Casa dei Ceii zodiac

Very interesting fresco of hunting animals from the garden of the Casa dei Ceii, Pompeii (I.6.15)...

What is interesting is that the animals are, from left to right, top to bottom, all arranged in order based on their anima calendar marker meaning...

Top row, left to right:

Deer, mating season Sep/Oct/Nov

I talked about deer as animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

Boar, mating season Oct/Nov/Dec/Jan. 

I talked about boar as animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

Wolf, mating season Jan/Feb/Mar. 

I talked about wolf as animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

Leopard: Mating season Jan/Feb. 

I talked about leopard as animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

Sheep: Lambing season, Feb/Mar/Apr. 

I talked about ram/lamb as animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

Bottom row, right to left:

Bull: Calving season Apr/May/Jun. 

I talked about bull/calf as animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

Lion: Mating season Jul/Aug/Sep/Oct. 

I talked about lion as animal calendar marker in many of my posts...

So here we have a full solar year marked circularly, sunwise (turning from left to right as the sun moves in the sky) by animal calendar markers...

Coincidence? Or deliberate? No idea. If deliberate, why? Again, no idea...

That's that. 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...

Gisgis relief

The other day @Anatolian2023 alerted me to this amazing artefact: The Gisgis relief, a 2900 years old relief located on a hard-to-reach south facing cliff within the borders of the village of Gisgis in Diyarbakır's Ergani district in Turkey. You can read more about this relief in this article...

The relief depicts a king facing a procession of gods. From left to right: 

Ishtar on a lion.

Moon god Sin, symbolically depicted with the crescent moon standard, on "a complex creature".

Sun god Shamash, symbolically depicted with the winged sun standard, on a bull.

So why is this relief so "amazing"? Cause this is another complex animal calendar, which divides the year into three parts, and confirms what I have stated in my article "Moon god Nana/Sin" about why the god Sin was so important to Mesopotamians. 

In short, for the lazy ones, I postulated that the god Sin was the god of the "Wet moon", the moon of the wet, cool, half of the year in Mesopotamia, Oct/Nov-Apr/May...

And this relief actually confirms this. But to see how, we need to look at the animal mounts of the gods in the procession as animal calendar markers...

Let's start with Lion: Lion marks the period Jul/Aug, which is when the main mating season of Eurasian lions, which once lived in Levant, Mesopotamia and Persia, starts...

This is why Ishtar stands on a lion:

For those who will say "Ishtar was the morning star", yes she was, in Leo (Jul/Aug), when Sirius rose in the morning with the sun...Which is why Ishtar stands on a lion (with sun above the lion) and why Ishtar is known as "The Lioness of heaven"...

For those who say Inanna/Ishtar is Venus and not Sirius. This article, "Sirius the mother of Venus" and linked articles might be of interest...

Apart from being the symbol for Jul/Aug, lion is also the symbol for Autumn, Jul/Aug-Oct/Nov, the main mating season of the Eurasian lions...

One of many Lion (autumn, starts in Leo) killing Bull (summer, starts in Taurus) scenes found all over Eurasia, this one depicted on the wall of the Great Mosque of Diyarbakir the oldest mosque in Anatolia.

Some articles that analyse artefacts which contain this animal calendar marker and related symbols: "Mystery seal", "Angra mainyu", "Bull leaping in Syria", "Lion killing bull under date palm", "Butt chewing"...

Then we have the "complex creature", which has scorpion tail, hind legs with claws like those of birds of prey, wings and [my suggestion, not clear] feline [leopard] head and front legs. This "complex creature" is of course a complex animal calendar marker...They all are...

Scorpion is an animal calendar marker for Oct/Nov, the beginning of the wet, cool half of the year, because this is when scorpions disappear from the fields and appear in people's homes...

I talked about this in my post "Angra Mainyu". 

The old Sumerian summer, the 7 headed dragon, can be depicted using animal calendar markers like this too: starts in Apr/May, Bull head, Taurus, peaks in Jul/Aug, Lion body, Leo and ends in Oct/Nov, Scorpion tail/Eagle wings and talons, Scorpio/Eagle...

