A man riding a leopard

Exceptional discovery at the Neolithic site of Karahantepe, in Turkey! 

"An 11,000-year-old composite statue, depicting a human being seated on a leopard, has just been unearthed. Announced today by Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, this piece adds to the remarkable human and animal figures already discovered at Karahantepe (Taş Tepeler)"...

A god riding on an animal (calendar marker) from which it was derived through anthropomorfisation is one of the standard stages of god development. 

People notice overlap between a significant event related to agriculture (start of rain season, start of snowmelt, start of annual flood, time to sow or harvest particular type of grain, reeds, fruit, vegetable...) and an annual lifecycle event of a common animal (mating, birthing, migrating, hibernating...).  

People start using the annual animal lifecycle event (when leopards mate Jan/Feb) as an animal calendar marker for peak rain season in the Şanlıurfa area...  

As I said already: Mythology is a result of people being very good at noticing patterns in nature and very bad at distinguishing between correlation and causation...  

People start believing that mating leopards actually cause rain to fall...  

When rain doesn't fall when it is supposed to fall, people start praying to the leopards for rain...  

Of course it is much easier to pray to a human, so leopard gets anthropomorphised into a leopard headed human god, like on Sayburç relief, and then into fully human god riding a leopard, or wearing leopard skin...  

Gods ride their animal calendar markers everywhere. This is a symbolic equating of the animal and its anthropomorphic god twin...

So is god standing between two of their (deified) animal calendar markers...

This is the same guy, but this time standing between the leopards, which is the calendaric equivalent of riding a leopard...

The "earliest known narrative scene, telling an ancient story", at the 11,000-year-old site of Sayburç in south-eastern Turkey.

Of course, "no one" knows what the story is about...I give full analyis of this relief in my post Oldest narrative scene...

Leopards have a special place in later Çatalhöyük mythology too...Or should I say deified animal calendar...

There we find fat (fertile) woman (earth) sitting between leopards or on leopards in Çatalhöyük. Art by @AthopeMarie

Remember this: "When I was a kid, I was very poor and always hungry. All I ever wanted to be when I grew up was to be fat" -  BB King from one of his interviews...

These Çatalhöyük "goddesses" are actually the depictions of the Fat (of the land) Goddess of (grain) Fertility...

I talked about this symbolic depiction of the fertile earth as a fat and most likely pregnant woman in my posts Palaeolithic Venus figurines and The faceless one where try to answer the question: Why were (most) European Palaeolithic female figurines made faceless and fat with super exaggerated sexual characteristics? Cause (maybe) they don't depict real women. Cause (maybe) they depict an idea of fertility...Goddess of Fertility...

Çatalhöyük figurines do have faces, but they are rudimentary and the emphasis is on fertility and prosperity body features...

That these are definitely not just random nudes can be seen from the fact that several of these figurines are depicted with leopards and leopard cubs...

Why leopards?

Leopards are solitary animals and only come together during mating season, Jan/Feb

 which coincides with middle of the wet season in the area of Çatalhöyük...

Leopards are everywhere in Çatalhöyük...Usually in pairs...Here is a leopard shrine where the focal point is a pair of facing (mating) leopards...I believe that they were deified animal calendar markers marking the wet half of the year...

Leopard and rain...This time in Iran...

It is this rain (and snow) that makes land in the areas of  Çatalhöyük fat and fertile...Also, the mating of local leopards marked the beginning of the rise of the level of the local rivers...You can read more about this in my post Crane symbolism in Catalhoyuk 

What is also very interesting is that Eurasian leopard gestation period is about 100 days. That means that cubs conceived in Jan/Feb are born in Apr/May...

Right on time to mark the most important event for the Neolithic Anatolian farmers: beginning of the grain harvest season...

I talked about this in my post PPN snake calendar marker, in which I talk about the  (symbolic) link between the beginning of the (wild) grain harvesting season and the mating of the most common Anatolian snakes, vipers, which both start in Apr/May...

So the fat mother of grain and fat leopard mother both gave birth at the same time...

Very difficult not to notice, if you were a hunter-gatherer turned farmer in the Neolithic Çatalhöyük...

Hence fat Çatalhöyük goddess giving birth sitting between two leopards...

