Origin of griffins

Proto-Elamite seal, 3000 BC. A griffin, followed by ibex goat, or goitered gazelle...

From "The Elamite Cylinder Seal Corpus, c.3500 - 1000 BC" volume II part I

Finally a proof (at least to me 🙂) that griffin is a complex animal calendar marker...

If you look up "griffin", this is what you get: "The griffin, griffon, or gryphon is a legendary creature with the body, tail, and back legs of a lion; the head and wings of an eagle; and sometimes an eagle's talons as its front feet"...

Legendary creature? Nah...It's a complex animal calendar marker for autumn (Jul/Aug - Oct/Nov)...

Eeee, why, how?

If you wanted to depict this time period, using animal calendar markers how would you do it?

Well you could find an animal whose mating or birthing takes place in Jul/Aug and mark the beginning of autumn. And then you could find an animal whose mating or birthing takes place in Oct/Nov and mark the end of autumn...

Like for instance, you could take eurasian lions, whose main mating season starts in Jul/Aug...

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

Which is why lion is the symbol of the hottest, driest part (Jul/Aug) of the hot, dry half of the year (Apr/May - Oct/Nov)...I talked about this in many of my posts. For instance in my post "Angra Mainyu", about this amazing Middle Assyrian Cylinder Seal with a "Lion-Dragon", 1300-1200 BC. 

Eurasian lion main mating season marks the beginning of autumn and spans the whole of autumn (Aug,Sep,Oct)...

Which is why lion is also the symbol for autumn. I talked about this in my post "Symbols of the seasons"... 

Oh by the way, the symbol for summer (Apr/May - Jul/Aug) is bull, because summer starts with the calving of wild Eurasian cattle. Which is why "lion killing bull" symbol found all over the place means "the end of summer, BEGINNING OF AUTUMN"

I talked about this in many of my posts. For instance "Cypriot stamp seal with cow and calf", about this amazing conoid stamp seal, Late Cypriot III. Cyprus (?), ca. 13th–12th c. BC. 

So, I guess, you could use lion as the symbol marking the beginning of autumn...What about the symbol for the end of autumn?

Well, you could take old world vultures, whose mating season starts in Oct/Nov, with synchronized flying mating dances...

Which is why Vulture (Eagle) is the symbol of for the END OF AUTUMN, beginning of winter...

I talked about this in many of my posts. For instance "Eagle dance", about this interesting cylinder seal from North Mesopotamia-Syria, 1800–1500 BC, from the Leroy Golf collection.

So now put these two symbols together, lion-eagle...And you get griffin...Symbol of autumn...Here they are on another amazing Proto Elamite seal from "The Elamite Cylinder Seal Corpus, c.3500 - 1000 BC" volume II part I

That I am right about the meaning of the griffin, can be seen from the fact that on the original seal griffin, symbol of autumn is followed by ibex goat (or goitered gazelle), both symbols of winter...

I wrote many posts about ibex goat as symbol of winter, because ibex mating season coincides with the beginning of winter (Oct/Nov). For instance "Goats with tree of life from Alalakh", about "rampant goats flanking tree of life" images discovered in Bronze Age city of Alalakh/Tell Atchana, located 20 km from Antakya (Antioch) in what is now Turkey's Hatay Province. 

I wrote many posts about about gazelle as symbol of winter, because gazelle mating season coincides with the beginning of winter (Oct/Nov). For instance "Mysterious creature", about this Akkadian Cylinder Seal dated to 2300-2200 BC. 

Oh, by the way, do you see the green branch between the griffin and the goat/gazelle? 

In Elam, the climatic year is divided into hot, dry half (Apr/May - Oct/Nov) and cool, wet half (Oct/Nov - Apr/May)...

It is the rain that arrives in Oct/Nov, at the end of autumn (griffin), beginning of winter (goat/gazelle) that made life in Elam possible...

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...

Golden eagles from Costa Rica

Article about animal calendar markers from Central America. Today @dalaygiz posted a very interesting tweet (which unfortunately I'm not allowed to retweet) with pics of Gold "Double Headed Eagles", made in Costa Rica between 700 and 1530 AD by people of Diquis culture...

Diquis culture is best known for their stone spheres, which are littering Cost Rican landscape...But I will leave the discussion about these artefacts to others...I have nothing really to contribute to it... 🙂

Instead I will concentrate on their gold eagle pendants...Cause I think I can shed some light on their meaning 🙂...By the way they also made single headed eagle pendants too...

So what's all this about? Well remember my article about the "Double Headed Eagle" axe head, made between 2500-1500 BC in Bactria? I talked about it in my post "Double headed eagle"...

In this post I explained the emergence of a "Vulture" animal calendar marker in the area of Mesopotamia, Iran and and Central Asia...It's all to do with the local climate and the mating behaviour of old world vultures...

The climatic year in the region is divided into hot, dry half of the year (Apr/May-Oct/Nov), and cool, wet half of the year (Oct/Nov-Apr/May). And right at the beginning of the wet season, Vultures begin to mate...

During their mating season, which spans winter months (Nov, Dec, Jan), they perform courtship aerial displays, where the pairs fly together over one another with outstretched wings...

Which look like this from the ground...

Hence eagles dance

Syria, 1800BC. Eagle (vulture) couples dance above the mountains at the beginning of their mating season, which coincides with the beginning of the rain season in Fertile Crescent...

Montenegro 1963AD. Newly married couple dance Oro, Eagle Dance

I talked about this in my post about the "Eagle dance"...

