Sun god in a boat

Another interesting seal. Akkadian, Tell Asmar. Description: "Sun god in a boat. On prow long-haired crowned figure with punting pole and human-headed lion, snake's head for stern, plow, vase and two objects above, fertility goddess beside boat, fish below" 

That's it???

Well no obviously...There are a lot of interesting details on this seal that definitely deserve some explanation...

I will start with the "fertility goddess beside boat". 

Well she has grain growing out of her and she is holding poppies...

Why?

Opium poppies were cultivated in Ancient Mesopotamia where they were known as "hul gil", meaning "joy plant" 🙂 So poppy harvest was an important annual event in Mesopotamia...Poppy harvest in Iraq starts in Apr-May. More in my article "Poppies and thunder gods"  

But why is "the fertility goddess", basically mother earth from which protrude ripe ears of grain, holding ripe poppies? Well because the poppy and grain harvests coincide in Mesopotamia. You can see that both barley (main Mesopotamian grain) and poppies harvests start in Apr-May...

The poppy and grain harvest season also coincides with the annual flooding in Mesopotamia which peaks in late April early May...Hence the reed boat...Here is the Euphrates flow table. The water levels suddenly peak in April and May, due to snow melt in Iran...

The reed boat represents summer, hence Sun god as the main passenger. Summer starts in Taurus, end of April, beginning of May, harvest time in Mesopotamia...

What about "snake stern"? 

Summer is the time of snakes, which is why snakes became symbols of sun's heat and summer. You can read more about the snake solar symbolism in my article "Enemy of the sun"...

So the boat of snakes, the boat of sun's heat, sun boat, summer...

Where is Sun god stirring the boat of summer towards? Well towards autumn...Which starts in Leo and is symbolised by a lion...Lion kills snake, summer ends, autumn begins... 

Hence the Sun god ferrying the lion in his boat. 

Towards autumn...

Which is when the first ploughing starts. 

At the end of the lion mating season, which starts in Leo and spans the whole of autumn 

Hence the Sun god is ferrying the plough with the lion. Is this a water jug? The fields are ploughed only after they are flooded to soften the soil...Also summer is the time of drought, the time without rain, the time when fresh drinking water becomes very precious...

That's all I have to say about that...Here is the link to the museum page for this seal. 

A goat in a tree

This is one of the two identical Sumerian figures excavated in Ur, in southern Iraq, dated to c. 2600–2400 BC...This amazing work of art, depicts a horned animal with wings (???) standing on his hind legs and nibbling leaves from a flowering tree. What is the meaning of all this?

First what horned animal is this? Originally people thought this was a ram... But today most people agree that this is a Markhor goat. 

Why was Markhor goat chosen to be depicted here? Surely not because it looks cool (not that he doesn't). Markhor is depicted here because Markhor mating season starts in November...

Which is important because? 

Because in Iraq the climatic year id divided into dry and wet part. And the wet part of the year starts in November...Right at the time when the Markhor goats start mating...Precipitation table Iraq.

So again, like in Eastern Mediterranean, Middle East, Arabia, Central Asia...Wherever rains arrive in Oct-Nov, we find goat worship...The Goat of rain...This rain is what allows life to flourish in these desert lands...Hence the Goat of rain nibbling on the Tree of Life...

But why wings? If they are indeed wings.... Maybe they are just stylised clumps of hair. Except that Markhor doesn't have any clumps of hair on his back, only around his neck...But ok let's allow for artistic freedom and say that these are not wings...

But if they were 🙂...

Well, at the exact time when the Goat of rain starts prancing around, certain types of Eurasian vultures start their mating rituals which involve synchronised flying...

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

Looked from the ground this flying pair looks like this:

Which is where the symbol of the double headed eagle most likely comes from, why rain gods are associated with eagles and why this Goat of rain has vulture's wings...

Also adding wings on things makes them more "heavenly"...

But whether this goat has wings or not is not important...

In most of the lands where rains arrive in October-November, the Goat of rain is depicted as an Ibex goat...The same is true of Iraq...This relief on the side of a cosmetic vessel from Nippur shows exactly the same flowering Tree of life except the Goat of rain is Ibex...

Now here is something interesting...The range of the Markhor goat, has historically been Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and northern India...Which means that people in Mesopotamia could not have been able to observe them and associate them with rain...

Which opens the question: why and how do we find depictions of Markhor in Mesopotamia, which match exactly the depictions of Ibex, from the earliest times. Like on this Hassuna redware bowl, circa 5500 BC

This is a mystery...

