Nanshe

In this article, I will tell you a story about a chance discovery I made today about geese...From the end to the beginning...

Terracotta plaque showing seated goddess Nanshe and geese. From southern Iraq. 2003-1595 BCE. Iraq Museum...Pic by Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin... 

In Sumerian mythology, Nanshe was the daughter of Enki (god of sweet water) and Ninhursag (earth and mother goddess). 

Her functions as a goddess were varied, but like her father, she was heavily associated with water...

Here is another depiction of the goddess Nanshe. She is accompanied by two geese and holds a vase in hand. Two streams of water and fish emerging from the vessel...Ur, 2100 BC...

She is depicted as the source of  Tigris and Euphrates...Just like her father Enki...

The most common depiction of Enki is with two streams pouring out of his shoulders or out of a jar which he is holding in his hands. This portrays Enki as the god of water who controls the source of Tigris and Euphrates...You can read about it in my posts "Utu or Enki", "Goatfish" and many others...

So why geese...Well geese, water...Kind of obvious, right? True, but there is a lot more to it. Geese here are used as a animal calendar marker...

If we check the list of birds of Iraq, we can see that three large geese species found in Iraq (the geese depicted next to Ninshe are large birds): A: Graylag goose, B: Greater white-fronted goose, C: Lesser white-fronted goose...

Now all these geese are winter visitors to Mesopotamian marshes. They spend summers near arctic circle, where they breed, and spend winters in Mesopotamia, where they arrive in Oct/Nov...

The fact that the geese arrive to Mesopotamia at the beginning of winter is very important and explains why the goddess Nanshe, the goddess of water and fertility, was depicted with geese...(apart from the fact that geese like water 🙂)

The climatic year in Mesopotamia is divided into hot/dry half (Apr/May-Oct/Nov) and cool/wet half (Oct/Nov-Apr/May). And all the sweet water which makes Mesopotamia fertile and habitable is the result of the rain and snow that falls during the cool/wet half of the year...

And geese arrive from the north, right at the beginning of the rain season, bringing rain with them...And stay in Mesopotamia during the cool, wet, fertile season...

They arrive from the direction of Abzu, the source of sweet water, and the place where Enki, the god of sweet water lives. 

"Abzu, place that is a big mountain, princely crown of the heaven and earth. To the lord Nudimmud (Enki), (give) praise!"

Basically, Abzu are the North-Eatern mountains, which are the source of Tigris and Euphrates...

Now have a look this. This is (most likely) Jemdat Nasr style seal 3100-2500 BC (?). From the Leroy Golf collection of Sumerian Seals...

Officially it depicts "animals in two rows: three gazelles next to a column of two flying birds over two walking birds". 

Actually what this seal depicts is: 

1. Birds, which look very much like ducks or geese, landing...

2. Gazelles or Ibex goats...Left: gazelle, Right: ibex

Both Gazelles and Ibex goats are a common animal calendar marker for the beginning of the rain season in Mesopotamia. Why? Cause the beginning of their mating season (Oct/Nov) coincides with the beginning of the rain season in Mesopotamia...

I talked about goat as a symbol for the rain season in "Goat carrier", "Dancing goat men from Luristan", "Vessel from Tepe Hissar" and many others

I talked about gazelle as a symbol for the rain season in "Pissing gazelle", "Ashur", "Mysterious creature", "Abu" and many others

And the migratory geese (ducks) arrive to Mesopotamia right at the time when gazelles start mating and when the rains arrive... Which is what this seal depicts... Beginning of rain season...

And as I said, the geese arrive from the north, from the northern mountains, Abzu, the mountain home of Enki, the God of water, source of fresh water, which is source of fertility... 

Hence geese as the companions of Enki's daughter, Nanshe, the goddess of water and fertility...

Now in "Alternate fortunes? The role of domestic ducks and geese from Roman to Medieval times in Britain" we can read that "...in ancient Mesopotamia geese were kept in herds and were used for sacrifices and food, but this does not necessarily prove domestication..."

Well, I can tell you that geese were definitely not domesticated during the time when Sumerian language was developing in Mesopotamia...We can see this from the Sumerian lexicon where the word for goose is: 

kur-gimušen: ('mountains'+'to return') 🙂

The birds which arrive from Enki's mountains in the north at the beginning of the rain season, and go back to Enki's mountains at the end of the rain season...

And this is where the story began...With me finding the Sumerian word for goose...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...

Utu or Enki

Today I was told about this incredible book called "Seal cylinders of Wester Asia". And while flicking through it, I came across this page  and on it, I saw these 5 images which basically blew my mind...

