Sun God Tablet

This is the 860BC-850BC Middle Babylonian limestone "Sun God Tablet", currently in the British Museum.

In this post, I would like to add few bits of information that will help us understand some of the symbols depicted on this tablet.

From the museum description:

"The tablet depicts the king being led by a priest and a goddess into the presence of the Sun-god Shamash, who is seated in his shrine. Before the god is the Solar Disc, resting upon an altar which is supported by ropes held by attendant deities..."

The symbol on the Solar Disc is the Solar Cross, The Shamash Cross. It combines a sun, cross (solstices and equinoxes???), and wavy lines representing sun (heat) rays...

I talked about this in this post "The cross of Shamash"...

The same wavy lines can be seen on this seal depicting Sun God Utu/Shamash with sun (heat) rays emanating from his shoulders, standing in in an empty canal, in Leo (between the lions), the hottest, driest time of the year in Mesopotamia, and the time when canals were repaired, holding reed cutting knife...

I talked about it in my post "Canals", "Lion radiating heat", "Nude winged hero dominating snakes", "Utu and Enki"...

Also, did you know that the central candle of the Hanukah Menorah, the source of light, is called Shamash...I talked about this in my post "Menorah from Nipur"...

Anyway, the museum description continues with: "The god wears a horned headdress and carries the ringed rod in his right hand. The shrine is represented as resting on the heavenly ocean..."

Uuuuu so much to talk about here...

Ever thought why in Mesopotamia gods wore (bull) horned headdresses to indicate that they are important? And the more important they were, more pairs of horns they had on their headdress?

Well, this is because the most important annual event in Mesopotamia, the annual flood of the Tigris and Euphrates happens in Apr/May, in Taurus...

Taurus here is The Old Taurus, the animal calendar marker for the beginning of the calving season of wild eurasian cattle...I talked about this in my post "Cow and calf ivory"...

The annual flood is the result of the snowmelt on the mountains north-east of Mesopotamia, which are the source of Tigris and Euphrates, Abzu. 

Snowmelt contributes more than 70% to the annual water flow of these great rivers. And this snowmelt peaks in Apr/May...

And so, symbolically, every spring, the sun god Utu / Shamash climbs the holy mountain (Abzu, source of water) to free Enki / Ea, the god of sweet water from his icy prison and release the waters...

I talked about this my posts "Shamash young and old" and "When Utu steps up into heaven"... 

This is also the reason why the Mesopotamian sun god Utu/Shamash was depicted as a golden bull (Sun in Taurus) with flowing lapis lazuli beard (flowing water)...

This object was found in Ur and dates to 2450 BC. Pen Museum https://penn.museum/collections/object/9347

And this is the reason why on the Sun God Tablet, the Sun God Shamash was depicted sitting on a throne supported by two bearded bull-men...Symbol for "Sun in Taurus". 

I talked about bearded bull men, sun and rivers in my post "Achelous"...

And why on the Sun God Tablet, the shrine of the Sun God Shamash is resting not on the heavenly ocean, but on the overflowing waters of the Tigris and Euphrates which flood in Apr/May, when the sun is in Taurus...

The annual flood is the source of life in Mesopotamia. And the source of the annual flood is the Sun God Shamash, because he is the one that releases the life giving water into the rivers through snowmelt...

So Shamash is the source of life, and this is depicted through Shamash holding not "the ringed rod" but the original, most primitive form of ANKH (life) symbol. 

I talked about it first in my posts "Etemenanki" and "An-Ki Ankh"...

It consists of a measuring rope (compasses, sky) and a measuring stick (square, earth)...So I proposed: AN (sky, father) + KI (earth, mother) = AN-KI = Life = Ankh...I talked more about it in my posts "An-Ki Ankh" and" Square and compases":

At that time I could not understand why it was Shamash that is holding the ankh...Now that I know more about the climate, hydrology and agriculture in Mesopotamia, it is obvious why the sun is the source of Life in Mesopotamia...

The same "Water=Life=Ankh" link is found in Ancient Egypt. Sycamore tree goddess, originally Hathor, and later Isis, both goddess of flood, pouring water which is depicted with ankh (life) symbols inside it...Tomb, Siwa Oasis, 400-600 BC. Egypt...

And the same primitive ankh symbol (the loop) is also found in Ancient Egypt

Ankh = Life = Water...I talk about the link between Ankh, symbol for Life and papyrus (flowers at the beginning of the Nile flood) and lotus (flowers at the peak of the Nile flood) and the flood, and few other related things, in my post "Goddess on horse" and "Lotus and papyrus"...

Sooooo....Shamash (Young Sun) the giver of life sitting on his throne in Taurus (Apr/May) holding Ankh symbol of life...

But once Shamash becomes old, and moves his throne to Leo (Jul/Aug) he turns to Nergal...

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"...

So Shamash has a dual nature, the life giver and life taker...

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...