(Dramatic pause) 😉

There is one place where we find lots of Markhor goats though...I mean the animal is the national animal of the place...And the mating season of the Markhor (Nov-Dec) announces the beginning of the maximum precipitation period (Dec)...This place is Balochistan, just next to Indus Valley...

And guess what we find In Balochistan? We find this: Mehrgarh Neolithic site (dated c. 7000 BCE to c. 2500/2000 BCE) built by farmers...To whom rain was very very important...And so they probably also worshiped the Goat of rain...In the shape of Markhor??? 

So any link between Early Sumerians and Mehrgarhans? The appearance  of the worship of Markhor goats in Mesopotamia where Markhors don't live certainly suggests that...

Well I would say we are possibly looking at common root of both Mesopotamian and Indus Valley civilisations...

PS, maybe the "wings" are not wings but a "stylistic depiction of Markhor goat hair"...Maybe, although I am not sure why would they use different colour...Anyway this doesn't change the meaning of the scene...

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...

When a bride dies soon after the wedding

Piran town under the looming Mt Triglav, the highest peak of Slovenia, named after the supreme Slavic god Triglav (Three headed), the Sky Father...

You can read more about Triglav and his link to Trimurti in my post "Triglav, Trinity, Trimurti"... 

In this article I want to talk about a Serbian ritual song recorded in the 19th c. by Miloš S. Milojević and published in his seminal work "Pesme i običai ukupnog naroda Srbskog, book 2". It is called "Похођанска, кад умре убрзо невеста" (Visiting song, when a bride dies soon after the wedding).

The song starts with a description of a Vila (Mountain fairy, but actually personification of lightning), sitting on a high mountain peak and crying...

When other Vilas come to ask her what happened, she tells them that her daughter got married few days ago, on Saturday, but that two days later, on Monday, she got sick and died..."I went to see her body on Tuesday, the evil day..." She continues...

Then the mournful Vila describes the scene in which her daughter is lying on the catafalque, while the groom's family comes to keen (lament, wail in grief for a dead person) over her body, as was the custom among Serbs...

First come Vilas, groom's sisters. They cry over the body of the dead Vila, their sister in law, and ask her why she had left them, what had angered here so much to leave their brother alone in grief..."Wasn't our brother nice? Wasn't our castle nice?" they ask...

Second come Vilas, groom's brother's wives. They cry over the body of the bride and also ask her why she had left them..."Wasn't our brother in law, mighty warrior, Davor Bor  nice? Wasn't his castle nice?" they ask...

Third comes groom's mother "Old Mother, Old Vila". She bends over her dead daughter in law and cries: "Why did you leave us? You, one of us, of our kind. Didn't you like your mother in law? Didn't you like her son, Mighty Davor Bor? Didn't you like our castle in in the sky?"

Fourth comes groom's father, Old Mighty Triglav. He stands over the dead daughter in law and cries: "Why did you get angry and leave us, you, so lovely and loved? Why did you leave us, you, one of our kind, one of our tribe? Didn't you like your father in law, Triglav Bor, the creator, preserver and destroyer of the world? Didn't you like our castle in the sky, made from white stone and lit by Svetovid (Sun god, sun, the all seeing)? Wasn't my son, mighty warrior, Davor Bor, dear to you?" he asks...

Finally, the groom arrives. "Davor Bor and Đurašin". Bor is just a euphemism for "bog" (god). And Davor (Davor->Davog->Dabog) is just euphemism for Dabog, Giving God, Supreme god of the Serbs, Rain and Sun god, another name of the Sky god Triglav...Davor Bor is here also identified as Đura, Đurašin, a nickname for St George, who is just Christianised Jarilo, young sun god and god of war...

Davor Bor, described as having long red hair, long blond moustache and long ginger beard, kneels next to the body of his dead wife and cries out, causing the air to vibrate, lightnings to flash and thunders to crackle..."What happened to you my love, my love and my kind?" he exclaims...

He then kisses his dead wife and she comes back to life and says: "I didn't love my husband, the mighty warrior Davor and Đura"...When her husband asks her why, she replies: "My husband is of bad stock, bad sinful stock. His mother is a mortal woman, mortal woman of the earth"...

Davor Bor says nothing. Instead, his father Triglav stands up and cries out: "Oh Vila, my daughter in law, today I curse you!"...

The bride's mother finishes her description of the lament scene by saying that this curse came to be and that her daughter died again, this time for ever. 

And then she praises Triglav Bor and "his love Black Earth...may she live for ever"...

