Shamash playing with the solar horse

A while back, while reading "Equids as Luxury Gifts at the Centre of Interregional Economic Dynamics in the Archaic Urban Cultures of the Ancient Near East",  I came across this interesting 3rd millennium BC seal from Hurian city of Urkesh, Syria...

I found this article when I was writing my post, "Sun god from Tell Brak", about (what I believed was) the earliest depiction of the sun god in a quadriga pulled by equids, from this 3rd millennium BC cylinder seal imprint found in Tell Brak, Syria...

I based my argument on the fact that the seal depicts a snake above the charioteer, and both snake and equids are solar animals...You can read detailed explanation why in the above post.

What I didn't know then (and should have 🙂) is that apparently the sun god Shamash rode around in chariot pulled by four horses...You can read about this in "Religions of Second Millennium Anatolia"...

Why didn't anyone tell me that after reading my article? 

So the charioteer from Tell Brak could be Shamash himself...

Anyway, keep this in mind, it will come handy later...

The Urkesh seal depicts common Akkadian and Old Babylonian theme usually called a "presentation scene". In it a king carrying a sacrificial animal is lead by a minor deity towards the main seated deity...

The sacrificial animal carried by kings in these "presentation scenes" is usually a baby goat. Like on this seal showing a king bringing a sacrificial goat to the god of flowing water and flood, Enki/Ea...

Why was goat the usual sacrifice to the gods? Cause in Mesopotamia the climatic year is divided into cool/wet "rain season" (Oct/Nov - Apr/May) and hot/dry "drought season" (Apr/May - Oct/Nov).

The beginning of the rain season is marked by the beginning of the mating season of the wild goats (Oct/Nov). And the end of the rain season is marked by the end of the birthing season of the wild goats (Apr/May).

Which made the wild goat a super important animal calendar marker for rain season. And the symbol of fertility brought by rain. And the symbol of the resulting prosperity. And the symbol of royalty based on that prosperity. 

You can read about it in my post "Goat carrier"...

BTW, If you are wondering why there is a fish facing Enki/Ea, this is because Enki's flood, annual flood of Tigris and Euphrates, happens in Apr/May, the same time when giant Mesopotamian carps migrate upstream (to Abzu) for spawning...More in my posts "Carp surfer", "Goatfish"...

Oh, and on the above Sacrifice to Enki seal, the king is lead towards Enki by Isimud, Enki's two faced assistant...Why?

Did you know that Mar/Apr (Isimud) that "leads towards" Apr/May (Enki) is where  we find Mesopotamian New Year, you know the domain of Janus...Check these posts: "Adda seal", "Janus"...

Anyway, enough digression. Let's get back to the Urkesh seal with the "presentation scene". On it, the king is indeed being lead by a minor deity towards the seated main deity. 

But the king is not holding a baby goat. He is holding a baby equid...

And the king is lead towards the seated deity who is feeding a prancing equid...While holding a whip (???)...

Now these are not horses. These are Kungas, animals only bread in the area where Urkesh is located, and so highly regarded, that "they were used for drawing the chariots of kings and gods"...

Considering that the seal was made by the breeders of the kungas, it is not surprising that king is bringing a baby kunga equid as the sacrificial animal to the seated deity, probably seen as the protector of the city and its wealth built on kunga breeding...Right?

But I think that this is not just an ordinary presentation scene...Why? Bhere is something hidden on this seal in plain sight, so "out of place", that no one who discussed this seal seem to have noticed it...A buffalo...For instance check this article "Sacred space: contributions to the archaeology of belief". Nothing...

What is buffalo doing here? Well I believe that both kunga and buffalo are used here as animal calendar markers.

For those who never heard of them, animal calendar markers are ancient calendar markers derived from the annual mating or birthing or migrating or hibernating...season of the depicted animal in the area where the symbol is used...

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...

For instance in Europe:

I talked about this in my post "Zodiac". You can find posts about each Zodiac sign as a calendar marker linked to this post....

And so let's have a look at equids and buffalos as animal calendar markers.

Buffalo. Both domesticated and wild Eurasian water buffalos start their mating in Oct/Nov, at the beginning of the rain season in Mesopotamia. Characterised by bull fights for mating rights...

Hence their association in Mesopotamia with rain and water...I talked about this in my post "Buffalo licking jar"

BTW, because in India the climate is opposite to the climate in Mesopotamia, the mating of water buffalos marks the beginning of the hot/dry season, the season of drought and death. Hence buffalo as a mount of Yama, the god of death...I talked about this in my post "The bitch of the gods" and "Mahishasuramardini"...

Equids...As I explained in the post about the solar quadriga, equids mating season, characterised by mad prancing stallion fights for mating rights, starts in Apr/May...Which is why equids (horses in particular) are animal calendar marker for Apr/May...

Because horses fertility is governed by the sunlight, and it peaks on summer solstice, horse became the symbol of sunny half of the year...I talked about this in my post "Goddess on a horse"...

And because horse mating season overlaps with the sailing season in Eastern Mediterranean, horse got linked with Eastern Mediterranean Sea Gods. I talked about this in my post "Trojan horse"...

