Bactrian bronze age menorah

Today I stumbled across this super cool Bactrian bronze stamp, dated to 2400BC-1600BC...

It depicts a motif, found in Eastern Mediterranean, Levant, Mesopotamia, Iran, Central Asia, of two rampant male ibex goats flanking the tree (of life)...

Why are ibex goats flanking the tree of life?

Climate charts for BMAC (Bactria-Margiana) Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan.

In this part of the world, the climatic year is divided into hot/dry summer (Apr/May - Oct/Nov) and cool/wet winter (Oct/Nov - Apr/May)...

Interestingly, Oct/Nov is also the time when male ibex goats start their ferocious mating fights...

And because the wet season in these parts of the world starts when ibex goats start mating, ibex goat became an animal calendar marker for the beginning of the rain season...

And because it is the rain and snow (as spring snowmelt runoff) that are the source of life in these otherwise dry areas, Ibex goat became deified as a bringer/source of rain/snow/life...

Now the shape of this particular Bactrian tree of life is very interesting...It reminds me very much of the tree of life from this 3,000 BC Sumerian Stamp Seal with Impression Tree of Life with Rampant Goats. Mesopotamia. Chicago. Oriental Institute Museum...I talked about it in my post "The tree of life/light".

BTW in Mesopotamia rain/snow also arrives when goats start dancing, in Oct/Nov.

And these depictions of the tree of life flanked by rampant goats also reminds me very much of this depiction of the same scene from a pottery vessel, a ewer, from the Fosse temple at Lachish dated to the 13th century BC, bears an inscription on the shoulder which reads from left to right "Mattan (the donor), an offering to my lady ’Elat". 

I wrote full analysis of this amazing object in my post "Lachish animal calendar"...

Interesting right?

More examples of ibexes flanking the tree of life from

Mesopotamia

This is a shell plaque found in Queen Pu-abi's tomb dated to c. 2600 BC. It shows ibexes rearing up on their hind legs on both sides of the tree of life topped by the eight-pointed rosette...I talked about this in my post "Shell plaque with ibexes"...

Turkey

A seal impression found in Alalakh/Tell Atchana, located 20 km from Antakya (Antioch) in what is now Turkey's Hatay Province. It was found in one of the rooms of the Level VII (c. 1800BC) palace...It depicts two ibex goats flanking the tree (of life)...I talked about this in my post "Goats with tree of life from Alalakh"...

Also Turkey

Hittite, half oval plaque, two goats and palmetto tree, Tell-Halaf, 900 BC, Museum of Oriental Antiquities, Istanbul...

Iran

Sassanian dish which depicts the tree of life, flanked by two ibex goats, the goats of rain...From my post "Rainbows and peacocks"...

Minoan Crete

Two ibex goats flanking an olive tree (of life). I talked about this in my post "Goat riding thunder god"

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...

Sumer and winter BMAC seals

BMAC (Bactria-Margiana) seal, Turkmenistan, 1st half of the 2nd mil BC. From: "Ancient Art in Miniature: Ancient Near Eastern Seals from the Collection of Martin and Sarah Cherkasky"

Official description:

Obverse: boar "striding towards tulip shaped flowers"

Reverse: bird of pray with wings spread, as seen from below...

That's it...But is it? Of course not...

Both animals

Vulture

Wild boar

depicted on this seal are animal calendar markers for winter in Northern hemisphere. The reason for this is that the mating season of both animals in Central Asia starts in November and spans the whole of winter (Nov, Dec, Jan)...

Now the climatic year in Turkmenistan is divided into hot dry summer (May-Oct) and cold wet winter (Nov-Apr). It is the rain and snow which fall during winter (and subsequent snowmelt) which bring life to this dry region...

Which is why wild boar is depicted under a green leafy branch. But why is it striding towards tulips?

Because, most tulips originate in the mountains of Central Asia, where huge number of different wild varieties can still be seen blooming every spring...

So wild boar striding towards blooming tulips indicates the end of winter and beginning of spring...And symbolically depicts the effect of winter precipitation on the land...It turns desert into this...

Now on the same page of the "Ancient Art in Miniature..." we can see another two faced seal. 

