Eagle dude from Alepo

This eagle dude from a frieze from Aleppo dating to 900 B.C. (left) could have been a model for artists working 30 years later on the famous reliefs at the Assyrian city of Nimrud (right)...

You can read more about it in the article "Temple of the storm god" by Andrew Lawler

They are both holding baskets and pine cones...Why?

The vulture dude is a well known symbol used in Central Asia, Mesopotamia and Iran to represent wet part of the year (Nov-Apr)...Because vulture mating season in this part of the world starts in Oct-Nov and takes place during the wet part of the year...

I talked about these eagle dudes in several of my posts. Like these ones: "Double headed eagle" "Giant eagle dude with mouflons" "Fluffy" and "Eagle calendar marker", "Eagle dance", "The judgement of the birdman", "Mysterious creature"... 

This depiction is from an Akkadian seal dated to 2200BC...

These eagle dudes are found from Central Asia to Anatolia, with identical meaning. 

It is the rain (and snow) that falls during the mating season of vultures that is the source of life in this part of the world...Hence the association of the eagle dudes with the tree of life...

Interestingly, pine cone (pine nuts, seeds) harvest season in the northern hemisphere starts in Oct-Nov (when eagle dudes bring rain) and lasts over the wet part of the year...

So probably not a coincidence that the eagle dude is holding a pine cone...

As for the basket...Have you seen this article about the pillar 43 from Gobekli tepe?

In the area of Gobekli tepe the solar year is divided into two seasons, dry season (end of May to start of October) and rain wet season (end of October to start of May). And in places with this kind of climate, the arrival of life giving rain is the most important calendar event.

Vultures begin their mating season when the first rains arrive, November. 

And you can't miss it, because they start their mad areal synchronised displays:

I talked about this in my article "Double headed eagle"...

Scorpions hide when the first rains arrive, November. And you can't miss this because they disappear from the fields, where it's cold and wet, and appear in your houses, where it's warm and dry

I talked about this in my post "Dilmun goats seal"...

So both scorpion and vultures being depicted on the pillar 43 could mean: when rains arrive...

Cool, I can hear people say, but maybe just a coincidence. How do you explain the bags?

Well, scorpion was used in Mesopotamia (just down the road from Gobekli tepe) as calendar marker to mark the beginning of the grain sowing season. 

Sowing of grains was done after the first rains, when the scorpions disappear. I talked about this in my articles "Sowing" and "7 stars of scorpio"...

After the furrow is made, the seeds are planted into the furrow. Now how did these early sowers bring the seeds to the field? Most likely in a basket...or a bag...with a handle...

Like this one carried by the sower walking next to the plow on this Mesopotamian seal.

So Eagle dude with a pine cone and a bag = pine harvest, grain sawing time, when vultures mate...

One more interesting bit...The eagle dude is not the only dude with a handbag found in Aleppo temple...There is also the lion dude...

But the lion dude is not holding a pine cone...He is holding grain...Why?

Remember my article about this orthostat (engraved stone block) from Arslantepe, dated to 1200-700BC...

In it I talked about Hittite agricultural calendar. In Hittite Anatolia the harvest time was late July early August, End of summer...Leo, beginning of the main mating season of Eurasian lions...

So lion headed dude holding grain and a basket = grain harvest time. Time to refill the grain baskets and get them ready for the next sawing...

Interesting, right?

Pillar 43

While we are talking about Göbekli Tepe, I would like to just ask few questions about the "famous" pillar 43,   Otherwise known as "scorpion and vultures pillar". I would add "and bags, don't forget the bags"...

Is this a random collection of images or???

In my article about the "Four living creatures" I explained that scorpio is the only Zodiac sign which has its double: eagle (actually a vulture and you will see soon why).

I have shown in my articles about zodiac signs that they are actually all solar calendar markers, marking the part of the solar year when the animal in question has its mating or birthing season. An obvious annual event which you can't miss...

That this use of animals as solar calendar markers predates Greek Zodiac by thousands of years, and was ubiquitous all over Eurasia and North Africa, and used in the same way since Neolithic, I have shown in my articles about animal calendar markers...

Interestingly, both animals depicted on the pillar 43, vultures and scorpion, were used in Middle East and Central Asia as calendar markers to mark the beginning of the rain season. Why?

In the area of Gobekli tepe the solar year is divided into two seasons, dry season (end of May to start of October) and rain wet season (end of October to start of May). And in places with this kind of climate, the arrival of life giving rain is the most important calendar event.

Vultures begin their mating season when the first rains arrive, November. 

And you can't miss it, because they start their mad areal synchronised displays:

I talked about this in my article "Double headed eagle"...

Scorpions hide when the temperature gets too low. Which in the area of Göbekli Tepe is also when the first rains arrive, November. And you can't miss this because they disappear from the fields, where it's cold and wet, and appear in your houses, where it's warm and dry

I talked about this in my post "Dilmun goats seal"...

So both scorpion and vultures being depicted on the pillar 43 could mean: when rains arrive...

Cool, I can hear people say, but maybe just a coincidence. How do you explain the bags?

Well, scorpion was used in Mesopotamia (just down the road from Gobekli tepe) as calendar marker to mark the beginning of the grain sowing season. 

Sowing of grains was done after the first rains, when the scorpions disappear. I talked about this in my articles "Sowing" and "7 stars of scorpio"...

After the furrow is made, the seeds are planted into the furrow. Now how did these early sowers bring the seeds to the field? Most likely in a basket...or a bag...with a handle...

Like this one carried by the sower walking next to the plow on this Mesopotamian seal.

Or like this one seen carried by the sower walking behind the plow on this Egyptian mural.

Or like this one carried by the sower on this European Medieval drawing.

I Mean this is the same thing, just the basket is replaced by a "bag" or a bib...

Or like this one carried by the sower on this Van Gough painting...

And so on and so forth...

I know others asked this question before, but here it is again: I wonder if the "basket" like objects found depicted all over Mesopotamia were possibly actually just baskets. Full of grain seeds used for planting new grain.

If you think about it, the mental jump from "eat all the seeds you collect" to "save some of these seeds to plant them so they will grow into plants that will produce more seeds next year" was huge. I mean this was a paradigm shift of the highest order...

The faith placed in these seeds was huge. The expectation from these seeds was huge. We know, from ethnographic records, that these seeds were treated in a special way, that special rituals were performed with them, that blood sacrifices were offered to them...

All in hope that these seeds will take, sprout, grow, ripen and eventually, after a whole solar year has passed, yield more seeds then were originally in the basket...That is a lot of anxious waiting and hoping and praying...So much, you could make a religion out of it 🙂

Considering all this, is it possible that the seed basket was also seen and treated in a special way? Is it possible that this basket of seeds for sowing became a symbol of the new "agri" culture? Not sure...

Anyway, I just find it interesting that we find all these symbols linked to grain sowing together on one stone in Gobekli tepe. By the way, is that a hand poking into the middle "bag" (basket)? Like as if to take something, I don't know, maybe seeds, out of it? It's not clear...

PS: The other day I saw this interview with Dr. Lee Clare, the head of fieldwork and research coordinator for the German Archaeological Institute (DAI) project at the Göbekli Tepe. In it he explains that the grains found in Göbekli Tepe were wild grains. 

My opinion is that this doesn't preclude the possibility that the people from Göbekli Tepe culture, who actively collected the wild grain seeds for food, actually planted them too. As I said, if this happened, this would be a huge paradigm shift which could have led to eventual domestication of wild grains...

But can't prove whether they did or didn't do that. 

Also, Dr. Lee Clare thinks that these were not bags at all, but actual depictions of houses with roofs. Which is also 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...