Mesa Mouliana vessel

A very interesting Minoan vessel found in Mesa Mouliana and dated to 1200-1100BC. Do you see the two nipple like things just under the spout? And wavy lines originating from each "nipple " and [my interpretation] symbolising the flow of water (milk of Mother Earth)?

This object is extremely stylised version of this. Ceramic vessel form Crete dated ca 2200-2000 BC. Probably during rituals the liquid would pour out of her breasts symbolically providing nourishment. It’s believed to represent the mountain goddess of Crete...

Both objects are in the Archaeological museum in Heraklion, Crete, Greece. 

What was poured out of this vessel was drinking water. I explained why in my post "Anavlochos mountain" about ancient Mother Earth sanctuaries found on it.

Now here is something that just occurred to me. Look at this beauty: Minoan jug decorated with flying swallows and small breast-like buttons - 1700-1650 BC, discovered in Akrotiri, Santorini. Currently at the Prehistoric Thera Museum, Santorini, Greece

Similar kind of jug, with nipples, but instead of water pouring out of the nipples, a swallow in flight is depicted  on the jug's belly. Why? I already talked about swallows as animal calendar marker for Apr/May, the beginning of summer, in Minoan art in my post "Minoan spring fresco". In it I analysed the animal (swallow) and plant (lily) calendar markers depicted on the "Spring Fresco" from the Akrotiri Site at Thera (Santorini), dated to 1550 – 1500 BC, and I suggested that based on the link between swallows nesting season and the lily blooming season, the fresco should be called "Summer fresco"...

But just now, I discovered that swallows were also linked with saffron crocuses. This is a strainer found in room 3 of the Xeste 3 house in Akrotiri. It is decorated with swallows flying over flowering saffron crocuses...The pic is from this paper...

Crocus flowers in Oct/Nov and is used in Minoan art as a plant calendar marker for Oct/Nov. I talked about this in my post "Male - female Minoan vessel", where I analysed this 16th c. BC Minoan vessel found on Thera, Akrotiri, depicting (according to the museum curators) on one side wild goats and saffron crocuses and on the other side dolphins and sea grass...

What is very very interesting is that swallows are summer visitors to Crete, arriving in Apr/May and leaving in Oct/Nov...

Minoans were maritime people and the swallow migrations marking the beginning and the end of the sailing season must have had a special place in Minoan culture...This veneration of swallows was also found in Ancient Greece. I talked about it in my post "Herald of spring". Did you know that Ancient Greeks had a constellation swallow (Ancient Greek: χελιδών). "...The sun entered into this constellation, when the swallow appeared in Greece as the herald of Spring..." 

And the same link between swallows and sailing was found in Roman culture and later European cultures...I talked about it in my post "Swallow tattoo"...

The period between the arrival of swallows (Apr/May) and the departure of swallows (Oct/Nov) marks the hot, dry half of the year on Crete.

How can this explain the nipple jugs with swallows? Well, the swallow migrations divide the year into female (Wet, Cool, Yin, Sowing - Creating life, No Sailing, Peace) and male (Dry, Hot, Yang, Harvesting - Destroying life, Sailing, War) halves...

The wet half being linked to the (earth) goddess, symbolised by saffron crocuses, goats and boobs 🙂 and the dry half being linked to the (sea/sun) god, symbolised by lilies, bulls and no boobs 🙂...

This is seriously cool...BTW, I already talked about the calendric symbolism of flowers in Minoan art in my post "Three Minoan flowers"...

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...

Anavlochos mountain

This is The Anavlochos mountain range, located in the Lasithi, Crete. This naturally defensible ridge controls the major communication axis linking Central and Eastern Crete...

Between 1200-1100 BC, small settlement sites were scattered all along the ridge. At around 1100 BC most of them have been abandoned and a large settlement that remained continuously occupied until around 650 BC started developing in the highest part of the central valley...

oldeuropeanculture

Archaeologists from the University of Cincinnati, are currently involved in the excavation of the site known as Deposit 1, a bedrock outcrop with deep crevices. 3D animated model of Deposit 1 showing some of the teracottas...