The official description of the seal says:

Obverse: Nude hero dominates writhing snakes

Reverse: winged dragon strides towards a branch

Of course this is not a nude hero. This is the Sun, Sun God, Bactrian equivalent of Sumerian Utu/Shamash (see the heat rays coming out of "hero's" shoulders just like they do from Utu/Shamash's ones?)...I talked about this seal in my post "Nude hero dominating snakes"...

He is not fighting snakes. He is holding snakes which are symbols of sun, sun's heat...You could though say that he is dominating snakes, because they are utterly dependent on sun's heat for survival...

Remember that snakes are solar animals. They are in our world when sun is in our world (hot part of the year) and they are in the underworld when sun is in the underworld (cold part of the year)...I talked about snakes (and dragons) as solar symbols in my posts "Bactrian snakes and dragons", "Enemy of the sun", "Chthonic animal", "Dragon who stole rain"...And many others...

The dragon is actually a winged lion. Where wings are stylistic evolution of heat rays found in earlier depictions of this "beast"...Like on this Bactrian seal...

Beast which represents the hot, dry part of the year, summer...I talked about this in my post "Lion radiating heat"...

By the way did you see how the dragon lion is striding towards a bare branch? This is symbolic depiction of the effect the hot dry summer season, symbolised by the lion, has on nature...It turns it into this

So side by side, on the same page, we have a summer seal and winter seal...I don't think the authors of this paper knew what they did when they placed these two seals together like this...

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...

Two headed dragon

"Two headed dragon" 🙂 golden cup, 1000 BC, Iran.

This is just one of many amazing golden vessels discovered at Marlik, an elite burial ground located in the Gilan province of North Western Iran (https://iranicaonline.org/articles/marlik)

The "dragon" is actually two headed leopard with eagle wings and twisted eagle legs with huge talons. The legs are twisted in a spiral and the body is done in such a way as to resemble a female body..

The "dragon" has human hands with which it holds two Goitered gazelles. 

WTF?

Well, first leopard...

I talked about leopard as a symbol for winter, more precisely the symbol for the end of winter (Jan/Feb) in several articles. 

Asia: "Vessel from Tepe Hissar", "Ibex and leopard"

Europe: "Leopard and tiger", "Thyrsus", "Furious maenad", "Maenads and hare"...

In short, the leopard mating season in Eurasia coincides with the end of winter, beginning of spring...Two heads = mating...

What about the wings? The wings could be here just emphasize that we are dealing with heavenly things...Like on this artifact from Iran which I analyzed in my post "Goat bull man"...

But considering that the two headed leopard creature has eagle legs and talons, I believe that this is composite "leopard-vulture" calendar marker...For winter...

So why vulture?

Vultures are another symbol for the beginning of winter because their mating season in the area of Western Iran - Central Asia - Mesopotamia starts at the beginning of wither...

I talked about this in my article about this amazing "Double headed eagle axe" from Bactria, on which we can see double headed eagle separating autumn (lion) and winter (boar)...

What about goitered gazelle?

Goitered gazelles mating season starts in early winter (Oct/Nov)...At the same time as Ibex (Bezoar) goat. Our "Goat of Rain"... This is why both of these animals are the symbol of winter, more precisely the beginning of winter...

On some artifacts the gazelles are depicted together with Ibex (Bezoar) goats

I talked about this in my post "Pissing gazelles", "Diadem of queen Puabi"...

In Central Asia (Bactria) and Iran, the Goitered gazelle is even more prominent symbol of green winter than Ibex (Bezoar) goat. Most likely because it was the dominate horned animal which mates in winter in the Caspian steppe...

Because Goitered gazelle mating season coincides with the beginning of the rain season in Bactria, on some seals we find the clouds in a shape of "gods" with gazelle heads...

I talked about this in my post "Fluffy"...

So what does the image on the Marlik cup mean? Two headed dragon? Nah...The end of winter, beginning of spring...

Is this bird a migratory bird??? "Most of the waterfowl and shorebirds depart Caspian sea for northerly climes, beginning in late February"

Oh, and why is the "dragon" made to look like a woman? Because the rain season in Iran is a "feminine" yin (cool, dark, wet) part of the year...Which is why Iranians have a rain, water goddess.

I talked about her in my posts "Anahita" and "Jiroft flood vase"

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...