Oldest Arabic poem

I love that in this ancient poem, Mot, a personification of Death from the Ancient Canaanite religion, the enemy of Baal, the Thunder, Rain God, is explicitly identified as Sun...Another proof that climate indeed has major influence on the development of religious symbolism...

This is the oldest poem in Arabic: a 3-line text recounting the cosmic battle between Mōt, the god of death, and Baʿal, the storm god as described in the Baal Cycle

It is carved in an ancient script close to Safaitic and is at least 2000 years old. The reconstructed pronunciation of the Old Arabic: the verses form a final rhyme in *ām*, with an otiose syllable in the second verse.

1) ḥagga mōtu wal-lāẓẓu ṯarām
2) fa-muyakānu layālay-uh wa-ʾaywām-uh
3) wa-hāʾ baʿalu yabītu wa-lā-hu bāta wa-mā nām

Here is what is says:

1)Mōt has held a feast; the scorner eats
2)Established is the alternation of his nights and days
3)Behold Baʿal slumbers; he slumbers indeed, but is not dead…

The transliteration and translation was done by Ahmad Al-Jallad @safaitic, Epigraphist, Philologist, Historian of Language, Ancient Near East and Pre-Islamic Arabia. 

This is what he says about the actual inscription:

"This inscription (KRS 2453) was discovered in northern Jordan by Geraldine King in 1989, published online with a preliminary reading and no translation. The text is undated but certainly pre-Islamic. Mythological material can survive millennia. The letter shapes are rather archaic, differing from both Safaitic and Hismaic in their details. I safe guess: the text is at least 2000 years old but perhaps much older"

Here is the explanation of each of the verses:

1) "Mōt has held a feast; the scorner eats"

Mōt is the West Semitic god of infertility, drought, literally "death". This line explains that Mōt reigns. Holding a feast is a mark of kingship. (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

2) "Established is the alternation of his nights and days"

This verse affirms Mōt’s dominion through a connection with this cosmic phenomenon. A similar phrase occurs in the Quran (23:80): "And it is He (Allah) who gives life and causes death, and His is the alternation of the night and the day. Then will you not reason?" (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

3) "Behold Baʿal slumbers, he slumbers indeed, but not dead…" 

A similar phrase occurs in Quran (2:255) "Allah, the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsisting by Whom all subsist, there is no god but He.  Neither slumber seizes Him, nor sleep; to Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. Who is there who might intercede with Him save with His leave?" (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

It is very interesting that the same things attributed to Mōt (Sun god, god of death in the desert) in this Pre Islamic poem are in Quran attributed to Allah...

Mot gained dominion by ‘killing’ Baal, the Storm, Rain god. But according to the Baal Cycle, Mot only killed a substitute. Baal went into hiding in fear of Mōt’s power, only to return to life at a later point....

This is the way to indicate seasonal, cyclical character of this "battle"...

Here is Baal holding a thunder hammer in his right hand and a lightning spear from which the tree (of life) is sprouting...In deserts it is the rain that creates life...

The ultimate triumph of Baal (Rain, Life) over Mot (Sun, Death) can be seen on these pictures of the Dead Sea area, one of the driest places on earth, taken in February (mid winter) 2020...Larger than usual amounts of rain have transformed normally barren shores of the Dead Sea into a meadow... 

This poem is definitely related to the Baal Cycle as known from Ugarit. In its Arabian context, it appears to be a seasonal myth, symbolising the struggle between the dry summer months (Mōt) and the rainy seasons (Baʿal). A few texts record Baʿal in times of drought. (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

I would argue that the original Baal Cycle is the seasonal myth. In Eastern Mediterranean, Anatolia, Levant, Mesopotamia and Arabia, the climatic year is divided into two parts, two seasons: Dry season (May-October) and Wet season (November to April). Dry season is the domain of Mot, Sun...And Wet season is the domain of Baal, Rain...

No memory of these myths makes it into Islamic-period sources...(Ahmad Al-Jallad)

Well...As you can see from the above Quran quotes, it does, except both Sun and Rain gods were amalgamated into one god, Allah, the Sky god...Serbian Dabog is the same kind of Sky god, being both Sun god and Bringer of rain, Storm god...

Baʿal survives in local dialectal expressions. In Lebanon, one can say: "ḫallī ʿalā ba‘al" 'leave it to Baʿal', referring to plants that are watered by the rain! (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

Bibliography:

"Echoes of the Baal Cycle in a Safaito-Hismaic Inscription" by Ahmad Al-Jallad

Ostrich symbolism

The Arabian ostrich, Syrian ostrich, or Middle Eastern ostrich (Struthio camelus syriacus) is an extinct subspecies of the ostrich that lived on the Arabian Peninsula and in the Near East until the mid-20th century...

This bird appears on early middle eastern seals, like this one from Arslantepe, dated to the end of the 4th millennium BC...Here is a seal with ostriches and snakes...Any reason for this or is this just random?