Eagle/Vulture, is the animal calendar marker for the beginning of the vulture mating season, Oct/Nov...

Which is also the beginning of the wet season in Mesopotamia...

I talked about this first in my article "Double headed eagle" about this amazing silver gilt cast shaft-hole axe head, made between 2500-1500 BC in the area along the Oxus and Murghab rivers in modern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Afghanistan...

And I talked about this in my post "Eagle dance" about the "Eagle dance", Syria, 1800BC...

Eagle (vulture) couples dance above the mountains at the beginning of their mating season, which coincides with the beginning of the rain season in Fertile Crescent...

And in my post "Kassite seal with Apkallu", aout this mad Kassite seal, where we see two headed eagle spewing water from the sky.  Originally people believed that rains were brought by the rain god, who was in Bronze Age Mesopotamia imagined as huge black eagle...

And in many other articles. So together the eagle and scorpion mark the beginning of winter, Oct/Nov, and winter as a whole, Oct/Nov-Jan/Feb. Hence Eagle-Scorpion dude...

"On this seal, a bird-man with a scorpion tail aims a bow and arrow at a winged lion-griffin standing on a hillock". 

I have to say I love this description. It says that officially they have no idea what this all means...

But "we" actually do. I it winter killing autumn...I talked about this in my article "Scorpion man". BTW, I talked about the origin of Griffin as an animal calendar marker for autumn, in my article "Origin of griffins"...

Now why do I think the front of the "complex creature" is leopard? Because winter is followed by spring, and spring starts in Jan/Feb, when Eurasian leopards mate. I talked about this in my article "Mosaic floor from Sulcis, Sardinia", about this mosaic which depicts leopards drinking from a krater for mixing wine and water with a grapevine growing from the krater...

And in my article "The oldest narrative scene" about this 11,000 years old relief from Anatolian Neolithic that no one can interpret...

And in my article "A vessel from Tepe Hissar", about this neolithic vessel which is a great example of related animal calendar markers used together. Mating Ibex (start of winter) followed by Mating Leopard (start of spring). Both winter and spring are rainy seasons...Semen turns to flowing water... 

And in many other articles. So leopard marks the beginning of spring, Jan/Feb, and spring as a whole, Jan/Feb-Apr/May.

Together Scorpion/Eagle/Leopard, mark the cool, wet season, Winter/Spring, Oct/Nov-Apr/May, the time of the "Wet moon" god Sin...

The Scorpion/Eagle/Leopard is followed by a bull. Bull which is an animal calendar marker for Apr/May.

Silver stater from Korkyra. Circa 510-480 BC. A sun above a cow suckling her calf. Summer sun. Summer starts in Apr/May, in Taurus, when wild Eurasian cows started calving...

I talked about this in many of my posts, like "Cow and calf ivory", "Foundation peg of the goddess Nanshe", "Elamite water bull"...

Apr/May, Taurus, marks the beginning of summer, Apr/May-Jul/Aug. Hence, A Sumerian song exclaims: "Hero emerging from the holy interior of heaven...the great wild bull, youthful Utu [Shamash, the sun god], who like a torch illuminates the Land from the holy heavens..."

And another one says:

In "Enki and the world order" we can reed that: "Enki placed in charge of the whole of heaven and earth the hero, the youth Utu (Shamash), the bull standing triumphantly, audaciously, majestically..."

Triumph, Taurus, Peak of the Flood, Leo, End of the flood. I talked about this in my post "Butt chewing"...

There is also this

Maran (Lord) Shamash (Sun) with bull horns, the main god of Hatra, an ancient city in Mesopotamia, whose full name was Hatra (Temple) Shamash (Sun)...

Maran...Like Maran-Atha (Our Lord - has come) from the bible? Which lord? Golden calf. Sun in Taurus. 

