Is that you Gilgamesh?

This is a seal from the Sumerian city of Adab, dated to "after 2350 BCE". Official interpretation is: "Gilgamesh, fighting a lion and a buffalo. Dragon, unrelated to the other figures in the scene, is depicted under the inscription: "Urdumu, Ensi (Governor) of Udnunki (Adab)"

The seal and the interpretation can be found in a great book called "The seal cylinders of western Asia" published by William Hayes Ward in 1910. 

This book, together with pile of other amazing books can be found on Abzu, a guide to networked open access data relevant to the study and public presentation of the Ancient Near East and the Ancient Mediterranean world. 

Now I would like to offer alternative interpretation for the scene depicted on the seal of Urdumu, that will show that the dragon is very much related to the other figures in the scene...And that the whole thing has nothing really to do with Gilgamesh...

As I explained in my article "Symbols of the seasons", Bull was in the past seen as the symbol of summer (May,Jun,Jul) and Lion was seen as the symbol of autumn (Aug,Sep,Oct). The other two symbols of the seasons being Ram (spring) and Goat (winter) 

In several of my articles I talked about the link between snake and sun. For instance "The enemy of the sun". Snake is the symbol of the sun, more specifically sun's heat. Because snakes are out in "our world" during the sun dominated part of the year (spring, summer, autumn) and in the "underworld" during winter...

The end of summer (bull), beginning of autumn (lion), is the hottest part of the year in the northern hemisphere. The time of droughts. The time when the sun is at its most destructive. The time when snake turns into a fire breathing dragon...I talked about this in my article "Dragon who stole water"...

Now have a look at Urdumu seal again: Dragon (hottest, driest part of the year) stands between bull (end of summer) and lion (beginning of autumn), at the end of July, beginning of August, right where it's supposed to be...

But why are men fighting the bull and the lion? I believe that they are not fighting the real bulls or real lions. They are fighting the drought...

In Mesopotamia the year is divided into hot and dry part, summer (bull) and autumn (lion) and wet part winter (ibex) and spring (ram)...

But then I could be wrong...Maybe this is just some heroes fighting bulls and lions and random dragon just wandering about minding his own business...

But then maybe not...Have a look at this seal, from the Akkadian period, kept in the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago: Official interpretation: "Cylinder seal with a combat scene between a bearded hero and a bull-man and various beasts"...

This is even more interesting. Here the bull is facing down, meaning the end of summer (bull) and the lion is facing up, meaning the beginning of autumn (lion)...

And between them, at the hottest point of the solar year in the northern hemisphere, where on the seal of Urdumu we find the dragon, here we find Sirius (???)...Exactly where it should, be in the middle of "Dog days", the hottest part of the year, the time of the dragons...Or is this just a blazing sun of the hottest, driest, part of the year???

And what are the ibex goats doing in this scene? There is actually only one ibex goat (with two imprints created during the rolling of the seal to make the image symmetrical)...This is a cylindrical seal.

Is the ibex goat, just like the dragon "unrelated to the other figures in the scene"? I don't think so.

Ibex, is the symbol of winter, also marks the beginning of the rain season. This is because the beginning of the ibex goats mating season (November) coincides with the arrival of rains...Ibex was for Mesopotamians "The Goat of Rain"...I talked about this in several of my posts, for instance "Queen Puabi's seal". 

And on this cylinder seal, ibex, symbol of winter, the wettest coldest part of the year, is placed directly opposite Sirius (Blazing sun) of the point between bull (summer) and lion (autumn), the driest, hottest part of the year...

I don't think this is a coincidence...

But again, who knows...

Ploughing

Another very interesting 3rd millennium BC Akkadian cylinder seal from Tell Asmar, currently in the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. It depicts a very unusual ploughing scene...Which i would like to interpret...

To the right of the first figure is the symbol for grain.

So this is grain field ploughing...We find this symbol in Indus Valley civilisation artefacts too...

This is the end of the "normal" and "expected" stuff on this seal. The rest is...Well mythology...

Or is it?

The plough is pulled by, what is commonly interpreted as, a snake or a dragon. I would say dragon. Under the dragon is a lion. Above the dragon is a scorpion.

Why?

Well it's all about solar zodiac, again. On that climatic, biological (not stellar) zodiac, animals are used to mark significant reoccurring events in the solar year. Like a lifecycle event of that animal, which happens every year at the same time and which everyone knows about.

