Mystery seal

The other day, I came across this image, while searching for something on the net. The image is an illustration from "Yahweh and the Origins of Ancient Israel, Insights from the Archaeological Record" by Nissim Amzallag...

I don't have 85£ to buy the book (hopefully I will get to read it one day), so I can't tell you where and when this seal was made, or what Nissim Amzallag thinks it means...

My guess is it was made during the Late Bronze Age, most likely in Levant (or upper Mesopotamia)...

13/8/2024 I managed to get the copy of this book. This is a cylinder seal from Ugarit. And here is what Nissim has to say about it: "It represents the struggle between someone with a conical hat and a threatening pose (Baal), and a lion/caprid associated with a serpent (Reshef/Athtar). The posture of the animals (and especially the serpent) is not submissive, a feature challenging the hegemony of Baal (and the Amorites) on the local pantheon".

So...As I expected. No idea what this seal actually depicts. No worries, I can tell you exactly what is depicted on it: The end of the sunny, hot, dry half of the year. Let me explain why I think so:

These are (representative) climate charts for Syria, Israel, Iraq, Iran...

You can see that the climatic year is divided into two halves:

Hot, dry half of the year, Apr/May - Oct/Nov

Cool, wet half of the year, Oct/nov - Apr/May

Sooo??? What does this have to do with what is depicted on the seal we are talking about? 

Grain

On the seal we see a plant symbol for grain. I talked about it in many of my posts, for instance "Sabi Abyad venus"

The symbol for wheat is placed under the bull's head. This is because the grain harvest season in Levant and Mesopotamia starts with the barley harvest in Taurus, Apr/May.

I talked about it in my post "Bull carrying granary"...

Now bull and lion. 

These are most common symbols of the seasons:

Ram (marks lambing of Eurasian wild sheep) - spring

Bull (marks calving of Eurasian wild cattle) - summer

Lion (marks mating of Eurasian lions) - autumn

Goat (marks mating of Eurasian wild goats) - winter

And on the seal, we see lion following (and attacking) bull from behind...

Summer, which starts in Taurus (Apr/May) is followed by autumn, which starts in Leo (Jul/Aug)...

Together, they form the hot, dry half of the year, Apr/May - Oct/Nov

By the way, this is a version of a very common "lion killing bull" scene, which funnily no one before me had any explanation for...

Coin depicting Lion killing Bull sceene. Cilicia, Tarsos Mazaios Satrap 361-334BC...  

Remember, Ram - spring, followed by Bull - summer, followed by Lion - Autumn, followed by Goat - winter...  

So autumn (starts in Leo) ends (kills) summer (starts in Taurus)...

Jul/Aug, the moment when Lion kills Bull is the hottest and driest time of the year in Levant and Syria. The seat of the destructive sun god, the god of death. 

In the deserts of Levant, Middle East and Arabia, it was The Sun who was "The God of Death". It is in climate and nature it produces, that we find the root of all our religions... Pic: Over 2000 years old poem about the god of death Mot. I talked about this in my post "The oldest Arabic poem"...

In Mesopotamia they even depicted this god of death as a lion man...Cause Leo is the time when the sun is most destructive...

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 in my post "Winged superhuman hero"...

Hence on the seal we see the sun disc hovering right above the lion's head, in Leo, Jul/Aug...

So what about the snake? Snake is an animal calendar marker of the beginning of summer, Apr/May, because this is when the most common Eurasian snakes, vipers, begin their mating season...

Which is why

Snake: Apr/May, beginning of the main snake mating season, beginning of summer. 

Lion: Jul/Aug, beginning of the main lion mating season, end of summer.

And in the middle...

I talked about this in my post "You will trample the great lion and serpent"...

And which is why on the seal, snake slithers from right above the grain (start of grain harvest Apr/May) and head of the bull (start of summer, Taurus, Apr/May)...

On the seal, the snake then delineates the space taken by the bull, the lion and the sun, ending at the lion's butt (end of autumn, Oct/Nov). Why? Cause snake is The Solar Symbol...

