Casa dei Ceii zodiac

Very interesting fresco of hunting animals from the garden of the Casa dei Ceii, Pompeii (I.6.15)...

What is interesting is that the animals are, from left to right, top to bottom, all arranged in order based on their anima calendar marker meaning...

Top row, left to right:

Deer, mating season Sep/Oct/Nov

I talked about deer as animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

Boar, mating season Oct/Nov/Dec/Jan. 

I talked about boar as animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

Wolf, mating season Jan/Feb/Mar. 

I talked about wolf as animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

Leopard: Mating season Jan/Feb. 

I talked about leopard as animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

Sheep: Lambing season, Feb/Mar/Apr. 

I talked about ram/lamb as animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

Bottom row, right to left:

Bull: Calving season Apr/May/Jun. 

I talked about bull/calf as animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

Lion: Mating season Jul/Aug/Sep/Oct. 

I talked about lion as animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

So here we have a full solar year marked circularly, sunwise (turning from left to right as the sun moves in the sky) by animal calendar markers...

Coincidence? Or deliberate? No idea. If deliberate, why? Again, no idea...

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...

Eyeballs platter

I while back I came across this late 6th or early 7th c. AD Sassanian silver bowl. 

It shows a king sitting on a throne, feasting, surrounded by musicians and servants. We can see a platter with two boar heads in front of the throne and...What the hell is this??? A plate of eyeballs??? 🙂

I suggested that these were not in fact eyeballs, but Naan Gerdooee ~ Persian Walnut Cookies, or some similar type of pastry

Then, @Nazdorove posted a comment to my post reminding me of animal and plant calendar markers 🙂 and telling me that maybe I should check this plate and see if any are present in the depicted scene...Maybe that could help us determine what the mystery balls stacked on the plate are...

So I looked at the scene more carefully, and, I could see something very interesting: The "king" was seated on a throne whose legs are shaped like rams...

And the harp played by one of the musicians also has a ram's head. Why? I think this is a ceremonial throne and a ceremonial harp...What ceremony are we talking about here? Well...Ram...Aries...Arrives after Spring Equinox...Nowruz...Persian New Year...

Kind of an important event in the Persian calendar...Actually, the most important event...Ram is the animal calendar marker for spring, cause it is in the spring that sheep lambing season takes place...

This is why Aries marks Mar/Apr. Cause this is when the lambing season ends and milking season starts and the flocks are moved to the highland pastures. I talked about this in my posts "April" and "Aries must die"...

Why are these animals found as symbols of the seasons in Eurasia and North Africa, since Neolithic, despite Precession? I talk about it in my post "Symbols of seasons"...

But in Iran, one more thing happens in Mar/Apr...The river discharges suddenly start to increase, as a result of spring rains and snowmelt.

Hence Ram depicted lying in water from the "Zodiac from Isfahan". I talked about it in my post "Sagittarius from Isfahan"...

BTW, we find the same animal calendar marker, with the same meaning, in Ancient Mesopotamia too...Goatfish marks the wet half of the year, from the start of the mating season of ibex goats (Oct/Nov) to the start of the mating season of giant Mesopotamian carp (Apr/May) which is when the annual flood peaks. 

The water level in Tigris and Euphrates starts to increase in Mar/Apr, when wild sheep lamb season ends. I talked about this in my post "Goatfish with ram head"

The "King" sitting on the ram throne is having drink poured into his chalice...This could be wine, which becomes ready for drinking at the end of spring, beginning of summer (Mar/Apr/May)...Right on time for New Year festival...

Or it could be water...Symbolically depicting flowing water season...

The other servant is bringing a platter, with what looks like a cockerel, with all its feathers...Definitely not intended to be food...

If it is a cockerel, then it's another animal calendar marker for Mar/Apr.

Europe...

Cockerel was the sacred bird of Perun, Slavic thunder god, used in magic rituals for protection agains lightning.

Why? Maybe cause chicken main mating season is during the period of 14+ daylight hours.

Which is the main thunderstorm season in Europe??? I talked about this in my post "Pero"...

India

Red junglefowl (Gallus gallus), the ancestor of the domestic chicken...

Has a fixed annual mating season, which overlaps with the Zebu cattle mating season...

Hence, on Indus Valley civilisation pot, it is placed on the Zebu bull's back...I talked about this in my post "Kharif and Rabi season"...

China...

The real reason why The Lord of Thunder, was depicted as a cockerel is because of the China's latitude and the reproductive cycle of wild chickens, which is governed by the amount of sunlight, and at China's latitude starts in Apr/May...

Which is when the thunderstorm season starts too...