This is an amazing song. Not only because it talks about Triglav, Dabog, Jarilo, Vilas, but also because it identifies the wife of Triglav (Father Sky) as Black Earth (Mother Earth)...And because it explicitly states the importance of both Sky and Earth in Serbian world view...

Triglav is not angry with his daughter in law because she is not in love with his son. He is angry with her because she doesn't respect part of her own nature. Remember, lightning is the product of both sky (sun and rain) and earth...You can read more about it in my post "Sun thunder fire"...

The original short discussion (in Serbian) about this song can be found in the great article entitled "Triglav u starim Srpskim narodnim pesmama i molitvama"by Aleksandra Marinković Obrovski

This ritual song contains the oldest layers of our mythology: the veneration of Father Sky and Mother Earth, the producers of life...But it is not the only place where we find this old belief embedded into Serbian folklore. This riddle "Tall father, wide mother" = Sky and earth contains it too...  

Triglav, Dajbog, The Sky Father is also hidden in Serbian folklore under the guise of Ilija Gromovnik (Elijah the Thunderer)... 

Troglava, Dajbaba, his wife, The Earth Mother is also hidden in the Serbian folklore under the guise of Ognjena Marija (Fiery Mary)... 

Davor Bor, Jarilo, their son, is hidden in the Serbian folklore under the guise of St George...

The chthonic animal

In Lublin area of Poland, people believed that Snake king lives among the roots of an old Hazel tree. Every autumn he gathers all the snakes, who then slither up the tree to its branches "to see the sun for the last time" before they go under ground...

Source: "Simbolika zivotinja u slovenskoj narodnoj tradiciji" by Aleksandar Gura.

The snake on this picture is a common viper which also lives in Poland...In Poland the snake is called żmija zygzakowata, which translates as 'zigzag viper', due to the pattern on its back. 

Here we see that in this folk belief hazel tree was seen as the world tree, as Slavs believed that "the great serpent lives among the roots of the world tree"...

More about Slavic (Specifically Serbian) hazel lore can be found in my article "Hazel". 

We also see that snake is attracted to the sky and sun, which is very strange for a "chthonic animal"...

The thing is, the notion that snake is a "chthonic animal" comes from misunderstanding of the nature of snakes. Snakes are under ground, in "the other world", only during the winter, which according to Slavic tradition, is the time that sun also spends in "the other world". Which is why winter is dark and cold...When in the spring sun comes back to "our world", snakes follow it and appear above the ground...This makes a snake a solar animal true and true...

More about Slavic snake and sun lore can be found in my article "Enemy of the sun"...

A man from Reric

"The Slavs on the Dnieper" painting by by Nicholas Roerich. From "The Beginning of Russia. Slavs" series. 1905. Tempera on cardboard. 67 x 89 cm. Painting is depicting local villagers paying tribute to the Rus. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. 

Reric or Rerik was one of the Viking Age Slavic trading ports on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, located near Wismar in the present-day German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Reric was built around 700 by Slavs of the Obodrite tribe. 

At the turn of the 9th century, Obodrites were allied with Charlemagne in their wars against the Danes and another Slavic tribe Wiltzi. In 808 AD Rerik was destroyed by the Viking king Gudfred during his campaign in South Baltic...

The "Annales regni Francorum" report that ‘Godfrid destroyed the Slavic emporium of Reric...and taking the merchants from there, he weighed anchor and brought them to the portus of [Hedeby] along with his whole army.’

Hedeby is first mentioned in the Frankish chronicles of Einhard (804). But it is the sacking of the major Slavic trading centre Rerik In 808 by the Danish king Godfred and moving of the merchants from there to Hedeby that helped Hedeby to develop into a major trading centre.

If we know that South Baltic Slavic "Vikings" had large trading vessels which Norse Vikings lacked, moving Slavic merchants from Rerik to Hedebi by Godfrey makes a lot of sense. Danes got the merchants who knew the trading routes and who knew how to build merchant ships...

I talked about these large Slavic merchant ships my post "Ladia". These ships were so good for transporting large amount of goods along the Russian rivers and lakes that they were still used in the far north in the 19th century. These were captured sailing on the River Emajõgi in Estonia... 

What is very interesting is that One of the names used by chroniclers for Obodrites was Reregi... Also we have a tribe called Wagri, Wagiri, or Wagrians, who were part of the Obodrite confederation...

And then we have Rurik (830 – 879AD), the leader of the Varangians...Varangians who in the first half of the 9the century controlled trading routes between Baltic, Caspian and Black Sea...

