Fig with bulls

Indus Valley civilisation seal depicting a tree flanked by two bulls. 

From "Intercultural Relations between Iran, the Murghabo-Bactrian Archaeological Complex (BMAC), Northwest India and Failaka in the Field of Seals" by Sylvia Winckelmann

This is one of many so called "narrative seals". The problem is no one has a clue what the narrative is. So let's try to figure it out...

The broad lief tree is Ficus religiosa or sacred fig, a drought deciduous plant. 

It sheds its leaves during the peak of the dry season, February to April. And new leaves start growing at the end of April beginning of May, in Taurus. Taurus which marks the beginning of summer, season marked by a Bull. You can read more about why the beginning of summer is marked by a bull in my post "Ram and bull". And you can read more about the animal symbols of the seasons in my post "Symbols of the seasons"...

Here is the sacred fig again, this time literally "linked" to the bull. 

 From an Indus Valley Civilisation pot depicting two growing seasons in Indus Valley. More in my post "Kharif and rabi season"... 

Oh and what about the fish from the original seal? Well this is most likely "palla" fish, a migratory fish which swims up the river to mate between May and August (summer symbolised by a bull), which is the main fishing season on the Indus river...

Here is again most likely "palla" fish again symbolically linked to the bull of summer. And the sun 🙂 From another Indus Valley Civilisation vessel. More about it in my post "Palla"...

Oh, and here it is again on these two Indus Valley Civilisation seals, swimming up the river (please note the arrow pointing up, just in case you might get confused 🙂 ) During the bull season, summer...

Now finally what about the wheel depicted on the original seal? Well that is the symbol of the sun and thunder god. Well at least it is in Slavic mythology (folklore).

Ok that's a bit much, I can hear you say...That makes no sense...

Well...

The little circles on the trunk of the fig tree are fig fruits. 

They ripen at the end of Taurus. The end of Taurus (End of May) is the beginning of the rain, monsoon season in Indus Valley.
 

The rain season spans summer, the season marked by a bull. That is the hottest (Sun god) and wettest (Rain god) part of the year...

Does it make sense now? 

Here is the same symbol on another Indus Valley Civilisation tablet, above the scene which marks the peak of the monsoon season (end of July beginning of August)

You can read more about this object and the meaning of the symbols depicted on it in my post "Musth"...

So do we understand the narrative a bit better now?

PS: It is amazing how blind I can be sometimes. Luckily my friend Tobi Wd was't blind. Here is the conversation I had with him about this seal moments ago:

Tobi Wd: Predecessor of the trident 🔱

Me: No, it's a tree. A sacred fig. It appears on many seals in different shapes.

Tobi Wd: With the curved bull horns as well? I hypothesize that the shivaistic trident could be a stylisation of this tree in combination with the bull horns.

Me: Ahhh, I see it now. BLIND!!!! You are right. And the trident is of course an early symbol of the thunder (rain) gods...If you read the article linked from the post, it actually says that the meaning of the seal is "beginning of monsoon"...And trident was the weapon of Shiva, whose Vimana (animal avatar) was bull...

Amazing actually...

Palla

Today I came across this post on Facebook:

Ancient ceramic From Indus Valley

5-7,000 years ago, someone could have told you what these symbols represented, but not today. Today, no one is really sure about the culture that produced this and other pieces, even though it was one of civilization's 4 cradles. Still, this piece and the others make quite an impression even today.

Well.... 

Let me see if I can decipher this image...

Indus Valley civilisation was a river valley civilisation and as all the other river valley civilisations it saw fish as one of the main sources of food. 

The main fish species fished in Indus River is "palla".

Palla is a migratory fish, very much like salmon. In migrates into and out of Indus River during the monsoon season which in Indus Valley lasts between Jun and September. 

This is why fishing for palla on Indus River is a seasonal activity. Fishermen usually catch palla during the four-month season, which starts in May and ends in August. This is also the main fishing season in general. 

Now what does the above picture mean then?

Considering how important fishing was for the people of the Indus Valley civilisation, which we know from all the fish bones found in their settlements, they would have wanted to somehow mark this season. I believe that this picture marks the main fishing season on the Indus River. 

A while back, in my post "Fishes" I talked about the fact that the Zodiac symbol Pisces (Fishes) marks the main Salmon fishing season in Continental Europe. 

Before that in my post "Ram and Bull" I talked about the fact that Zodiac signs Aries (Ram) and Taurus (Bull) mark the lambing season of wild Eurasian sheep and the calving season of wild Eurasian cattle. 

In those two and several other posts I postulated that Zodiac signs were symbols marking extremely important natural events on the Solar vegetative circle (solar year) and that they predate the Actual star constellations. I believe that one of these old natural zodiac symbols, Bull, is used on this picture in its old original meaning: Summer. And interestingly summer coincides with the fishing season on Indus River...

So here is what I think the above picture means:

1. The bull symbolises summer months, between the 6th of May, the beginning of summer in Taurus, to the 2nd of August. 
2. The bull's hump represents the summer solstice, 21st of June. This is symbolised by the sun placed above it(???). Maybe it is just a symbol of summer, like the other sun symbols around the bull's head...
3. The shower like symbol above the tree represents air water, monsoon, which peaks in the middle of August.
4. The same symbol can also be seen below the bull between the two "wave" symbols which all together represents ground water, river. 
5. The tree represents the revival of vegetation which monsoon brings. 
6. Between the beginning of summer (May) and the end of summer (August) is the main palla fishing season on Indus River 

I have no idea what the other things on the picture mean. For instance I would love to know what the 35 "moons" along the bull's back mean...Ben Johanson since commented on Facebook that: "Palla reaches sexual maturity between 1-2 years and lives between 2-4 years. 35 moons is between 2 and 3 years which would be when the mature fish would come back to the river to spawn..." 

So what do you think?