Sun eyes

Skull with plain amber discs on clay in eye-sockets Grave 275. Dated to the 4th millennium BC. Zvejnieki cemetery, Latvia. Researched by F. Zagorskis. Photo by A. Butrimas...

On the skulls with red ochre and clay round amber discs (sometimes rings) were found stuck intentionally into eye sockets as "replacements" for the eyes. In all those cases, the amber pieces have a large, centrally placed hole...

Obviously to resemble eyes...

The graves of the same culture also contained perforated amber disc with "sun cross" design...

Amber disc (obverse (sun cross), reverse (sun rays) and cross-section) from Daktariškė 5 Neolithic settlement...

In 1956 Eduard Šturms presented the first overview of Amber artefacts in Eastern Globular Amphora Culture and interpreted them as symbols of the sun and (male) sun god, as they were (apparently) found in men's graves...

All the researchers agree that amber was regarded as a "sun stone", because of its colour and the way it reflects light...

So, to me it is obvious that the perforated amber "sun" discs that were inserted into diseased eye sockets directly linked sun and sight...

I talked about the same idea here:

Utu, Sun: 𒀭𒌓

According to this table, this means god, heaven + day = sun...

Did the god sign originally mean shiny thing? Did the day sign originally mean "eye"? 

If so: shiny thing + eye = to see = sun? 

Like Slavic Svetovid = light + to see  

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

Now, check this out:

Irish "súil" (eye), from Old Irish súil (eye), from Proto-Celtic "sūle" ("two suns"), dual of "*sāwūl" (sun), from Proto-Indo-European "*sóh₂wl̥" (sun). 

Officially: The change in meaning in Irish is apparently due to the mythological view of the sun as the "eye of the sky"...Or maybe because sun (light) gives us sight...

More info on amber sun discs can be found in this article...

This sun cross thing can explain this petroglyph The Sun in the ship. Rock engraving. Sweden (after R. Rimantienė)...

How? The sailing season in the Baltic Sea and White Sea starts in Apr/May...At the beginning of summer...I talked about this in my post "Bes", about petroglyphs from Lake Onega in Russia...

BTW, while the Globular Amphora guys were making their amber sun discs, the guys from Late Neolithic Vasagård archaeological site located on the southern side of the island of Bornholm, Denmark, were making these: sun stones...I talked about this in my post "Sun stones"...

Oh yeah, and guess who also had a cross as his symbol...Mesopotamian sun god...

This is the 860BC-850BC Middle Babylonian limestone "Sun God Tablet", currently in the British Museum.

And in this article, "Sun god tablet", I tried to add few bits of information that will help us understand some of the symbols depicted on this tablet...

Finally don't forget this...I almost did. I should have posted this right after the post about the eye-sun link in the Irish language...

Basalt Idol (?) depicting a humanoid figure with spiky hair (sun rays?) and torcs (gold lunula like this one from Ireland?) around the neck. 

Ciudad Rodrigo, Spain. Early-Middle Bronze Age. Museo Archaeologico National in Madrid. Pic: Mark Vyvyan-Penney...I talked about the Irish gold sun bling in my post "Or Ireland's gold"...

I will talk more about sun crosses soon. Just discovered something interesting related to this on Malta...For people who are wondering why I omitted Bell Beakers and their golden sun crosses...

Almost forgot this. Christ as the sun-god Helios/Sol, 3rd c. AD, Vatican. Christ is born on Winter Solstice, (re)birth day of the sun (god), he enters Jerusalem on a donkey, "animal of the (sun) gods and kings", and gets put on a cross, symbol of the sun (god). Interesting. I talked about this in my post "Alexamenos graffito"...

Finally, I promise 🙂 According to Slavic folklore, west is where the entrance to the other(under)world is. Why? Cause this is where sun enters the other(under)world. Hmmm...Did the "sun disc eye for the dead" dudes also have a notion of this?

One of my favourite frescoes: Christ's descent into Hades, fresco from the 12th c. Church of St. George, Kurbinovo, Macedonia...Stunningly beautiful, it is also super unusual and interesting.

Article "Descending to Hades", about the Sun God as the ruler of the land of the dead.

