Tigers tigers everywhere

Open bracelet decorated with feline heads. 9th - 8th century BC. Bronze, Luristan, Western Iran, currently in Louvre Museum...

Which feline? Tiger or Lion? I would say tiger...See all the stripes everywhere, including the neck...

If Tiger, this becomes very interesting...Here is Luristan on the 1900 AD Caspian tiger distribution map. Did tigers live further south during Iron Age?

It seems like it, considering that people in Luristan made tiger bracelets...

Why is this important? Cause of the "monster" Humbaba and the story about the Erin forest he (it) protected...Humbaba was described as a frightening roaring monster "whose face is that of a lion" but stripy...And he guarded the eastern mountains, the residence of the sun god Utu, from where all the wood came from to Mesopotamia. Until Mesopotamian heroes killed him...And cut all the trees...

"My friend! We have reduced the forest to a wasteland...How shall we answer God Enlil in Nippur?" 

Enkidu talking to Gilgamesh, after they have killed Humbaba, the guardian of the forest, and have cut all the trees down... 

Now in my post "Humbaba", I proposed that Humbaba, the guardian of the ancient eastern forests was a tiger...

And based on the above distribution of tigers in Western Asia, and the fact that Enkidu and Golgamesh transported felled trees "down Euphrates westward", I proposed that the original location of the Erin forest which Humbaba guarded was here, in upper reaches of Euphrates...

In the time before "Civilisation came to Sumer"...

Now when I was in Louvre, I came across this bowl, with felines. It was found in Tepe Djowi, south western Iran, and was dated to 6th millennium BC

When I saw this bowl, I couldn't believe what I was looking at. Were these cats tigers? But Tepe Djowi is all the way down south, at the bottom of Mesopotamia... Did tigers live there during late Neolithic period?

The cats depicted on this bowl are definitely not leopards, so often depicted on early Iranian pottery. For comparison, have a look at this vessel also currently kept in Louvre. The vessel is from Tepe Sialk, Iran, and was dated to 4th millennium BC. The animals depicted on the vessel are leopards.

Leopards are depicted above flowing water, because they are used as an animal calendar marker for the end of winter, beginning of spring. I talked about this in my post "Spots and stripes"...

The zig zag lines symbolically depict flowing water, making leopard "the cat of flowing water"...And the reason for this is that snowmelt in Iranian mountains stats when leopards start to mate, Jan/Feb. In Aquarius 🙂

Pic snow cover Iranian mountains

And it is this snowmelt that makes Iranian rivers flow...

 Pic: water flow in Iranian rivers

And so it is possible that the felines depicted on the Tepe Djowi bowl are leopards with "flowing water" zig zag line drawn on their bodies, to symbolically turn them into "cats of flowing water"...But that would be the only such depiction of leopards I have seen so far...Which makes it a lot more likely that these cats are actually tigers...Now extinct Caspian tigers...Which is kind of amazing...

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...

Gilgamesh and hurling

Article about Gilgamesh. And hurling...

Pic: "Hurlers appearing through the icy mist" by John McIlwaine...

Hurling, Gaelic "game" described as a "cross between hockey and murder". Probably developed to train warriors in hand to hand combat, it could be thousands of years old...

Excerpt from "Gilgameš, Enkidu and the nether world": 

"...The tree [of life], he [Gilgamesh] uprooted it and stripped its branches...He gave it [wood] to his sister holy Inana for her chair. He gave it to her for her bed..."

So far so Mesopotamian...Now it turns very very Irish 🙂 Anyone from Ireland who ever played Hurling will know what I am talking about...For those not from Ireland, and not familiar with Hurling, check these articles about "Gaelic sports"...

"...As for himself, from its roots, he [Gilgamesh] manufactured his ball and, from its branches, he manufactured his mallet [or hurley stick?]..."

"...He played with the ball in the broad square, never wanting to stop playing it, and he praised himself in the broad square, never wanting to stop praising himself [🙂 see]..."

"...The young men of his city were playing with the ball. For him who made the team of the widows' children [basically they played the game so much their mothers never saw them], they lamented: "O my neck! O my hips!" [it's a tough game]..."