Finally, look at this mural depicting a bull hunt. Now that you know what raging bull (Jul/Aug, beginnign of wild cattle mating season marked by vicious bull fights) and leopard (Jan/Feb, beginning of leopard mating season) represent as animal calendar markers, you will understand why raging red (fire) bull (drought) is being hunted by hunters wearing leopard (rain) skins...

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...

God of Life

A conversation I had a while back with @PIELexicon

The miniature Hittite figurine from Karkamiš dated to the 13th century BC depicting ‘My Majesty, God of Life’ (SOL2 VITA)

Me: Is that a double edged axe he is holding in his hand?

@PIELexicon: No. It is the Hieroglyphic Luwian sign *369 VITA ‘life’, ‘the cross of life’, called Ankh in the Egyptian tradition, who had the same sign. As far as I can see, it actually represents a human body with head, hands, and legs (or at least this is suggested by some of its variants:

Me: In Egypt, ankh (life) was directly linked to water. Due to climate and hydrology, in Egypt this water that was the source of life was the water from the Nile. I talk about this in several of my posts: Sycamore goddess, Crux ansata, Lotus and papyrus...

@PIELexicon: That makes a lot of sense to me, because – although I have no explicit proof – I think that the ‘Storm-God of Life’ was also the ‘Storm-God of Water’, mentioned in the cuneiform texts: In the ancient view everything living had liquid, blood, water, which was the ‘elixir of life’.

Me: Hence axe ankh...Anatolian storm gods all weilded axes...

I talked about this in my posts Jupter-Zeus Dolichenus, Goibniu, Teshub killing snake

Axes which represented thunderbolts...

I talked about this in my posts Goibniu, "Thunder axe" and "Kataibates"...

And it was the rain that thunder gods brought that was the source of life in Anatolia...

@PIELexicon: The hieroglyphic sign *281  (ASCIA) ‘axe’ is slightly different from VITA (*369): The axe is shown in horizontal position, not vertical like VITA. In addition, *281 has a handle, not ‘legs’ like VITA, probably standing for a man (or a human, so probably two different things...

Me: Maybe because what the god is holding is not just an ordinary axe, but (thunder) axe that brings life...

It's a combination of two symbols, ankh + axe

BTW, I just noticed something. Does Emirgazi axe symbol actually have bull head as an axe head?

And he stood on a bull because...Officially we don't know, but actually we do know. He stood on a bull because:

This Hittite symbol means storm god. Bottom part (Bull head) means storm, the above part means god...

The thunderstorm season in Anatolia starts in Apr/May, Taurus...Which is why Hittite Thunder God stands on a bull...I talked about this in my post "Bull god from Arslantepe"

Apr/May, the start of the thunderstorm season in Anatolia and Southern Europe, is also the start of the calving season of the wild Eurasian cattle...

This is what Taurus, Bull (it really should be Calf), marks. It originally had nothing to do with stars. It was a marker for Apr/May, the beginning of the calving season of the wild Eurasian cattle. Talked about it in many of my posts...

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...

Pillar of the Boatmen

Strap in. This is going to be fun. In this article I am going to talk about the second raw of panel from the 1st c. AD Roman monument known as the "Pillar of the Boatmen" found in Paris, France...

I was prompted to look into it by the posts by this great account @Michssspp82096 about this panel which depicts a bull standing under a willow tree, with 3 cranes perched on his back. The inscription reads "TARVOS TRIGARANOS" or  "Bull and Three Cranes" in Gaulish...

This is a coloured version of this image. 

It looks cool, but the colours are wrong...The only cranes native to France are Common Cranes and their feathers are grey not white and their legs are black not orange...

Common Cranes are highly migratory and follow extremely precise migratory routines, always mating/nesting and wintering in the same locations...

In Northern Europe (Including France, Britain and Ireland), cranes arrive from their wintering sites to their mating/nesting sites in the spring in Mar/Apr/May and they leave their mating/nesting sites for their wintering sites in Oct/Nov...

Which means that their arrival and departure was definitely used as animal calendar marker for the beginning of spring (arrival) and end of autumn (departure)...

Now look at this: In (Celtic) Europe, willow flowers in Feb/Mar/Apr, basically announcing the arrival of spring...

Spring which starts in Jan/Feb, and is marked by Celtic Imbolc festival...

So, spring starts (Jan/Feb), willow starts flowering (Feb/Mar)...Then the cranes arrived (Mar/Apr)...