These five details from cylinder seals basically depicted everything I have been writing about the relationship between Utu/Shamash, the Mesopotamian sun god, and Enki/Ea, the Mesopotamian god of sweet flowing water and annual flood...

So from right to left:

Enki sitting on his throne, holding a jar which represents Abzu, the source of Tigris and Euphrates. The two rivers are represented by the two flowing streams emerging from the jar...

Enki sitting on his throne, actually being Abzu, the source of Tigris and Euphrates. The two flowing streams representing Tigris and Euphrates are actually emerging from Enki's sides...

The fish depicted swimming towards Enki (they always swim towards Enki) are giant Mesopotamian carps, who migrate up the river during the annual flood, and mate in the upper reaches of Tigris and Euphrates during the peak of the flood (Apr/May)...

I talked about this in my post about the origin of the goat fish symbol

So far so normal...Enki, the god of flowing water, with water flowing out of him...But then we come to the middle image, and things get "weird"...In a good way...

This image depicts Utu/Shamash, the sun god, sitting on a throne. 

He is identifiable by the sun heat rays emanating from his shoulder and the serrated reed cutting knife he is holding in his hand. More about this in my post "Canal"...

But weirdly, on the above seal we also see fish swimming towards Utu/Shamash...Which is only seen on depictions of Enki/Ea...Why? Well because, it is Utu/Shamash who releases Enki/Ea, the sweet water, from his icy prison on top of the sacred mountains, Abzu...

Over 70% of all the water flowing down Tigris and Euphrates comes from the snowmelt. Snowmelt which is caused by Utu/Shamash. I talked about this in my post "Shamash young and old"

The snowmelt peaks at the beginning of summer, Apr/May, in Taurus... 

Which is why Tigris and Euphrates flood also reaches its peak in Apr/May, in Taurus... 

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

I talked about this in my posts "Solar bull", "Elamite water bull", "Butt chewing", "Killing of the bull of heaven"...And many others...

By the way, this is the old Taurus, the original Taurus, which has nothing to do with constellations. The old animal calendar marker, marking the beginning of the calving period of the wild Eurasian cattle. I talked about it in my posts "Ram and bull", "Cow and calf ivory"...And many others...

Anyway, I talked about this "strange" Mesopotamian belief that Utu/Shamash is the provider of sweet water and filler of wells, which turned out to be exactly what happens every year in spring, in my post "When Utu steps up into heaven"...

And it is during that exact time when Utu/Shamash is releasing Enki/Ea, that the giant Mesopotamian carp are swimming upstream towards Abzu...Which is why we see fish swimming towards Utu/Shamash, who is at that time in Abzu with Enki/Ea...

As I said above, the flood peaks when Utu/Shamash climbs to the top of the mountains...When the heat of the sun melts the snow there. At the beginning of summer...And the next picture shows Shamash sitting on top of a mountain...

The holy mountain, which is Abzu, which is Enki/Ea, which is the source of Tigris and Euphrates

Finally, the last picture shows a composite god, sitting on a chair, with both sun heat rays emanating from one of his shoulder (Utu/Shamash) and a stream of water pouring out of his side (Enki/Ea)...

This last image basically tells us that Sun is the source of flowing water...Which sounds very very strange, but it is actually true. At least in Mesopotamia...

I am actually still in shock that someone had collected these 5 pics, put them in exactly correct order to describe all this, without knowing what they were doing or what they were looking at...

And that I have found it today by pure fluke (thanks to @ourtown2 and our talk about chariots)...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...

Adda seal

This is "Adda seal", Akkadian cylinder seal made around 2300BC and currently kept in the British Museum. 

I would like to give full analysis of this seal and improve the official interpretation of this artifact found on the BM site.

So let's go:

The seal is called "Adda seal" because the cuneiform inscription identifies the owner of the seal as Adda, who is described as "dubsar" (scribe). The word "dubsar" is very interesting indeed. I wrote about it in my post "Scribe"

The official interpretation of the scene depicted on the seal says that: 

"The figures can be identified as gods by their pointed hats with multiple horns"

Fair enough...

"A hunting god (full-face) has a bow and an arrow (?) over his shoulder; a quiver with tassel attached hangs on his back"

No identification of the god provided...

"On the left hand mountain stands a small tree and Ishtar...winged and armed... She is holding a bush-like object, probably a bunch of dates, above the sun-god's head" 

No mention of the lion...No explanation why is she holding dates above the sun god's head...

"The sun-god Shamash with rays, holding a serrated blade, is just beginning to emerge from between two square topped mountains" 

This is usually interpreted as "sun at dawn cutting its way through the Zagros mountains"...I will explain why this is not the case...

