Monkey from the Erin forest

Babylonian baked clay tablet found in Iraq and dated to 2000-1600 BC. It depicts a man, with an assistant kneeling behind him, shooting with a composite bow at a monkey sitting in a tree. On the right, is a wild boar facing the base of the tree. Interesting. Here is why:

Monkeys are often depicted on Sumerian clay plaques. Like this one from Ur III (2200-2100BC), depicting a monkey wallah, a performer who trains monkeys to dance or perform tricks for an audience...

One of the most interesting things about this plaque is that on all of them a monkey is playing the flute, something it would not be likely to do in real life...

According to this paper "More Monkey Business" by Carole Mendleson, this may illustrate a fable, now lost, perhaps Elamite, perhaps Indian or perhaps even Sumerian...

Further on, the paper also says that monkeys and a word for monkeys came to Mesopotamia from Indian via Elam (Iran) during the Ur III period...

And that originally "monkey" was used as a derogatory term for Elamites. When describing an Elamite incursion, a Sumerian text states that "monkeys descended from their mountain", meaning they came from the east, from Elam, Iran...

So monkeys and a word for monkeys came to Mesopotamia from Elam (Iran) during the Ur III period...

And originally "monkey" was used as a derogatory term for Elamites. When describing an Elamite incursion, a Sumerian text states that "monkeys descended from their mountain", meaning they came from the east, from Elam, Iran...

Is it because Elam was "The land of the monkeys" figuratively but also literally? Did monkeys live in the forests of Elam during the 3rd millennium BC?

I think so. 

Ever heard of a mythical Erin forest?

My friend!  We have reduced the forest to a wasteland...How shall we answer God Enlil in Nippur?

Enkidu talking to Gilgamesh, after they have killed Humbaba, the guardian of the Erin forest, and have cut all the trees down...

I while ago I wrote this article "Humbaba" about the identity of Humbaba, the guardian of the Erin forest. I postulated that Humbaba (left) was a deified tiger who once lived in this forest...

Based on the known tiger habitats and where they intersect with Euphrates river, I proposed that the original location of the Erin forest was in Armenian highlands...

After they have cut the Erin trees down, Gilgamesh and Enkidu and their men lashed the trees together into rafts to transport them down the Euphrates river back to Nipur...

Rafts? Like this? Cool...

Then later, new data I found, suggested I might have been wrong about the Erin forest location. It looks like tigers once lived in Elam, Iran, and it is therefore possible that the mythical forest might have been located there:

How far south in Iran did tigers live during Neolithic...This article, "Tigers tigers everywhere", asks his question...And few others...

A Neo Assyrian tablet currently in the Museum of Suleimaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan, contains a passage from the Gilgamesh Epic with the description of the Erin Forest, which is the most detailed description of nature and its soundscape in the literature of Mesopotamia...

And guess what, the description, published in this paper, contains the following lines:

The Erin Forest had monkeys living in its trees. And Elam was the monkey land...

Sooo...

The monkey hunt tablet could actually be describing an actual monkey hunt in the Erin forest...

And so the two men could be Enkidu and Gilgamesh...

Cool, right?

But this tablet is also interesting from the animal calendar markers point of view.

"Now seriously, why do you always think about animal calendar markers when you see depictions of animals?" I can hear you say. "Couldn't this be just a depiction of a hunting scene?"

Of course it could. But hear me out.

If the forest was indeed located in Elam, then the monkey has to be macaque, the only species that once lived in "areas with cold winters"...

And in the areas with cold winters macaque mating season starts in Oct/Nov...

Ok, so? Question: why did the maker of this tabled decide to depict a wild boar, just casually standing under the monkey tree? Considering that wild boar mating season is also starts in Oct/Nov?

This could of course be just a random choice of animals.  But look at this: This is the climatic year in Iraq/Iran.

The rains arrive in Oct/Nov, when macaques and wild boar start to mate, making both of them animal calendar markers for the rain season...

I talked about wild boar, archer and rain in my post "Achaemenid lion boar seal", where I give symbolic analysis of this Achaemenid cylinder seal, found in Iran and dated to the 6th–4th century BC is currently kept in the Met Museum...

BTW, in Iraq/Iran, the beginning of the rain (cool, wet) season that ends (kills) sun (hot, dry) season, coincides with the Orionid meteor shower...

Just before the rains arrive to Mesopotamia, the rains that end the drought, the arrows start shooting from the sky announcing the arrival of the Sky/Rain god, the great archer...I talked about this in my post "The invisible archer"...

