Combs from Tuva

Combs found in Tuvan burial ground Khemchik-Bom, Russia dated to 5th-4th centuries. BC. From this amazing resource (in Russian) "Язык звериных образов"

The right comb is one of the oldest examples of the so called Composite Animal Style...

The archaeologist who discovered the combs described the one on the right like this: it "...is a complex multi-figured composition, the central figure of which is a hoofed animal with the body of a mountain goat and the horns of a gazelle...

On the back of this animal lies the figure of a mountain goat, smaller in scale. The chest and part of the front leg of the central figure are inscribed in the outline of a rearing mountain goat...

In the composition, one can identify two more heads of mountain goats, one of which is inscribed in the contour of the head of a rearing goat, and the second in the croup of the central figure..."

The animals depicted on the combs are 

Siberian ibex (mountain goat)

Goitered gazelle (gazelle)

The mating season of both animals starts in November, at the beginning of winter, making them interchangeable animal calendar markers for beginning of winter and winter itself...This is what the composition on the right comb is trying to tell us...

In nature, ibex lives in the mountains and gazelle live in plains and steppe. So people who lived in the mountains or near mountains used Ibex as the winter calendar marker more. And people who lived in the plains and steppe used Gazelle as the winter calendar marker more...

But they are often found depicted together and in such a way as to point at their symbolic link. Like on this (I think Assyrian, but would love to know for sure) seal on which a winged goddess standing between two Bezoar goats and holding two Goitered gazelles...

These animal calendar markers originate in the Fertile Crescent. From there they spread with the first farmers all over the area where the climatic year was divided into dry and hot part (summer) and wet and cool part (winter)...

In all these areas, farmers used Ibex goats and Goitered gazelles as symbols not just for the beginning of winter, but for the beginning of the wet season, the most important event in the agricultural year...The marker for the beginning of the dry season being bull, cow & calf...

The reason why Ibex became calendar marker for the start of the wet season is because in East Anatolia, Levant, Cyprus, Crete, Naqada (Egypt), Arabia, Mesopotamia, Iran, Bactria...both the rain season and the mating season of Ibex goats and Goitered gazelles starts in Oct/Nov...

The rain season ends when Wild Eurasian cattle, Aurochs, start calving...In Apr/May, today known as Taurus, Bull, but originally marked with cow and calf...Like on this Mesopotamian seal showing two seasons: goat and bull (cow and calf) season...

In Tuva the climate is different. The main rain season is summer, not winter. 

Interestingly, we can see that snowfall and rainfall seasons are demarcated by Apr/May (Bull) and Oct/Nov (Goat). Because of the average temperature, which is above freezing during summer Bull-Goat and below freezing during winter Goat-Bull

I think this is the reason why Goat and Gazelle feature prominently on Tuvan artifacts. But I believe that the symbolism belongs to an imported ritual (belief) system, which came most likely from BMAC or Iran...

You can read about "The Goat of Rain" (Ibex) and its sidekick (Goitered Gazelle) in Bactria in my post "Fluffy"...

You can read about "The Goat of Rain" (Ibex) in Mesopotamia in my posts "Diadem of queen Puabi", "Pissing gazelles", "Larsa goat", "Assur", "Rain and flood"

You can read about "The Goat of Rain" (Ibex) and its sidekick (Goitered Gazelle) in Iran in my posts "Two headed dragon", "Goat petroglyphs from Iran", "Winged bull with ibex horns", "Strider", "A vessel from Tepe Hissar"

You can read more about "The Goat of Rain" (Ibex) in Crete in my posts "Goat riding thunder god", "Sanctuary rhyton", "Cornucopia"

You can read more about "The Goat of Rain" (Ibex) in Cyprus in my post "Goats and partridges"

You can read more about "The Goat of Rain" (Ibex and Markhor) in Egypt in my post "Markhor goat in Naqada"

You can read more about "The Goat of Rain" (Ibex and Markhor) in Levant in my post "Nahal Mishmar hoard"

You can read more about "The Goat of Rain" (Ibex) in Asia Minor in my post "Griffin killing lizard"

You can read more about "The Goat of Rain" (Ibex and Markhor) in Indus Valley in my posts "Seal with narrative scene", "Kharif and Rabi seasons"

Finally you can read more about "The Goat of Rain (Winter)" (Ibex) in Europe in my post "Goat in European culture" and the posts linked from this post...