This biological link between the sunlight an horse's reproduction is why in India we find this: 

Once Lord Vishnu’s head was cut off accidentally by other gods. The head turned out to be the Sun. The gods then attached a horse head to Vishnu's body, which is how he assumed his Hayagriva form...I talked about this in my post "Hayagriva"...

This is also why Shamahs, the sun god rides in the quadige pulled by 4 horses. And why the seated god on the Urkesh seal is Shamash, or his Hurian alter ego Šimige...

Not sure? Here is another Hurian seal with seated god playing with an equid...Oh, what's this above the horses back? Sun?...Could this be the "Sun god" playing with a "Solar Horse"???

Just like "Solar Horse" depicted on this Celtic coin...Stylised horse, left; sun above horse

Here's the original: Roman silver coin (Didrachm) of the Pyrrhic war (275-270 BC). Front: Apollo wears a laurel-wreath. Back: horse gallops beneath a 16 pointed star. Star is The Sun of course...

The old Mesopotamian summer, the sunny half of the year, starts in Apr/May. Which is when the equids start mating

And when the equid babies are also born, cause equid gestation period is 11-12 months...

Hence the sun god, ruler of the summer, the sunny half of the year, playing with the prancing equid (mating), and getting a baby equid (birthing) as a sacrificial offering from the king...

What we just learned makes: 

This is weather chart for the area where the seal we are talking about was found

buffalo: the animal calendar marker for the [beginning of] the cool/wet half of the year, winter (Oct/Nov - Apr/May)

equid: the animal calendar marker for the [beginning of] the hot dry half of the year, summer (Apr/May - Oct/Nov)

Considering that the god sits facing the prancing equid, while behind him the buffalo is walking away, this places the god at the end of winter, beginning of summer...In Apr/May...When the baby kungas are born...

And indicates that the god is most likely Sun God Shamash...

That's it. I hope you liked it...Have as nice a day as possible...

Sun god from Tell Brak

3rd millennium BC cylinder seal imprint found in Tell Brak, Syria? From "Excavations at Tell Brak 2001-2002: Preliminary Report"... 

I think that this could be the oldest depiction of a sun god riding in a quadriga (a car or chariot drawn by four equids abreast)...

And here is why:

Here is the drawing of the scene from the seal. You can see that the seal depicts a quadriga, pulled by 4 equids.

Apparently, these are not horses, but "kungas". These luxury equids, mentioned often in 3rd millennium BC texts, turned out to be specially bred hybrids between female domesticated donkey and a wild male Syrian wild ass. You can read more about it in "The genetic identity of the earliest human-made hybrid animals, the kungas of Syro-Mesopotamia"

Kungas were so highly regarded, that "they were the preferred draught animal, deemed especially suitable for drawing the chariots of kings and gods"... You can read more about it in "Archaeology in Mesopotamia: Digging Deeper at Tell Brak"...

Apart of the quadriga, the Tell Brak seal also depicts three "human" figures. The one on the quadriga being much larger than the other two, usually sign that this is either a king or a deity...

So far the figure on the quadriga could be either a king or a god...So which is it? The authors of the original paper can help us determine this: "the presence of the snake [above the driver of the quadriga] hints at a cultic aspect [of the seal]"...🙂

Soooo...Why is the snake depicted above the driver of the quadriga pulled by four eqides? Archaeology has no idea, but it has to be cultic...Which means that we need turn to animal calendar markers to help us understand what's going on here...Again...

Here is Helios riding on chariot pulled by four solar horses...Why? Cause horse is a "natural solar animal". Horses fertility is governed by the sunlight and it peaks on summer solstice. 

So a quadriga pulled by horses is an ideal ride for a sun god...Why? Cause horse is a natural solar animal...Its fertility (and mating characterised by vicious stallion fights for mares) is governed by the amount of sunlight and peaks on summer solstice...

Which is why we see things like these: Bronze Age "Sun Chariot" pulled by a horse, Denmark 1400 BC...

Or why horses are ridden by sun itself, depicted either as a rider with sun disc with rays instead of the head, or as the sun disc with rays...like on these Celtic coins...

I talked abut this in my post "Hayagriva"...

Anyway, what does this have to do with our quadriga from Tell Brak? It wasn't pulled by horses? Well the thing is that asiatic wild asses have the same mating season as wild horses, which also starts in Apr/May...

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

Eeee ok, so? Well, in Syria, Apr/May marks the beginning of the hot, dry half of the year which lasts until Oct/Nov...The half of the year dominated by the sun. The half of the year which spans the entire mating season of Asiatic wild asses...

So we could say that a quadriga pulled by four "kungas" would be an appropriate ride for a Sun God...It could...If we only had anything else on this seal that is symbolically linked with the sun...Ah but we do, the snake...The "cultic bit" of the scene...

As I explained in many of my posts, snake is a pure solar animal. It is in our world when sun is here (day, hot half of the year) and it is in the underworld when sun is there (night, cold half of the year)...