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

And this

This is one of the most interesting seals I have ever seen. It was found in the 3rd mil. BC layers of the scribal quarters of Nippur. And it depicts Shamash, The Sun God (the central light of the Menorah) between two bulls (means in Taurus, Apr/May). 

I talked about this in my post "Menorah from Nipur"...

And I talked about this in many other articles...

So bull marks the beginning of summer, Apr/May, and the summer as a whole, Apr/May-Jul/Aug...

And so...It seems that the symbols representing Ishtar (left), Sin (centre) and Shamash (right), as depicted on the upper half of a kudurru of Meli-Shipak II and many other artefacts, are not ordered randomly after all...

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...

Mosaic floor from Sulcis, Sardinia

This Roman mosaic floor from Sulcis, Sardinia depicts leopards drinking from a krater for mixing wine and water with a grapevine growing from the krater...

What is this all about? Animal and plant calendar markers...Of course 🙂

Leopard was closely associated with the god Dionysus (Bacchus), god of rebirth (of nature).

Why? Cause leopards, which mate in Jan/Feb, are animal calendar markers for the end of Winter, start of Spring. The time of rebirth of nature...

You can read more about this in my posts "Leopard and tiger"...

Few more Dionysus posts explaining animal and plant calendar markers embedded into his mythology: "Patera of Rennes", "Maenades with hare", "Furious maenad", "Thyrsus"...

Here is another really cool depiction of the same scene with wine mixing krater flanked by two leopards and grape vine growing from it, from a sarcophagus found in Serbia...

The moment of discovery of a Roman stone sarcophagus found inside the crypt decorated with frescoes and mosaics at Beljnjača archaeological site in Šid, Srem region, northern Serbia...

The sarcophagus was dated to 4th c. AD. It was made of white marble from Austrian Alps, probably carved in nearby Roman city of Sirmium, one of the biggest Roman cities of its time with over 100k inhabitants...

The sarcophagus, which was robbed soon after the burial, originally contained remains of a couple, an officer and his wife, who were depicted on the side of the sarcophagus...

The front and back of the sarcophagus were decorated with mythological motifs: panthers around crater with grapevine as elements of Dionysus cult, personifications of the seasons of the year, and Medusa heads...

More about this artefact can be found in these two articles: 1, 2...

So? What does it all mean?

The rain and snow that fall during winter, the time of the year ruled by Dionysus, is what ensures rebirth of nature in Eastern Mediterranean...Where the cult of Dionysus most likely originated...

Levant

Crete

As you can see, the rain falls between the the grape picking (I talked about this in my post "Crocus fairy") which ends  before (Oct/Nov) 

and the grape flowering (I talked about this in my post "When grapes flower") which starts after (Apr/May)...

And guess what happens in Feb/Mar? Anthesteria, an ancient Greek three-day festival in honour of Dionysus...When the new wine was first drank...

Oh, and guess what else happens in Feb/Mar, when during Anthesteria the new wine was mixed with water in kraters? 

Grape vine rebirth.

After it died, after all the leaves fell off at the start of winter, it gets reborn, with new leaves starting to grow at the start of spring...

And so new grape vines growing out of a krater for mixing wine with water, flanked by two (couple of mating) leopards (panthers)...

Neat, I think...

@another_barbara:

Mixing wine and water in a chalice during a resurrection ritual ...  🤔 Why does that sound so familiar ... 🤔🤔😃.

Same all, same all...

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...

Oldest narative scene

Archaeologists have discovered what may be the earliest known narrative scene, telling an ancient story, at the 11,000-year-old site of Sayburç in south-eastern Turkey. 

The two panels depict people interacting with dangerous animals. In one, a human grasps their penis whilst leopards approach from either side. In the other panel, a squatting male holding a rattle or snake faces a bull. 

What could this all mean? We don't know, but it sure must mean something...

You can read the full article about this archaeological site in "The Sayburç reliefs: a narrative scene from the Neolithic". 