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...

Goat petroglyphs from Iran

Petroglyphs from Southern Iran. Dating:  Second millennium BC (??? - estimate, no real data)...

The Petroglyphs are from a site near Dehtel village, Hormozgan province... 

As you can see, the predominant motif on the Dehtel petroglyphs is Ibex goat...Which is not surprising when we know that almost 90 percent of Iran's rock art consists of the ibex depictions!!! 

The first ancient petroglyphs in Iran were discovered (recorded) in 2002 by Mohammed Naserifard in the hills outside the town of Khomein in central Iran.

He estimates that since the initial discovery in 2002 he travelled more than 700000 kilometres across two dozen Iranian provinces, unearthing some 50000 ancient paintings and engravings...Ibex after ibex after ibex...And few other things...

On the Bradshaw foundation site about Iran rock art we can read a short piece about Iranian ibex petroglyphs with a comment from Dr Mohammed Naserifard about their meaning...A very interesting comment indeed...About Ibex being linked to water...

Archaeological evidence shows that Ibex was hunted in Iran from the Middle Paleolithic period onwards. So pre people in the area knew the behavior and the lifecycle of this animal in detail...

They knew that the mating of Ibex goats happens every year at the same time...When the first rains arrive...In Oct/Nov...This is climatic chart for Western Iran...

So once the agriculture started in the region, the first farmers knew that the rains, needed for ploughing and sowing, arrive when Ibex goats start to mate...In Late Oct - Early Nov...

Which is why Ibex, with its curving horns and characteristic beard, went on to be incorporated into "decorative" friezes on painted pottery and they also appear on many stamp and cylinder seals from Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age and Iron Age Iran...

Except these were anything but decorative motifs...These were religious symbols, "magic" animal calendar markers....For the most important annual event, the beginning of the rain season...

I talked about this in my post "Iranian goat of rain" Tepe Hissar pottery, "Strider", "Winged bull with Ibex horns", "Goat in a tree", "Jumping goat"...And many more...

Did people believe that it was the goat which brought the rain? I thinks so...Otherwise we would not see things like these:

Ibex-headed figure, possibly a human wearing the horns of an ibex, appears "in the guise of the master of animals" 🙂 in Iran from 4000BC...(Spoiler: there is no such thing as master of animals)

Well they also appear in Syria and Iraq around that same time...

These two stamps, one from Arslan Tepe and one from Tepe Gawra, are very interesting. They both show Ibex, which we know was associated with the arrival of first autumn rains. But who is depicted with the Ibex goats? A man with an Ibex mask...Priest playing Ibex? Ibex god? Master of the animals?  🙂

Of course we know that this is not any "master of the animals". There is no such a thing...Just a deified Ibex (Goat of Rain) transitioning 🙂 into the Rain god whose sacred animal is Ibex...

Here is an Elamite figurine from around 3000BC, depicting a man with goat horns (or a goat horns helmet, cap)...

I talked about this in my post "Strider"...

Here is the interesting bit from Dr Mohammad Naserifard's text. He says that

...the symbolic and/or religious significance of the ibex in pre-Islamic Iran is unclear, although some argue that it was integral to a pre-Islamic creation narrative...

According to the Zoroastrian cosmogony, Mashya and Mashyana were the first man and woman whose procreation gave rise to the human race. According to Mohammad Naserifard, it was the ibex that was chosen as the symbol of divine assistance....

Where Ibex "may have represented an over-riding belief in, and request for, the provision of water, the guarantee of fertility and birth, and a Divine Hu, blessing and protection"...

Ha! Of course no explanation why would Ibex symbolize "provision of water"...

Ibex goat mating season starts Oct/Nov, with Ibex males, which are normally solitary, gather to fight for females...And then the rains arrive, provided by the Divine The Goat of Rain...

Pic: Elamite (South Iranian) seal with two male Ibex goats and a cross...

Is this what this cross under the Ibex horn means? IMPORTANT!!!

Anyway, if anyone knows Dr Mohammad Naserifard, can they ask him why he thought that Ibex was the symbol of Divine provision of water?

Finally, here are two seals from Susa Iran, dated to 4000BC and depicting a "goat-man" holding snakes.

