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...

Goatfish with ram head

Have you ever seen this symbol? It consists of a goatfish, which on its back, close to its tail, has a pedestal with a ram's head...

What does this mean? Apparently, no one really knows. 

Well, let's see if Animal Calendar Markers can help us solve this "mystery"

This symbol is found on several Mesopotamian Kudurru boundary stones. This particular example is from the Stele of Marduk-apla-iddina which records the grant to Marduk-apla-iddina I  (ca 1171-1159 BC) by Kassite king of Babylon, Meli-Shipak II (ca. 1186–1172 BC )

Anyway...Remember my post "Goatfish", about the meaning of the symbol of Goatfish? Symbol for the wet season in Mesopotamia, which starts with rain, when ibex goats mate (Oct/Nov), and ends with flood, when carps mate (Apr/May)...

This is why Goat-Fish is the symbol of Enki/Ea, the god of fresh water and the annual flood, who is sometimes depicted standing on Goat-Fish...

Now towards the end of the wet period, Oct/Nov-Apr/May, in Mar/Apr, close to the fish tail of the goatfish, we find Aries, Ram...

Animal calendar marker that marks the end of the lambing season of the wild and domestic sheep...And the beginning of the milking season...Very important time of the year...I talked about the origin of Aries in my post "Aries must die"... 

Great, but why is Ram combined with Goat-Fish, symbol of wet season? Because it is "during the sheep lambing season" Feb/Mar/Apr, that the snowmelt suddenly intensifies in mountains surrounding Mesopotamia...

And the water level in Mesopotamian rivers suddenly starts to rise...

So we have Goat (Oct/Nov) -- Ram (Mar/Apr) -- Fish,Carp (Apr/May)...

Makes sense?

PS: To see that I am not seeing things, actually, that I am seeing things the way the ancient Mesopotamians and Iranians saw them, check my post about Islamic zodiac from Isfahan. Here is the relevant bit: 

The combination of the snowmelt and rainfall results in sudden increase of the Zayandehrud river water level starting in Mar/Apr...In Aries...The also the rainiest time of the year in Isfahan...

Monthly flow chart for the Zayandehrud River, from the paper "An overview of the hydrology of the Zayandeh Rud Basin" 

Aries ram, depicted as a wild sheep, mouflon, with blue (water like) horns, lying in water...Describing exactly what is happening in Isfahan in Mar/Apr...In Aries...

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...

Problems of the Abzu

Recently I wrote an article entitled "Rain and flood", about this Early Sumerian "Enki in the boat" seal. In it I tried to explain the meaning of the scene depicted on this seal through animal calendar markers...

In short: Ibex goat and Auroch bull are calendar markers marking the beginning and the end of the wet season in Mesopotamia...

You should check the above article for detailed explanation...Or you can continue reading this article... 

Since then I came across more evidence that supports my interpretation...This is particularly good one...

The other day I came across an article entitled "Problems of the abzu". And in it, I found this passage: "One of the titles of Enki was Dara-abzu"...

This is very interesting, cause in the Sumerian lexicon we find that the word "duraþ, dàra, dàr" means "Mountain goat buck; Ibex"...This guy...

So why was Enki called Ibex of Abzu? Well what is Abzu? The common explanation is that it is "the underground sea of fresh water, the aquifer, which was given a religious fertilising quality in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology"...

I have already challenged this explanation in many of my articles which deal with the relationship between Utu, the sun god, and Enki, the god of fresh water: "Maran", "Utu or Enki", "Goatfish", "When Utu steps up to heaven", "Shamash young and old"...

Abzu, is the source of the fresh water that flows down Tigris and Euphrates, and the fresh water that fills the wells of Mesopotamia, but is not an underground sea of fresh water...

I mean Ibex goat of the underground sea of fresh water makes no sense...Which is why it is in the article entitled: "Problems of the abzu" 🙂

Hydrological report from Mesopotamia: "Tigris and Euphrates have two flood periods: an irregular, rain-fed rise of minor proportions lasting from November to the end of March (this is basically a slight increase in water levels) and the main snowmelt flood of April and May"...

These are the water flow charts for Tigris and Euphrates

In several of my articles I talked about the fact that the annual flood is mostly result of the snowmelt in the mountain(s), highland(s) north and north-east of Sumer, the source of Tigris and Euphrates (and their tributaries), Anatolian highlands and Zagros Mountains...

Look at the relief map of Mesopotamia and check out the sources of Tigris and Euphrates...

It was in this article, "Shamash young and old", where I fist proposed that Abzu, the source of fresh water, the source of Tigris and Euphrates, are these mountains, and more precisely, the snow that falls during the winter on these mountains and which melts during the spring and summer...