The damned

 A strange medieval stone panel in the National Museum of Ireland. 

It is thought to date to around the 15/16th century. It depicts the Devil (in the form of a dragon) driving the Damned (in the form of goats) into Hell.

It is funny that when it comes to animal calendar markers, goat is the symbol of winter (Nov-Apr)...And a fire breathing dragon/snake is the symbol of summer (May-Oct)...

Have you ever thought why in the Book of Revelation, Satan appears as a Great Red Dragon? And why hell is burning hot? Did you know that in Levant, Mot, the god of death, the enemy of "The God", Baal, The Devil, was equated with sun? I talked about this in my posts "The oldest Arabic poem", "Anat"...

The burning late summer sun, which causes droughts and creates hell on earth...

This guy, the "monster" which is hot dry Mesopotamian summer. 

Depicted using animal calendar markers: starts in Apr/May, Bull head, Taurus, peaks in Jul/Aug, Lion body, Leo and ends in Oct/Nov, Scorpion tail/Eagle wings and talons, Scorpio/Eagle. I talked about this in my post "Angra Mainyu"...

Deified animal calendar marker at its best. Nergal, the god of death, personification of the destructive sun, as a man-lion.

Leo marks the beginning of the Eurasian lion mating season. 

It also marks the hottest and driest part of the year in Mesopotamia...I talked about this in my post "Winged superhuman hero"...

You know the dragon...

The dude depicted on this very interesting metal plaque from the so called "Let­nit­sa Treas­ure", a 4th c. BC Thracian hoard discovered near Let­nit­sa, Bulgaria...Depicted as part of one of the most common themes from Balkan fairytales: a princess being kidnapped by a dragon...I talked about this in my post "Letnitsa treasure"...

On the other hand goat is symbol of rain, (water of) life...Because in Mesopotamia, Iran, Levant, Eastern Mediterranean, rains arrive when Ibex goats start mating, in Oct/Nov...

I talked about ibex goat as "Goat of Rain", an animal calendar marker linked to rain, and cool wet half of the year, old Mesopotamian winter, in many posts, such as, "Problems with Abzu", "Relief from Dur Sharrukin", "Goatfish", "Flamingos from Susa", "Goat carrier", "Iranian goat of rain", "Strider", "A vessel from Tepe Hissar"... 

BTW, Baal, The God...was the rain god...

So what we have depicted on this Irish relief is "Triumph of (summer, sun) evil over good (winter, rain)"???

Interesting, right?

BTW, this has nothing to do with Mathew 25. I talked about Mathew 25 in my post "Goats and sheep"...

Last Judgement, Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna, Emilia-Romagna. Italy, 5th-6th century

In it I explained that this Christian scene is inverted, a mirror image of the celestial scene. The blue cold angel is St Mitar (Martin), Samhain, the beginning of the winter. The red angel is St George, Beltane, the beginning of the summer. Between them is Imbolc, the beginning of Spring...

But now, that I know a lot more about animal calendar markers, and the link between Old Mesopotamian religions and Christianity (check my post Alexamenos graffito), I think that I was wrong, and that this Christian icon actually depicts this:

The blue cold angel is St Mitar, Oct/Nov the beginning of the winter, cool wet half of the year, marked by a goat. The red angel is St George, Apr/May, the beginning of the summer. Between them is Sun, Shamash, "who came back" (sun reborn at winter solstice) pointing at ram (Mar/Apr)...

I talked about goat and ram animal calendar markers in my post "Goatfish with ram head"...

Sacrificial lamb actually, as ram (Aries) has to be killed (has to end), so summer, the domain of Shamash, can begin in Taurus...I talked about this in my post "Aries must die" about the sacrificial lamb...

Or, if we remember this stuff from my post "You will trample great lion and serpent":

God most high...Happy summer solstice guys...

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 the fact that Christ is sitting on a throne, then maybe, the Mathew 25 actually depicts this:

And the Christian scene is not inverted, mirror image of the celestial scene. But the actual  symbolic depiction of the Sun God on his throne...

I just wonder if this is sun on the summer solstice, or is this sun in Leo, The Dragon...Nergal...

Unfortunately, the more I learn about all this, the more I am convinced that the last is true...