Snake is a pure solar animal. It is in our world when sun is here (day, hot half of the year) and it is in the underworld when sun is there (night, cold half of the year)...I talked about it in my posts "The chthonic animal" and "Enemy of the sun"...

Hence sun god holding snakes...

This is 3rd millennium BC, Bactrian seal depicting the sun god (see heat rays emanating from his shoulders) holding snakes, symbols of sun's heat...See snakes, Solar animals number one, the symbols of sun's heat... I talked about it in my post "Nude winged hero dominating snakes"...

To understand fully the meaning of the snake animal calendar marker, and its link with bull animal calendar marker, we need to understand snake's relationship with dragon...

The first clue about this relationship I found in Slavic folklore, where Dragon (the symbol of the destructive summer sun's heat which burns everything and brings drought) is just "an old snake" (symbol of sun's heat)...Also Slavic "zmaj" (dragon) is masculine form of "zmija" (snake). I talked about this in my post "Letnitsa treasure"...

This same link between snakes and dragons is found in Mesopotamia...

In Mesopotamia, summer lasted seven (hot) months...Which is why local dragon (dragon = symbol of summer), had seven snake heads (snake = symbols of sun's heat)...Oh, and look, we also have dragon killer(s) and the princess 🙂. I talked about this in my post "Seven headed dragon"...

And so, the dragon killer brings us to the end of autumn, and the end of the sunny, hot dry half of the year. On our seal, this time of the year, Oct/Nov, is symbolised by a lion's butt. Which is being speared by the rain storm god. 

We know it is a rain storm god, cause he is looks like Baal...

I talked Baal (Rain) - Mot (Sun) in my post "Anat"...

And on top of it he is also carrying a (double) axe, another one of the weapons associated with storm gods. Like Adad...I talked about this in my post "Kataibates"...

And this is it. Here is the meaning of the seal depicted on the circular climate year chart...

Interesting, right?

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...

Anat

Anat was a Semitic goddess worshipped by the Canaanites & Egyptians during the Bronze and Iron Ages. 

 

Depicted as violent, delighting in war, she was also establisher of peace. She was also portrayed as highly sexual & fertile, but also referred to as virgin & maiden. Fiercely loyal to her brother Baal, she takes revenge against Mot, god of the underworld, for (briefly) taking Baal's life. According to the Ugaritic text, "She seized divine Mot, with a knife she split him...with fire she burnt him; with millstones she ground him; with a sieve she sifted him; on the steppe she abandoned him.."

She was imported into Egypt by the Hyksos rulers. So who was Anat?

According to old poems from the area, Mot was equated to the sun. I talked about this in my post "Oldest Arabic poem"...

This is the climatic year in Levant. You can see that it is divided into two halves: the wet season (Nov-Apr) and the dry season (May-Oct) dominated by the blazing sun...

In ancient Levant, the wet season was the time when Baal/Hadad ruled the world. But every year, in May, Mot would usurps the throne of Baal/Hadad, kill Baal, and turn the world into hell...

Mot had a brother, Yam, the sea god, also enemy of Baal. The seafaring season in Levant (Apr-Sep) corresponds with the dry season, the season ruled by Mot...Also with mating season of horses, which were the symbol of Yam. 

I talked about this in my post "Trojan horse"...

Anat "put an end to Yam, the beloved of El, and to other enemies of Baal including a 7 headed serpent"...

Interesting...

Like this 7 headed serpent (dragon) from Mesopotamia? Which has the body of a lion (Leo is the symbol of the the hottest part of the year)...And seven snake heads (snake is the symbol of the sun's heat, and 7 heads represent 7 months of the Mesopotamian summer)...With Shamash (sun god) sun rays rising from his back?

I talked about this cylinder seal in my post "Seven headed dragon"...

Who's the girl standing under the star, looking at "heroes killing the 4th snake head of the dragon with 7 snake heads"? Well Ishtar/Inanna of course...The warrior goddess standing on a lion...Under a star...Sirius rising with the sun in Leo...

I talked about her in my post "Ninshubur"...

'The yellow ones of Mot' Mot's henchmen who are slain by Baal/Hadad upon his return...Who are these "yellow ones"?