For instance lion marks the time when Eurasian lions main mating season starts:

And scorpion marks the time when Eurasian scorpions "disappear" (start hibernating, hide from cold), which happens in late October early November...

You can read more about solar zodiac here.

What does this have to do with ploughing of grain fields in Mesopotamia? Well according to their agricultural calendar:

1. The first ploughing of the barley fields was done in August-September. During Leo...
2. The second ploughing+sowing was done in October-November. During Scorpio...

Neat, right? But what about the dragon pulling the plough?

Well, the climatic year in Mesopotamia is divided into two parts: Dry season from May to October and Wet(er :)) season from November to April. 

Now the dry part of the year, summer-autumn, starts in Taurus. Taurus is where it is in the Solar zodiac, because it marks the beginning of the calving season of the Eurasian wild cattle. You can read more about this here.

Well, normally Mesopotamian seals depicting ploughing show ploughs being pulled by oxen, bulls.

The end of summer, when bulls are used for first ploughing, is the time when Eurasian wild cattle start their mating season which is characterised by vicious raging bull fights...The end of summer is also the time of droughts,  the time of the fire breathing, drought causing dragons (you can read more about the link between dragons and drought here)...And interestingly, there are indications that dragons and bulls were interchangeable symbols. You can read more about the links between dragons and bulls here.

Is this why bull was replaced by a dragon as the animal pulling the plough? To indicate that the first ploughing was to be done at the of maximum droughts, symbolised by raging bull/dragon?

All of this accidentally :) happens in Leo...

I am not sure...This dragon thingy is quite puzzling alright...

Now here is something very interesting. Star Sirius is positioned right above the plough. Why?

In the second part of the 3rd millennium BC, the time when this seal was made, Sirius was rising in Iraq in in the morning before the sunrise, in Leo, at the time of the first ploughing. And it was setting in Iraq in the morning before the sunrise in Scorpio, at the time of the second ploughing and sowing...

Now I used Stellarium computer simulation program for these calculations...If they are correct, and I don't doubt they are, this explains why Sirius is positioned right above the plough...And this is truly amazing...

So, the picture is kind of a grain ploughing solar calendar.

And it reads:

Plough the fields first time when lions start mating...And Sirius is rising before the sun...
Plough the field second time and sow the fields when scorpions disappear...And Sirius is setting before the sun...

Well maybe, or maybe this is all just mythology...Gods, monsters...

Just to add some more detail. In Mesopotamia people used two types of ploughs.

The ploughing plough :) used in Leo for breaking the soil.

The Sowing plough, used in Scorpio for furrowing, sowing and covering

And just to see that I am not just inventing stuff here, here is another seal, showing sowing plough used in Scorpio...

Is that Sirius again above the plough?

I wonder what birds are flying all around...

I think this is a common crane.

The common crane lives in Northern Eurasia, but winters in Southern Asia and North Africa, Including Mesopotamia.

According to "Cranes of the World: Eurasian Crane (Grus grus)" by Paul A. Johnsgard, Cranes gather  in huge numbers in Eastern Turkey in late September early October, from where they fly down to the marshlands of Mesopotamia...Right in time for sowing...

Cylinder seal with monster

In this post I will explain why I am soooo tired of academics with no imagination...

"Cylinder seal with monster" 😞 ca. 11th–9th century B.C. Elamite (Iran) . From Met museum.  

Elam was a Bronze Age civilisation that flourished on the territory of today's Iran between 2700 – 539 BC... 

These are date palms, one of the most important agricultural crops in Mediterranean, North Africa and Middle East...Including Iran (Elam)... 

Date harvest season in Mesopotamia and Elam starts in July/August...

Right at the beginning of the mating season of the Eurasian lions (now extinct since early 20th century). 

In the "THE ASIATIC LION: A study of ecology and behaviour" by Paul Joslin we can read that the mating season of the Asiatic lions starts in August and lasts until October. 

I talked about this in my post "Entemena vase".

Anyway. 

So the "Cylinder seal with a monster" 🙂 is actually "Cylinder seal with a lion and a date palm" which marks the beginning of the date palm harvest in Elam. As the old Elamite children song says: "When lions start to mate, it's time to harvest date" 🙂

Which is what the human figure standing next to the date palm is doing. Harvesting dates...

Is this so difficult to see?

BTW, I recently learned the meaning of the cross...It's the cross of Shamash, the sun god. and with it being placed above the lion, it literally mens "sun in Leo". I talked about this in my post "The cross of Shamash"...