Hence archer? And monkey and boar? But who knows. I am just putting it all out there, and you can decide for yourself. We'll never know.

I want to thank @NkayaMuhittin for posting the picture and the info about this tablet. Great account worth following if you like archaeology...

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...

Fallow deer

Just came across this interesting paper which states that Fallow deer (both European and Persian) was part of the "Neolithic Package" together with cattle, sheep, goats, and pigs...

This means that Neolithic farmers brought these deer with them when they migrated, like to Mediterranean islands Chios and Rhodes. Interestingly, the deer taken to Neolithic Chios and Rhodes derived not from nearby Anatolia, but from the Balkans...

The paper then goes to say that it was specifically fallow deer, and not just any deer, that was originally associated with the cult of Artemis...

This is explicitly depicted on many artefacts, like this Boeotian red-figure calyx, dated to 450–425 BC, depicting Artemis riding in a chariot pulled by fallow deer does, currently in Louvre...

From the paper: "There is debate about the geographical genesis of the Artemis myth but the possibility she originated in the Balkans is given credence by the density of both fallow deer remains and Artemis-related paraphernalia depicting fallow deer"...

Further on, the paper, citing "Approaches to Artemis in Bronze Age Greece" goes to say that:

"In Late Minoan Crete (c.1550–1100 BCE), Linear B texts mention not only fallow deer but also provide the earliest reference to Artemis (10, 53)"

Hinting that the link between fallow deer and Artemis already existed in Bronze Age Crete...

Possibly this link also existed in Bronze Age Anatolia. 

This Beautiful Hittite, fallow deer shaped vessel, dated to ca. 14th–13th century BC, is currently in the Met Museum.

Along the rim of the vessel is an engraved relief depicting some kind of (religious) scene. 

There is an ongoing discussion about whether the sitting deity depicted on the stag rhyton is a god or a goddess, unfortunately the hieroglyphs above the deity's head does not help the discussion.

The current consensus leans favourably for it being a female. And I agree it is. Here is why:

Is this a dead fallow deer behind the seated deity separated from the seated deity by two spears? A dead fallow deer lying under a stylised date palm tree with a quiver hanging on the wall above it? 

This is why this could be interesting. 

First we need to determine which fallow deer it is, European or Persian. Persian fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica) is today only found in Iran and Israel, but it inhabited parts of Anatolia, particularly the southern regions bordering Syria and the Levant, during the Bronze Age. They were widespread in Southwest Asia at that time and co-existed in Anatolia with the European fallow deer (Dama dama), though their distribution was limited by human activity...

Now the mating season of Persian fallow deer is Jul/Aug - Sep/Oct and the mating season of European fallow deer is Sep/Oct...

This would make fallow deer animal calendar marker for autumn, Jul/Aug - Oct/Nov, in Anatolia. I already talked about this in my post "Deer and bee", in which I analysed this Silver tetradrachm of Ephesos, dated to 390–380 BC.   

This coin also depicts a fallow deer lying under a date palm tree...Date palm tree is a plant calendar marker for Jul/Aug first appearing in Mesopotamia. Date harvest season starts in Jul/Aug, in Leo, when Lion (autumn) kills (ends) Bull (summer) and lasts until Oct/Nov. I gave full symbolic analysis of this seal in my post "Lion killing bull under palm tree"...

I talked about date palm as a plant calendar marker in many of my posts...

So fallow deer lying (dead) under a date palm tree is an animal calendar marker for Jul/Aug, Leo...

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...

Now fallow deer was directly linked to Artemis from the Minoan times. And Artemis is also linked with bow and arrow and lions...

I talked about this in many of my posts. 

Like my post "Winged Artemis", about this 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...Artemis in Leo, Jul/Aug...

Or 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, Artemis in Leo, Jul/Aug...

Artemis, the twin sister of Apollo, the destructive sun (dragon) of Jul/Aug, Leo, whose holy month was Jul/Aug and who was also linked to lions...Apollo...The dragon...This dude:

Marble Throne of Apollo, Roman, late 1st c. AD. Currently in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Whoever made this, knew who Apollo really was and wanted to show Apollo in his true shape (serpent, dragon), sitting on his throne. 