And started their mating dances followed by mating and nesting...

And then in Apr/May the wild Eurasian cattle (now extinct) calving and lactating season started...This is what the original, Old Taurus marked...I talk about the old Taurus which we find all over Eurasia in many of my posts...

Spring starts (Jan/Feb), Willow (Feb/Mar), Cranes (Mar/Apr), Bull/Calf (Apr/May) Spring ends...

Cool, right? It gets a lot cooler...

Cranes are linked to cattle as animal calendar markers all over Eurasia. I talk about it in several of my posts...

What I found only today is that cranes love hanging around large ruminators, domesticated and wild. They love open spaces created by these animals...

You can read more about this in

"Interactions and impacts of domesticated animals on cranes in agriculture"

"Eurasian crane (Grus grus) as ecosystem engineer in grasslands ‒ conservation values, ecosystem services and disservices related to a large iconic bird species"

Which is why cattle and cranes together are a very common sight...

And why why we see things like these

Crane animal calendar marker:

A Terracotta Bowl, Mehrgarh, Balochistan, Indus Valley, 3500–3000 BC...

Decorated with zebu bulls, each with a water bird perched on its back and a leaf motif between the horns...

I talk about this artefact in my post "Mehrgarh crane bowl"...

Cool, right? It gets A LOT cooler...

Interestingly, next to the panel depicting "Tarvos Trigaranos" (arrival of spring) is the panel depicting a young man cutting willow branches. The inscription reads "ESVS"...

There are several prominent spring rituals in Europe involving the cutting and usage of willow branches, particularly in Central and Eastern European Slavic (ex Celtic) lands...

These traditions, now linked to Easter (Mar/Apr), are generally rooted in pre-Christian fertility rites, marking the arrival of spring and symbolising health, growth, renewal...

And there is a very good reason for it: Spring willow is full of growth hormones...Which is why I put the spring branch cuttings into water for watering my flowers...I talked about this in my post "Willow in Slavic folklore": 

I also talked about the use of willow trumpets in May day/Beltain/St George's day rituals in

In the past in the Balkans, during the night before St George's day, processions of men and boys roamed the villages blowing willow bark trumpets "to scare the witch (winter) away"...The same ritual was performed in Cornwall too on May Day. I talk about this in my post "May horns"...

May day/Beltain/St George's day is the day which in South Slavic and Celtic calendar marks the end of cold, dark half of the year, and the beginning of the hot, light half of the year...

I also talked about the use of willow in spring fertility (sexual) rituals among the Etruscans in my post "Whipping fresco", where I give full symbolic analysis of this 5th c. BC Etruscan fresco, Tarquinia, Tomb of the whipping...Depicting...Well you can all see the obvious bit that it is depicting...Right? 🙂

BTW, the now tame Slavic spring willow rituals could once have been equally as explicit as the Etruscan ones...Considering the beliefs like this:

In Serbia people believed that women become very horny and very fertile in spring, when willows started putting out new green shoots ...So this was the best time to make babies...🙂 

And rituals like this:

Willow, the tree which grows next to water, is associated with rain, water and female fertility, female sexuality...Hence ritual whipping of teenage girls by teenage boys using willow whips, performed in the Czech Republic, Slovakia on Easter Sunday...

I talk about this in my post "Willow in Slavic folklore" about willow and fertility in Slavic folklore. 

Anyway...

Esus was Gallic god whose Romans equated with either Mercury or Mars...Which is it? It doesn't mater...

In Roman times, Mar/Apr-Oct/Nov was the "war season", which was opened and closed with the appropriate religious festivities presided by the Salii priests...

As I asked in the comments to this post, but didn't get any answer, I wonder if Celts also had "War Season"?

The Gallic chieftain Dumnorix, literally "king of the world" in Gaulish, of the Aedui tribe, is depicted holding a severed head on a silver coin (first half 1st century BCE)

I would say yes, they did. I think that the Celts, like many societies in antiquity, had their "war season" aligned with the agricultural and weather cycles...

Warfare was most common during the warmer months, roughly from after spring agricultural work, planting, ended until before autumn agricultural work, harvest, began...

So Esus could have been a war god, Mars, announcing (by cutting the willow branches with cranes in Mar/Apr) the start of the war season, starting (most likely) in Apr/May...

