Lapis lazuli water seal

I would like to analyse the scene depicted on this Lapis lazuli seal, made between 2400BC and 2000BC in Eastern Iran. Currently in the British Museum. 

It is actually quite amazing...

So what is depicted on this seal? Well, I think that this is a calendar, which depicts the wet season in Eastern Iran, using animal calendar markers: Goat, animal calendar marker for Oct/Nov and Bull, animal calendar marker for Apr/May...Let me show you why...

This is the map of Iran. On it I circled Eastern Iran and I underlined the 4 main cities in the region: Mashhad, Birjand, Kerman and Zahedan...

These are precipitation charts for these 4 main cities in Eastern Iran...

You can see that the wet season in Eastern Iran starts in Oct/Nov and ends in Apr/May...

Mating season of Ibex Goats starts in Oct/Nov...Which is why Ibex became animal calendar marker for Oct/Nov. And cause this is when the rains arrive to Western Asia and Eastern Mediterranean, Ibex there became The Goat of Rain...

I talked about symbolism of ibex goats in many of my posts, like 

Europe:

"Pitys", "Goat in European culture", "Patera of Rennes"... 

Levant:

"The tree of life/light", "Lachish animal calendar"...

Mesopotamia:

"Feast plaque from Louvre", "Green pastures", "Problems with Abzu", "Relief from Dur Sharrukin", "Goatfish"...

Iran: 

"Flamingos from Susa", "Goat carrier", "Iranian goat of rain", "Strider", "A vessel from Tepe Hissar"...

In Iran in particular, Ibex Goat was the most depicted animal during Neolithic and Bronze Age...I talked about this in my post "Goat petroglyphs from Iran"...

So that's the Goat sorted...

What about the Bull? Normally, as the animal calendar marker for Apr/May, the end of the wet season in Western Asian and Eastern Mediterranean, we find an Auroch bull or a calf.

You know, Taurus...Taurus here is "the old Taurus", an animal calendar marker, which only later became mapped to whatever constellation was rising with the sun during Apr/May, when constellations were first defined...

Taurus originally had nothing to do with stars. Taurus marked Apr/May, the beginning of the calving of Eurasian wild cattle. I talked about that in my posts "Ram and bull", "Cow and calf ivory", "Lotus and papyrus", "Bull carrying grannary", "Foundation peg of the goddess nanshe", "Cypriot stamp seals with cow and calf"...and many others...

I talked about this in my post "Feast plaque from Louvre" about this amazing object I discovered during the 5 hour long stroll I took with my son through the Mesopotamian section of the Louvre museum few years ago. 

Perforated votive limestone plaque, Mesopotamia (where?), ca. 2700-2650BC...

Now interestingly, the bull depicted on our Lapis seal is not Auroch...It's a Zebu...That's interesting. Zebu originates in India...From where it spread westward...I talked about this in this post "Zebu migrations"...

Because of its mating habits (it mates during the wet season in India), in the Indus Valley civilisation the zebu cattle was used as an animal calendar marker for the Kharif (wet season) Apr/May - Oct/Nov. I talked about this in my post "Kharif and Rabi seasons" about this amazing vessel from the Indus Valley civilisation...

So it seems that on our Lapis seal, it was the beginning of the mating season of Zebu cattle and not the beginning of the calving season of Auroch cattle, that was used as an animal calendar marker for the end of the rain season (Apr/May)...

Now let's see how my interpretation fits with the official description of the seal: 

Two figures faced each other, one holding a cup...The pattern above the figures "may represent rain clouds and rain"...Ibex goat and Zebu bull depicted to the side...

See...

Rain is on ancient artefacts often depicted using dots. I talked about this already in my post "Goat of rain from Andros" about the Neolithic relief depicting the goat of rain surrounded by dots (rain drops) from the Cycladic island of Andros in Greece

Knowing what we know about the symbolism of the goat and the bull, I am 110% convinced that the pattern above the figures represent rain clouds and rain. 

The makers of this seal even positioned one of the dots (rain drops) above the cup, to make it clear what the dots mean...

What about the "drinking from a cup" scene...Have a look at this: Seated female figure (goddess? ) drinking out of a very similar cup (goblet) sitting next to a tulip, bronze seal, late 3rd - early 2nd millennium BC, (BMAC), Afghanistan...

Now check the map of Iran. Our Iranian lapis seal was found in Eastern Iran...Next door to BMAC land...

In my post "Tulip goddess" about the BMAC Goddess with tulips seal, I explained that the goddess is the young spring earth, who just had her first period (snowmelt) and is drinking water (runoff)...

...while around here wild tulips flower everywhere...

The two main rivers from Eastern Iran, Atrak and Helmand, are both fed by the rain and snowmelt. Their water discharge starts suddenly rising in Oct/Nov, it peaks in Apr/May, and it suddenly drops to nothing in Jun/Jul...