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...

Alexamenos graffito

This is so the called "Alexamenos graffito". Carved sometime between the first and the third c. into a wall of the palace complex on the Palatine Hill in Rome, this is the earliest known pictorial representation of the crucifixion of Christ and his idolization.

It depicts a roughly drawn figure of a man with the head of an ass crucified on a cross. Next to the crucified figure is a smaller figure with one arm extended towards the former. Underneath the figures is a crudely written caption that reads "Alexamenos worshipping his God".

This graffito "mocks Christianity" which Romans "found foolish". Marcus Cornelius Fronto, a 2nd c. Roman orator, explains why: "Christians worship a crucified man, and even the instrument itself of his punishment. They are even said to worship the head of an ass..."

Interestingly, 3rd c. Christian author Tertullian mentions a peculiar anecdote that occurred in Carthage, where he saw an apostate Jew carry around a picture of man dressed in toga but with the head of an ass and hooves for legs.

Rather than feeling insulted, Tertullian was amused at the joke and wrote that "we laughed at both the label and the image". And then he said "Our god is the head of an ass,” he wrote, "but you (Non Christian Romans) in fact worship the ass in its entirety, not just the head" (?)

Apparently, the reference to donkey-worship comes from a story recounted by the Roman historian Tacitus, in which a group of Jews, expelled from Egypt, wandered through the desert, exhausted and dying of thirst, until they were led to water by a herd of wild asses.

In turn, the Jews started worshipping the animal that saved them, and a "god with the head of an ass" - a notion that was apparently also carried over to Christians. Hence Alexamenos graffito" with a crucified god with ass head...

Very very interesting...Didn't know about any of this...But I am not surprised at all...Remember this article about the origin of the Hanukah (Winter Solstice) celebration? And the link between Yahweh and Shamash, the old Semitic (Akkadian) sun god...I talked about this in my post "The tree of lite/life"...

Shamash who rode on a quadriga pulled not by horses, but by "kungas", a specially bred hybrids between female domesticated donkey and a wild male Syrian wild ass...Basically fancy donkeys...I talked about this in my posts "Shamash playing with solar horse" and "Sun god from Tell Brak"...

Why was the Sun god riding on a quadriga pulled by donkeys/asses and not horses? Cause the beginning of the worship of Shamash (late 4th/early 3rd millennium BC) predates the domestication of horses...

Kungas were so highly regarded, that "they were deemed especially suitable for drawing the chariots of kings and gods"...

Kings and gods...Kings and gods...Why did Jesus have to ride into Jerusalem on a donkey/ass again? To prove what?

People say: He was't proving anything. He was fulfilling a scripture prophecy.

"Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey" Zechariah 9:9

God/King riding on the favourite ride of the old Gods/Kings...

In a letter dated to 1775 BCE, Bahdi-Lim, governor under the Mari king Zimri-Lim, insists that the king should not ride horses in his capital, as it was considered uncivilized. Instead, he urges the king to honor his royal status by riding in a donkey-drawn wagon.

This is very interesting. By the time the Jews built First Temple and dedicated it to Jahweh, horses were domesticated and had replaced donkeys/asses as the vehicles of the Semitic sun god...

"He (Josiah) removed from the entrance of the LORD's Temple the horse statues that the former kings of Judah had dedicated to the sun... He also burned the chariots dedicated to the sun..." Is this the god of the First Temple? I talked about this in my post "Sun god from the first temple"...

But it seems that (some) Jews, thousands of years later, still remembered the old ways, and the link between their (sun) god and donkeys/asses...

BTW, the reason why the Semitic sun god Shamash was depicted riding in chariots pulled by equids, is because the old Mesopotamian summer, the sunny half of the year, the domain of the sun god, starts in Apr/May. 

Which is when the equids (donkeys and horses) start mating...

Basically, equids, donkeys and horses, were originally animal calendar markers for the hot/dry half of the year. Animal calendar markers which were later deified and turned into sun gods riding on chariots pulled by equids...

Or sun gods with equid heads...Just like...

Once Lord Vishnu’s head was cut off accidentally by other gods. The head turned out to be the Sun. The gods then attached a horse head to Vishnu's body, which is how he assumed his Hayagriva form. 

