Golden men

One of two golden men with large erect penises found in the settlement of Tell el-Farcha, located in the Nile Delta, Egypt, and dated to c. 3000 BC...Pic from this article...

This is the second, smaller figurine...

The figurines had a core made of probably wood, which was then covered with thin gold foil, which was fastened by golden rivets, 4 mm long and 1 mm in diameter. Whoever made these figurines was a seriously good goldsmith...

The archaeologists who found these figurines believe that "It is possible that the golden figurines, depict...a Predynastic ruler...and his son"...

I have to disagree with this. I believe that they depict a god (not sure which one) linked to the sun and the flood...

The reason why I believe this is because figurines were made of gold (sun), had huge penis (fertility), and had eyes made of lapis-lazuli (water)...And in Egypt, the flood which makes the land fertile arrives during the sunniest and hottest time of the year (Jul/Aug)...

But that's just my opinion...BTW...lapis lazuli used for the eyes of the golden figurines was was imported from the area of today’s Afghanistan!!! How cool is this? 3000 BC...

Mesopotamian 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. It is currently in the Pen Museum...

Why lapis lazuli beard on the solar bull? Cause flood, caused by the snowmelt in the North-Eastern Mountains, caused by sun's heat, arrives there in Taurus...

I talked about this in my posts: "Solar bull", "Water bull",  "Bactrian snakes and dragons", "Shamash young and old", "Butt chewing", "When Utu steps up into heaven", "Maran", "Sun god tablet", "Gisgis relief", "Lyres of Ur"... 

Hmmmm....

Osiris and Horus, Father and Son?

I talked about Osiris and its link to flood in my posts "Braided beard" and the "Beard of Osiris"...

That's it. 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...

Blue bull with golden horns

Stone figurine of a bull with a golden horns, Gilan, Iran, 1st mill BC.  The bull's blue(ish) stone body and golden horns suggest (to me at least🙂) that here we have an animal symbol linked with water and sun...And Taurus...  Why? Here's why:

This is the chart of the monthly flow of the Sefid Rud river, which flows through Gilan province of Iran from this article…You can see that the river is from Feb fed by snowmelt, which peaks in Apr/May, in Taurus...

Taurus which marks the beginning of summer, season symbolised by a bull...And ruled by the sun...I talked about this in my post "Symbols of the seasons"...

Taurus which originally had nothing to do with stars. It is an ancient animal calendar marker, which originally marked the beginning of the calving season of wild Eurasian cattle...

I talked about this in many of my articles, for instance "Cow and calf ivory", "Foundation peg of the goddess Nanshe", "Elamite water bull", "Human bull hybrid", "White calf", "Calydonian boar"...

It is the sun rising elevation 

and rising temperature which causes the snowmelt which fills the rivers with water.

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 in my posts "Shamash young and old", "When Utu steps up to heaven", "Problems of Abzu"...

Snowmelt which is the main water source for both Iranian rivers and Tigris and Euphrates.

Tigris and Euphrates annual flood (fed by snowmelt caused by the sun) peaks in Taurus, beginning of summer...

Hence Utu/Shamash depicted as a golden bull's head (sun) with lapis beard (flowing water). How do we know this is Utu/Shamash? Cause in "Enki and the world order" we read  "Utu/Shamash...the great herald in the east of holy An...with a lapis-lazuli beard, rising from the horizon..."  

I talked about this in my posts "Butt chewing", "Maran", "Lyres of Ur", "Solar bull"...

The Iranian blue bull with golden horns is most likely the Iranian symbolic equivalent of this golden bull Sun/Water bull Utu/Shamash or Enki/Ea, cause Enki was also known as "Great lord...Enki...great bull of the Abzu"...

BTW, I talked about Elamite/Iranian symbolic links between bulls and flood/water in my posts "Dedicated to Inshushinak", "Elamite water bull", "Harness ring from Luristan"...

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...

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...