Look at these pictures: 

Summer (May-Oct), ruled by Mot, the time of death in Levant. 

Winter (Nov-Apr), ruled by Baal/Hadad, the time of life in Levant

Anat also kills: Arsh, a monstrous attendant of Yam, the sea god and "the darling of the gods"...Apparently his name means "towards the land"...Who is Arsh? Who does Anat kill? 

I would suggest that Arsh is the deified "etesian winds" season. 

The etesian winds are the prevailing annually recurring summer winds, blowing over large parts of Greece, the Aegean Sea and eastern Mediterranean. The name derives from the Greek 'etesios', annual. They blow steadily from northern to northwestern directions, bringing cold continental air and clear skies between end of May and beginning of October...

They blow from the north "towards the land" in Levant and Egypt...During the sailing season...When this "monstrous attendant of Yam, the sea god" is killed, the dry season dominated by the sun, Mot, ends too...And Baal/Hadad comes back to power...The storms and rains return...

Anat also kills Atik, the calf of El, and the enemy of Baal/Hadad...

The calving season of wild Eurasian cattle, Aurochs starts in Apr/May...

This period is marked by a bull, calf, cow with calf...Taurus. This is one of the oldest animal calendar markers, which is found all over Eurasia and North Africa. I talked about this in my post "Ram and Bull".. 

Taurus announces the beginning of the hot, dry season, dominated by the sun, Mot and the end of the cool, wet season dominated by rain, Baal/Hadad.

Anat also kills Ishat (Light, Fire) and Zabib (Flame) the Goddesses of fire or flame, the daughters of El, the king of the Gods and servants of Yam/Mot, the enemy of Ba'al, the storm God. Naturally...The fire, flame (heat) of the sun scorches the land and turns it into this: Mot's hell.

I love the fact that Ishat (fire), the goddess of fire and drought, is known as "the bitch of the gods"...In Slavic folklore, the hottest part of the year, end of Jul beginning of Aug, is knows as "kresovi" (fires)...This is also the mating season of the old Canaan dogs...

You know, dog days...When Dog Star, Sirius, rises with the sun...In Leo...Sounds familiar? 

I talked about this in my post "Dog days"...

Anat kills Mot after "seven years of drought"...This is a "poetic" version of "seven months of drought"...This story originates in Mesopotamia, and there, summer, dry season says  "In my working term of duty, which is seven months of the year"...I talked about this in my post "Seven headed dragon"...

Anat finds Mot, and cuts, winnows, and sows him like grain. Have a look at this:

Mesopotamian agricultural calendar. 

Levantine agricultural calendar. 

Mot's reign, dry season, starts with grain harvest, in Apr/May...In the middle of that period, in Leo, Jul/Aug, after harvest, threshing, winnowing, storing...of the grain is all done, Anat arrives...Mot's reign, the dry season, ends with grain sowing, in Oct/Nov...

Which is when Anat kills Mot and Baal rules again...For a while...

And you know what also spans 7 months? The time between the sowing and harvesting of grain. During which time you open 7 sealed grain storage pithos jars...7 seals...

Interestingly, the opening of the 7th seal happens in Aries, the end of the lambing season of wild sheep...So the lamb opens the 7th seal...I talked about this in my post "Seven seals"...

After Anat kills Mot and his goons, Baal/Hadad, the Rain god, ascends back to the throne...

Accompanied by his daughters:

Pidray - daughter of the mist, daughter of light (lightning)...

Tallay - she of dew, daughter of drizzle...

Arsay - she of the earth, daughter of [ample flows]...

Ybrdmy - she/he who serves up water...

How mythological...

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...

Oldest Arabic poem

I love that in this ancient poem, Mot, a personification of Death from the Ancient Canaanite religion, the enemy of Baal, the Thunder, Rain God, is explicitly identified as Sun...Another proof that climate indeed has major influence on the development of religious symbolism...

