Elamite bronze shield centerpiece, or umbo, dated to 1400 B.C. – 1000 B.C. Recently sold by baidun.com
It is decorated with a ring of wild sheep ewes surrounding a smaller circle of wild sheep rams, interspersed with stylised plants...
Is this just a meaningless decoration? I don't think so. I will explain why in this thread...
To figure this out we need to look at the climatic year in Iran and the annual life cycle of the wild sheep in the same area...
This is the climate chart for Susa, the capital of the Ancient Elam. We can see that the climatic year was divided into hot/dry half (Apr/May - Oct/Nov) and cool/wet half (Oct/Nov - Apr/May)...
The beginning of the rain season (Oct/Nov), the most important annual climatic event in this part of the world, coincides with the beginning of the mating season of wild sheep...
The mating season, which overlaps with the rain season, is the only time of the year when male and female wild sheep are seen mixed together. They normally live in separate single sex groups...
So I think that our Elamite bronze shield centrepiece depicts the start of the wild sheep mating season, which announces the arrival of rain season, which triggers mass germination of native grasses and wild flora across the plains and lower Zagros foothills of ancient Elam...
I already talked about Ram as an animal calendar marker for the beginning of the rain season in my 2020 post Giant eagle dude with mouflons about this mad object which was in 2011 sold for 97,000 pounds sterling...
A Bactrian gold stamp seal, c. 2200-1900 BC...
Depicting (official description): "...central figure of a winged giant, with muscular human torso and legs, the head and talons of an eagle, wearing a short open tunic with wide belt, and a pendant necklace, grasping in each hand an inverted ibex (my comment: this actually a mouflon/wild sheep)..."
Again, to understand what this object symbolically represent, we need to know that Griffon Vulture mating season, marked by synchronous flying aerial displays, also overlaps with the wild sheep mating season and the rain season...
Which means that this object again symbolically depicts the deified rain season animal calendar markers...
Fused into a proto-god of rain...
BTW, ibex (wild goat) and mouflon (wild sheep) are identical calendar markers. This is because they both start their mating season in Oct/Nov, at the start of the rain season in Iran. I talked about this originally in my post Grazing horned animals about one of the most common designs found on Bronze Age Jiroft culture vessels from Halil River catchment area in Iran: "horned animals grazing on green shoots"...
I think that it is because Ibex goat is much bigger and more imposing (and it makes a lot louder noise during mating fights) that Ibex became the most often used animal calendar marker for the beginning of the rain season in Iran.
Here we see prancing (fighting) male Ibex goats flanking the tree of life. This is because the rain these fights announce is what supports (the tree of) life in Iran...I talked about it in my post Sassanian goats with tree of life...
Then, because people are very good at noticing patterns in nature and very bad at distinguishing between correlation and causation, ibex got turned into the "Goat of Rain", goat which brings rain. This is the root of all our religions...Then, because it is easier to pray to a human than to a goat, the "Goat of Rain" got turned into a God of Rain with goat horns...And eventually...into a fully human rain god associated with Ibex goats...
I talked about this in many of my Blog articles and X threads. You can start here if you are interested. An article Kuseh gardani about
"Kuseh" (Goat God of Rain turned Devil of Drought)
An echo of the Elamite bronze idol of a (goat-) man with large ibex horns, 3rd-2nd millennium BC...
Now remember the eagle dude with mouflons? There are also identical depictions of an eagle dude with ibexes. From Bactria. End of the 3rd beginning of the 2nd millennium BC Bactrian seal showing an eagle dude holding "winged" ibex goats...
I talked about this symbolic link in Bactrian culture in my post Fluffy...
Recent archaeological data from Zawi Chemi Shanidar, Iran indicates that this symbolic link between vultures and ibexes/mouflons most likely originated in the 9th millennium BC Iran...
And that this is also the most likely place and time where and when vulture and ibex animal calendar markers for rain season got deified and turned into god of rain.
I talked about this in my post Zawi chemi shanidar...
Anyway, another reason why ibex/goat became main animal calendar marker for the beginning of the rain season, is because mouflon/ram eventually became more associated with Mar/Apr, the end of the lambing and the beginning of the milking season...
Throughout Eurasia,
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 originally talked about this in my post Symbols of the seasons...
In Iran Ram (Feb/Mar/Apr), also marks the snowmelt season which kickstarts the flood season...The second most important annual climatic event in this part of the world...
Hence Ram (Aries) depicted lying in water from the "Zodiac from Isfahan". I talked about it in my post Sagittarius from Isfahan...
BTW, Ram marks the same thing here: Ever seen this symbol? It consists of a goatfish, which on its back, close to its tail, has a pedestal with a ram's head...
Apparently, no one really knows what it means...
