Mycenaean vessel with prickly pears

Hammered conical silver vessel with gilded rim, known as the "Siege rhyton". Mycenaean, c. 1550 BC. Find from the tomb IV in Grave Circle A, Mycenae. Currently in the National Archaeological Museum of Athens.

It depicts the siege of the coastal city. Defenders have left the walls and are getting ready to engage the enemy. 

Women wave their hands on the walls, supporting them with shouts and gestures...

On the very right of the scene we can see two infantry soldiers with shields and spears. In front of them are three archers firing arrows at the enemy...And in front of them all are three slingers in a process of firing sling shots...

Was this the normal position for the slingers? Ahead of the other troops? I presume they would need a good view of the enemy and enough space to swing the sling...

Sling was a deadly weapon...

Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus wrote that "Soldiers, notwithstanding their defensive armor, fear more the round bullets from the sling than all the arrows of the enemy"...The most common lead bullets among both Greeks and Romans were acorn-shaped. 

They were cast in two-part molds and measuring about 35mm X 25mm and weighing about 28 grams. In ancient Rome they were known as "glandes plumbeae" (lead acorns)...

Some of these molds were made to impart symbols on the sling shot. I am not sure, but I think this is a thunderbolt, a quite an appropriate symbol to put on a sling shot which strikes and kills from a distance like a thunderbolt...

But most of them had inscriptions like these: "This is for dessert", "Here’s a sugar plum for you", "Crack your teeth", "Catch" and several variations of "up [insert the enemy king name here] arse!"...

PS: is this the plant depicted in the background? The so called "prickly pear"?

No, it can not be, even if it is now very common in the Mediterranean. Opuntia is a cactus, like all cactus it is from America undiscovered at the time...But I don't know any other plant, native to Mediterranean, that looks like the plants depicted on this Mycenaean vessel...

Something crazy just occurred to me...Could this vessel be a modern forgery, made well after the introduction of the cactus into the Mediterranean, by someone, who like me, didn't know that this cactus was introduced from America? Ta Ta Taaaaaaaa! 🙂 Mystery...

Theseus ring

The "Theseus ring". Gold Mycenaean signed ring from the Acropolis of Athens, 15th c. BC. Currently in NAMAthens.

First I doubt this ring was made on the Mainland...It was most likely made on Minoan Crete, based on what is depicted on it...Was bull leaping a popular activity in Mycenae? Or is this just another looted Minoan treasure? I talked about this in my post about the legendary battle depicted on the Combat Agate...

But this is not what makes this ring interesting...

You know how summer (May/Jun/Jul) starts in Taurus (Apr/May)? And how bull is the symbol of summer, because summer starts with calving of wild Eurasian cattle and ends with mating of wild Eurasian cattle?

And you know how autumn (Aug/Sep/Oct) starts in Leo (Jul/Aug)? And how lion is the symbol of autumn, because main mating season of Eurasian lions starts in Leo and spans the whole of autumn?

I talked about symbols of the seasons in this post. 

Both Taurus and Leo are ancient animal calendar markers which originally had nothing to do with stars, and have been used to mark the same times of the year since Neolithic...More about ancient animal and plant calendar markers, start here then check the rest of the blog posts I still didn't add to this page, and finally to to @serbiaireland and check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 9 months behind now...

Now if we look at the scene depicted on the ring, the bull is walking away from a green branch and towards a lioness...Why?

Well green branches usually depict spring, or wet season in general, the old winter which in Crete starts in Oct/Nov and ends in Apr/May...

Now in Crete, Oct/Nov is also the time when wild ibex goats start mating....

Hence ibex goats featuring so prominently on Minoan and "Mycenaean" artefacts...as Goat of Rain which makes Crete green...Like on this ring, another one most likely pilfered from Crete...

Officially: "Golden ring depicting goat sacrifice", Mycenaean, 1500BC. I don't think so. Ibex was in Minoan, and later Mycenaean culture linked to rain season and regeneration of nature. This could be sacrificing to the Goat (of rain) which makes Crete green (see green branches growing from the goat's back?), not of a goat...

So in Minoan Crete, and later Mycenaean continuation of Minoan culture, we find goat and bull as two opposing symbols. Like on this larnax

Because they symbolise beginning of cool, wet season (goat) and hot dry season (bull)...

Anyway, so what we have depicted on the Theseus ring is bull, walking away from the green branch (symbol of the cool wet half of the year), towards lion, symbol of the hottest part of the hot, dry half of the year, Jul/Aug, and symbol of autumn...Nice...