Rhomb

Some items of a sexual nature from the Middle Assyrian temple of Ishtar at Ashur. Models of human sexual organs, with holes for attachment and suspension: phalli of stone, and a pubic triangle and vulva of baked clay. Interesting...

Here is Inanna/Ishtar, 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 Inanna/Ishtar as Sirius in many of my posts...

Now look at this: palm tree as a plant calendar marker for Jul/Aug in Mesopotamia. Date harvest season starts in Jul/Aug, in Leo, when Lion (autumn) kills (ends) Bull (summer) and lasts until Oct/Nov. I gave full symbolic analysis of this seal in my post "Lion killing bull under palm tree"...

See the rhombs? Now, originally I proposed that the rhombs depicted on the date harvest seal were symbols for a date fruit. But, could it be that rhombs there were also symbols for Inanna/Ishtar's vulva? 

Palm tree is directly linked with Inanna/Ishtar. I talked about it in my post "Tree huggers" in which I analysed this Babylonian moulded plaque dated to ca. 2000–1600 BC. Currently in the Met Museum, New York...

Guess what ends in Mesopotamia in Jul/Aug, right when the date harvest starts? Grain harvest...

Now remember "Mother of grain"? Look at this:

Mesolithic Lepenski Vir culture from Serbia bone figurine depicting Mother Earth (Mother of grain) whose vulva is giving birth to plants (grain?)... 

Mesolithic Lepenski vir culture from Serbia stone vulva depicting vulva at the start of birth

Grain seeds

Compare their shapes...

The Mother of Grain had a name in Mesopotamia: Inanna/Ishtar. In "The Courtship of Inanna and Dumuzi" we find these verses:

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...

Articles about the Mother of grain in Europe, Central Asia, Mesopotamia, Iran, Levant: "Mother of grain", "Altyn Tepe mother of grain", "A person in a little boat", "Sabi Abyad venus", "Arjoune venus", "Mother of grain from Yarim Tepe", "Hathor grain pendants", "Cup of Nestor", "Sacred marriage on the threshing floor",  "Mother of grain from Mari", "Baba, last sheaf of wheat"...

Ha!!! Right on the next page of the "Gods, Demons And Symbols Of Ancient Mesopotamia An Illustrated Dictionary" we find this 🙂

I guess I was right 🙂 It does depict date fruit, grain seed and vulva...

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... 

Date beer

A late 3rd millennium BC seal found in the Hurian city of Urkesh located in northeastern Syria. Pic from "Dal profondo del tempo" by Giorgio Buccellati, one of many great Urkesh related resources found on urkesh.org... 

What does it mean?

In the article we read: "...a representation of an act of worship. The two attendants, or priests, they just cut off the head of a young bull. The one on the left still holds the knife in his hand, while the one on the right holds it suspended the animal for the hind legs..."

"...The bull's head is placed at the base of a small palm tree trunk, with a jar on top...Does the seated woman mix something in a container - the blood of the sacrificed animal? "

What I think is depicted here is indeed an act of worship. Of alcohol...And Ishtar...Yes I think that is Ishtar sitting on that throne next to the date palm tree trunk...

You can read about the link between Ishtar and the date palm tree (the Mesopotamian Tree of Life) in "Western Asiatic Tree Goddess" by Irit Ziffer...

Here is one of the artefacts cited in this paper that shows this link between Ishtar and date palm. An Akkadian seal depicting Ishtar sitting on her lion throne, with worshippers standing in front of her, while people at the back are shown harvesting dates...

This seal can be found in "Die Entwicklung der Glyptik während der Akkad-Zeit" by Boehmer, R. M. published in 1965. 

But what does this mean? What is the actual link between date palms and Ishtar...

Enter animal and plant calendar markers...

There is this girl, Inanna/Ishtar, who loves standing on lions? Why does she do this? 

Well...standing on a lion means "In Leo"...(Jul/Aug)...

And you know how everyone thinks that Inanna/Ishtar "The queen of heaven", "The morning star" is Venus...Well, when this "mythology" was developed, Sirius rose before the sun, in Leo (Jul/Aug), pretending to be "the morning star"...I talked about her in my posts "Ninshubur", "Inana and Šukaletuda", "Under the blazing Sun Sirius"

In "A hymn to Inana as Ninegala" we can read "Inana, great light, lioness of heaven..." 