Well, let's see if Animal Calendar Markers can solve this "mystery" 🙂.
So we have
Goat (Oct/Nov, beginning of the mating of wild goats and the beginning of the rain season)
Ram (Feb/Mar/Apr, the lambing season and the snowmelt season which kickstarts the flood season)
Fish,Carp (Apr/May, the beginning of the giang carp mating migration season, the end of the rain season, the peak of the flood season)...
You can fing the full analysis in Goatfish with ram head...
Anyway, the fact that Aries is the time when the flood waters start to rise, is also the reason why the final words spoken by Kay Khosrow, a legendary king of Iran at the end of Shahnameh, The Iranian Book of Kings are: "The whole world is my kingdom. All is mine from Pisces to Taurus"...This basically means "in Aries"...Which is why "The Ruller of Aries" was established title of supreme power in Iran...And why on this 6th or early 7th c. AD Sassanian silver bowl the king is depicted seated on the ram throne.
I talk about this in these two posts: Kay Khosrow and Eyeballs platter...
Now a while back I wrote this post Ram with royal ribbon about 400–699 AD Sassanian silver plate originally from Iran, currently in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA. In it I postulated that this is not just a ram, but that, because of the fact that it is wearing a royal ribbon, it is the deified animal calendar marker for the snowmelt season which kickstarts the flood season and the symbol of Iranian royal power...
At that time I didn't know that
"In ancient Iranian tradition, khwarrah (also spelled farrah or farr) was the divine, luminous aura that gave a monarch the legitimate right to rule. Zoroastrian texts and legends heavily associate this divine entity with Ram. According to the Sasanian epic "The Book of the Deeds of Ardashir", khwarrah appeared to the empire’s founder Ardashir I as a magnificent ram running alongside his horse, guiding and securing his absolute triumph.
Incorporating ram's horns into royal headwear visually broadcasted that the ruler possessed this divine favour...
You can read more about this here...
Interesting...
It is the "rising" spring sun that causes the spring snowmelt, which fills the rivers and caused the annual flood which makes land fertile...And through this "grace" makes life possible in Mesopotamia and Iran.
I talked about this in my post When Utu steps up into heaven...
Which is why Sun god Shamash was in Mesopotamia (and most likely Elam) seen as the source of (water of) life...And why Shamash is depicted here holding the original An-Ki (Father-Mother) Ankh - Life symbol...
I talk about this in my post Sun god tablet...
BTW, the stick represents earth (original square) and string/circle represents sky/sun (original compasses)...
Considering that khwarrah is symbolically represented by a ram, the symbol of spring, the snowmelt season, and that "The Ruller of Aries" was established title of supreme power in Iran, I wonder if the sun was "the divine, luminous aura that gave a monarch the legitimate right to rule"???
I want to thank @dalaygiz for this contribution: The term xwarrah / farr, ‘(royal) glory’ derives from the same root as Av. hvar-, which is where we also get Av. hvarÉ™-xÅ¡aÄ“ta, ‘radiant sun’. Originally from PIIr. *suHar-, ‘sun’. Similarly the farr is associated with blazing, fiery or solar imagery...
And is khwarrah, the solar aura, what is symbolically represented by the "Ring of Power" that Ahura Mazda gives to kings to legitimise their rule? Like here on the famous relief from Taqe Bostan where the recepient of the diving grace is king Ardashir II...
I talk about this ring in my post The ear ring of god...
Oh, look who is behind the king, with a radiant halo, shining "like the sun"? Mithra...
I talk about Mithra and the Sun in my post Mehr...
And it is believed that khwarrah Ring of Power is the same ring that we see on the faravahar, the best-known symbol from ancient Persia, being held by the figure (thought to be Ahura Mazda) depicted riding on a winged sun disc...
I mean that ring can only be the symbol of the sun disc...They are depicted in identical manner...
BTW, Remember the Bronze Age eagle/vulture dudes holding ibexes/rams that I talked about earlier and explained what they symbolically represented? 3000 years later, we find Sasanian seals depicting a creature with the body of a bird (I would say a eagle/vulture) and the head of a ram, in the Berlin Museum and the British Museum collections...
Pic from Catalogue of the Western Asiatic seals in the British Museum. Stamp seals.
And no one knows what this means...Apparently...
Oh, and check this out. Stucco decoration from the Sasanian palace at Kish (Iraq). Depicting a winged Ram with the royal ribbon...
The Field Museum of Natural History. After: Kröger 2006: fig.
Just like the eagle/vulture dude holding ibexes/rams, and just like the eagle/vulture with ram head, this is a complex deified animal calendar marker for the cool/wet half of the year, between the start of mating (Oct/Nov) and end of lambing (Apr/May) of wild sheep. The time when vultures also nest...
