Myres pithos

Ok here is something very very interesting that I have only become aware of today. During the excavations of the Neolithic Vinča culture Belo Brdo tell site, archaeologist Miloje Vasić, among many other neolithicky things, also discovered this: the so called Myres pithos:

How is this vessel not in every history and archaeology book I have no idea...This is definitely not something you expect to find in Neolithic Europe 5200–4900 BCE. Here is the neck of the pithos with the drawing of the M design with the face above it:

This is a huge vessel, of a type found in many Vinča houses. But it is the design on this one that makes it so amazing...Picture from the Vinča exhibition catalogue:

The pithos was named after the British Archaeologist John Linton Myres, the war friend of the Serbian Archaeologist Miloje Vasić, who conducted the excavation of Vinča - Belo Brdo site between 1905 and 1932...

The Myres pithos is "mentioned" in:

"Household and Community. House and Settlement Histories in the Late Neolithic of the Central Balkans (book in Serbian)"

"Без гнева и пристрасности (sine ira et studio)"

Interestingly, we also find the same M symbol in even earlier settlements from the Balkans

Ruse, Bulgaria, 5th millennium BC

Porovec, Bulgaria, 7th mill BC

Ohoden, Bulgaria, 7th mill BC.

Istria, Croatia, 6th mill BC.

Svinjarička Čuka, Serbia, dated ca 6100-5500 BC.

This was interpreted as a stylised "birth giver" (depiction of a woman in a birthing position). I talked about this in my article "Birth giver"...

So what was depicted on the Vinča pithos? What is the meaning of the design (face over M sign)? Is that a brick, stone wall? Very strange all together...

A goat in a tree

This is one of the two identical Sumerian figures excavated in Ur, in southern Iraq, dated to c. 2600–2400 BC...This amazing work of art, depicts a horned animal with wings (???) standing on his hind legs and nibbling leaves from a flowering tree. What is the meaning of all this?

First what horned animal is this? Originally people thought this was a ram... But today most people agree that this is a Markhor goat. 

Why was Markhor goat chosen to be depicted here? Surely not because it looks cool (not that he doesn't). Markhor is depicted here because Markhor mating season starts in November...

Which is important because? 

Because in Iraq the climatic year id divided into dry and wet part. And the wet part of the year starts in November...Right at the time when the Markhor goats start mating...Precipitation table Iraq.

So again, like in Eastern Mediterranean, Middle East, Arabia, Central Asia...Wherever rains arrive in Oct-Nov, we find goat worship...The Goat of rain...This rain is what allows life to flourish in these desert lands...Hence the Goat of rain nibbling on the Tree of Life...

But why wings? If they are indeed wings.... Maybe they are just stylised clumps of hair. Except that Markhor doesn't have any clumps of hair on his back, only around his neck...But ok let's allow for artistic freedom and say that these are not wings...

But if they were 🙂...

Well, at the exact time when the Goat of rain starts prancing around, certain types of Eurasian vultures start their mating rituals which involve synchronised flying...

I talked about this in my post "Double headed eagle". 

Looked from the ground this flying pair looks like this:

Which is where the symbol of the double headed eagle most likely comes from, why rain gods are associated with eagles and why this Goat of rain has vulture's wings...

Also adding wings on things makes them more "heavenly"...

But whether this goat has wings or not is not important...

In most of the lands where rains arrive in October-November, the Goat of rain is depicted as an Ibex goat...The same is true of Iraq...This relief on the side of a cosmetic vessel from Nippur shows exactly the same flowering Tree of life except the Goat of rain is Ibex...

Now here is something interesting...The range of the Markhor goat, has historically been Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern India...Which means that people in Mesopotamia could not have been able to observe them and associate them with rain...

Which opens the question: why and how do we find depictions of Markhor in Mesopotamia, which match exactly the depictions of Ibex, from the earliest times. Like on this Hassuna redware bowl, circa 5500 BC

This is a mystery...

(Dramatic pause) 😉

There is one place where we find lots of Markhor goats though...I mean the animal is the national animal of the place...And the mating season of the Markhor (Nov-Dec) announces the beginning of the maximum precipitation period (Dec)...This place is Balochistan, just next to Indus Valley...