I talked about Apollo, the god of the sun in Leo, Jul/Aug, the Greek equivalent of Mesopotamian Nergal, in this series of posts: "Palil", "Lord of the flies", "Lions of Delos", "Apollo and dolphins", "Marble throne of Apollo", "Apollo and Python", "White raven", "Threshing floor of Apollo", "Apollo the great archer", "Apollo Sminthius"

Artemis, the twin sister of Apollo, who was also the terrifying archer of whom it is said: 

"I will remember and not be unmindful of Apollo who shoots afar. As he goes through the house of Zeus, the gods tremble before him and all spring up from their seats when he draws near, as he bends his bright bow..."

Artemis, the feared archer herself, and the girl whom Hera accuses of being "a lioness between women"...Strange...But familiar? At least it should be...Ever heard of the Lioness of heaven? Ishtar? This girl...

I talked about her in my posts "Gisgis relief", "Sirius the mother of Venus", "Apocalypse", "The brightest star", "Inana and Šukaletuda"...

Artemis, who liked showing off by holding two lions, like on this Ancient Greek jug from Louvre, dated to 560-550 BC...

BTW, between two lions means "In Leo"...Oh and do you see how she is flanked by two spear men (two spears)?

The reason why Artemis is standing in Leo, Jul/Aug, is because Artemis is just another name for the ancient Archer Warrior Goddess, Ishtar...Deified Sirius in Leo, Jul/Aug...

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!!!!

And the reason why deified Sirius goddesses are archers is this: In Mesopotamia, Sirius was seen as an arrow and the surrounding stars were seen as a bow...And they were stars of Jun/Jul/Aug...

I already talked about this in my post "The brightest star" about the link between Sirius and Inanna...

So Jul/Aug, the time of the year ruled by Nergal/Apollo, and his twin sister Ishtar/Artemis is the time when Sirius (bow and arrow) rises with the sun...

But why did Mesopotamians see Sirius as arrow? Remember my post "Invisible archer"? If arrows are shooting down from the night sky, there must be an [invisible] archer shooting them from up there...  

This article was about Orion and Orionids meteorite shower. Orionids shoot down on earth during Sep/Oct/Nov. But there is another meteroite shower that rains light arows down on earth in Jul/Aug. Perseid Meteor shower...

And guess when this meteor shower is most intense? When the most light arrows are being shot down on earth? Right before dawn. You can even see them at dawn, together with Sirius and the sun...Destructive sun of Leo, Nergal, Apollo...

I talked about deified Perseids in many of my posts...

Now knowing all this might help us determine who is actually sitting goddess depicted on our Hittite rhyton...I think it is most likely some Hittite version of Ishtar/Astarte/Asherah/Artemis...

One other thing. I presume the bird sitting on the hand of the seated deity is a Peregrine falcon. 

Peregrine falcons migrate over Turkey, following mapped bird migration route used by all the birds migrating over Turkey, northwards in Apr/May/June and southwards in Sep/Oct/Nov.

Interesting, right? The deity standing on the stag is also holding a peregrine falcon...

This means that all the animal calendar markers depicted on this image point at Aug/Sep/Oct...So who is sitting pretty in Sep sipping (what?)...

The grape harvest season in Anatolia, Turkey, generally falls in Aug/Sep/Oct...

BTW, do you see the mushroom shaped thingy in front of the seated deity? The main mushroom season in Anatolia and across Turkey is autumn, specifically Sep/Oct/Nov...How interesting...

Now this is climate chart for Çorum province, the old Hittite heartland. The autumn rains arrive in Sep/Oct/Nov...

Interesting, right? Considering that there is a guy pouring water libation in front of the god standing on a stag and holding a peregrine falcon...

To read more about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, which are at the root of all our mythologies, start here…Then check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am way way behind...

Apollo - Resheph

Oh Hello Apollo! Or should I say Resheph?

Today I came across this article published in Cyprus Mail in 2021. which talks about the sanctuary of Apollo built in the 7th c. BC on Cyprus...

The sanctuary, located in Frangissa, near Nicosia, was used for 5 centuries, and excavation uncovered contained huge number of votive statues made of stone and clay, some of the very large, like these two...

Now, interestingly, in Fransissa, Apollo was worshiped as Apollo-Resheph...And guess who Resheph was: A Syrian god, associated with war and plague, originally worshiped in Ebla in the third mill BC...And considered to be Syrian version of...🥁🥁🥁...Nergal...

Here is Resheph on a plaque from Ebla, dated to the 3rd mill BC. Pic from this article...

The description says: "The god’s head and torso are preserved: he wears the high conic head-dress, with horizontal horns, he  has pointed nose, and chin, and features a short beard, represented by three  vertical strokes; his hair is apparently plaited, and quite long..."