According to Russian chronicles, Rurik was born 20 years after Danish king Godfrey, in 808, destroyed Rerik, major Slavic merchant port and moved Slavic merchants from Rerik to Hedebi...

It is widely believed that Rurik was "in some way" ethnically Scandinavian. The only similarly named figure described in the Carolingian Annales Fuldenses and Annales Bertiniani was Rorik of Dorestad (810–880AD), a Danish king from the royal Scylding house of Haithabu (Hedeby)...

Rorik of Dorestad was a member of one of two competing families reported in the Frankish chroniclers as having ruled the nascent Danish kingdom at Hedeby...

Rorik received lands in Friesland from Emperor Louis I. but he wanted more and and so reportedly he plundered Dorestad in 850, attacked Hedeby in 857, and looted Bremen in 859. The Emperor was enraged and stripped him of all his possessions in 860...

After that, Rorik disappears from the Western sources for a considerable period of time, while only two years later, in 862, the Russian chronicle's Rurik arrives in the eastern Baltic, builds the fortress of Ladoga, and later moves to Novgorod...

In 882 Frankish chronicles mention Rorik of Dorestad as dead (without a date of death specified). The Russian chronicle places the death of Rurik of Novgorod at 879, a three year gap prior than the Frankish chronicles...

According to Western sources, the ruler of Friesland (Rorik of Dorestad) was converted to Christianity by the Franks. This may have parallels with the Christianization of the Rus, as reported by Patriarch Photius in 867...

Now this is very very interesting indeed...

Was Rurik a personal name? Or was Rurik "a man from Rerik"? Or was Rurik "Rereg" an Obodrite?

Even if Rurik from Hedeby was Dane by origin, what are the chances that he had, under his command, experienced merchant sailors originally from Rerik, when he established control over the eastern trading routes?

Slavic merchants from Rerik probably already used these eastern trading routes, previous to the destruction of Rerik and the move of the Slavic merchants from Rerik to Hedeby...

Slavic (speaking) merchants would have had much better chance surviving trading trips through Eastern Slavic lands than Germanic (speaking) merchants...They would have been seen as "one of us" or "cousins" by the local Slavic tribes...

These previously established trading connections could then have been used by the mixed Danish (Norse) - Slavic enterprising groups as the starting point for military and political takeover of the territories along the eastern trading route...

First toast

The Baden culture, c. 3600–2800 BC, a Chalcolithic culture from Central and Southeast Europe (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, Serbia, Romania, Austria), could be the culture which started the production and ritual drinking of alcohol in Continental Europe...

At least this is what Miloš Spasić from Belgrade City Museum claims in his article "The first toast: the story of Baden culture cups from Belgrade City Museum"

He bases his argument on the fact that Baden culture archaeological sites are the first sites where we find sets of drinking cups, all made identically, found together with pitchers...

His explanation is that these were alcohol drinking sets used for communal feast ...

The making and communal consumption of alcohol is just one of the things Baden culture is credited with. The other are the initial use of dairy products, domestication of the horse, introduction of animal-drawn carts, various innovations grain agriculture and textile production.

That making and consumption of alcohol was a complete cultural shift can be seen from this map of Eneolithic sites in Belgrade area. Vinca culture, technically advanced civilisation in every respect, no drinking cups. Baden culture, equally advanced, drinking cups everywhere...

The mystery is what alcohol was made and consumed by the Baden people?

Wine? Not likely due to Central European climate. Wild grapes grow much better in hotter areas further down south and east...But still a possibility, and one that the author of this article prefers...

Beer? We know that Baden people were grain farmers. So it is very likely that they did make beer. The author of this article discounts this as "the primitive beer is drank through straws from pitchers and not from cups"...Well not necessarily...You can drink it from cups too...

This is boza, a primitive malt drink (ale) made by fermenting various wheat, millet or barley. It is not filtered which is why it has a thick consistency. It has a low alcohol content (around 1%), and a slightly acidic sweet flavour. And as you can see it is drank from cups and glasses... 

For those interested in primitive beer (ale) making, here is an article I wrote few years ago...

Another possibility is Kumis, a fermented dairy product traditionally made from mare's milk with between 0.7 and 2.5% alcohol...If Baden people domesticated horses and made dairy products, they could have also stumbled across Kumis while fermenting mare milk? This is kumis drinking set from Kazakhstan. Looks familiar? 

So what was the drink of choice at Baden culture parties?

Well you know what they say: it's not what you're drinking it's who you drink it with...