Why is she "lioness of heaven"? 

This, combined with Inanna's obsession with standing on lions only makes sense if she is Sirius, rising with the sun in Leo...

Leo here has nothing to do with constellation Leo...Well it didn't originally...Leo (Jul/Aug) marks the beginning of the main mating season of Eurasian lions...

What does this have to do with date palms? When Leo (Jul/Aug) marks the beginning of autumn (Aug,Sep,Oct)...Which comes after summer (May,Jun,Jul)...Summer which starts in Taurus (Apr/May)...Hence Bull as symbol of summer and Lion as symbol of autumn...I talked about this in my post "Symbols of the seasons"...

Date harvest season starts in Jul/Aug...In Leo...When Ishtar stands on lions (Sirius rises with the sun in Leo)...

When lion (autumn) kills (ends) bull (summer) it's time to harvest dates. You can read my analysis of this seal in "Lion killing bull under date palm"... 

Taurus here has nothing to do with stars...It originally marked the beginning of the calving season of the Eurasian wild cattle (Apr/May)...I talked about this in my posts "Ram and bull", "Foundation peg of goddess Nanshe", "Cow and calf ivory"...

So the dates are harvested when the bull of summer dies...Hence the dead bull, from whose head a palm tree grows...Did Hurians marks this time of the year by actual bull sacrifices, I don't know. I personally think that this is a symbolic way to depict "the end of summer"...

Ok so we now know what the link between Ishtar and date palm tree and dead bulls is...But what is Ishtar mixing in the pot depicted in front of her? And why is there another pot depicted standing on top of the date palm tree trunk?

To find the answer to this questions we need to turn to drink...I am currently drunk, so it is fitting that I am writing about drink...

When you mention booze in ancient Mesopotamia, everyone thinks of beer, made from grain...

But there was another alcoholic beverage which was very popular in Mesopotamia, and which Sumerians called "The Juice of Life"...You can read about this in "The Date-Palm in Antiquity" by Paul Popenoe

We don't know how this drink was made. But we know that there are two different date alcoholic beverage: the date fruit drink and the date sap drink, so The Juice of Life is one of these two...

Date sap is tapped by cutting into the terminal bud and running the sap through a spout into a clay vessel. Around 10 litres of sap can be collected per day. And it takes about 6-8 hours to ferment the juice into 4%-5% alcoholic beverage...You can read about this in "Dates: Production, Processing, Food, and Medicinal Values"...

This drink is made throughout date growing regions of Asia and Africa even today. The sap can be extracted out of the tree year round, although the best time to do it is during dry season. Which in Syria is Apr/May - Oct/Nov...

But that doesn't match "the death of the bull of summer" animal calendar marker depicted on our seal...And would not explain what Ishtar is doing with the pot in front of herself...

Let's see how the date fruit drink is made...

In "Date beer: brew it like the ancient babylonians" we can read that: 

"...Although the research literature tends to call date fruit drink “beer”, the beverage is actually closer to cider. It is produced from fruit and water and fermented using natural yeast in the dates..."

...The ancient Mesopotamians themselves have not provided us with an actual recipe for brewing date beer. However, we have a date beer recipe from antiquity, recorded by the pharmacologist Dioscorides in the first century CE..."

"...According to Dioscorides, date beer was brewed using crushed dates and water which were put into a cask and let ferment for ten days. On the eleventh day, the beverage was ready to be consumed..."

And so what I think is depicted on the Hurian seal is Ishtar (or whatever they called Goddess of the Palm Tree) pounding date palm fruit in a mortar with a pestle...Date fruit which is harvested "after the bull of summer dies"...

In order to produce date palm "Juice of Life" which is symbolically depicted by the beer drinking pot placed on top of the date palm trunk, where date fruit is found, symbolically depicting "the beer made out of the fruit of the date palm"...

Here is another seal from "Die Entwicklung der Glyptik während der Akkad-Zeit" by Boehmer, R. M. published in 1965 showing a seated god(?) drinking sitting under a date palm tree...Indication that what is being drunk is a date drink? The Juice of Life?

That's it...What do you think? All makes sense now?

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...

