Halton Moor cup

This is the so called Halton Moor cup, made in the 8th c. AD somewhere in the Carolingian empire, France. It was then deposited in the 11th c. AD, as part of a mixed silver and gold hoard in the Halton Moor in England, where it was discovered in 1815...

Stunning object. According to the British Museum, where his object is currently kept, "of the four medallions which decorate the cup, two contain the figure of a lion, and the other two contain the figure of an ox with humped back and forked tail"...

The British Museum then goes on to say that these medalions are separated by "a formal plant with radiating branches from which issue four dog-like heads near the extremities, biting foliage". Full description can be found here...

Now according to The Halton Moor Cup and the Carolingian Metalwork in the Cuerdale Hoard By Egon Wamers, "the four roundels on the Halton Moor cup alternate depictions of two different animals, which may be identified as a lion and a unicorn..."

"...these roundels are separated by acanthus plants wih the animal (dog) heads sprouting from their tips". Egon Wamers then says that this is an illustration for Psalm 22 (verses 16–21) where Christ says:

12 Many bulls surround me...

13 Roaring lions [surround me]...

...

16 Dogs surround me...

...

19 But you, Lord, do not be far from me...

20 Deliver me...from the power of the dogs.

21 Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

Interestingly, in the verse 21, the King James's bible actually says:

21 Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns.

WTH does this mean? Ok, let's first sort this unicorn thing out. 

Ever heard of Re'em? A re'em is an animal mentioned nine times in the Hebrew Bible. The Greek Old Testament (3rd-2nd c. BC) translated re'em as "unicorn" which stayed as the main translation of this word until the end of the 19th century...

Then, in 1899, Johann Ulrich Duerst discovered that the word "re'em" was based on the Akkadian cognate "rimu", meaning "Auroch", the Eurasian wild cattle...This has been "generally" 🙂 accepted today as the correct translation, "even among religious scholars" 🙂...

I talked about this in my post "Reem"...

Those interested in unicorns should check my post "Stag and Unicorn", where I analyse figure 3 from "Alchymistica", 17th/18th century document found in Benedictine Abbey Admont, Austria...

Back to the Halton Moor cup. As you can clearly see, the horned animal depicted on the Halton Moor cup is a bull which looks very much like an Auroch (wild Eurasian cattle) bull. 

Bull is a symbol of summer (Apr/May -  Jul/Aug). This is because Apr/May was when wild Eurasian cattle used to start calving, and Jul/Aug was when wild Eurasian cattle used to start mating (and fighting)...

I talked about (most common) animal symbols for seasons (still imbedded into out zodiac today), found all over Eurasia and North Africa since Neolithic, in my post "Symbols of the seasons"...

Hence Taurus, an animal calendar marker which marks (Apr/May), the beginning of the calving season of the wild Eurasian cattle, and the beginning of summer, the season of the wild Eurasian cattle...I talked about this in many of my posts...

The bull depicted on the Halton Moor cup is depicted in a charging (fighting) pose. Just like it looks during the mating fights which take place in Jul/Aug...I talked about symbolic meaning of the charging bull in many of my posts...

And the bull is charging towards a lion...

Lion which is an animal calendar marker for Jul/Aug, because this is when the main mating season of Eurasian lions starts...Which is why Jul/Aug is marked with a lion, Leo...I talked about this in many of my posts...

So, charging bull and a lion meet in Jul/Leo...This is when Summer (Starts in Taurus, Apr/May - Jul/Aug) ends and Autumn (Starts in Leo, Jul/Aug - Oct/Nov) begins...

Like in India, where we find the Ardhanarishvara, the union of Shiva and Parvati producing river Ganga...

Maximum monsoon, which feeds the river Ganga, falls at the meeting point of Summer (symbolised by Bull) and Autumn (symbolised by Lion), Jul/Aug...

I talked about this in my post "Ardhanarishvara"...

But in Mediterranean and Western Asia, this is symbolically depicted like this: Lion (Autumn, starts in Leo) kills (ends) Bull (Summer, starts in Taurus)...Coin from Cilicia, dated to 361-334BC. I talked about this calendaric symbol in many of my posts...

So, the bull is charging towards the lion, but on the Halton Moor cup he will never reach the lion because bull and lion are separated by "acanthus plants with the animal (dog) heads sprouting from their tips"...

Very interesting...Why? Well, first, the leafs of this plant, if it indeed is acanthus, are the leaves which Ancient Greek sculptor Callimachus (5th c. BCE) used to model the capital of the Corinthian column...