The "earliest known narrative scene, telling an ancient story" is actually a complex animal calendar depicting seasons in the Sayburç area: 

Here is the climate chart for the Sayburç area:

Hot/Dry Season (Apr/May-Oct/Nov)

Cool/Wet Season (Oct/Nov-Apr/May)

But how can this scene be related to this climate chart? Well, through animal calendar markers, which mark either mating or birthing or migrating time of the depicted animal...

So let's analyse the animal calendar markers depicted on the Sayburç relief:

Charging bull

Bull is the most common animal symbol for summer (May/Jun/Jul)... 

I talked about (most common) animal symbols for seasons (still imbedded into out zodiac today), found all over Eurasia and North Africa since Neolithic, in my post "Symbols of the seasons"...

Summer starts in Taurus (Apr/May), the ancient animal calendar marker which marks the time of the year when Wild Eurasian cattle used to start calving... I talked about it in many of my posts, like "Bull carrying granary", "Cow and calf ivory", "Ram and bull"...

The summer, which started in Apr/May with the calving of Wild Eurasian cattle, ended in Jul/Aug, with mating of Wild Eurasian cattle...Mating which was marked by vicious bull fights...Where bulls "charged" at each other...

I talked about this in my posts "Alidjun" and "Bull leaping in Syria"

Jul/Aug is also the hottest time of the year in Eurasia...

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)...I talked about it in these posts:

"The chthonic animal", "Enemy of the sun", "Letnitsa treasure"...

This is why we see sun gods depicted with snakes. 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? 

 

I talked about this in my post "Nude winged hero dominating snakes", "Snake god from Hatra", "Sun god from Tell Brak"...

Also, the beginning of the mating season of the most common Eurasian snakes, vipers (Apr/May), coincides with the beginning of the drought season in Mesopotamia and surrounding regions...

This is why we find Snake as a symbol for sun's heat, and an animal calendar marker, of "sunny, hot" half of the year world over...

Examples:

Eagle-Snake struggle mosaic from the palace of the Emperor Justinian I  (527-565), Istambul...This is actually a complex animal calendar marker for the thunderstorm season in Europe Apr/May -  Sep/Oct, when migratory snake eagles can be seen in Europe...

I talked about it in my post "Eagle snake struggle"

A "Scythian" gold belt buckle depicting a "fight between a wolf (winter) and a snake (summer)"...Made between 7th c. BC and 2nd c. AD... 

I talked about this in my post "Wolf vs Snake"...

Now bull is running towards the man (god) holding a snake with a snake pointing downwards (If I can see correctly). A dead snake? Representing the end of the sunny, hot half of the year...

Leopard: 

According to the article about this relief, one of the leopards is male and the other is female. Leopards are solitary animals which only come together during mating season...

Eurasian temperate climate leopards mated in Jan/Feb...So I believe that the leopards mark this time of the year...Which just happens to be the peak of the rain season in the Sayburç area...

And this this then raises the question: who is the masturbating dude standing "in leopard" (Jan/Feb), which is what "standing between the two (mating) leopards" means...

I am not sure if I am seeing things, or the great masturbator has a feline (leopard) features? Look at the ears and the shape of the face...To me it doesn't look "completely" human...

If so, we have here the earliest clear depiction of the deification of an animal calendar marker: leopard, marker for the Jan/Feb peak of the rain season, being turned into the leopard-man sky/rain god...Rain being the sky/rain god's semen, which makes the barren earth fertile...

BTW, the link between leopard's semen (mating season) and rain (heavenly semen) is still there in Mesopotamia thousands of years later

It is depicted explicitly on this vessel from Tepe Hissar, dated to 4500-4000 BC...Both Ibex goat (main rain season animal calendar marker from Western Asia and Mediterranean, check "Shell plaque with ibexes") and Leopard/Cheetah are actually ejaculating rain...

I talked about this in my post "A vessel from Tepe Hissar"...

So...Back to our "narrative scene, telling an ancient story": 

The furious bull of dry, hot summer is stopped...The sun's heat has died down...The leopards of the rain season are mating, the (leopard) rain god has arrived and is spreading his holy semen on the land...Rejoice...

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...