There, they have discovered huge number of figurines and moulded plaques embedded deep in the crevices of the bedrock.

All were depictions of women or female sphinxes...

What is interesting, is that Anavlochos was settled between 1200 and 650 BC. The figurines date between 900 BC and 350 BC, which means that many of them were deposited after people left the settlement..

Which means that people considered the actual ridge bedrock sacred...And sacrificed to it. Or should I say to her...Mother Earth...Cause:

Great pic by @another_barbara Bedrock is in the Balkans known as "živi kamen, živa stena" (living stone, living rock) because it is believed to be still part of the living body of the Mother Earth which gives birth to all life...I talk about this in my post "Living stone"...

Again this ritual deposit site from Crete proves that people saw symbolic link between earth and female fertility. 

Among Slavs, the last sheaf of wheat was commonly called Baba. 

This word means grandmother, mother, midwife, birth giver...In some places the woman binding the last sheaf the last sheaf of wheat is also called Baba...

I talked about this link in my posts "Baba - the last sheaf of wheat" and "Baubo"...

I talked about the link between the veneration mountain peaks and female and earth fertility in Minoan Crete in my post "Sanctuary rhyton", about this amazing rhyton, discovered in the palace of Zakros, the most isolated of all the Minoan Palaces and was dated to 1550-1500 BC. The decoration on the rhyton depicts a "mountain sanctuary". Were these mountain sanctuaries centres of Ibex "goat of rain" cult? 

As we can see, it seems that this veneration continued after the collapse of the Minoan civilisation...

As we can see from the type of figurines deposited in the bedrock, people saw symbolic link between female lactation and earth producing spring water...

How do I know this? Rain, Water magic was among Slavs always female magic. I talked about this in my post "The last megalithic ritual in Europe", about a ritual which was until recently performed during severe draughts in Belarus to appease the Slavic Sun God Dabog (Giving god) who was also known as Daždbog (Rain giving god). 

And in my post about the "Weather stones", stones used in weather magic...

I talked about women being in charge of weather magic in Europe in my post "De Lamiis et Pythonicis Mulieribus" about this depiction of the two witches conjuring a hailstorm from a medieval manuscript on witchcraft. 

BTW, did you know that the sudden climate change which resulted in the medieval mini ice age was blamed on the weather controlling witches and was the excuse for the subsequent witch-hunt? 

I also talk about this in my post "Pozoj" about male and female dragons from Slavic folklore. In South Slavic folklore, it is a female dragon, ala, that brings hailstorms and unseasonably cold, wet weather during summer months, which destroys crops...In South Slavic folklore, cold, wet weather is "feminine"...

So Mother's milk = symbolically = Mother Earth's spring water...

More about Anavlochos excavation project can be found here.

PS: Just remembered I wrote about this a year ago in my post "Goddess of Myrtos" in which I analysed this 3rd millennium Minoan rhyton in the form of a female deity with pitcher.

Blinged goddess

Ceramic figurines with bronze necklaces, found in the Durankulak settlement of the  Late Neolithic Hamangia culture, which flourished in Dobruja (Romania and Bulgaria) during the period 5250-4500 BC. The people of this culture seem to have been immigrants from Anatolia...

The figurines were found together as a group...

Archaeologists also found figurines with bracelets...

And women buried with lots and lots of jewellery...BTW, all the figurines with jewellery were female...

Here are some examples of the jewellery found in the Hamangia culture graves...

Durankulak settlement on Golemija ostrov in Bulgaria consisted of rectangular wattle and daub houses with stone foundations...Not huts...

The same kind of houses (barns, cowsheds) which were until the 20th c still built in the Balkans, except the roof was covered by thatch...

Sources: "Hamangija culture", "Durankuluk"

ARCHAEOLOGICAL COMPLEX DURANKULAK (Regular Excavations on Golemija ostrov Tell in 2018)

ARCHAEOLOGICAL COMPLEX DURANKULAK. Regular Excavations on Tell Golemija ostrov in 2020. (Presentation 2021)

NEOLITHIC SETTLEMENTS ON BALKAN a comparative study between Durankulak and Sitagroi

PS: These Neolithic Venus figurines are again faceless, with exaggerated sexual characteristics. Basically depicting the idea (goddess) of fertility. Just like Palaeolithic Venus figurines.