I talked about this in my post "Lei Kung"...

Interestingly, the platter placed before the "King" sitting on his Ram (spring) throne, contains two Boar heads (winter)...

Wild boar is one of the symbols of winter...Cause they mate during the winter...I talked about this in my posts: "When fish swim up Danube", "Achaemenid lion boar seal", "Souvetaurilia", "Sirens", "Summer and winter BMAC seals"...

So how can any of this help us to figure out what is on the front platter? We all know these are not eyeballs 🙂 I was joking...But what are they?

Fruit? Most people suggested pomegranates, which originate in Iran. But pomegranates season is winter...Not spring...

The fruits which are in season during Nowruz (Persian New Year festival) are bitter oranges (narenj). These things...

They are used for making sirups and in cooking and are not eaten as fruit...

So what are these round things neatly piled on the platter? I went to see what traditional cookies are made for Nowruz, and this pic popped out 🙂 Toot, Persian Mulberry Marzipan Candy...Looks familiar? 🙂

Today it's made with sugar, but originally it could have been made with crushed nuts, dates and honey...Similar to these Italian pistachio cookies...

 

And so...Thanks to @Nazdorove we might have solved the mystery of the "eyeballs" platter...What do you think?

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...

When fishes swim up Danube

Vettersfelde treasure, 6th c. BC golden hoard found in Witaszkowo, Poland in 1882, decorated in the "steppe animal style", and believed to be "of Scythian origin"...You can read my analysis of this treasure in my post "Vettersfelde treasure"...

 

In this article I disputed the Scythian origin of these objects, and instead proposed that they were made by settled fishermen communities somewhere in the Black or Azov Sea area...Reason? Fishes depicted all over these objects...Not something steppe nomads would care about...

I then proposed that these objects were most likely looted by Scythians and somehow eventually ended up in Poland...

But that's not the important part. The important part is the meaning of all these animal symbols in combination with fishes...

You can see that both main objects contain the same three central animal groups: 

1. leopard killing boar

2. lion killing deer

3. fishes

Because boar mate during winter, and leopard mate at the end of winter beginning of spring, leopard killing boar means beginning of spring, Jan/Feb...

Because lions mate during autumn, and deer mate at the end of autumn, lion killing deer means end of autumn, Oct/Nov...

So what about the fish then? At the time when I wrote the original article I was aware that the biggest migratory fish in Central Europe, sturgeon, starts its upstream spawning migration in Feb/Mar, in Pisces🙂...

So I concluded that the meaning of these animal calendars is: Sturgeons, very important source food in the past, start migrating upstream (fishing season begins) after autumn and winter have passed, in the spring, in Pisces...I talked about pisces as a marker for salmon upstream migration in European rivers in my post "Fishes"...I talked about the importance of sturgeons as a food source for the people living along Danube river since Mesolithic in my post "Mesolithic sturgeon fishermen"... 

But the other day i came across this paper about the seasonal migrations of sweet water fish in Danube river, and I realised that I was only partially right...

Sturgeons indeed start their upstream migration in Feb/Mar, but the peak is in Apr/May...And they are not the only fish that seasonally migrate up the Danube river. Carp and shad also seasonally migrate upstream, also peaking in Apr/May...

The fish migration season (and fishing season) begins in Feb/Mar and ends in Jul/Aug/Sep...

Sooooo...knowing this, the meaning of the main "animal - fish" calendar form the Vettersfelde treasure is:

The fish migration season (and fishing season) begins after leopard kills boar (Jan/Feb) and ends before lion kills deer (Oct/Nov)...

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...

Achaemenid lion boar seal

This Achaemenid cylinder seal, found in Iran and dated to the 6th–4th century BC is currently kept in the Met Museum. 

Now the scene depicted on this seal could be just an "ordinary king hunting a lion" scene 🙂 Although I already asked a question whether there is anything ordinary about the Persian king's obsession with lion hunting in my article "Sacred hunt"...

And in my article "King killing Angra Mainyu" I explained why I think that this was most likely a ritual in which the king imitated the rain (and war) god Ninurta/Ningirsu killing Nergal...Or "winter rain storms" ending "summer drought"...Which ever you like best...

So why lion and boar? Here's what I think:

Lion and boar are animal calendar markers depicting two halves of the climatic year:

Boar - cool, wet half of the year (Nov-Apr)

Lion - hot, dry half of the year (May-Oct)

I talked about these symbols in my article "Admetus" about Apollo and the chariot pulled by boars and lions...

Lion is the symbol of autumn (Aug,Sep,Oct)...Why? Cause the peak mating season of the Eurasian lions starts in Aug and spans the whole autumn...