Pic from The Beribboned Ram in Sasanian Art and Its Possible Religious Associations...
What does the shape of the wings remind you of? I'll talk about this next...
As I said already, khwarrah (also spelled farrah or farr) was the divine, luminous aura that gave a monarch the legitimate right to rule which manifested itself as a divine Ram.
So, incorporating ram's horns into royal headwear visually broadcasted that the ruler possessed this divine favour...
For Sasanian queens, like Yazdan-Friy Shapur depicted here, the Ram carried an additional layer of divine association.
Scholars point out that isolated or ribboned rams in Sasanian art were symbols which were also linked to Anahita, the Zoroastrian goddess of water and fertility.
"By wearing a horn-adorned headdress, a banbishn (queen) closely aligned herself with the ultimate feminine divine power protecting the empire".
You can read more about this in The Beribboned Ram in Sasanian Art and Its Possible Religious Associations...
See the Tree of Life growing between Ram's horns???
I already talked about Anahita in several of my articles. Like this one, Rainbows and peacocks, about this Sassanian dish, 400-600AD, Iran, Currently in Al Thani collection, which depicts goddess Anahita, Zoroastrian goddess of water and fertility, holding a rainbow, and surrounded by peacocks, the rain birds...
In this same article I also talk about the origin of this goddess in (at least) 3rd millennium BC Elam, where we find her also linked to (holding a) rainbow, the annual flood, wet moon (upward pointing crescent moon)...and Sirius...The original star of Inanna/Ishtar/Asherah/Anahita...
I talked about why Sirius was the original "star" of Inanna/Ishtar/Asherah/Anahita in many of my articles. You can start with: Sirius mother of venus, Inana and Sukaletuda, The brightest star, Inanna in Egypt, Temple of Isis on Philae Island, Apocalypse, Whore of Babylon, Dog coin...
I talk about the Wet Moon and why Moon Gods were so important in places where winter is the rainy part of the year, like Mesopotamia, Iran, Levant, Northern Arabia in many of my posts...
In short, during the winter/spring, the ecliptic plane intersects the western horizon at its steepest, most vertical angle at sunset. Because a waxing crescent Moon follows right behind the Sun along this steep line, it sits directly above the Sun. This makes the crescent look like a upright bowl (the "wet moon which catches the rain") that sinks straight down into the horizon...
Now look at these Sassanian seals:
L: Spread wings above the head of the Ram with the Tree of Life growing from the Ram's head between the wings...while a star and a crescent are depicted on the left.
R: Beribboned Ram’s head with wings in the place of horns supporting the star and crescent
Pic from Sasanidische Siegelsteine de P. Horn et G. Steindorf revisité...
No one knows what this symbols represent...Well...
This brings me to this small lapis lazuli disc, dated to 2100-1900 BC, Trans-Elamite period, from Southeastern Iran. Currently in Louvre...
See the "Wet Moon", "The Star of Inanna" above the goddess drinking (water?) from the drinking cup?
I provide full symbolic analysis of this amazing artefact in this post A toast to Inanna...
Now the drinking cup brings us to this:
Seated female figure (goddess? ) drinking out of a goblet - next to a tulip, bronze seal, late 3rd - early 2nd mill BC, (BMAC), Afghanistan. Currently in a Private collection Linenthal, San Francisco. Tulips are another, this time plant, calendar marker for snowmelt/flood season...I talked about this in my post Tulip goddess...
Guess when the peak Tulip season is? Mar/Apr...Aries...
So I wonder if these Bronze Age Bactrian goddesses are also a version of Anahita/Inanna?
And this brings me back to the Elamite bronze shield centrepiece that started this post, and the fact that the plants depicted between rams look very much like flowering tulips...
I want to thank @IboGulsen for pointing this to me in his comment...
One other thing that just occurred to me: Mar/Apr (Aries) was, across the eastern Mediterranean and Near East, Mesopotamia, Iran...the time when the annual military season started...
One of the main reasons is that Mar/Apr was just before the start of the grain/vegetables harvest season, which means the invading armies would have food waiting for them in the areas they are invading (at that time armies ate mostly what they foraged)...
Which adds another symbolic layer to the Sacred Ram, the symbol of Khwarrah that gave Sassanian monarchs the legitimate right to rule....
Plate with Bahram II out on a Hunt, Iran, Sassanid, 4th – early 5th c. AD. Discovered as part of a hoard in Perm province in 1893. Entered the Hermitage in 1894...
Oh and BTW, king, wearing ram horns (ram is a symbol, animal calendar marker, for spring) is killing a wild boar (boar is a symbol, animal calendar marker, for winter)...
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...