Ostriches are seasonal breeders. In the northern hemisphere, breeding period is March to September. During hot part of the year...In Northern Syria, where these seals were made, temperature suddenly rises in March, peaks in July/August, and falls in October. More details about the climate in Syria can be found here. 

Snake seems to be a universal (Eurasia and North Africa) symbol, which represents sun's heat, hot part of the year...This true meaning of this old symbol was best preserved in Slavic mythology. I talked about this in my post "Enemy of the sun". 

So ostriches mate during the time when snakes are out...

The destructive power of the burning sun's heat during the hottest part of the year, end of July, beginning of August, is represented by the Dragon...Again Slavic mythology has preserved the key to understanding this universal symbol too...I talked abut this in my post "Dragon who stole the rain" and "Apep"... 

The destructive giant serpents, dragons are the main enemy of Storm gods. The reason becomes obvious if we know that Dragon is the drought and the Storm god is the rain...

Here is another seal with snake and lion

Snake and lion are found together in many myths around the world. The reason is that sun's heat (represented by snake) is strongest during Leo (end of July beginning of August). And Leo signals the beginning of the mating season of the Eurasian Lions...

Like in this Romanesque marble statues which I talked about in my post "Lion killing snake".

Or like on this Egyptian mural which I talked about in my post "Apep".

And the reason why lion is killing the snake is because it is in Leo, that the cooling of the northern hemisphere begins...

Back to our ostriches...

Ostrich mating season, which corresponds with the hot, snake season, is characterised by wild mating dances and loud calls...Definitely something you can't miss when it starts and stops...Which makes ostrich a very good calendar marker... 

Does putting ostriches and snakes on a seal together mean that in the 4th millennium Syria we already have this symbolic link established and widely known????

O yeah. Almost forgot about the other seal. 

The seal with:

Auroch bull (Mating season ends in Aug)
Ostrich (Mating season Mar-Aug/Sep)
Snake (Hot part of the year, hottest part: beginning of Aug)
Persian deer (Mating season starts in Aug)

Here's an old Neolithic Syrian love poem:

Under the burning late summer sun
Me and my love run
Jumping over bloody snakes
Which were everywhere
The aurochs were at it
The deer were at it
The ostriches were at it
So I turned to my sweetheart and asked
Why aren't we at it tooooooo??? 

For the lovers of ancient poetry, you might like this Elamite one from my article about date picking season seal.

You can find the details about the seals in "THE ORIGINS OF ADMINISTRATIVE PRACTICES AND THEIR DEVELOPMENTS IN GREATER MESOPOTAMIA. THE EVIDENCE FROM ARSLANTEPE, ARCHÉO-NIL Revue de la société pour l'étude des cultures prépharaoniques de la vallée du Nil, 26, 2016"

Seven seals

In the Book of Revelation, the Seven Seals are the seven symbolic seals that secure the book or scroll that John of Patmos saw in an apocalyptic vision. The opening of the seals of the document occurs in Revelation Chapters 5–8 and marks the Second Coming of the Christ.

At the time when Revelation was written, important documents were sent written on a papyrus scroll sealed with several wax seals. Wax seals were typically placed across the opening of a scroll, so that only the proper person, in the presence of witnesses, could open the document.

But there is another possible meaning of the "Breaking of seven seals which announces the second coming of Christ". 

It has to do with Christ being "the bread of life"...

Since Neolithic times, in Fertile Crescent, farmers stored their grain in storage vessels which were they sealed using stone seals imprinted on clay.

The earliest evidence for this practice was found in Syria and dates to the seventh millennium B.C. You can read about this in "Deciphering Later Neolithic stamp seal imagery of Northern Mesopotamia" and "More Seals and Sealings from Neolithic Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria"...

At Arslantepe, a store room was found in the palace containing sealed containers...You can find the details in "THE ORIGINS OF ADMINISTRATIVE PRACTICES AND THEIR DEVELOPMENTS IN GREATER MESOPOTAMIA. THE EVIDENCE FROM ARSLANTEPE, ARCHÉO-NIL Revue de la société pour l'étude des cultures prépharaoniques de la vallée du Nil, 26, 2016"

And we know that palaces and temples were used as grain stores...

Storage vessels from the store room

Seals imprints. 

This is the table showing articultyral year in Levant. 

You can see that grain (barley and wheat) was sown by December and was harvested by July. 

When grain was harvested, it was stored in storage jars and was used for food until next harvest. Now if I was a grain farmer from Levant, I would have divided my grain into 13 jars. The grain in 12 jars would be used for food. Why 12 jars? Well this way you will know exactly how much you can eat each month so that you can ration the grain and not run out of it half way through the year. The 13th jar would contain seeds for the next sowing. 

Each storage jar would then be closed and sealed probably with a family seal...