I mean, in the "Debate between Winter and Summer" we read: "By hand Winter guided the spring floods...down from the edge of the hills. He set his foot upon the Tigris and Euphrates like a big bull and released them into the fields"...

As I was writing that, I could hear pretty much every Sumerologist screaming: Abzu means "the underground waters of the Aquifer"!!! 

I think that this commonly accepted meaning of the term Abzu is actually a result of a mistranslation...And not understanding the river system in Mesopotamia...

We have Sumerian ab=water and zu=knowledge, deep, far...Abzu can then mean both deep water and far away water...

Considering that the source of Tigris and Euphrates is far away from Mesopotamia, in the Anatolian highlands and Zagros Mountains, the proper translation of the term Abzu is far away water...

This is actually spelled out for us in the ancient Mesopotamian texts:

"Abzu, place that is a big mountain, princely crown of the heaven and earth. To the lord Nudimmud (Enki), (give) praise!"...

You can find the sources in the paper Ancient Near Eastern Gods Enki and Ea: Diachronical Analysis of Texts and Images from the Earliest Sources to the Neo-Sumerian Period...

The epic "Enki and the world order" tells us that Enki is the king of the Abzu...

Babylonian epic "Enûma Elish" tells us that Enki lives in Abzu...

Enûma Elish tells us that in the beginning, before anything else was created, Abzu (the source of fresh water, the Father) and Tiamat (salt water ocean, the Mother) were there mixing their waters...

It is from their intercourse that the younger gods were created...The younger gods then got so noisy and annoying, and pissed Tiamat off so much, and she complained to Abzu so much, that Abzu decided to destroy them...

But, Enki put Abzu to sleep, and then murdered him. Enki then set up his home "in the depths of the Abzu", and took on all of the functions of the Abzu. We could say that Enki became Abzu...Or that Enki is just Anthropomorphised Abzu...I will talk about this more soon...

So, here is Enki, (in) Abzu, being the source of Tigris and Euphrates...For those who say this not Enki, this Ashur, check this article about "The Great Imposter"...

Anyway, Enki became the god of fresh, fertile water. Actually, fresh water was seen as Enki's semen, as it is the fresh water that makes land fertile...

In "Enki and the world order", Enki stands at the empty riverbeds and fills them with his semen (fresh water)...

While he was filling the rivers with fresh water, Enki was "full of lust like a rampant bull"...Just like winter in the "Debate between Winter and Summer"...

Why are both Winter and Enki compared to bulls at the moment when they "fill the rivers"? Cause the annual flood of Tigris and Euphrates reaches its peak in Apr/May, which is when the Eurasian wild cattle start calving...

I talked about the link between bull and flood in my articles, like "When Utu steps up into heaven", "Butt chewing", "Green Pastures", "Shamash young and old"...

This is the reason why in a royal hymn dedicated to Enki from the times of Šulgi we read: "Great lord...Enki...Important one of the great gods, Nudimmud, great bull of the Abzu".

But why is Enki called the Ibex of Abzu? Because the first rains arrive to Mesopotamia when Ibex mountain goats start to mate, Oct/Nov...

This is such an important event in these arid lands that Ibex was basically deified. I talked about this in my article "Relief from Dur Sharrukin", "Goat carrier", "Iranian goat of rain"...and many others...

Oh, this is also the reason why Enki's sacred animal was Goat-Fish 🙂 

If you what to know why fish, check my article "Goatfish"...

The beginning of the Ibex mating season signals the beginning of the cool, wet season, Winter. And it is the rain and snow which fall during Winter (Nov-May) that are the source of all the fresh water that flows down Tigris and Euphrates...And of Enki's flood...

Sooo...Enki, who is the source of water that flows down Tigris and Euphrates, lives in (or is) Abzu, which is the source of water that flows down Tigris and Euphrates...

The true source of water that flows down Tigris and Euphrates are of course the mountains from which these rivers and their tributaries emerge...Mountains which are the home to Mountain Goat. Ibex...

Ibex, the Goat of Rain (and Snow) that fall down during winter...Rain and snow, which are the source of water that flows down Tigris and Euphrates. "Dara-abzu", Mountain goat of Abzu...Enki...

See, all this makes a lot of sense...Not so much if we are looking for Abzu underground...

I ended the article about the Enki in the boat seal with this: the Rain (and snow) which fall between Oct/Nov (when Ibex mate) and Apr/May (when Aurochs calve) are the source of the flowing water in Tigris and Euphrates (zigzag line) and Enki's flood (boat)...