"...For those that had a mother, the mother brought bread for her son; for those that had a sister, the sister poured water for her brother..."

"...As the evening came, he marked the spot where the ball had been placed, and he picked up his ball from in front of him and took it home. But early in the morning as he …… the place marked..."

"...the widows' accusation and the young girls' complaint caused his ball and his mallet [hurley stick???] to fall down to the bottom of the nether world..."

"...He could not reach them...He tried with his hand but could not reach them, tried with his foot but could not reach them..."

"...At the gate of the nether world, he sat down. Gilgamesh wept, crying bitterly: "O my ball! O my mallet [hurley stick???]!...I am still not satiated with its charms, the game with it has not yet palled for me!..."

"...My ball has fallen down to the nether world -- who will retrieve it for me? My mallet [hurley stick???] has fallen down to the nether world -- who will retrieve it for me?..."

Oh, Enkidu, I see you have nothing better to do...Would you mind popping down to the nether world and getting my ball and mallet for me? Good lad...

Of course I am not saying that Sumerians played hurling...

Killing of the bull of heaven

Assyrian cylinder impression, MS 1989, Schøyen Collection, Norway, depicting Enkidu and Gilgamesh killing the Heavenly Bull...

The interesting bit is here: Epic of Gilgamesh, Table VI, 140-149.

Enkidu stalked and hunted down the Bull of Heaven.

He grasped it by the thick of its tail

and held onto it with both his hands,

while Gilgamesh, like an expert butcher,

boldly and surely approached the Bull of Heaven.

Between the nape, the horns, and... he thrust his sword.

After they had killed the Bull of Heaven,

they ripped out its heart and presented it to Shamash.

They withdrew bowing down humbly to Shamash.

 

This is actually very interesting. 

Bull is the ancient symbol of summer (May, Jun, Jul), the period which starts in Taurus...

I talked about this in my post "Symbols of the seasons"...

By the way, summer is symbolised by a bull, because both calving (begins in Apr/May) and mating (begins in Jul/Aug) of Wild Eurasian cattle takes place during the summer, May to August...I talked about this in my post "Ram and bull"...

Taurus (Apr/May), the period when wild Eurasian cattle start their calving season, was extremely important time of the year for the people of Ancient Mesopotamia. This is when the water levels of Tigris and Euphrates peaked...

Tigris

Euphrates

So to the people of the Ancient Mesopotamia, it sure looked like it was the sun, Shamash, who released Enki, the sweet water, at the beginning of summer, in Taurus...

I talked about this in my post "Shamash young and old"...

Which is why Shamash is depicted as a golden bull with long flowing "lapis lazuli" (water) beard...

And why, in "Enki and the world order" we read: "...Father Enki...he stood up full of lust like a rampant bull, lifted his penis, ejaculated and filled the Tigris with flowing water. He was like a wild cow mooing for its young in the wild grass..."

The moment of Enki's ejaculation, the moment of his climax, the moment of the peak water levels in the rivers he fills with his heavenly semen, is also the moment when "wild cows moo for their young in the wild grass"...In Taurus...

Taurus was also the beginning of the grain harvest in Mesopotamia...

Which is why Shamash/Utu is also depicted as a bull with a tail made of wheat...

Both the flood and the grain harvest end with the summer, in Jul/Aug. So killing of the bull symbolically represent end of summer symbolised by a bull...As well as the end of the harvest and the end of the period of water abundance. And the beginning of drought...

This killing of the bull is usually done by a lion...

This is a symbolic depiction of the end of summer, which begins in Taurus (Apr/May) and ends in Leo (Jul/Aug)

And, Leo is a solar year calendar marker which marks the beginning of the main mating season of the Eurasian lions. 

Leo is the hottest and driest part of the year in Mesopotamia. The time of maximum heat, maximum drought. 

The throne of Shamash, the sun god. When he is the most powerful...Here is Shamash standing "between the lions" (in Leo), in an empty irrigation canal, at the moment of maximum heat and drought, when he is most powerful...

But here the killing is done by Gilgamesh and Enkidu. On behalf of the Shamash in Leo...