Here he is depicted on another panel from a four sided column dedicated to Mercury, dated to the early Roman imperial period, and found in Trier, France. He is depicts as a young man chopping a willow tree, which holds a bull and three birds...

Also, according to the Irish tradition, before the Tuatha De Danan went to war against Fomori, Lugh, the leader of the Tuatha De Danan danced the "Corrghuineacht" (crane dance) around his warriors on one leg, with one eye closed and one arm outstretched, while cursing their enemies...

So the arrival of cranes and their mating dance was also an announcement of the beginning of the war season...

But ESUS could have also been Mercury/Hermes...

Hermes himself was a deified calendar marker for Apr/May...Every single plant and animal that features prominently in his mythology is a calendar marker for Apr/May...I talk about this in these articles:

Happy birthday Hermes! According to the "Homeric hymn to Hermes", Hermes was born "on the fourth day of the month" but the name of the month was never mentioned...So a mystery...Solved using animal and plant calendar markers: it's 4th of May. I talk about this in my post "When grapes flower"...

What did Hermes do first after he was born? 

He stole Apollo's cows. 

He then invented fire drill, made fire, and sacrificed one of the cows to the gods...

I talked about this in my post "12 Olympians" about (apparently inexplicable 🙂) link between Hermes and Hestia (fire)

What did Hermes do after that? He invented a lyre which he gifted to Apollo...A very special lyre...In exchange, Apollo gave him Caduceus topped with two snakes...

I talk about this in my post "Lyre of Apollo", in which I present the analysis of the animal and plant calendar markers embedded into the story about the birth of Hermes, particularly the part related to him making the first lyre, which he later swapped with Apollo for the caduceus...Bull, Tortoise, Snake are all animal calendar markers for Apr/May, the time of Hermes...

Finally, are the wings on the hat worn by Hermes/Mercury actually cockerel wings? Cockerel is also an animal calendar marker for Apr/May, the time of Hermes...I talk about this in my post "Cock fight mosaic", where I talk about the link between Hermes/Mercury, cockerels and (god of rain) thunder storms...

Remember, Mercury/Hermes was Herald of the Thunder God Jupiter/Zeus...Guess when the thunderstorm season starts in Europe? In Apr/May, the months of Mercury/Hermes...And peaks in Jul/Aug...

So Esus could have been Mercury, the herald of Jupiter...Which is interesting, cause the next panel in the same row on the Pillar of the Boatmen, next to the one with Esus, depicts Juptier, standing, holding a spear and a thunderbolt. The inscription reads "IOVIS"...

How cool is this? It get EVEN EVEN cooler...

Mercury/Hermes was the protector of trade and traders. During Celtic/Roman/Greek times, long distance trade in Europe started in Apr/May. After the snow melted, making roads passable, after ice melted, making rivers passable, after winter storms passed, making seas passable...

Which is quite interesting, considering that all of this is depicted on a Roman column erected in Lutetia (modern Paris) in honour of Jupiter by the guild of boatmen...

How cool is this? It gets EVEN EVEN EVEN cooler...

In Irish myths, Lugh, Thunder God, carried his most precious magical relics in a crane skin bag, the corr bolg, as did Manannan mac Lir, the Sea and Warrior God!

As I said, Trading, War and Thunderstorms all stared in Apr/May, right after the arrival of cranes...

How cool is this? Well, here is the coolest part...

The last panel in this same row depicts Vulcan/Hephaestus, standing, with hammer and tongs. The inscription reads "VOLCANVS"...

Why Vulcan/Hephaestus? 

Cause he was a Holy Craftsman...

So?

When were boats repaired during Roman times? Well of course, during the "non sailing season", Oct/Nov - Mar/Apr...

Which makes me wonder if the second row of panels on the Pillar of the Boatmen is actually a calendar:

TARVOS TRIGARANOS: Spring (Jan/Feb-Apr/May)

ESUS: Summer (Apr/May-Jul/Aug)

IOVIS: Autumn (Jul/Aug-Oct/Nov)

VOLCANVS: Winter (Oct/Nov-Jan/Feb)

I told you...I think we just managed to decipher the meaning of the second row of panels form Pillar of the Boatmen. What do you think? I will leave deciphering the rest of this pillar for some other time. I think this is quite enough for today...

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...