Mythical animal from Körtik Tepe

Depiction of a "mythical composite animal" on a plaster plaque from the 10,000BC Pre-Pottery Neolithic A layers of the archaeological site Körtik Tepe, located in the Diyarbakır district of Turkey. One of the first ever found...

Many such plaques were found in Körtik Tepe graves, so they obviously had some ritual meaning for the people who made them...The question is what meaning could that be?

Well, in order to answer this question, we first need to identify the animals from which this "mythical composite animal" is made...So have a look at my earlier post "Goat and snake from Kortik Tepe" about Ibex goat and snake symbolism in Körtik Tepe art. 

In it explain that Ibex is an animal calendar marker for Oct/Nov, the start of the mating season of Ibex Goats. And that snake is an animal calendar marker for Apr/May, the start of the mating season of vipers...

Now if we look at the climate in the area of Körtik Tepe, will see that head, Ibex, wild goat, which marks Oct/Nov, also marks the beginning of the cool, wet season in the Körtik Tepe area, and tail, snake, which marks Apr/May, also marks the end of the cool, wet season in the Körtik Tepe area...

Together, they mark the season of rebirth (of nature), brought by rain...water...

This reminds me of the (ancient?) belief, preserved by Slavs, about the thirsty ancestors...Is this why we find all these "empty" vessels in Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age graves? Were they placed in the graves full of water, for the thirsty dead? I talked about in my post "White feast"...

Körtik Tepe graves also contained "empty" vessels...

Why? Did they contain water too when they were originally placed into the graves, together with the "mythical composite animal", half goat half snake, a composite animal calendar marker for rain, wet, water season...

But is this a head of an ibex goat...🙂

Top: Ibex, wild goat

Bottom: Mouflon, wild sheep

Hmmm...The horns of the composite being look more like a Mouflon...Oh no!!! 🙂

But don't fret...Nothing changes...Mouflon sheep also mate starting from Oct/Nov...So as animal calendar markers, Ibex and Mouflon are interchangeable...

So whether the Körtik Tepe "mythical composite animal" has a head of an Ibex wild goat, or a Mouflon wild sheep, the meaning of this composite animal calendar marker is still "Oct/Nov-Apr/May, the rain season"...

The season of rebirth (of nature)...

So did people from Körtik Tepe believe in rebirth?

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...

Kuseh Gardani

Oh this is amazing. This image depicts a traditional Iranian "Kuseh Gardani" ritual, which is performed by men in times of drought or low rainfall...This image is from this site...

One man, chosen as the "Kuseh" (devil of drought), has his face blackened, wears horns (positioned in such a way to resemble ibex goat horns) and bells, and leads a procession through the village...

He stops at every house and collects some flour. After visiting all the houses, a large bread is baked from the collected flour and is shared between the villagers...

The ceremony is a symbolic performance of overcoming drought and seeking rain...

Unreal...Here is why:

Climate in Iran is divided (roughly) into hot, dry half (Apr/May - Oct/Nov) and cool, wet part (Oct/Nov - Apr/May)...

And the start of the wet season coincides with the start of the mating season of the ibex goats, mating season characterised by wild male goat fights for females...

Which is why ibex goat became associated with rain, and became "goat of rain", an animal calendar marker for the start of the rain season: When ibex goats start fighting the rain will start falling...

And which why ibex goat became the most depicted animal in Iran since Early Neolithic...

I talked about this in my post "Goat petroglyphs from Iran"...

Eventually, with the start of grain agriculture, when having rain at exact time at exact quantity became super important, people turned "goat of rain" into "god of rain with goat horns". It's easier to pray to gods than goats...

And so, local priests started wearing goat horns and playing the role of the goat rain god...

It is most likely that it was in Iran in the 9th mill BC when the goat of rain got anthropomorphised and turned into the god of rain with goat horns...

I talked about this in my post "Zavi Chemi Shanidar"...

"Kuseh Gardani" is a very very very very....distant echo of this...

And this:

Stamp seals, Tepe Giyan, Iran, 5000-4000 BC...Anthropomorphised rain goat (god) dominating sun snake (dragon)...

I talked about this in my post "Master of the animals from Tepe Giyan"...

And this:

Elamite figurine from around 3000BC, depicting a man with goat horns (or a goat horns helmet, cap) and a goaty 🙂 How goat of rain became god of rain...

I talked about this in my post "Strider"

And this:

Article about this Bronze top for a standard. ca. 8th–7th century BC. Luristan, Iran...Two human figures with male Ibex goat ears and horns holding hands...Why? Same thing I guess...

I talked about this in my post "Dancing goat men from Luristan"... 