I talked about solar horse animal calendar marker in Indian mythology in my post "Hayagriva"... 

So no wonder Tertullian didn't find it funny that the Romans depicted his god with a donkey head, and that instead he found it funny that the Romans thought this was funny...

The Jews who were saved from dying from thirst in a desert (domain of the sun god) by the wild asses (holy animals of the sun god) definitely thought that it was their (sun) god who personally intervened to save them...

And it seems that early Christians were aware of this link between their (sun) god and donkeys. The link which predates the link between the sun god(s), like Surya, Helios, Sol Invictus...and horses by almost a millennium...

So back to "Alexamenos graffito"...Knowing all this, what was Christ with donkey/ass head mockery of the Christian belief, or just a symbolic depiction of the true nature of Christ/Sun, the way early Christians might have seen it?

You live and learn...

Ahhhh I completely forgot to mention that cross is an ancient Mesopotamian symbol of the sun (god)...I talked about this in my post "The cross of Shamash"...

That's it. 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... 

Merovingian Christ

Terracotta plaque from Auvergne (Auvergne-Rodano-Alps, France). Merovingian era, 5th-6th century AD, Musée d ' Archéologie nationale et domaine national de Saint-Germain-en-Laye...

A very strange thing indeed...

"Accepted opinion" is that this plaque "depicts Christ with the sword, victorious over the forces of evil represented by the submissive serpent. In his right hand he squeezes the Moon (the lunar crescent), and in the left a torch with the flame facing upward"...Hmmmmm....

First, is this a torch or a spear? You know something like a thrusting spear...Like these ones? Did they exist in Europe in the 5th -6th century?

And If it's a torch, isn't  "torch (light) bringer (carrier)" direct translation of "Lucifer"? Would you really depict Christ like this?

Second, is this a moon or a shield or a mirror? If it's a moon, then the torch could be Venus, the morning star...Lucifer....

Third, what's with the round, very "sun like" face of "Christ"? And would you place cross on Christ's forehead?

Fourth, what is this on "Christ"'s head? A diadem? Strange thing for "Christ" to wear...Or is this a sun rays crown? Just like the one worn by Sol Invictus? Or a crown of thorns?

Fifth, what's with the funny ears? Are these lion's ears? Why would "Christ" have lion's ears? Or maybe this is not Christ at all, but sun in Leo...Have you seen this artefact from 11th c.? Lion (end of summer) killing snake (beginning of summer) under the head of Helios? I talked about it in my post "Lion killing snake"...

BTW

The reason why snake symbolises (is an animal calendar marker for) the beginning of summer, Apr/May, is because the most common Eurasian snakes start mating in Apr/May...

The reason why lion symbolises (is an animal calendar marker for) the end of summer, Jul/Aug, is because the Eurasian lions start mating in Jul/Aug...

Sixth, the only thing that looks as it should be is the snake...And honestly it doesn't look very submissive to me...It is looking at "Christ" and not away from him...And it's not like "Christ" is stomping on it, which is usually taken to mean "subduing, vanquishing"...

Like on this mosaic from Ravenna depicting Christ the warrior stomping on lion and snake, made during the same period as the Merovingian plaque. And even this can be interpreted in several different ways, like any symbol can...I talked about it in my post "You will trample great lion and serpent"...

So maybe the snake is just there looking at the "Christ" because that is not Christ at all. It is the Sun...And snakes love sun...After all they are solar animals...

They are in our world when sun is in our world, during the day and during the warm half of the year. And they are in the underworld when sun is there too, during the night and during the cold part of the year...I talked about it in my posts "Enemy of the sun", "The chthonic animal", "Bactrian snakes and dragons", "Dragon who stole rain", "Letnitsa treasure"...

And is this why "Christ" has a cross on his forehead? Cause this is not Christ at all, but some Sun god who was Christianised...Baptised..."The priest imprints a cross on the forehead...as a sign that he or she belongs to Christ"...

Not that he is Christ...

Anyway, as I said, a very strange object indeed...But who knows what was going on through the minds of the early European Christians...Anything is possible....

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...