Pic: 17,000 years old Venus of Piatra Neamț, discovered on June 21, 2019, in the area of Piatra Neamț, Romania. 

Talked about this in my posts "Palaeolithic Venus figurines", "The faceless one", "Motanka". 

At the same time when Durankulak people made their faceless goddesses, a gynomorphic (woman like) figurine was made of "soil mixed with chaff and grain seeds" in Grčac, Serbia. by the people of the farming Proto-Starčevo culture, 6200-5500 BC. Direct symbolic link between earth, grain and female fertility. Basically, "Mother of Grain". 

Articles about the Mother of grain in Europe, Central Asia, Mesopotamia, Iran, Levant: "Mother of grain", "Altyn Tepe mother of grain", "A person in a little boat", "Sabi Abyad venus", "Arjoune venus", "Mother of grain from Yarim Tepe", "Hathor grain pendants", "Cup of Nestor", "Sacred marriage on the threshing floor",  "Mother of grain from Mari", "Baba, last sheaf of wheat"...

The fact that the people from Durankulak who made these Fertility (Mother Earth) figurines and then put necklaces and bracelets on them, the same type of jewellery worn by the local women, tells me the they have also already symbolically linked the the Earth fertility and female fertility. This symbolic link is still found in Europe, particularly in farming communities in the Balkans and Eastern Europe...

I talk about this in my article "Baba, last sheaf of wheat" and the linked articles...

De Lamiis et Pythonicis Mulieribus

The other day I came across this illustration from the 1489 book "De Lamiis et Pythonicis Mulieribus" by Ulrich Molitor...It depicts "two witches conjuring up a destructive (hail) storm"...

Ulrich Molitor wrote his book as a response to Heinrich Kramer's 1486 book "Malleus Maleficarum" which "elevates witchcraft to the criminal status of heresy"...And which pretty much ignited "the witch-hunt craze in Europe"...

Now Molitor didn't dispute the existence of witches and witchcraft. He just claimed that "witches couldn't have any powers without god giving it to them"...You can read the analysis of "De Lamiis et Pythonicis Mulieribus" in this article...

What I found very interesting is that apparently the activity most witches engaged in most of the time was "conjuring of destructive (rain, hail, snow) storms"...Basically making wet and cold weather, which would then destroy crops and kill livestock and people...

Have you ever heard of the "Little Ice Age"? It is a climate change which stared hundred years before but descended into "Ice Age" territory around the time the above two books were written, and which caused temperatures in Europe to drop, causing havoc...

BTW, we are just now coming out of this "ice age" and the temperatures today are about the same as they were just before "the witches screwed the climate up and caused the world to freeze"...

It is interesting that it was only when the weather started turning too cold and too wet that (weather) witchcraft was "elevates to the criminal status"...Before that weather witchcraft was obviously practiced and tolerated...

It still was practiced until very recently...Among Slavs...

It is also interesting that this weather witchcraft, which was performed to bring wetness and coldness...was performed by women...

For instance Balkan rain making ritual performed during summer droughts, was performed by a naked girl covered in greenery, called Dodola, Dodolka, who was followed by an entourage of young girls and boys...

This is the last megalithic ritual in Europe, performed until recently (by women) during severe draughts in Belarus to appease the Slavic god Dabog (Giving god) who was also known as Daždbog (Rain giving god)...I talked about this in my post "The last megalithic ritual in Europe"...

In Slovenia, as part of the White Cross ceremony, four young girls span around the circle interconnected by ivy branches, singing prayers for "sun, rain and abundant crops"...

This is the reconstruction of the Beli križ (White Cross) shrine which was once located in the valley southeast of the village of Prelože, Slovenia, and which was used in weather manipulation ceremonies...From the article "White cross" about Slavic weather stones...

In Slavic folklore, it is a female dragon, ala, that brings hailstorms and unseasonably cold, wet weather during summer months, which destroys crops...I talked about this in my post "Pozoj"...