Here is another one, this one is from Tell Brak, dated to 3800-3600BC...

Snake is the symbol of sun, more precisely sun's heat. And dragon, the old snake, is the symbol of the destructive heat of the late summer sun...I talked about this in several of my articles, like "Enemy of the sun", "The chthonic animal", "Dragon who stole rain", "Bactrian snakes and dragons", "Seven headed dragon","Nude winged hero dominating snakes"...

Knowing this, on the above Susa seals we have goat, the symbol of rain, subduing snakes, symbols of sun's heat...Rains, brought by the goat of rain, end the drought, brought by the snake of the sun...

BTW, something just occurred to me. You know how in Levant, Mot, the god of death was equated with the sun, which is symbolised by a snake, dragon...And how Devil is all about fire...And has a pet snake...And likes dressing up as a dragon... 

Fun...

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...

Mas d’Azil goats

This is one of the most amazing artefacts I have ever seen...Carved from a sperm whale tooth, it depicts two climbing Ibex goats...Found in Mas d’Azil cave (Ariège, France), Middle or Late Magdalenian (13000-10000BC), Piette collection, Musée D’Archéologie Nationale...

"What's so exciting about this depiction of two goats?", I can hear you say. "I mean the cave was full of amazing animal depictions carved in bone...Like this horse head for instance"...

Well...Did you notice that under each goat, there are two groups of 6 incised lines? 12 in total...Why would they be there, I wonder...Could they be representing 12, 29 days moons (like this one depicted on moon shaped boar tusk), of the solar year? 

I talked about these early lunisolar calendars in my post "Calendar"

Hmmm, why would the notches be under Ibex goats depicting climbing a mountain??? Well...Ibex goats in Europe ascend to mountain tops during their mating season, which starts in December, and ends in January typically lasting around six weeks... 

I talked about this in my post "Goat".

Right in the middle of the mating periods of Alpine Ibex is Winter Solstice, 21st of December. And the day after the winter solstice is the beginning of the Capricorn (goat) period, which last from December 22 

If you wanted to have a proper calendar, then that calendar has to be lunisolar...It has to have a beginning fixed in a solar year from which you count your moons...Otherwise it begins to slip as 12x29 = 348, 17 days less than the full solar year of 365 days...

Winter solstice is one such event which occurs every year at the same time and which can be, and was, used as a lunisolar calendar anchor...To prevent your calendar from slipping, all you need to do is determine the day of the winter solstice, and then count 12 moons...

How do you do that. Well that is not really that difficult. 

You find a clear flat piece of high ground from which you can observe sunrises and sunsets. The observatory. You stick a pole into the ground to mark the observation spot. Then as the year passes, every morning and every evening you stand next to the observation pole and observe sunrise and sunset. As you are observing the sunrises and sunsets, you notice that the point where sun rises is not the same as the point where sun sets. The sun rises on the left side of the horizon, travels across the sky from left to right and sets at the opposite right side of the horizon. As days pass you realize that the point where the sun rises moves along the horizon. So does the point where the sun sets. You notice that the sunrise point moves during the spring further and further to the left and the sunset point further and further to the right. So the sun needs to travel longer across the sky and the day is longer and longer and hotter and hotter. Then at some point during the summer the sunrise and sunset points start moving in the opposite direction. The sunrise point starts moving to the right and sunset point starts moving to the left. They get closer and closer to each other, so the sun has to travel shorter distance between the sunrise and sunset and the day is shorter and shorter and colder and colder. 

The point when sun rises in the same place 2-3 days in a row is one of the solstices. Winter solstice if your nuts are frozen solid while you are watching the sunrise, summer solstice otherwise (if you are in continental Europe that is)...

Easy...

Then watch the skies carefully during the extra days after "the end of calendar", wait for the next winter solstice, rejoice and throw a wild solstice party, and then start counting moons again...I talked about these "extra days" in my post "The end of time"

But if you are not fussy and don't care about the exact time of the winter solstice, you can always rely on Ibex goats to start climbing to the mountain tops to start their mating season around the same time every year...All you have to do then is count 12 moons from then...

Soooo....This is why I was so excited when I saw this image...Is this a lunisolar calendar with the Ibex as the beginning of the solar year marker???