The rain brought by the goat of rain is what supports (the tree of) life in Iran. Which is why we see prancing ibex goats flanking the tree of life...

I talk about this in my post "Sassanian goats with the tree of life" where I analyse these two Sassanian wall relief slabs dated to the 5th-6th c. AD, depicting rampant ibex goats flanking "the tree of life"...

This again is an ancient symbol found in all the areas where ibex mating season overlaps with rain season...

As we can see, Iranian people still kind of remember that "ibex is linked to rain". But with the arrival of Islam, the (goat) "god of rain", became "devil of drought"...The one who (still) brings rain (and bread) if he is asked politely...

How cool is this? 

If you are interested in reading 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...

Sassanian goats with tree of life

Two Sassanian wall relief slabs dated to the 5th-6th c. AD, depicting rampant ibex goats flanking "the tree of life"...

This is an ancient symbol found throughout Iran, Mesopotamia, Central Asia, Levant, Crete. The reason for that is that in all these regions, year is divided into two halves: 

hot, dry half, roughly Apr/May - Oct/Nov

wet, cool half, roughly Oct/Nov - Apr/May

And the wet, cool (rainy, snowy) half, which makes life possible in these arid areas, begins when ibex goats start their mating fights...see, "flanking"...

I talked about this and gave examples of goats flanking tree of life from all these regions in my post "Bactrian bronze age menorah"...

Example: Goats flanking the tree of life. Ritual vessels from Gonur-depe, the administrative and ritual center of Ancient Margina, the Northern regions of the Oxus civilization, dated to 2300˗1600 BC. 

What is interesting about these two Sassanian slabs is the fruit depicted growing on these two trees of life:

L: grapes

R: pomegranates

In the traditional Iranian fruit growing regions, like Shiraz, both the grape and  pomegranate harvest seasons start in Sep/Oct. This is also when grape and pomegranate festivals are held...

Right after that in Oct/Nov, the ibex goats start mating and the rains, which support the (tree of) life in this region arrive...

For those interested in Sassanian art with animal and plant calendar markers (which hint at Indian influence) check this post, "Rainbows and peacocks", out about this Sassanian dish, 400-600AD, Iran, Currently in Al Thani collection...What is exactly depicted here? Some would say just an exotic dancer. I think that this is a depiction of the goddess Anahita, Zoroastrian goddess of water and fertility...

And this post, "Ram with royal ribbon", about this 400–699 AD Sassanian silver plate originally from Iran, currently in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA...

What is actually depicted on this plate? Definitely not just a lost lamb...

And this post, "King killing bull", about this very strange 5th c. AD Sassanian silver dish, depicting a warrior with a spear sitting on a bull, about to stab another bull...

If you are interested in reading 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...

Chalcedony stamp

Neo Babylonian, 625-539BC, blue chalcedony pyramidal stamp seal with a goat-fish. Before it a rhomb and above its back a crescent. Currently in The Museum of Fine Arts Boston...

And no one knows what all these symbols together mean...So let me try to decipher this quickly:

Rhomb is a symbol for a date fruit. Date harvest season starts in Jul/Aug, in Leo, when Lion (autumn) kills (ends) Bull (summer) and lasts until Oct/Nov. I first encountered this symbol when I talked about date harvest in my post "Lion killing bull under date palm", but at that time I didn't know what rhomb means...

Rhomb also symbolises the womb of the Mother of Grain (Inanna/Ishtar) which produces food when "the seed of the Sky Father" (rain) fertilises her. I talked about this in my post "Rhomb"...

Sumerians actually explicitly state that Inanna is the "Mother of grain". In "The Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi" we read:

As for me, Inanna

Who will plow my vulva?

Who will plow my high field?

Before my lord, Dumuzi ...

I poured out grain before him

I poured out grain before my womb...

I talk about "Mother of Grain" from various cultures in many of my posts...

Inanna/Ishtar was also deified Sirius, which rises with the sun (morning star) in Leo, Jul/Aug, the hottest time of the year. Which is why she is depicted standing on a lion with the sun above lion's head and is known as "The Lioness of heaven"...

I talked about deified Sirius in many of my posts...

You can start here: You know how everyone thinks that Inanna/Ishtar (Morning Star) is Venus and how I think that it was originally Sirius, and only later became Venus?

Well, it seems that Ancient Egyptians preserved the proof of this switch in their myths about Sopdet...

I talked about this in my post "Sirius mother of Venus"...

Now Sirius is visible in the night sky from Oct/Nov to Apr/May...

Oct/Nov, when rains arrive to Mesopotamia. 

Apr/May, when flood arrives to Mesopotamia.