So our two "heroes" kill the bull of heaven (season), rip its heart (water, grain???) and present it to Shamash...Summer, the season of the bull ends. Autumn, the season of the lion begins...

Oh and guess who is there too, "standing on a lion" (in Leo): Ishtar, who started the whole thing

Sirius starts rising with the sun (is a "morning star") in Leo...

Scorpion man

Official description of this seal: "During Middle Assyrian period, seal carvers expanded their repertoire of fantastic and mythical creatures. On this seal, a bird-man with a scorpion tail aims a bow and arrow at a winged lion-griffin standing on a hillock". 1400-1200BC.

I have to say I love this description. It says that officially we have no idea what this all means...

So let's try to make some sense out of this scene...

Scorpion men appear in the Epic of Gilgamesh, where they stand guard outside the gates of the sun god Shamash at the mountains of Mashu. These give entrance to Kurnugi, the land of darkness...

Now when we talk about the sun god and the land of darkness that usually means winter. Which in Mesopotamia climatically starts at the beginning of November. In Scorpio...When the first rains arrive...And the temperature drops...

I talked about this in my post "Queen Puabi’s cylinder seal"... 

But before people start complaining about precession and constellations and such stuff, I am not talking about stars at all. Or stellar zodiac. I am talking about solar year markers...

The scorpio I am talking about marks the time when temperature in the northern hemisphere falls below what scorpions consider nice. And they decide to retire. Underground or inside people's houses. Where it's warm...

By the way I am not the first one to link these scorpion men to the zodiac sign of scorpio. I am just not sure if they understood why scorpio is where it is on the solar circle...I didn't until recently. Oh and this behaviour of scorpions is not affected by the precession...

BTW, we find the same thing in Egypt, where we also find The Scorpion King...

Who turned out to be just another version of the same animal calendar marker, marking the time when scorpions disappear...Which is also the time when plowing and sowing of grain takes place...I talked about this in my post "Scorpion king"...

BTW, the scorpion archer has a body and wings of a raptor...So this is an Eagle/Scorpion...Interestingly, Zodiac sign Scorpio, which marks Oct/Nov, is the only double sign...The other sign that marks the same period is Eagle...Cool...

I talked about this in my article "Four living creatures"...  

Ok. What about the other mythical creature? Lion. Well, have a look at this. This is zodiac, with the cross marking the signs in which the seasons start. Spring starts in Aquarius, Summer starts in Taurus, Autumn starts in Leo and winter starts in Scorpio. 

And because Scorpio is a double sign, Scorpio/Eagle...

Oh BTW, the eagle marks Oct/Nov, because this is when the mating season of Old World vultures starts. I talked about this in many of my posts...For instance "Eagle dance"...

In my other article "Symbols of the seasons", I talked about why these four animals were used as symbols of the four seasons: 

The Leo is where it is on the solar zodiac because this is when the mating season of the Eurasian lions started...

So for winter to start, autumn needs to end...So winter (symbolised by scorpion/eagle) kills (ends) autumn (symbolised by lion/eagle)...It's kind of obvious...Or not...

Oh...One other thing...Autumn in Mesopotamia is the time of droughts...Which start in Leo...Which is why a winged lion is the symbol of Nergal, the God of Death, the Destructive Sun...I talked about this in my post "Winged super human hero"... 

Wait!!!! If this is the case, shouldn't there be goat on the seal, to symbolise the end of summer, beginning of autumn?

Well glad you said it 🙂. Because actually, if you look at fine print, you can see a tiny Markhor goat standing right under the scorpion man's tail...

And as we all know, Markhor goat was with Ibex (Bezoar) goat symbol of rain season...The Goat of Rain...Before there was a God of Rain...You can read more about this in my article "Goat in a tree"...

The "stars" which frame the scene are actually just one "star" just impressed twice...It's a circular seal 🙂 Originally I thought it represented our sun, but now I know it represents Sirius. Which is at the time when Scorpion kills Lion, visible in the night sky...But which also in Leo (Jul/Aug) rises with the sun...

I talked about this in more detail in my article "7 stars of scorpio"

So there you have it...Neat right?

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...