This is the oldest poem in Arabic: a 3-line text recounting the cosmic battle between Mōt, the god of death, and Baʿal, the storm god as described in the Baal Cycle

It is carved in an ancient script close to Safaitic and is at least 2000 years old. The reconstructed pronunciation of the Old Arabic: the verses form a final rhyme in *ām*, with an otiose syllable in the second verse.

1) ḥagga mōtu wal-lāẓẓu ṯarām
2) fa-muyakānu layālay-uh wa-ʾaywām-uh
3) wa-hāʾ baʿalu yabītu wa-lā-hu bāta wa-mā nām

Here is what is says:

1)Mōt has held a feast; the scorner eats
2)Established is the alternation of his nights and days
3)Behold Baʿal slumbers; he slumbers indeed, but is not dead…

The transliteration and translation was done by Ahmad Al-Jallad @safaitic, Epigraphist, Philologist, Historian of Language, Ancient Near East and Pre-Islamic Arabia. 

This is what he says about the actual inscription:

"This inscription (KRS 2453) was discovered in northern Jordan by Geraldine King in 1989, published online with a preliminary reading and no translation. The text is undated but certainly pre-Islamic. Mythological material can survive millennia. The letter shapes are rather archaic, differing from both Safaitic and Hismaic in their details. I safe guess: the text is at least 2000 years old but perhaps much older"

Here is the explanation of each of the verses:

1) "Mōt has held a feast; the scorner eats"

Mōt is the West Semitic god of infertility, drought, literally "death". This line explains that Mōt reigns. Holding a feast is a mark of kingship. (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

2) "Established is the alternation of his nights and days"

This verse affirms Mōt’s dominion through a connection with this cosmic phenomenon. A similar phrase occurs in the Quran (23:80): "And it is He (Allah) who gives life and causes death, and His is the alternation of the night and the day. Then will you not reason?" (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

3) "Behold Baʿal slumbers, he slumbers indeed, but not dead…" 

A similar phrase occurs in Quran (2:255) "Allah, the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsisting by Whom all subsist, there is no god but He.  Neither slumber seizes Him, nor sleep; to Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. Who is there who might intercede with Him save with His leave?" (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

It is very interesting that the same things attributed to Mōt (Sun god, god of death in the desert) in this Pre Islamic poem are in Quran attributed to Allah...

Mot gained dominion by ‘killing’ Baal, the Storm, Rain god. But according to the Baal Cycle, Mot only killed a substitute. Baal went into hiding in fear of Mōt’s power, only to return to life at a later point....

This is the way to indicate seasonal, cyclical character of this "battle"...

Here is Baal holding a thunder hammer in his right hand and a lightning spear from which the tree (of life) is sprouting...In deserts it is the rain that creates life...

The ultimate triumph of Baal (Rain, Life) over Mot (Sun, Death) can be seen on these pictures of the Dead Sea area, one of the driest places on earth, taken in February (mid winter) 2020...Larger than usual amounts of rain have transformed normally barren shores of the Dead Sea into a meadow... 

This poem is definitely related to the Baal Cycle as known from Ugarit. In its Arabian context, it appears to be a seasonal myth, symbolising the struggle between the dry summer months (Mōt) and the rainy seasons (Baʿal). A few texts record Baʿal in times of drought. (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

I would argue that the original Baal Cycle is the seasonal myth. In Eastern Mediterranean, Anatolia, Levant, Mesopotamia and Arabia, the climatic year is divided into two parts, two seasons: Dry season (May-October) and Wet season (November to April). Dry season is the domain of Mot, Sun...And Wet season is the domain of Baal, Rain...

No memory of these myths makes it into Islamic-period sources...(Ahmad Al-Jallad)

Well...As you can see from the above Quran quotes, it does, except both Sun and Rain gods were amalgamated into one god, Allah, the Sky god...Serbian Dabog is the same kind of Sky god, being both Sun god and Bringer of rain, Storm god...

Baʿal survives in local dialectal expressions. In Lebanon, one can say: "ḫallī ʿalā ba‘al" 'leave it to Baʿal', referring to plants that are watered by the rain! (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

Bibliography:

"Echoes of the Baal Cycle in a Safaito-Hismaic Inscription" by Ahmad Al-Jallad