Boar is the symbol of winter (Nov,Dec,Jan)...Why? Cause the peak mating season of the Eurasian boar starts in Nov and spans the whole winter...

I talked about the meaning of boar and lion as animal calendar markers, this time in Bactria, in my article "Summer and winter BMAC seals"...

In Mesopotamia, autumn is the hottest, driest part of the year. The time of death...And the ruler of the season of death was Nergal, "the destructive sun", the god of death, who was imagined as a lion...I talked about this in my article "Winged super human hero"...

The summer, the season of death, which starts when lions start to mate, ends when the first rains arrive in Nov...When boar start to mate...Making lions and boar the natural enemies...Like on this Elamite axe head with Lion (Autumn) and Boar (Winter)...I talked about this in my article "Double headed eagle"...

But there is another thing that happens in Nov...Vultures, whose mating season, which spans winter months (Nov, Dec, Jan), begin their courtship aerial displays, where the pairs fly together over one another with outstretched wings...

I talked about this in my article "Double headed eagle". Like this double headed eagle dude from a Bactrian axe dated to 2500-1500 BC. 

Why double headed eagle? Cause the vultures performing this aerial dance look like this from the ground... 

The beginning of the Vultures mating season coincides with the beginning of the cool wet season (Nov-Apr), the rain and snow season in Mesopotamia and surrounding mountain areas to the north and east...

I talked about this in my article "Eagle dance"...

Which is why the old "agricultural" rain god, Ninurta/Ningirsu was originally imagined as a huge eagle with spread wings... I talked about him as a bird man in my article "Judgement of the birdman"...

But Ninurta was also imagined as an archer. Here depicted killing the blazing sun...Ninurta, the hunter, the guy with the bow and arrow...Killing The Blazing Sun (Nergal)...Sagittarius...Which marks the same moment in the solar year...The end of the half of the year dominated by the sun...The Irish will love this. Remember Balor?

I think he is the dude holding the bow on the famous Adda seal. I talked about this seal in my article "Adda seal"...

So here we come to the first interesting question: is the archer depicted on the seal Ninurta killing the deadly late summer sun which causes drought? Or is the archer a king, imitating Ninurta, killing a lion, symbol of deadly late summer sun, Nergal?

And the second interesting question: All this boar, lion, archer stuff is happening under the watchful eye of the Faravahar (the flying dude), basically a man riding on a huge bird (eagle) with spread wings...Hmmmm...

The meaning of Faravahar is unclear...Some say that this is Ahura Mazda...But that is disputed...

Some say that this is actually a symbol of Ashur, the Supreme god of Assyrians, which Pesians borrowed later. 

Just wandering...Do we actually have any written source identifying this flying dude with a bow as Ashur? I don't think so, considering that there is still a dispute what the meaning of this symbol is...

We actually don't know if Ashur was ever depicted. But if he was, this could be one of his depictions. You know one of his names was "Great mountain"...

You see how his skirt was made to look like a mountain? I wrote about this artefact in my article "Assur"...

So is the flying dude Ninurta/Ningirsu, the eagle/archer in another guise? I mean Ninurta was a super important to the Assyrians...

When king Assurnasirpal II moved the Assyrian capital city to Kalhu, the first temple he built was for Ninurta, whom he addressed as: "...the strong, the almighty, the exalted, foremost among the gods, the splendid (and) perfect warrior..."

And as I said, Ninurta was most often depicted holding a bow. Actually bow is his identifying feature. Like on this 8th-century stone carving from Assur, on which a bare-headed king worships a god holding a bow, "thought to be Ninurta". Currently in the British Museum...

If I was a warlike Assyrian, I would want Ninurta, the war and storm god, "the perfect warrior" to be my god...

And as I said, Ninurta/Ningirsu was originally a storm god who was first imagined as a storm bird with outstretched wings...Storm bird that brings the rain to the desert land of Mesopotamia...

If this winged dude is actually Ninurta, the deified storm bird, that would explain why we see this symbol so often hovering over the tree of life...It is the rain that the storm bird (storm god) brings, which supports (tree of) life in Mesopotamia...

Oh look, "winged genies" standing on both sides of the tree of life...I talked about the origin of the Assyrian Eagle dudes and their (possible) meaning in my article "Eagle dude from Alepo"...

But the Eagle dudes were found in the area of Mesopotamia/Iran/Central Asia since Neolithic...

So, now, after saying all this, I will backpaddle here and say that I actually believe that the flying dude is Ahura Mazda...As well as Ninurta...And I will explain why I think so soon...

Until then...

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...