Goatfish, the sacred animal of Enki, is a complex animal calendar marker for the wet season in Mesopotamia...Between the mating season of wild goats and the mating season of giant Mesopotamian carps...I talked about this in my post "Goatfish"...

In Mesopotamia, during the harvest which started in Apr/May, a man and a woman performed ritual sexual act on a threshing floor, imitating Inanna (earth, womb) and Enki (sweet water, seed) consummating their holy marriage to produce grain. I talked about it in my post "Sacred marriage on the threshing floor"...

So that was rhomb, goatfish...What about the crescent? In Mesopotamia, the crescent moon points upwards during the wet half of the year...Which is why it became the symbol of the moon god Nana/Sin. The most important Mesopotamian god linked with rain, water, green pastures and (cattle) fertility...I talked about this in my post "Moon god Nana/Sin"...

The same wet half of the year also marked by the rhomb and by the goatfish...

I love that they used blue (water) stone to depict all this...

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...

Male - Female Minoan bowl

A 16th cent. BC Minoan vessel found on Thera, Akrotiri, depicting (according to the museum curators) on one side wild goats and saffron crocuses and on the other side dolphins and sea grass...

According to the museum curators:

The vessel was found in the so-called "House of the Ladies", a building of both residential and ritual character...We think that the vessel had (possibly) ritual meaning and use, but we don't know what meaning and what use...

Maybe I can help here. This vessel is a ritual calendar, depicting a division of a solar year into cool/wet half of the year (goat) and hot/dry half of the year (dolphin)...

Why goat and dolphin? The beginning of the hot dry season coincides with the beginning of the mating of the dolphins (Apr/May) and the beginning of the cool wet season coincides with the beginning of the mating of the wild goats (Oct/Nov)...

I actually talked about this in detail in my post "Horned animal attacked by a dolphin" that analysis this strange Minoan seal...

Hot dry season Apr/May - Oct/Nov (Dolphin season) is also the sailing season...Extremely important if you were a Minoan...

I talked about this in my post "Minoan dolphin fresco" about the famous Minoan "dolphins fresco" from Knossos, Crete, dated to 1500BC...

What about crocuses? Well, wild Cretan crocus, the ancestor of all the saffron crocuses, starts flowering in Oct/Nov...

At the beginning of rain season, when wild Cretan Ibex goats start to mate...

Talked about this in my posts "Saffron" and "Origin of saffron"...

Which is why crocus was The Flower of The Goddess of Fertility...2nd millennium BC faience (glazed ceramic) models of female garments decorated with crocuses excavated by Arthur Evans during the excavations of the the Temple Repositories at Knossos...

This is the famous Minoan Hagia Triada Sarcophagus, a late Minoan limestone sarcophagus, dated to around 1400 BC. 

On it, we see a priestess presiding over a bull sacrifice wearing a skirt decorated with crocus flowers...

I talk about this in my posts "Agia Triada sarcophagus" and "Minoan bull sacrifice"...

BTW, Apr/May, the beginning of the sailing season in the Eastern Mediterranean is marked with a Bull, Taurus...This is because Apr/May was the time when wild Eurasian cattle calving season used to start...I talked about the "Old Taurus" in many of my posts...

I talked about the symbolic division of the Minoan year into Goat and Bull halves in this post "Theseus ring", about Winter (Ibex) and Summer (Bull) Minoan rings. Article about the opposite goat - bull symbolism in Minoan art. 

This 14th-13th c. BC larnax (a container for human remains), found in Mycenaean Tanagra cemetery, but created under strong Minoan influence, depicts:

The top part: Ibex goat (ritual?) hunt

The bottom part: Auroch bull (ritual?) leaping

Why?

This is typical Cretan climate chart:

Top: Ibex goat, symbol of cool, wet half of the year. Ibex goat animal calendar marker for Oct/Nov, start of the Ibex mating season

Bottom: Auroch bull, symbol of hot, dry half of the year. Auroch bull animal calendar marker for Apr/May, start of the Auroch calving season

Ritual ibex goat hunt marks the start of the cool wet half of the year and the end of the sailing season?

Ritual bull leaping marks the start of the hot dry half of the year and the start of the sailing season?

You can find more interesting things about this in my post "Goat riding thundergod"...

Because sailing was male dominated activity and saffron gathering and processing was female dominated activity, we could say that the Thera vessel is divided into male (Bull/Dolphin) and female (Goat/Saffron) halves...

Reflecting the division of the Cretan year into female (Wet, Cool, Yin, Sowing - Creating life, No Sailing, Peace) and male (Dry, Hot, Yang, Harvesting - Destroying life, Sailing, War) halves...

That's it. What do you think?

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...