"The water god Ea/Enki stands to the right with one foot placed on the right hand mountain"

Why? Actually it becomes obvious when you realise that these are not mountains...

"He stretches out his right hand towards an eagle, probably the Zu bird who stole the tablets of destiny"

What about the snake that the eagle holds in its beak? I don't think this is Zu, and I will explain why soon...

"A bull lies between his legs and streams of water and fish flow from his shoulders"

Why is bull lying between Ea/Enki's legs? Why are fish swimming inside of the streams towards Enki?  So many animal symbols there which are not explained...

"Behind him [Ea/Enki] stands his two-faced attendant god Usimu with his right hand raised"

Why is Usimu two-faced? No explanation...

Soooo...Where do I begin...By first stating that all the things depicted on this seal are calendar markers...And they are all chronologically ordered on the solar year circle from right to left. Except one, which is out of place...

And a lot of them we know from before. Well if you read my blog and my twitter threads that is...So I will first point at these well known 🙂calendar markers. I will fix them on the calendar year, and that will enable us to identify the other, until now yet undeciphered calendar markers...

So first I will talk about Shamash/Utu...The scene depicted on this seal is not "sun at dawn cutting its way through the Zagros mountains". It is "sun in an empty irrigation canal during the hottest and driest time of the year, Jul/Aug"...In Leo...Like on this seal...

This is when canals are extended and repaired. Shamash/Utu is holding a serrated knife used to cut reeds, which have the best building and water resistance qualities in Aug...See the reed bundles on both sides of the canal? I talked about this in my post "Canals"...

I would suggest that you read this article too, "Shamash young and old", in which I talk about diametrically opposed roles of young and old Shamash/Utu when it comes to water in Mesopotamia. Young sun releasing the waters and Old sun taking it away... 

So once we know what the central image represents, and what time of the year it marks (Jul/Aug), we can turn to Ea/Enki...

As I explained in my article "Shamash young and old", Enki is the god of the source of fresh water...And the source of Tigris and Euphrates...Which is why he is usually depicted with two streams of water (rivers) pouring out of him...

Ea/Enki is also the god of flood...Not "The flood"... Just the annual flood of the Tigris and Euphrates. The most important natural event in Mesopotamia...I talked about it in my post "Enki's little boat"...

This flood peaks during Apr/May...In Taurus...

Which is why we see bull depicted between Ea/Enki's legs...BTW, Taurus marks Apr/May because this is when wild Eurasian cattle used to start calving...

I talked about this in my posts "Rain and flood" and "Ram and bull"...

So why is fish swimming upstream towards Ea/Enki? They do BTW, on all the depictions of Ea/Enki...Here is another one

Because the upstream mating migration of giant Mesopotamian carp coincides with the peak of the flood. 

I talked about it in my post "Goatfish"...About this guy, the "symbol of Enki/Ea"...

The guy Enki/Ea likes standing on...

Oh what about the eagle with a snake in its beak? This is another animal calendar marker that marks the peak of the annual flood...

This eagle is Short-toed Snake-eagle. It is found throughout the Mediterranean basin, into Russia and the Middle East, and parts of Asia...

This eagle is a summer visitor to Iraq where it nests in Apr/May. In Taurus...At the peak of Enki's flood...

Hence eagle with the snake in its beak landing on the hand of the god of flood, Ea/Enki, who is standing on a bull...While fish swim towards him...See, it all fits...

This fixes Ea/Enki, as a calendar marker for Apr/May...Oh yeah, and he is not standing on a mountain. He is standing on a bank of a dried out irrigation canal...Why? Cause it's dry...

The flood of Ea/Enki completely subsides by Jul/Aug, hence empty irrigation canals...Which is what Ea/Enki standing on one bank of the canal represents: flood, peaks in Apr/May ends in Jul/Aug...

So Ea/Enki stand on one side of the empty irrigation canal, while Ishtar/Inanna stands on the other side of the canal. Holding bunch of dates...Why? Because Jul/Aug, when Lion (Autumn) kills (ends) Bull (Summer), is when you are supposed to start picking dates. I talked about this in my post "Lion killing bull under date palm"...

But why is Ishtar/Inanna, of all the gods and goddesses, the one holding dates? Cause she is also the goddess who likes posing on lions...You know, lion, Leo, Jul/Aug...Time to pick dates and such stuff...

But why is she posing on lions? Cause she is Sirius, the star who when this seal was made, was rising before the sun In Leo, pretending to be "the morning star"..."The queen of heaven"...I talked about this heavenly girl in my post "Ninshubur"...