In my article "Enki's little boat" explained why Enki's boat is the symbol of the flood...

Interestingly, in the article "Problems of the abzu", we find that "Dara-abzu" was also the name of Enki's processional boat, which "possibly even had a goat head at prow"...

As I explained, Enki's boat is symbol for the flood...Flood which starts with the Goat of Abzu and Peaks with the Bull of Abzu...

The Goat of Abzu leading The Bull of Abzu...Just like on the above Enki in the boat seal...

So that's it...What you think?

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...

Goatfish

In this article, I would like to talk about goatfish, the sacred (mythical) animal of Enki/Ea, the Mesopotamian god of fresh water...Mythical animal 🙂 Of course not. Anyway, let's begin...Lots to talk about...

First who was Enki? Enki was the Sumerian god of sweet water. Actually, he was the source of fresh water, which was seen as his semen, which he emptied into Tigris and Euphrates...

More importantly, he was the god of the annual flood of Tigris and Euphrates...The flood that made land fertile and agriculture possible in Mesopotamia.

When king Ur-Namma built a temple for Enki, he called Enki in his dedicatory inscription: "Enki the flood of heaven and earth"...

I talked about this link between Enki and The Flood, and him being effectively the god of the flood, in my posts "Rain and flood" and "Enki's little boat"...

Enki was mentioned in the earliest extant cuneiform inscriptions throughout the region and was prominent from the third millennium down to Hellenistic times...

On cylinder seals, Enki is most often depicted with two streams of water flowing out of his body: one representing Tigris, the other Euphrates. This portrays Enki as the source of Tigris and Euphrates...

The other most common depiction of Enki is holding a jar from which two streams pour out. This portrays Enki as the god of water who controls the source of Tigris and Euphrates...

Or both

The late 3rd millennium BC text "Debate between Bird and Fish" tells us that it was Enki who: "laid out side by side the Tigris and the Euphrates, and caused them to bring water from the mountains"...

Did you notice that Tigris and Euphrates were made by Enki "to bring water from the mountains"? 

Do you remember Abzu, Enki's home, the source of the water flowing down Tigris and Euphrates?

And how I argued in my post "Shamash young and old" that Abzu was not "the underground sea of fresh water, the aquifer", but that instead, Abzu was the name for the mountains from which the two great rivers emerged?

Now have a look at this: This is part of the Stele of the Vultures, a monument from the Early Dynastic III period (2600–2350 BC) in Mesopotamia celebrating a victory of the city-state of Lagash over its neighbour Umma. 

On another fragment we see a large male figure holding a mace in his right hand and an anzu or lion-headed eagle in his left hand. The hammer and the anzu identify the figure as the storm god Ningirsu. Below the anzu is a large net filled with the bodies of naked men...

In the "The God Enki in  Sumerian Royal Ideology and  Mythology" by Peeter Espak we can read this interesting bit about this monument:

The text on the Stele of the Vultures has a long list of curses intended to frighten the rulers of Umma if they ever decided to overrule the terms of defeat and start another dispute. One of the gods invoked in the curses is Enki who is titled “the king of Abzu”:

"When I (Umma) transgress the border, the great battle-net of Enki, the king of Abzu, according to the oath taken (or: curse given) upon (Umma) from the sky let cover!" 

So the net we see on the above image must be "the net of Enki"...

The text continues with the king Eanatum releasing carp-fish said to be sent or going to Abzu. 

"(To) the carp-fish released/sent to Abzu Eannatum swore"...

Very interesting indeed...

Peeter Espak concludes that "It looks like Eanatum uses carp-fish to intermediate the oath taken or superimposed on the state of Umma to Enki situated in his Abzu. The carp-fish are therefore carriers of the message and informers of Enki"...

This is very interesting, as most of the seals which depict Enki as the source of Tigris and Euphrates, also depict fish...

The fish are either depicted swimming within the two rivers flowing out of Enki...

Or fish are depicted somewhere near the streams...

But regardless where the fish are, they are always facing Enki. They are always swimming towards Enki...Towards Abzu...

Now, the goatfish was to Sumerians known as Carp-goat...This is super important...As the fish which Eanatum sent to Enki, to Abzu, was also carp-fish...

What does all this mean? Why is this important? Because carp was directly linked with the annual flood of Tigris and Euphrates, the most important annual event in Mesopotamia...

In "The God Enki in Sumerian Royal Ideology and Mythology" we can read that the poem written by the king Ur-Namma, he says that "Enki treats me favourably, flood...for me he gives". Now the word Ur-Namma used for flood was actually "a-eštub" which literally means "carp(-filled) water"...