Jumping goat

This is a very very interesting vessel from Shahr-i Sokhta, Iran. Late 3rd Mill. BC...

Here again we see the "Goat of rain" next to the "Tree of life". Basically just an Ibex goat eating green shoots from a green plant. Which has been revived by the first rain which arrives to this part of Iran during Ibex (Bezoar) goat mating season.  Which begins in late Oct early Nov. 

Yawn...Not the goat of rain again...

As much as this is really amazing, this is not why this vessel is so interesting. The five pictures on the side of the vessel show a goat stepping toward a tree, climbing it up, eating the leaves and coming down...

This series of pictures is one of earliest examples of an artist's attempting to show motion through animation. Now if you were able to spin the vessel around (fastish) this is what you would see. 

Seriously cool, right?

You can read more about the "Goat of rain" in Iran in my post "Vessel from Tepe Hissar" and "Maltese cross seal from Elam". You can find more articles about animal solar year calendar markers here.

Maltese cross seal from Elam

Proto-Elamite cylinder seal found in Jemdet Nasr and dated to 3100BC-3000BC. Depicting two Ibex goats with a 'Maltese' cross between them. 

Elam (Western Iran) was another place where Ibex (Bezoar) goat was "The Goat of Rain" (rain season started when Ibex goats began mating). Other parts of the world where we find the same link between Ibex (Bezoar) goats, rain season and fertility are Crete, Cyprus, parts of Anatolia, Levant, Arabia, Mesopotamia, parts of Central Asia (follow links to articles). 

The climate in Elam was divided into dry season (May-Oct) and wet season (Nov-Apr).

Ibex (Bezoar) goat mating season starts at the end of Oct beginning of Nov, when Ibex males, which are normally solitary, gather to fight for females...You can read more about the mating habits of Ibex (Bezoar) goats in my article "Goat".

Ibex dominates the oldest religious images in Mesopotamia, which date to the time before the irrigation was invented. During that time, people depended exclusively on rain to water their fields. Hence the veneration of Ibexes who signalled the arrival of rain season...

But what about Maltese crosses?

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...

Goats and partridges

Terracotta lentoid flask, 11th century B.C. Levantine. Both sides of the flask are decorated with goats, birds, and rudimentary foliage. 

I would like to analyse this object and its decorations.

So first, what are the animals depicted on this flask? Well, they are, based on the characteristics, our old friends: 

Bezoar Ibex Goat

Chukar partridge...

Is the choice of the animals and the composition and grouping of animals random? I don't think so. Here is why:

Climate in Levant, where this flask was made, is characterised by Hot Dry summers and Mild Wet winters...

Red table-temperature. 

Green table-rain.

You can see that the wet season starts in October-November and ends in April-May.

The breeding season of the Bezoar Ibex Goats varies across their range, but is generally from October-November to January. October-November is the beginning of winter and the beginning of Cool Wet Season in Levant. Which is why goats on the vessel are flanking a flowering and leafy bush (tree). This is the beginning of the season when nature turns lush and green. 

Also the mating season of Bezoar Ibex Goats overlaps with winter (from the beginning of November to the end of January), which is the first half of the Cool Wet Season.

The breeding season of the Chukar Partridges varies across their range, but is generally from February to May...The end of the Chukar breeding season marks the end of spring and the end of the Cool Wet Season in Levant. Which is why partridges are standing among dry bushes...

Also the mating season of Chukar Partridges overlaps with spring (from the beginning of February to the end of April), which is the second half of the Cool Wet Season.

What the decorations on this (most likely water) flask represent the Cool Wet Season, water rich season, neatly divided into Winter (Bezoar Ibex Goats part) and Spring (Chukar Partridges part). 

And the important demarcation dates on the climatic year are again marked by animals which mate or have young around those dates...

Lebanon is another place where we find Ibex worship from very early times. 

Like in Crete, Ibex was worshiped as bringer of life, often associated with "tree of life", basically just growing, living, green tree kept alive by rains which are "brought" by mating ibex goats...I talked about this in my posts "Goat riding thunder god", "Saffron" and "Sanctuary rhyton".

And like in Crete, Partridge was worshiped as symbol of fertility because the period when partridges start laying eggs is also the period when first vegetables and grains, the products of fertile nature, are ready to be harvested...I talked about this in my post "Painted eggs from Knossos".