Roast pig for Christmas

Jasper gem engraved with the scene of a wild boar hunt set in a gold frame with pearls and glass. Roman Empire II-III c AD. Metropolitan Museum. 

Wild boar is another symbol (animal calendar marker) for winter...

I talked about this in my post about the locating the exact moment in time when the Abduction of Persephone happened (the taking of Persephone, the fertility of nature, from our world into the otherworld)...

Persephone was abducted while "Eubouleus was pasturing his pigs". I believe that this means that she was abducted during "pannage".

Pannage is the practice of releasing livestock-pigs in a forest, so that they can feed on fallen acorns, beechmast, chestnuts or other nuts. Pannage coincides with the acorn shedding season of whatever oak variety grows in the area.

The acorn shedding season of the Eastern Mediterranean oaks, like Holm Oak or Valonian Oak, starts from October-November and lasts until December-January...I love Valonian oaks...They look like brightly burning suns: 

I talked about this in my post "Christmas trees from the garden of Eden"

The pannage season overlaps with the the main wild boar mating season which in most areas lasts from November to January (Winter). And there are indications that in the past this was also the main mating season of the domesticated pigs too...

Winter was also the time to go wild pig hunting, as this is when they are the fattest...Which is why killing of wild pigs became synonym with killing of winter. But not only winter. The dark, cold part of the year (Nov-Apr)...

Which is why the wild boar jawbone is the symbol of summer. But not only summer, the bright, warm part of the year (May-Nov). I talked about this in my post about Calydonian boar 

Interestingly, pig  is the animal sacrificed as part of the mid winter (now Christmas) rituals in Serbia. 

I talked about this in my post about Sacrificial animals in Serbian tradition 

The same correlation between the time of the year and the sacrificial animal was also found in the archaic Roman tradition. Here is a Roman fresco from Pompeii, which probably depicts sacrificing of a pig during Saturnalia, archaic Roman mid winter festival...

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...

Calydonian boar

Illyrian silver stater 300-275 BC. Cow suckling her calf. Jawbone above. So what's the meaning of all of this?

Of first the cow suckling the calf. 

The calving season of the wild Eurasian cattle starts in Taurus, beginning of summer. This is also the beginning of the milking season...I wrote about the link between wild Eurasian cattle and Taurus in my article "Ram and Bull" and about bull as the symbol of summer in my article "Symbols of the seasons"...

Now we have to identify the jawbone. Officially this is a wild boar jawbone...Is it? 

Jawbone from the coin. 

Wild boar jawbone

It seems to match...

In my article about the double headed eagle axe, I talked about the symbolism of the wild boar and its link to winter. Mating season of the wild boar across Eurasia starts in November, beginning of winter...

Both cattle and wild boar were used in Eurasia as solar year calendar markers. Bull marking end of April, beginning of May, beginning of summer, and wild boar marking end of October beginning of November, beginning of winter...

In old Celtic calendar, which closely corresponds to the Anatolian and Middle Eastern Agricultural calendar, the year is divided into only two parts: Dark Nov-Apr (wet season in Anatolia and Middle East) and Light May-Oct (dry season in Anatolia and Middle East)

The Dark part starts with Boar (November) and the Light part starts with Bull (May). Is it possible that the boar jawbone represents the death (end) of the the dark part of the year and the cow and calf represent birth (start) of the light part of the year? 

A century after the above Illyrian coin was minted, we find a jawbone on the coins of the Aitolian league. This one was minted in 211 BC. 

Officially "Spear, Jawbone, Calydonian Boar, commemorates killing of the Calydonian boar". Why would this be Calydonian Boar jawbone? What is the significance of the killing of this boar? Political? Religious?

Let's have a look at the Calydonian boar myth...

Hmmm"...King Oeneus of Calydon held annual harvest sacrifices to the gods..." 

Harvest in Ancient Greece began in Taurus...I talked about the link between the Taurus and grain in Greek culture in my post "Hesiod on grain"...

"...One year the king forgot to include Great Artemis...in his offerings. Insulted, Artemis...loosed the biggest, most ferocious wild boar imaginable on the countryside of Calydon. It rampaged throughout the countryside, destroying vineyards and crops...People began to starve..."

If boar represents winter, then "most ferocious wild boar" "destroying vineyards and crops" and "causing people to starve" could be a sudden catastrophic climate change, sudden cooling...Like the one which happened during Bronze age collapse...1200BC

So I think that the legend about the Calydonian boar just confirm the link between the wild boar and winter...And that it can actually only be understood properly through this link...

I personally that the jawbone on the Illyrian coin is a calendar marker marking the end of the dark part of the year and the beginning of the light part of the year.

What do you think?