"...he holds the  string of the bow, resting on his shoulder, whereas his breast is crossed by the  string of the quiver, with the arrows barbed ends appearing at the botom, between the bow string, and the god’s body; the left arm is outstretched in front  of him..."

Ha! Resheph the terrible archer who brings plague...Just like Apollo was the terrible archer who brings plague...

I talked about this the 9th and 10th articles from the series of articles about the link between Nergal and Apollo:

You should check my articles about Apollo if you want to fully understand what I am talking about here:

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

You can read about Resheph in this paper...

BTW, the Apollo sanctuary in Fransissa was originally excavated in 1885 by Max Ohnefalsch-Richter, a German archaeologist and antiquities seller, who wrote this about how made the discovery in this paper...

"...While engaged in excavating for Col. Warren, I heard that a shepherd, tending his flocks, had lighted on a pile of ancient statues in a valley called Frangissa..."

"The credit opened for me by Col. Warren was almost exhausted, and his instructions were that I was to find for him only good Greek things..."

And so he rummaged through the site, picked up what to him looked like "good Greek things" and few other things he thought he could easily sell, and then reburied the site, with intention to come back later and do more digging...

Here are some "good Greek things" he found and brought with him ..." Pic from this paper...

But he never did come back and by then mythical site was only rediscovered recently and is now being excavated in detail, showing how much important stuff Max Ohnefalsch-Richter left behind thinking it was worthless...

Which turned out to be amazing...Like the inscriptions which equate Apollo with Resheph...Nergal...

And which confirm my theory that Apollo was Nergal which I formulated purely based on animal and plant calendar markers found in Apollo and Nergal mythologies...

PS: 3rd of May 2026. Ahahistory, a great X account definitely worth following told today that "...in the Amarna letter EA 35 (14th c. BC) the King of Alashiya apologizes to the Egyptian pharaoh for the small copper shipment he sent, explaining that the "hand of Nergal" (a plague) had struck his country..."

That's that. 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...

Invisible archer

If arrows are shooting down from the night sky (Orionid meteorite shower)...

...there must be an [invisible] archer (Orion) standing somewhere up there shooting them out of his bow...

An example of an ancient "scientific" explanation for an annual natural event...

Of course, if you look at the stars that form Orion constellation, this is what you see...

The lines were added by people to form the imagined archer which rises in the night sky as the arrow like meteorites, the debris from the Halley comet, start shooting down on earth from Orionid radiant. Right above Orion...

Anyway, this is how some people saw and explained Orionid meteor shower, which starts every year in Sep, and ends in Nov, and peaks in mid Oct.

Some other people did't see arrows coming down from the sky. They saw clubs...

And so

Why was Orion seen by Ancient Greeks as a "the greatest hunter" armed with a cudgel (club)? And why do Bulgarians call Orion "cudgels (clubs)" and why do Serbs call Orion "Baba's (grandmother's) sticks" and all the stars "Baba's (grandmother's) cudgels (clubs)"? I talked about this in my post "Grandmother's cudgels (clubs)"

You might also like this article, "Jack and magic beans", about (thunder) giants living in the sky...And the possibility that our myths about sky gods originated as the best scientific explanation for observed phenomena. If huge rocks are falling from the sky, someone is throwing them...So, giants living in the sky...

A 15th-century engraving depicts the town of Ensisheim in present-day France being struck by a thunderbolt as a giant rock...

Now guess what happens in Mesopotamia in Oct/Nov? The dry season, the season of drought and death, ends when the first rains arrive...In Oct/Nov...

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 that causes drought...From my post "Adda seal"...

Why was Ninurta/Ningirsu depicted as an archer? Well, originally, I thought that it is because when it rains, you can see a rainbow. And in Mesopotamia this is only between Oct/Nov and Apr/May...

In Hindu mythology, rainbow or the Indradhanush is the bow of Lord Indra, the god of lightning, thunder and rains.

But the Mesopotamians didn't see the rainbow as Ninurta/Ningirsu's bow. They saw it as the rain/thunder god's crown/tiara...

So why then? Maybe because just before the rains arrive to Mesopotamia, the arrows start shooting from the sky announcing the arrival of the Sky god, Ninurta/Ningirsu...The bringer of rain...The Great Archer...Who also shoots thunder and lightning bolts...

Anyway, that's that...Hope you enjoyed it 🙂