Snakes are symbol of the sun and the sun's heat. They are also symbols of the beginning of summer, as vipers, the most common Eurasian snakes, start mating in Apr/May, beginning of summer...

So no wonder we find snake linked to the sun over and over again...

Interestingly, the key for understanding the link between snakes and the sun was best preserved in Slavic folklore (remnants of Slavic mythology). I talked about this in my post "Letnitsa treasure"...

At the same time the Tell Brak seal we are talking about was made, we find this in Iran: Khafajeh vase...I analysed this amazing object in my posts "Lions with grain tails" and "Khafajeh vase"...

See how "Goddess" with a star above her shoulder (usually symbol for Inanna/Ishtar), stands between two lionesses (she was known as the lioness of heaven), holding two snakes? Snake is the symbol of sun's heat. Sun is hottest at the end of Jul, beginning of Aug, in Leo...Which is when Sirius rises with the sun pretending to be "The morning star"...🙂

Or maybe this is a male figure?

And at the same time when Khafajeh vase was made, in Bactria people made things like these: A seal depicting the sun god (see heat rays emanating from his shoulders) holding snakes, symbols of sun's heat...You know, like Utu/Shamash, the sun god? 

Considering though that the other side of the same two face seal depicts this, a lion with heat radiating from its back, I think that this dude is Nergal, the "destructive sun in Leo"...

I talked about this in my post "Nude winged hero dominating snakes"...

At the same time when all the above artefacts were made, down south in Iraq, in Tell Asmar, people depicted dragons with seven snake heads, one of each sunny, hot month of the old Sumerian summer...I talked about this in my post "Seven headed dragon"...

Oh, do you see how the "hero" is about to kill the 4th snake head? Apr/May, May/Jun, Jun/Jul, Jul/Aug...So this happens in Jul/Aug, in Leo...And do you see the "lady" standing behind the hero, with a star above her shoulder? 🙂

So the depiction of a (solar) snake above our quadriga pulled by (solar) equids indicates that whoever is the driver is not a king, but god (cultic!!! 🙂)...Sun god???

Unfortunately I can't tell you the name of this dude...But it could be some local version of the sun god, depicted on a quadriga pulled by equids by people obsessed by equids...Cause Syria was the place where these animals were bred...

That kungas had a special meaning for the 3rd millennium BC Syrians, can be seen from the fact that more than 40 of them were sacrificed and ceremonially buried in elite graves at Umm el-Marra, Syria...

They were placed in separate chambers from the burials of adult humans but many were accompanied by human infants with signs of having been sacrificed to the kungas or with the kungas???

Apart from "Sun's half of the year" arriving "when wild asses start to mate", is there something else important that happens in the Kungas country in Apr/May, that is linked to the sun, and that can be marked with "when wild asses start to mate"?

Well there is. On the above map of 3rd millennium archaeological sites in Syro-Mesopotamia, you can see how all these cities were located along the rivers. Because in this area, the rivers were the only reliable source of fresh water for the people and their animals...

And Mesopotamians believed that it was the Sun god that filled their taps and wells with water. 

In the Sumerian text "Enki and Ninhursanga" Enki [the god of fresh water and the annual flood] says: "When Utu [the sun god] steps up into heaven, fresh waters shall run out of the ground for you"...

I explained why in my post "When Utu steps up into heaven"...

The gist: the majority of the water that flows down the two great rivers, and fills the water tables that feed the wells and taps, comes from the snowmelt on the surrounding mountains and highlands, which starts in Jan/Feb and peaks in Apr/May...

Snowmelt caused by the sun (god) "climbing" higher and higher into heaven (heaven was originally seen as a mountain by Mesopotamians) to release (god of) waters...I talked about this in my post "Shamash young and old"...

So if you live by the Tigris and Euphrates, then there is something that happens every year in Apr/May, beginning of summer, when wild asses (and horses) start to mate: the flood...Here are the water level charts for Tigris (L) and Euphrates (R)...

This rise in the water level in the two rivers is caused by the rise of the temperature caused by the rise of the Sun's heat, which is symbolised by the (Solar) Snake...Depicted over the (Sun?) God, driving quadriga pulled by (Solar) Equids...

So, to sum it up, the beginning of the hot, dry season, Apr/May, the part of the year dominated by the sun, and the beginning of the flood, caused by the snowmelt, caused by the sun, is also the time when both (solar) equids and (solar) snake begin to mate...

Does all this make it possible that on this Tell Brak seal we have a very early depiction of the sun god in his chariot? I think so, but that's just my opinion...

BTW, in the original paper, the authors say that the object above the small figure is possibly a fish?

Hmmm...Very hard so see and say...But while we are talking about fish in Tigris and Euphrates, did you know that Apr/May is the time of the upstream mating migration of huge Mesopotamian carps...

Which is why the god of water and annual flood, Enki/Ea, was depicted with fish swimming towards him...

I talked about this in my post "Utu or Enki"...

Carp fish, an important food source in Early Mesopotamian societies...And another animal calendar marker for the "arrival of the sun" in Apr/May...

That's if folks...

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...