And guess what we find In Balochistan? We find this: Mehrgarh Neolithic site (dated c. 7000 BCE to c. 2500/2000 BCE) built by farmers...To whom rain was very very important...And so they probably also worshiped the Goat of rain...In the shape of Markhor??? 

So any link between Early Sumerians and Mehrgarhans? The appearance  of the worship of Markhor goats in Mesopotamia where Markhors don't live certainly suggests that...

Well I would say we are possibly looking at common root of both Mesopotamian and Indus Valley civilisations...

PS, maybe the "wings" are not wings but a "stylistic depiction of Markhor goat hair"...Maybe, although I am not sure why would they use different colour...Anyway this doesn't change the meaning of the scene...

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...

Birth giver

A stone slab from Gobekli Tepe (10,000 - 8,000 BC), with a carving depicting a woman in a birth giving position. 

Ceramic shard with a female figure possibly giving birth. Starčevo culture, 7th - 6th millennium BC, Sarvaš. The shard is 15 cm X 15 cm so the vessel it was part of must have been very large and was probably used for storing grain. It is possible that the figure depicted was symbolic representation of the Mother Earth.

Mesopotamia, Ur (3800 - 3000 BC)  Archaic seal showing woman in a birth giving position

Akkadian to Old Babylonian relief, 2500-2000 bc. depicting a woman in a birth giving position

Cylinder seal, 2700-2300 bc. of the Mature Harappa period, Indus valley civilisation shows a woman in a birth giving position.

Bronze disk headed pin. Curious, weird representation. All the fertility functions ; sexuality, birtgiving and nurturing ...Inanna star converted in 8 petals flower ... surrounded by 2 antelopes Astarte style. Lajja Gauri? Lorestan.1250-650 bc. 

A small fragment from a ceramic vessel found at Poggio Colla, the site of a 2,700-year-old Etruscan settlement in Italy's Mugello Valley, showing a woman giving birth to a child 

Ancient Greek relief showing child birth assisted by a midwife and family members

Roman relief showing childbirth assisted by a midwife

Lajja Gauri, the Hindu Goddess associated with abundance, fertility and sexuality shown in a birthing posture. Sandstone statue, ca. 6th century AD, India (Madhya Pradesh)

Do you see any similarity between these images? All of them depict a woman in a "natural birthing position". 

This upright sitting position helps the mother push in a very familiar position: the position you are used to using for having a bowel movement. Additionally, the low height of the stool flexes your legs and expands the size of your pelvis, and the upright position helps use gravity to promote the downward movement of the baby. Between contractions, the mother can lean backward and rest supported by the back of the birthing stool or bed or leaning on the helpers who stand behind her. 

Now look at the shape of the woman's body when she is in this birthing position. Do you see anything familiar?

Neolithic talismans (?) in a shape of a woman giving birth

Ruse, Bulgaria, 5th mill BC

Porovec, Bulgaria, 7th mill BC

Ohoden, Bulgaria, 7th mill BC.

Istria, Croatia, 6th mill BC.

Svinjarička Čuka, Serbia, dated ca 6100-5500 BC.

More Neolithic house altars

Neolithic pottery shards, Old Europe. 

Letter M or stylised woman giving birth, otherwise known as:

Basque - ama

Hebrew - eema

Arabic - um

Sumerian - ama

Old Armenian: mayr

Balto-Slavic: *mā́ˀtē 

Slavic: *mati 

Celtic:*mātīr 

Germanic: *mōdēr 

Hellenic: *mā́tēr 

Indo-Iranian: (*máHtā; *máHtār)

Italic: *mātēr 

Messapic: (matura; matira)

Phrygian: ματαρ (matar)

Tocharian: *mācer

Or Both?

Neolithic (6ht - 5th millennium BC) Old Europe Vinča culture symbols compared with consequent "alphabets". Letter M is there..

The Idea that the letter M is stylised woman giving birth (MAMA, AMA...) from "Skopje 8 millenniums ago-the first builders of Cerje-Govrlevo"