Shaking the olive tree

Mosaic of Farming Activities from Julia Caesarea, Algeria. Agriculture was paramount to the Numido-Romans.

Numidia was successful in becoming a main provider of agricultural surpluses to other parts of the Empire, and this achievement was depicted in many very fine floor mosaics

This Roman mosaic is depicting two people ploughing the field and sowing grain. Behind is an olive tree full of dark coloured almost ripe olives. Cherchell, Algeria.   

In Algeria grain is sown starting in Oct/Nov and olives are harvested also starting in Oct/Nov...

Here is an interesting use of ripe olives as a plant calendar marker: 

Persephone "...cried out...calling upon her father... But no one...heard her voice...nor yet the olive-trees bearing rich fruit..." That's just before olive harvest, which starts in Oct/Nov...I talked about this in my post "Abduction of Persephone"...

Persephone, deified grain seed...Abducted and taken "under ground"...Sown...Grain sowing season in Greece starts in Oct/Nov...And so does the olive harvest season...

Here is a much much older example of the use of olive tree full of ripe fruit as plant calendar marker from Knossos, Crete: Minoan fresco, depicting ibex goats (Mating starts Oct/Nov) flanking the (olive) tree of life (harvest starts Oct/Nov) while crocuses are blooming all around (blooming and harvest starts Oct/Nov)...I talked about this in my post "Goat riding thunder god"... 

Now check this out: 

A while back I came across this X post by @Michssspp82096:

Numerous Minoan gold rings  depict individuals shaking trees. This could represent the main form of divination in Bronze age Crete...

So I replied: 

You shake trees to get fruit down...Like olives...Look at these beauties. Almost ready to be harvested...

In Crete, Olive harvest starts in Oct/Nov, which is also the beginning of the rain season...Super super important...

And now that I thought about it, these trees from Minoan seals, that always looked weird to me

do look like olive trees...

On Minoan Crete it was Goddess who was linked to rain, goats, crocuses and fertility...Talked about it in my posts "Mesa Mouliana vessel", "Anavlochos mountain", "Goat riding thunder god", "Male female Minoan bowl", "Minoan flying goddess with griffin", "Saffron", "Origin of saffron"...

I now think she was also linked to olives...And shaking of olive branches might have indeed been a ritual linked with rain and fertility...

Shaking of olive branches makes olives fall and they only start to fall when they are fully ripe and when they are fully ripe, in Oct/Nov...rain starts to fall...Fucking cool...

That's it. 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...

Calydonian boar

Illyrian silver stater 300-275 BC. Cow suckling her calf. Jawbone above. So what's the meaning of all of this?

Of first the cow suckling the calf. 

The calving season of the wild Eurasian cattle starts in Taurus, beginning of summer. This is also the beginning of the milking season...I wrote about the link between wild Eurasian cattle and Taurus in my article "Ram and Bull" and about bull as the symbol of summer in my article "Symbols of the seasons"...

Now we have to identify the jawbone. Officially this is a wild boar jawbone...Is it? 

Jawbone from the coin. 

Wild boar jawbone

It seems to match...

In my article about the double headed eagle axe, I talked about the symbolism of the wild boar and its link to winter. Mating season of the wild boar across Eurasia starts in November, beginning of winter...

Both cattle and wild boar were used in Eurasia as solar year calendar markers. Bull marking end of April, beginning of May, beginning of summer, and wild boar marking end of October beginning of November, beginning of winter...

In old Celtic calendar, which closely corresponds to the Anatolian and Middle Eastern Agricultural calendar, the year is divided into only two parts: Dark Nov-Apr (wet season in Anatolia and Middle East) and Light May-Oct (dry season in Anatolia and Middle East)

The Dark part starts with Boar (November) and the Light part starts with Bull (May). Is it possible that the boar jawbone represents the death (end) of the the dark part of the year and the cow and calf represent birth (start) of the light part of the year? 

A century after the above Illyrian coin was minted, we find a jawbone on the coins of the Aitolian league. This one was minted in 211 BC. 

Officially "Spear, Jawbone, Calydonian Boar, commemorates killing of the Calydonian boar". Why would this be Calydonian Boar jawbone? What is the significance of the killing of this boar? Political? Religious?

Let's have a look at the Calydonian boar myth...

Hmmm"...King Oeneus of Calydon held annual harvest sacrifices to the gods..." 

Harvest in Ancient Greece began in Taurus...I talked about the link between the Taurus and grain in Greek culture in my post "Hesiod on grain"...

"...One year the king forgot to include Great Artemis...in his offerings. Insulted, Artemis...loosed the biggest, most ferocious wild boar imaginable on the countryside of Calydon. It rampaged throughout the countryside, destroying vineyards and crops...People began to starve..."

If boar represents winter, then "most ferocious wild boar" "destroying vineyards and crops" and "causing people to starve" could be a sudden catastrophic climate change, sudden cooling...Like the one which happened during Bronze age collapse...1200BC

So I think that the legend about the Calydonian boar just confirm the link between the wild boar and winter...And that it can actually only be understood properly through this link...

I personally that the jawbone on the Illyrian coin is a calendar marker marking the end of the dark part of the year and the beginning of the light part of the year.

What do you think?