Also, the fact that our seal from Eastern Iran was made from Lapis Lazuli, The Water Stone, also points to the intended meaning of the seal scene: rain, filling our cups with fresh water between the mating of Ibex goats and mating of Zebu Cattle...

I talked about this lapis as the water stone in my post "Solar bull"....

That's it. 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...

Water bull

This is Pešter highland. Located in South-Western Serbia, it is one of the best grazing lands in Europe. The area is also known as Raška, Ras. This area was during the Early medieval time a Serbian heartland, the land of Rasi, Rasci, Raci, as Serbs were known at the time.

The name of one of the oldest and strangest breeds of sheep, "Racka" sheep, literally means "The sheep of Rasi, Rasci, Raci (Serbs)" or Serbian sheep. They are depicted on a fresco from the 14th c. Serbian monastery in Kosovo.

One of the oldest Serbian churches, the Church of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, is located in Stari Ras, the old capital of Raška

But Raška, Ras was a holy land even before the conversion of the Serbs into Christianity. The pictures of the Pešter highlands were taken from a peak called Trojan (another name for Triglav (Three-headed), old Serbian and Slavic supreme god. You can read more about Triglav in my post "Triglav Trojan Triniti Trimurti". 

This is the peak Trojan (1374 m). 

It lies at the edge of the Pešter highland, and from it you can see the whole highland. It was once probably an important pagan site. This can be deduced both from its name (Trojan- Triglav) and from the legends associated with the site

According to the local legends, there once was a lake below the peak. The lake was a home to a three headed (!) dragon, or in another version of the legend, to a water bull...Every year the local people sacrificed a young girl to the monster, so that it would leave them in peace. One year, it was Serbian king's daughter's turn to be sacrificed. But at the last moment, a knight, St George, arrived, killed the monster and saved the girl.

Interestingly, at the bottom of the Trojan peak lies Djurdjevica well (St George's well). This well is holly to both Christians and Muslims who live in the area, and they gather around every year on St George's day, to celebrate the Saint's day together...

The legend about the peak Trojan could be a depiction of the Christianisation of the Serbs in Old Ras...

The "Three-headed dragon" here is Triglav, the old God of the Serbs who was "killed" by the Dragon-Slayer, St George.  "A knight and a dragon" by Walter Crane

But it could be something else entirely...

The fact that the "monster" to whom the young girls were sacrificed was identified as both dragon and bull is very interesting. Dragon represents the destructive power of the burning summer sun. And summer starts in Taurus (Bull)...

Summer starts on the 6th of May, Jarilo day, Beltine (middle of Taurus). Jarilo represents the sun's heat, symbolized by the snake and the dragon. Funnily Jarilo was Christianized into St George, the Dragon killer, who kills Dragon-Bull :) 

You can read more about this in my post "Dragon killing Snake" and my post "Two crosses".

Every Year, in the middle of Taurus (Bull), the Young Earth, Vesna, is "sacrificed" to the Young Sun, Jarilo (literally the burning, the raging one). Spring (the princess) is "sacrificed" (it ends) so that Summer (bull, dragon) can begin. 

I wrote about Vesna in my post Flower Girls.

Similar legend about a water bull to whom girls were sacrificed is found in Bulgaria. 

The Belogradchik Fortress is an ancient fortress located on the north slopes of the Balkan Mountains, close to the town of Belogradchik, Vidin Province, Northwestern Bulgaria. 

The fortress was built by Romans around a natural rock outcrops

In the flatlands visible from the fortress lies Lake Rabisha, the largest inland natural freshwater lake in Bulgaria.

According to the local legend, the lake was once a home to a terrifying monster: Water Bull. 

The Water Bull was a giant with the human body, the head of a bull and the tale of fish. It terrorised the local area attacking the people and cattle. In order to placate the beast, the local people would, once a year, offer as a sacrifice to it the most beautiful young girl in the entire region. The girl would be taken to the lake shore in a procession. There she would be put on a boat together with many wonderful gifts and would be pushed into the lake where she would fall pray to the monster.

The terrible story of the annual sacrifices to the Water Bull actually has a happy ending. The most gorgeous girl in the world was born one day in the village of Rabisha. When she grew up and the time came to offer her as sacrifice, she was placed in a boat and pushed to the middle of the lake.

However, when the Water Bull saw her, he was so enchanted by her that instead of killing her, he fell in love. He asked his sister, who was a sorceress, for help, and with her powers she made the beautiful girl immortal. The Water Bull took his young wife to the bottom of the Lake, and never came back for more prey. The two of them are still believed to be living happily down there.

These two legends, I believe, can help us understand two important classical legends: Minotaur and Europa stories. But more about that some other time. 

By the way, water bull is also found in Scottish and Manx folklore, but apparently the Gaelic monster preferred local cows to local young girls...