Now if the grain was indeed kept like this, then a family would open a new storage jar every new month, and would use the grain contained inside during that month. To to that they would have to break the seal...

Now what is the second coming of Christ? The Second Coming is a Christian belief regarding the future (or past) return of Jesus after his ascension to heaven...Basically, Christ dies, he gets buried, he ascends (Empty grave)...Now we wait...For Christ's resurrection basically...

You know how Grain is used as a symbol of resurrection? It gets killed (harvesting), buried (planting) and resurrected (sprouting and growing)...Year after year after year. 

Now what if "the bread of life" should be taken literally? How long should we wait for the "second coming", "resurrection" of grain? Well, 7 months, from the end of sowing (beginning of December) to the end of the Harvesting (beginning of July). The longest 7 months in the life of any grain farmer whose life depends on the good harvest...

And every one of these long 7 months begins with opening one of the last 7 jars of grain...By breaking the seal which protected it...When the 7th seal is broken, the harvest is finished and the storage jars are refilled...

Was this the root of the 7 seals "vision" about the Second coming of the "Bread of life"???

Double headed eagle

This amazing object is a 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. This is one of my favourite ancient objects. Why? Because it made me realise what double headed eagle means...

The axe head is currently kept in Met museum. The description reads shaft-hole axe with "bird-headed demon, boar, and dragon". The accompanying short article points at the Western Iran as the possible origin of the mythological scene depicted on the axe... 

To understand what we are looking at here, we need to try to identify the animals depicted on the axe head, and we need to answer the question: why is the double headed eagle "hero" separating the dragon (actually winged lion) and the boar?

I talked about winded lions (dragons) in my post about Entemena vase, the most beautiful example of the Sumerian metalwork...  

Dragon represents the destructive power of the sun, which during the summer, burns in the sky threatening to turn everything into cinder. Hence fire breathing dragons...I talked about this in many of my posts. For instance "Dragon that stole the rain" 

The hottest part of the year in the northern hemisphere, including the Western Iran, is the end of the summer beginning of Autumn (August - September)...Which is represented by Leo. Why? Because Eurasian lions mate during that time...I talked about this in my of my posts. For instance "Cylinder seal with a monster" 

So our "dragon" (winged lion) represents August-September, end of summer, beginning of autumn. What about wild boar? This is a wild boar from Tajikistan. Wild boar mating season, across Eurasia, starts in November...At the the end of autumn beginning of winter... 

Sooo. Our double headed eagle "hero" is separating lion (beginning of autumn) and boar (end of autumn)...So if we want to understand what the double headed eagle "hero" means, we need to look at autumn and eagles. More precisely, based on the look of the eagle heads, vultures...

Considering that lion marks the beginning of the lion mating season and that boar marks the beginning of the boar mating season, it would be kind of logical to assume that eagle marks the beginning of the eagle (vulture) mating season. But which vulture?

I believe that our suspect is Gyps bengalensis. This species is found in Iran, Afganistan, Pakistan, India, China and south east Asia...Why? Because of all Western Asian vultures, it alone starts mating in autumn. It breeds from October to March... 

But why double headed eagle? Well, because all vultures, at the beginning of their mating season, perform courtship aerial displays. And the most important part of this display is synchronous flying, wing to wing or one under another...

Vultures only fly together like this at the beginning of their mating season. Vultures flying one above each other, can actually look like this from the ground. Like a double headed eagle...

Interestingly, in Zodiac, Scorpio marks the period between 23 October and 22 November. And guess what. This is the only period in the solar year, which has two symbols. The other one is Eagle...Why? I talked about the zodiac eagle in my post about "Four living creatures". 

Different species of vultures mate at different times at different locations. European Griffon Vultures breed from December. Occasionally birds start breeding earlier and copulation has been recorded in October-November... 

Now bronze age Europe had different, much warmer climate...

Did Griffon Vultures mate earlier then? Say October-November??? They still do in the warmest part of Europe...If so, that wold explain why we find Eagle marking end of October beginning of November...Remember, I postulated that the Solar zodiac, which predates stelar zodiac, was developed in Europe during late Neolithic, early Bronze Age...

By the way, I forgot the best bit... Why would people in Western Iran, Eastern Iraq, give a shit about copulating vultures? Because right at the time when the "double headed eagle" appears in the sky, the rains arrive. The rain season starts in October-November... 

Now that is worth noting and marking, right? Oh, what was the favourite bird of the thunder gods??? You know, the guys that bring rain? Just asking...

And so this finally gives us the identity of the double headed eagle "hero": He is the Thunder God...

If we look at the axe head again, we see that the double headed eagle "hero" is pushing the boar (winter cold is yet to come) but he is strangling the dragon, winged lion (he is killing, ending the summer heat, drought)...

Neat, right?

And here is another, this time Elamite axe head with Lion (Autumn) and Boar (Winter). So this seems to have been a common motif...