And here we come across one thing that is out of place on this seal...The lion...The lion should stand between Ishtar and the dude with the bow and arrow...But I guess they put it where they put it so that they can fit it under the end inscription...

Why do I think that lion should be next to Ishtar/Inanna? Well, Leo, marks the beginning of the main mating season of the Eurasian lions, which spans the whole of Autumn (Aug/Sep/Oct)...

Which is why lion was in the past the symbol for this season, just like bull was the symbol of summer (May/Jun/Jul). I talked about this in my post "Symbols of the seasons"...

As autumn, the lion season, starts in Leo, Jul/Aug, when Shamash/Utu is busy chopping reeds in canals and Ishtar/Inanna is busy picking dates, Lion should be next to the Ishtar/Inanna's side of the dried out irrigation canal...

Autumn is the time of droughts in Mesopotamia...Which is what the bare tree next to Ishtar/Inanna represents...The time of the year ruled by Nergal, the destructive sun, who was symbolised by a lion, or man lion. I talked about him in my post "Winged superhuman hero"...

This season of death ends when the first rains arrive...And these rains are brought by Ninurta/Ningirsu...The old storm god, the old god of rain...The same guy, depicted here with a bow, killing the blazing sun...I talked about him in my post "King killing Angra Mainiu"...

Did you know that in Sumerian myths, Ninurta/Ningirsu, the archer rain god who is armed with a bow and arrow wears a rainbow as his crown/tiara...Of course, cause the only time you would see a rainbow is when it rains...

By the way, the rains arrive to Mesopotamia in Oct/Nov...And right after the first rains is when the plowing and sowing of the grain fields takes place...Which is why it is Ninurta/Ningirsu who is depicted on this seal giving people a plough...

He is sitting on a throne, behind which we can see a mountain and an ibex goat. Why? Because in Mesopotamia, ploughing is done after the first rains, which arrive in Oct/Nov, when Ibex, Goat of rain, climbs to the mountain tops and starts mating...

Which is why Ibex goat became the most depicted and respected animal in Mesopotamia...I talked about this in my post "Goat carrier"...

So if we know that autumn (Aug/Sep/Oct), the lion season, starts with Ishtar/Innana and Shamash/Utu in the form of Nergal, and ends with Ninurta/Ningirsu, then lion on this seal should have been depicted between Innana/Ishtar and Ninurta/Ningirsu...

But sometimes I wonder if the makers of these seals really knew what they were depicting, or were they copying already ancient, by then to them meaningless images...

Sooo, that's it...

Hey!!! What about the Two-Faced Usimu, the attendant of the god Ea/Enki...

Ahhh yes...This is the really cool bit...🙂 As opposed to all I said so far

To figure out what he represents, lets order all the calendar markers on the solar year from right to left:

1. Ea/Enki (Apr/May)

2. Shamash/Utu and Ishtar/Inanna (Jul/Aug)

3. Ninurta/Ningirsu (Oct/Nov)

And Usimu, the attendant of Ea/Enki is the one that stands before the god Ea/Enki, the one that introduces you to the god Ea/Enki...

So who is he? What does he represent?

As I said already, all the thinks depicted on this seal are calendar markers. and Usimu is not an exception...

Now remember this dude? The two faced Janus. The guy that at the same time looks to the past and to the future...The god of the new beginnings and of the new year! I talked about him, what his deeper meaning is, and his strange name in my post "Janus"...

Usimu is also two faced...Could he be the calendar marker for the new year???

Mesopotamian New Year, fell within the month called Nisan which covered the period Mar/Apr...

Let's see: Mar/Apr (Usimu) is just before Apr/May (Ea/Enki)...So Usimu indeed stands before Ea/Enki...He indeed introduces us to Ea/Enki. I mean this is IS really cool. The idea of the two headed god of new year, Janus, actually existed in Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC...

He is indeed a calendar marker too...And a calendar marker which is correctly chronologically placed on the Adda seal before Ea/Enki...Which makes this seal absolutely incredible...Everything fits, everything conforms to the calendar marker theory...Apart from the stupid lion 🙂

Sooooo...That's it...From right to left:

1. Usimu (Mar/Apr) 

2. Ea/Enki and his menagerie (Apr/May)

3. Shamash/Utu and his knife and Ishtar/Inanna and her figs (Jul/Aug)

4. Ninurta/Ningirsu and his bow (Oct/Nov)

True gem indeed...

I hope you enjoyed this...I know I did...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here…then check the rest of the blog posts related to animal calendar markers I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...

PS: I wonder if @britishmuseum guys will consider changing the seal description after this thread? I doubt it...