowing this, is it possible that this "bearded individual with a large head and heavy body" isn't a depiction of a "a person of rank", but in fact a depiction of a rain god in one of his many guises? Who arrives with ibex goats and eagles and departs with auroch cattle?

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...