And why we find that in Mesopotamia the Rain God was originally imagined as a "great black bird with outstretched wings". 

I talked about it in my post "Mysterious creature". BTW, Gazelles, the animals depicted around the tree (of life) also begin mating in Oct/Nov...

This is also why we find Eagle Dudes all over this area. Left Aleppo. Right Nimrud...Why are they hiding the same bags and pine cones? Pine cone harvest season starts when vultures begin to mate and when grain sowing takes place...I talked about this in my post "Eagle dude from Aleppo"...

And in general why we find eagle dudes all over this area...I talked about this in my post "Eagle calendar marker"...

Different climate, different eagle, marking different time of the year, the same meaning: Eagle = Thunderstorm season...

Eagle-Snake struggle mosaic from the palace of the Emperor Justinian I  (527-565), Istambul...This is actually a complex animal calendar marker for the thunderstorm season in Europe Apr/May -  Sep/Oct, when migratory snake eagles can be seen in Europe...I talked abut this in my post "Eagle snake struggle"...

This is also why (most likely) Slavic Thunder God is called Perun...My article "Pero" is about feathers, ferns, lightning, feather/fern like lightning scars and thunder gods...Also about "pero" (feather) being the root of the name of the Slavic thunder god "Perun" which would make him "The Feathered Dude" or "The Eagle Dude"... 

Ok...This is all very cool...But what does this have to do with Costa Rican eagle pendants? How are they related? Well, this morning, when I saw original tweet by @dalaygiz I had no idea if these two eagle symbols are in any way related...Now I know.

They are both animal calendar markers for the beginning of the rain season in the area where they were made...I already explained why this is true in Eurasia...Let me explain why this is true in Costa Rica...

Let's start with saying that there are two main vulture types living in Costa Rica:

Black vulture 

Turkey vulture

And it seems that both of these vulture species start mating in their northern ranges in March...Costa Rica falls into "northern ranges"...

At the beginning of their mating season, both species perform courtship aerial displays. And they also dance on the ground, with their wings spread wide... 🙂 You can see a video showing it here...

And this is climatic year in Costa Rica...The rain season starts right after the vultures start dancing...

Oh and guess what. During the whole rain season, you can see this: vultures standing with their wings spread to dry them, before soaring into the air...

So if you wanted to symbolically depict "rain season" in Costa Rica, you could use a vulture with spread wings...Right?

Well, that's that...My first application of the animal calendar marker theory to American artefacts and mythology, and bingo...

It shows that this is a natural was to make calendar symbols. Using annually reoccurring events from local animal and plant life (mating, birthing, migration, flowering, fruiting) to map significant climatic and agricultural events (rain, drought, sowing, harvest)...

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...

PS: I mean, knowing when the rain is going to come means nothing, unless you actually need it...For instance for farming maize...

And we know that maize has been farmed in Costa Rica and surrounding areas since at least 2nd millennium BC...You can read more about it in "Pre-Columbian agriculture, fire, and Spanish contact: A 4200-year record from Laguna Los Mangos, Costa Rica"...

Now in Central America, the main crop growing season, called "The Primera" season, starts in Mar with corn planting taking place between Apr and Jun...Just after vultures start dancing...

Which is kind of very important...

Mysterious Creature

Akkadian Cylinder Seal with a Mysterious Creature, Mesopotamia, 2300-2200 BC. Description: A carved white marble seal with two ibexes flanking a stylised tree and a bird-man figure...

What's all this about?

Well first, these are not ibexes. These are Goitered gazelles...See the horns? 

Gazelle. 

Ibex...

They are flanking a tree, which is usually indication that this is a depiction of the tree of life...

In Mesopotamia, the climatic year is divided into hot/dry half and cool/wet half...

It is this rain that supports (the tree of) life in Mesopotamia...And the arrival of the life giving rain, is announced by the beginning of the mating season of Ibex goats, which starts in Oct/Nov...

I talked about this in my post "Green pastures" about this votive plaque from Tell Asmar, Iraq...

Which is why Ibex goat is the most depicted animal in Mesopotamia and Iran...I talked about this in my posts 

"A vessel from Tepe Hissar" about the "Goat of rain"

"Goat petroglyphs from Iran" about the development of the "God of rain" from "Goat of rain"

 "Goat carrier" about sacrificing goats to gods...

But gazelles have the the same mating season as ibex goats. Which is why they are here used to represent the same idea as ibex goats: It is this rain that supports (the tree of) life in Mesopotamia...And the arrival of the life giving rain, is announced by the beginning of the mating season of Goitered gazelles, which starts in Oct/Nov...

This is why gazelles and ibexes are sometimes even used together to emphasise that they have the same meaning as animal calendar markers. Like this seal that I talk about in my post "Pissing gazelle"

 

It is that rain that turns desert into green pastures...Which is why gazelles are found on the base of the statue of the god Abu, also known as the "father of the pasture". I talked about this in my post "Abu"...

Interestingly, this guy could be just another incarnation of Ninurta, the god of rain, who was originally imagined as a huge storm bird, then as a bird man and then as god with a pet (monster) bird...I talked about this in my post "The judgement of the Birdman", about this amazing Babylonian seal...

The reason for this is that the rain season in Mesopotamia coincides with the mating season of vultures who at that time perform their synhronised flying routines...

So, gazelles, tree of life and a bird man with outstretched wings...The rains are coming...Rejoice...