Two lions killing bull

Pre-Achaemenid Silver Compound Zoomorphic Vessel. Silver, 8th-6th c. BC. Currently in the Miho Museum, Japan. 

This unusual vessel features a pair of rampant lions, interlocked forelegs on each other's shoulders, standing on a prone bull...

The lion that treads on the bull's head has a round opening in the back of its snarling mouth that serves as a spout. The second lion has a small circular hole in its head through which the vessel can be filled. This hole was once sealed with a now missing stopper...

Wow...Really cool...But what does this all mean? The museum page says: "The absence of any clear religious imagery suggests that this object has a political or dynastic symbolism"....I would beg to differ...🙂

Bull and Lion are two of the 4 most common symbols of the seasons:

Ram, marks lambing of Eurasian wild sheep

Bull, marks calving of Eurasian wild cattle

Lion, marks mating of Eurasian lions

Goat, marks mating of Eurasian wild goats

I talked about this in my post "Symbols of the seasons"...

Taurus (Apr/May), originally had nothing to do with stars. It is the ancient animal calendar marker marking the beginning of the calving season of the Wild Eurasian cattle...I talked about it in these (and many other) articles:  "Ram and bull" "Cow and calf ivory"...

Leo (Jul/Aug), originally had nothing to do with stars either. It is the ancient animal calendar marker marking the beginning of the mating season of the Asiatic lions. I talked about this in these (and many other) articles: "Lion radiating heat", "Mahishasuramardini"...

And here is something interesting that I only found out today: As opposed to the African lions, who live in mixed male female groups, Asiatic male lions live separately, in groups of (mostly) two, and they only mix with females during mating season. You can read about it in this Nature article...

Lion killing bull is an ancient (religious) symbol...More precisely, ancient deified calendar marker for the end of Jul, beginning of Aug. When autumn (Aug/Sep/Oct, starts in Leo, Jul/Aug) ends (Kills) summer (May/Jun/Jul, starts in Taurus, Apr/May)...

Silver vessel in the form of a lion killing a bull. Western Iran, 7th-6th c. BC. Exhibition "Splendours of the Ancient East: Antiquities from the Al-Sabah collection"...

We find this scene depicted throughout the part of Eurasia where Asiatic (actually Eurasian) lions once lived. So what is so amazing about Jul/Aug that it's animal calendar marker deserved to be deified? Check these two charts. What happens in Jul/Aug?

This is Nergal, the deified destructive "burning" sun, was depicted as a lion man, because Jul/Aug, Leo, is the hottest and driest part of the year in Mesopotamia...Talked abut him in my post "Winged superhuman hero"...

That lion killing bull was a calendar marker became crystal clear to me when I saw this: composite Bull-Lion, bronze, Iran, 1500-1000 BC. Currently in the Cleveland Art Museum. The meaning of this object is unknown. It is presumed that it has served as an object of worship in a temple or shrine...I talked about this object in my post "Bull lion"...

Worship of who? Shamash (Sun) of course...As Nergal, in Jul/Aug, the point when summer (bull) and autumn (lion) meet (one body with two heads)... 

Now what is interesting is that for later Achaemenid Persians, Nergal, The Lion Man, became "Angra Mainyu", The Devil...I talked about this in my post "Angra Mainyu"

Which had to be killed...

Why were Persian kings so obsessed with killing lions? Well they were't really killing lions. They were symbolically killing dry season...Which starts in Apr/May, Bull, peaks in Jul/Aug, Leo and ends in Oct/Nov, Scorpio/Eagle...I talked about it in my post "King killing Angra Mainyu".

You can read more about the religious symbolism of the Lion killing Bull scene in these articles:

"Mystery seal", "Cypriot stamp seal with cow and calf", "Black basalt stone of Esarhaddon", "Angra Mainyu", "Bull leaping in Syria", "Lion killing bull under date palm", "Butt chewing"

And so...Just another lion killing bull scene, with a twist? 

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...

Tetradrachm from Byblos

Silver Tetradrachm from Byblos, Phonecia, apparently, minted during the reign of Adramelek, 315 BC-...and currently in the British Museum...

A hippocampus swims below a Phonecian galley with 3 hoplites aboard...Why?

On the reverse, a lion attacks a bull...Why?