And the male, fire breathing dragon, zmaj, brings hot, dry weather during summer, causing droughts...The main worry of the Bulgarian farmers at the beginning of the summer (Apr/May) is drought. Traditionally people thought that drought was caused by a winged dragon (zmey), who "stole and locked up" the waters...I talked about this in my post "Scaring off the dragon"...

Why is cold and wet female domain? 

Ever seen this before?

Yang - up, light, warm, dry...man...Sun...

Yin - down, dark, cold, wet...woman...Earth...

I talked about this in my post "Yin and Yang"...

In Slavic folklore, cold and wet weather was believed to be controlled by "Baba" (Grandmother)...This Baba is Mother (Grandmother) Earth...The Mother Goddess...

In the Balkans shepherds used to pray to Baba (Mother Earth) stones (rocky crags, exposed bedrock) for good weather. Rocks were seen as body of Baba (Mother Earth, Yin) who was also seen as the source of cold, wet (bad) weather. 

This belief is imbedded into Slavic languages...Example from Croatian and Serbian, where "Baba" (Grandmother) is directly linked to winter, cold, damp weather...

I talked about this in my post "Gryla", "Living stone", "Babe(le)", "Sawing the old hag"...

But not just in Slavic folklore...

The Old Sky Woman controls the snowfall across North Cornwall and children were told when the snowflakes began to fall, the Old Woman was up in the sky plucking her Goose....

Here she is again...The Hag of Winter...Winter, Cold, Wet, Earth...

Scottish goddess Beira, Queen of Winter, appears as a blue-skinned hag carrying a magical staff that freezes the ground & a hammer for shaping hills & valleys. At the end of her seasonal reign, & she drinks from the Well of Youth to become young again...I talked about this in my post "Holy water"...

And again, the Ugly Old Witch (winter) killing her Beautiful Young Daughter (spring, summer, autumn) with red (crab) apples, the only fruit to remain on tree branches when the winter arrives...

Crab apples covered in snow...I talked about apple as a calendar marker in the story about the Snow White, and few other interesting things found in various versions of this old story in my post "Snow White"...

This too...

Indian summer is in many parts of Central Europe known as "Grandmother's summer" because grandmother is the euphemism for winter. 

Check these articles out: "Grandmother's summer", "The old woman of the mill dust", "Grandmother's mill"...

In the Earth (Yin) - Sun (Yang) system, in the areas of the northern hemisphere with continental climate, winter is pure yin...In Slavic mythology, this was the domain of Baba, Grandmother, The Old Hag...The Goddess of Cold (Marzana) and Death (Morana)...

But every spring, The Witch, The Old Hag (Winter Earth) dies and gets reborn as The Bride, The Young Maiden (Spring Earth)...

And every Spring, Slavs perform a ritual in which they "Burn the Old Hag, The Witch, The Goddess of Winter, The Goddess of Death, (Barren) Winter Earth"...This symbolically represents the heating up of the Earth by the Sun...

Sometimes, the Old Hag, The Witch, The Goddess of Winter, The Goddess of Death, (Barren) Winter Earth is drowned...Or burned and then drowned (to be sure🙂)...In flowing water... This symbolically represents the snowmelt...The first "period" of the Young (fertile) Spring Earth...

It is really interesting that during the Little Ice Age witch-hunt, witches, whose (apparently) main sin was causing bad, cold, wet, destructive weather, just like The Old Hag, The Witch of Winter...were burned and drowned...Just what the Slavs did with with the Old Hag Winter...Coincidence probably...🙂

Ok, amazing, I can hear you say, but slightly disappointing, cause you didn't get any Animal Calendar Markers into this article...

Funny you should say that...I was just about to talk about animal calendar markers found in the depiction of the ice storm making witches...🙂

The two witches depicted conjuring a hailstorm on the original image from De Lamiis et Pythonicis Mulieribus, are depicted burning a cockerel (symbol of sun's light) and a snake (symbol of sun's heat)...

Two things you need to get rid of if you want to bring forth darkness, coldness, wetness...Coincidence again (probably)...🙂

That's it. 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...