The cross of Shamash

Beaker, Sialk South Mound, Kashan, Isfahan, Late Calcolithic period, Sialk III7 period, ca. 3750-3350 BC, the National Museum of Iran, Tehran, Iran. Pic by Michele Mitrovich

Why are there crosses under Ibex goat horns?

first asked this question in my post "Maltese cross seal from Elam" about this Proto-Elamite cylinder seal found in Jemdet Nasr and dated to 3100BC-3000BC. 

At that time I wasn't sure what the cross meant... 

The second time I asked this question was in my post "Iranian goat of rain" about the depictions of the Iranian Goat of Rain. 

I still didn't know what the cross under Ibex goat horns meant.  

But I knew very well what the ibex goat represented. In Mesopotamia and in Iran, Ibex goat was the most depicted animal during Neolithic and Bronze Age...I talked about this in my post "Goat petroglyphs from Iran"...

Because in Mesopotamia and Iran rains arrive when Ibex goats start mating, in Oct/Nov...

Super important event, because it is the rain and snow that fall during the goat mating season that support life in Mesopotamia and Iran. 

I talked about this in several of my posts: Problems of Abzu, Goatfish, Goat carrier, Iranian goat of rain, Strider, Goat petroglyphs from Iran, A vessel from Tepe Hissar

And many more...

This is why Ibex was venerated in Iran, and this is why it is in Iran that we find the first Goat man...The earliest transition from Goat of rain to God of rain...

Which eventually lead to Pan and Zeus, Thor, Perun, Perkunas riding on goats or goat pulled chariots...And to this...I talked about this in my post Goat in European culture

Anyway, considering how important rain was in Iran, I thought that maybe the cross under the horn of the Ibex goat just meant "VERY IMPORTANT!!!" 🙂 But then I learned that crosses like these were in Mesopotamia/Iran used as a symbol of the sun god (!)...

This version of the Sun God symbol combines a sun, cross (solstices and equinoxes???), and wavy lines representing sun (heat) rays...

I talked about this in my post "Canals": 

Sun God Utu/Shamash with sun (heat) rays emanating from his shoulders, standing in in an empty canal, in Leo (between the lions), the hottest, driest time of the year in Mesopotamia, and the time when canals were repaired, holding reed cutting knife...

And in my post "Nude winged hero dominating snakes":

This is 3rd millennium BC, Bactrian seal depicting the sun god (see heat rays emanating from his shoulders) holding snakes, symbols of sun's heat...See snakes, Solar animals number one, the symbols of sun's heat... 

So how does this fit together?

The Ibex goat mating season in Mesopotamia/Iran spans the whole of winter, Nov,Dec,Jan. And in the middle of the Ibex goat mating season is the Winter Solstice...The (re)birth of the new sun (solar year)...

Is this why cross, the symbol of the sun god, was placed under the horns of an Ibex goat, the animal calendar maker (symbol) for winter?

Early Mesopotamians/Iranians definitely had a notion of young and old sun...I talked about this in my post "Shamash young and old":

When I am young, I fill the rivers with water. When I am old, I dry them...Utu/Shamash, young and old... 

And I talked about it in my post "Descending to Hades": 

The Sumerian poem "Enki and the World Order" exclaims: Young Utu (the sun), father of the Great City (the realm of the dead)...Young Utu here meaning both morning sun and spring sun...

So this is why I think we see cross depicted under Ibex goat horns. BTW, for people who still doubt if swastika is a sun symbol. Another Neolithic Iranian goat of winter with swastika under its horns where sun cross usually is...

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...

Cylinder seal with monster

In this post I will explain why I am soooo tired of academics with no imagination...

"Cylinder seal with monster" 😞 ca. 11th–9th century B.C. Elamite (Iran) . From Met museum.  

Elam was a Bronze Age civilisation that flourished on the territory of today's Iran between 2700 – 539 BC... 

These are date palms, one of the most important agricultural crops in Mediterranean, North Africa and Middle East...Including Iran (Elam)... 

Date harvest season in Mesopotamia and Elam starts in July/August...

Right at the beginning of the mating season of the Eurasian lions (now extinct since early 20th century). 

In the "THE ASIATIC LION: A study of ecology and behaviour" by Paul Joslin we can read that the mating season of the Asiatic lions starts in August and lasts until October. 

I talked about this in my post "Entemena vase".

Anyway. 

So the "Cylinder seal with a monster" 🙂 is actually "Cylinder seal with a lion and a date palm" which marks the beginning of the date palm harvest in Elam. As the old Elamite children song says: "When lions start to mate, it's time to harvest date" 🙂

Which is what the human figure standing next to the date palm is doing. Harvesting dates...

Is this so difficult to see?

BTW, I recently learned the meaning of the cross...It's the cross of Shamash, the sun god. and with it being placed above the lion, it literally mens "sun in Leo". I talked about this in my post "The cross of Shamash"...