Well, the sailing season in the Eastern Mediterranean starts when wild horses start to mate, in Apr/May...And lasts until the end of the horse's mating season, Sep/Oct...This is why horse was the symbol of Eastern Mediterranean sea gods...They are basically an animal calendar marker for the sailing season...

I talked about this in my posts "Trojan horse" and "Three sacrifices"...

Some people will say that the horses associated with Eastern Mediterranean sea gods are actually seahorses.... 

Believe or not sea horses have the same mating season in Mediterranean...Making them the equivalent animal calendar marker for the sailing season to terrestrial horses...

I talked about this in my post "Seahorse ring"...

As for the lion killing bull, according to Hesiod

"Fifty days after the solstice, 

when the season of wearisome heat is come to an end, 

is the right (best) time for men to go sailing". 

These are most common symbols of the seasons:

Ram (marks lambing of Eurasian wild sheep) - spring

Bull (marks calving of Eurasian wild cattle) - summer

Lion (marks mating of Eurasian lions) - autumn

Goat (marks mating of Eurasian wild goats) - winter

And on the coin, we see lion killing bull from behind...

Summer, which starts in Taurus (Apr/May) is followed by autumn, which starts in Leo (Jul/Aug)...

I talked about this in my posts "Mystery seal", "Cypriot stamp seal with cow and calf", "Angra mainyu" and many others...

So...I hope the scenes depicted on Adramelek's coin make a bit more sense now...

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... 

Lion killing bull under a date palm

Here's an interesting cylinder seal impression, about which I only know that it is from the first half of the first millennium BC and that it is currently in Louvre. I presume that it is from Mesopotamia...

The official description is "lion attacking bull"...That's it...That's it? Of course not...This is another complex animal calendar marker. This one telling people when to harvest dates...That's a date palm full of fruit on the right...

Late July and early August is date harvesting season in Iraq, when within the span of a few weeks the desert sun turns hard green spheres into tender, golden brown fruit prized for its sweetness...

So what's with the bull and lion? 

Well....

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

This is because Apr/May, Taurus, the beginning of summer, is also the beginning of the calving of the wild Eurasian cattle. I talked about this in many posts...

Like "Green pastures" about this plaque from Tel Asmar...

Or like "Butt chewing", about this plaque from the first dynasty of Ur...

Lion is also the most common animal symbol of autumn (Aug/Sep/Oct)... 

This is because, Jul/Aug, Leo, the beginning of autumn, is also the beginning of the mating season of Eurasian lion. I talked about this in many posts... 

Like "Canals", about the hottest and driest part of the year in Mesopotamia, Jul/Aug, Leo, when canals are repaired...See the sun god Shamash, standing in an empty canal, river bed, holding reed cutting knife, between two reed bundles topped by lions. Between lions means "in Leo"...

Like my post "Winged superhuman hero", about Nergal, the destructive sun of Jul/Aug, who was depicted as a lion, winged lion, lion dragon...

You can read more about symbols of the seasons in my post 🙂  "Symbols of the seasons"

Anyway, back to our seal with the palm...

So the end of summer and the beginning of autumn can be symbolically depicted with a lion (autumn) killing (ending) bull (summer)...Which is what we see to the left of the palm tree...Oh, "coincidentally", that is exactly when you harvest dates in Mesopotamia...

Here is another cylinder seal impression, Elamite (Iran), ca. 11th–9th century BC. This one is from the met Museum, and its description is even better: "Cylinder seal with monster" Disappointed face Of course this is a lion, marking date harvest time. 

I talked about this in my post  🙂  "Cylinder seal with monster"...

But what about the dog? Is that just a random detail? Have you ever wondered why was Sirius called "The Dog star"? And why were the hottest days of the year, at the end of summer, beginning of autumn (yup, middle of Leo, date harvest) called "Dog days"?

Because mating season of the oldest domesticated dog breeds, begins during dog days, end of Jul beginning of Aug...Right when you are supposed to get your butt up that date palm and start picking...

I talked about this in my post 🙂  "Dog days"

Sooooo...Complex calendar marker telling people when to pick dates. Eeeeeeee!!! What about the imp on the other side of the palm tree?!? I have no idea what that thing is...There has to be some mystery left in the world, right?

My question is: hasn't anyone before looked at this seal and wondered: why are all these thing depicted together? Is there any reason for that, any method behind the madness?

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...