Oldest Arabic poem

I love that in this ancient poem, Mot, a personification of Death from the Ancient Canaanite religion, the enemy of Baal, the Thunder, Rain God, is explicitly identified as Sun...Another proof that climate indeed has major influence on the development of religious symbolism...

This is the oldest poem in Arabic: a 3-line text recounting the cosmic battle between Mōt, the god of death, and Baʿal, the storm god as described in the Baal Cycle

It is carved in an ancient script close to Safaitic and is at least 2000 years old. The reconstructed pronunciation of the Old Arabic: the verses form a final rhyme in *ām*, with an otiose syllable in the second verse.

1) ḥagga mōtu wal-lāẓẓu ṯarām
2) fa-muyakānu layālay-uh wa-ʾaywām-uh
3) wa-hāʾ baʿalu yabītu wa-lā-hu bāta wa-mā nām

Here is what is says:

1)Mōt has held a feast; the scorner eats
2)Established is the alternation of his nights and days
3)Behold Baʿal slumbers; he slumbers indeed, but is not dead…

The transliteration and translation was done by Ahmad Al-Jallad @safaitic, Epigraphist, Philologist, Historian of Language, Ancient Near East and Pre-Islamic Arabia. 

This is what he says about the actual inscription:

"This inscription (KRS 2453) was discovered in northern Jordan by Geraldine King in 1989, published online with a preliminary reading and no translation. The text is undated but certainly pre-Islamic. Mythological material can survive millennia. The letter shapes are rather archaic, differing from both Safaitic and Hismaic in their details. I safe guess: the text is at least 2000 years old but perhaps much older"

Here is the explanation of each of the verses:

1) "Mōt has held a feast; the scorner eats"

Mōt is the West Semitic god of infertility, drought, literally "death". This line explains that Mōt reigns. Holding a feast is a mark of kingship. (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

2) "Established is the alternation of his nights and days"

This verse affirms Mōt’s dominion through a connection with this cosmic phenomenon. A similar phrase occurs in the Quran (23:80): "And it is He (Allah) who gives life and causes death, and His is the alternation of the night and the day. Then will you not reason?" (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

3) "Behold Baʿal slumbers, he slumbers indeed, but not dead…" 

A similar phrase occurs in Quran (2:255) "Allah, the Ever-Living, the Self-Subsisting by Whom all subsist, there is no god but He.  Neither slumber seizes Him, nor sleep; to Him belongs all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth. Who is there who might intercede with Him save with His leave?" (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

It is very interesting that the same things attributed to Mōt (Sun god, god of death in the desert) in this Pre Islamic poem are in Quran attributed to Allah...

Mot gained dominion by ‘killing’ Baal, the Storm, Rain god. But according to the Baal Cycle, Mot only killed a substitute. Baal went into hiding in fear of Mōt’s power, only to return to life at a later point....

This is the way to indicate seasonal, cyclical character of this "battle"...

Here is Baal holding a thunder hammer in his right hand and a lightning spear from which the tree (of life) is sprouting...In deserts it is the rain that creates life...

The ultimate triumph of Baal (Rain, Life) over Mot (Sun, Death) can be seen on these pictures of the Dead Sea area, one of the driest places on earth, taken in February (mid winter) 2020...Larger than usual amounts of rain have transformed normally barren shores of the Dead Sea into a meadow... 

This poem is definitely related to the Baal Cycle as known from Ugarit. In its Arabian context, it appears to be a seasonal myth, symbolising the struggle between the dry summer months (Mōt) and the rainy seasons (Baʿal). A few texts record Baʿal in times of drought. (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

I would argue that the original Baal Cycle is the seasonal myth. In Eastern Mediterranean, Anatolia, Levant, Mesopotamia and Arabia, the climatic year is divided into two parts, two seasons: Dry season (May-October) and Wet season (November to April). Dry season is the domain of Mot, Sun...And Wet season is the domain of Baal, Rain...

No memory of these myths makes it into Islamic-period sources...(Ahmad Al-Jallad)

Well...As you can see from the above Quran quotes, it does, except both Sun and Rain gods were amalgamated into one god, Allah, the Sky god...Serbian Dabog is the same kind of Sky god, being both Sun god and Bringer of rain, Storm god...

Baʿal survives in local dialectal expressions. In Lebanon, one can say: "ḫallī ʿalā ba‘al" 'leave it to Baʿal', referring to plants that are watered by the rain! (Ahmad Al-Jallad)

Bibliography:

"Echoes of the Baal Cycle in a Safaito-Hismaic Inscription" by Ahmad Al-Jallad