In "A study of Sumerian faunal conception..." we can read that an Ur III text calls Enki "the (wielder of) the a-eštub (carp flood)”...

Now remember all these depictions of Enki with Tigris and Euphrates pouring out of him, full of fish swimming towards Enki? That fish is carp. And not just any carp. A mother of all carps...Barbus esocinus (L. esocinus)...

Barbus esocinus (L. esucinus) is a large fish that can reach a weight of 140 kg (300 lbs) and can be over 2 metres long. It is one of the largest freshwater fishes in the world....It is distributed in most parts of the Tigris and Euphrates and their main tributaries.

Common names for this fish are: “soong, bach, anzeh, anzah, narbach, and anzeh-bach, balzard” in Iran, “bizz, farkh-el-biz” in Iraq, “Yerli Turna, Kurşun, Cero” in Turkey. 

The English called it Tigris salmon, Euphrates salmon. Why?

Cause just like salmon, this Mesopotamian carp is synchronous spawner migrating to the upper reaches of the rivers to spawn. Their spawning beds are at the springheads of the rivers where banks are covered with gravel...

Based on collected observation data, B. esocinus spawned over a relatively short period of time, from mid-April through late June with a peak concentrated in April/May when the water temperature exceeded 19–24° C...

Which is the ideal time to catch these mighty fish which spends the rest of the year in deep waters of the lower Tigris and Euphrates system...

So the migration of B. esocinus is not an event you would miss, if you lived by the river...

Guess what happens at the exact same time when, millions of giant carps all start swimming upstream, towards the shallow waters of the source of Tigris and Euphrates? 

The peak of the annual flood. Enki's flood...It peaks in Apr/May...

Tigris flow

Euphrates flow

The carp flood, "a-eštub", "carp filled water"...This is why all the fish depicted on the seals showing Tigris and Euphrates pouring out of Enki, Abzu, are facing Enki, Abzu. 

Because these seals depict the peak of the flood. When giant carp swim towards Enki who is (in) Abzu...

Do we need better proof that Abzu is not "the underground sea of fresh water, the aquifer"? 

These fishes are not swimming "towards Abzu, an imaginary underground sea of the fresh water". 

They are swimming Abzu, the mountains from which the two great rivers emerge...

So now we know what the fish part is in the goatfish. What about the goat part?... 

Climatic year in Mesopotamia is divided into hot/dry and cool/wet halves.

The first rains (and snow) of the cool/wet season arrive to Mesopotamia when Ibex and Markhor mountain goats start to mate, Oct/Nov...

Ibex

Markhor

The beginning of the Wild Goat mating season signals the beginning of the cool, wet season, Winter. And it is the rain and snow which fall during Winter (Nov-May) that are the source of all the fresh water that flows down Tigris and Euphrates...And of Enki's flood...

This is such an important event in these arid lands that wild goats were basically deified. I talked about this in my post "Goat carrier" and many others...

The gestation period of the wild goats that live in Northern Mesopotamia is 150 days...So the first baby goats appear just before the water levels peak in the two Holy Rivers....Which is why we see baby goats being brought to Enki as offerings on so many seals...

Mesopotamian hydrological report states: "Tigris and Euphrates have two flood periods: an irregular, rain-fed rise of minor proportions lasting from November to the end of March (this is basically a slight increase in water levels) and the main snowmelt flood of April and May"...

Which means that the flood starts when Ibex goats start to mate and peaks when eštub carp start to mate...Hence goatfish as the symbol of Enki, the god (source) of fresh water and the annual flood of Tigris and Euphrates....

So not a mythical animal after all. Just a complex animal calendar marker, marking the time of the year ruled by Enki...Which is why Enki is often depicted standing on a goat fish...His "mythical animal" 🙂 I told you. There are no such things as mythical animals...

Oh, by the way, did you notice that sometimes, the "goatfish" also has bull horns, and not goat horns? Like this one...Why?

For the same reason Enki is depicted standing on a bull on this seal...

The annual flood, carp flood, peaks during the calving season of the wild Eurasian cattle...Apr/May. Time of the year which has been marked by the bull, calf, cow and calf symbol all over Eurasia and North Africa since Neolithic...Taurus...

I talked about this in my posts "Green pastures" and "Rain and flood"...

Hence bull-goat-fish 🙂 subspecies of the goat-fish mythical animal of Enki...

I think that this is quite significant article which explains so many "mysterious things"...Very little mystery left, I am afraid. Just Climatology, Biology and Hydrology...

What do you think?

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...