The plant main flowering season is from May to Aug... 

After the flowering season, the plant develops a sharply-pointed capsule shaped fruit...Fruiting season is normally Jul/Aug/Sep...Interesting right?

And on the Halton Moor cup the fruit looks like dog head...Why? Cause the old dog breeds mating season started in Jul/Aug...This is why we find dog days in Jul/Aug. And why Sirius is called the Dog Star. When our mythologies were made out of animal calendar markers, Sirius, the Dog Star rose with the sun in Jul/Aug, when mating season of the old dog breeds began...I talked about this in my posts "Dog days", about the Dog star in Egypt, "Tishtrya", about dog star in Mesopotamia and "The bitch of the gods", about the dog star in India...

Anyway, this is why on the Halton Moor cup we find the acanthus plant with dog head fruits between the charging bull and the lion...

BTW, do you see the tree depicted behind the lion? It looks very much like a date palm tree. In Mesopotamia, where most of the date palm symbolism comes from, date harvest starts in Jul/Aug...When Lion kills Bull. In dog days. Under a palm tree. I talked about it in my post "Lion killing bull under date palm"...

But why would someone in Carolingian empire make something like this? Did they know what they were doing or is this just a giant coincidence? 

I don't think it's a coincidence. The legend about Re'em has this interesting bit in it. I provide full symbolic analysis of the Re'em legend in my post "Reem"...

David is the guy who built the solar temple on a threshing floor...

If you wanted to make a (First) Temple on a Threshing Floor, and "orient" it (make it to face east), if you wanted to make a "House of God" to face the "House of (Sun) God", how would you do it? Like this...

I talked about this in my post "Boaz and Jachin" and "Sun god from the first temple"...

Solar temple dedicated to a Sun god in a chariot pulled by 4 horses...I originally thought that this god was some kind of local Helios...But since then I learned that Shamash also traveled in a chariot pulled by four equids...

I talked about this in my posts "Sun god from Tell Brak" and "Shamash playing with solar horse"... 

So the Sun God that Josiah says the Jews worshiped in the First Temple was most likely Shamash...They still do worship him BTW...

Remember this post, "The tree of life, light", about the origin of the Hanukah (Winter Solstice) celebration? And the link between Yahweh and Shamash, the old Semitic (Akkadian) sun god...

Now in this post, "Menorah from Nipur", about this 3rd mill. BC seal from Nipur, I postulated, based on the fact that Shamash is depicted sitting between two bulls, that the Shamash worshipped through Menorah was Sun in Taurus, Apr/May. The good sun, the sun of life...

But I completely missed the fact that the two bulls have erections, which means they symbolised Jul/Aug, the start of the beginning of the mating season of wild cattle...I talked about this important "detail" in my post "Tree huggers", about this strange moulded plaque, Babylonian, ca. 2000–1600 BC. 

And I also, for some weird reason, ignored the fact that Shamash is holding the reed cutting knife. I talked about the importance of the reed cutting knife in my post "Canals", where I explain why Shamash holds reed cutting knife when he is depicted standing in an empty canal/river bed. About Jul/Aug being the best time to cut reed in Mesopotamia if you want to make long lasting reed boats, houses and canal dams...BTW, see how he is standing between two lions, in Leo...

Both pointing to the fact that the Shamash of the Menorah is Shamash in Jul/Aug...See how Shamash has (mostly) 3 heat waves coming from each shoulder? Togehter whith his head, that is 7...7 months of the Sumerian summer...With the head in Jul/Aug, the hottest part of the year...

Sun in Jul/Aug. Nergal...The deified destructive "burning" sun, which was depicted as a lion man

because Jul/Aug, Leo, is the hottest and driest part of the year in Mesopotamia...

Talked abut Nergal in my post "Winged superhuman hero"...

Nergal the god of death...

Hello Mot! 

In the deserts of Levant, Middle East and Arabia, it was The Sun who was "The God of Death". It is in climate and nature it produces, that we find the root of all our religions... Pic: Over 2000 years old poem about the god of death Mot. From my post "The oldest Arabic poem"...

Nergal, whose seat is located between bull and lion (Jul/Aug, the hottest time of the year, the time of death) and is guarded by a three headed dog (End of Jul beginning of Aug, the dog days)...

Hello Hades!!!

Meet Kerberos, the three haded dog, guardian of the doors of hell...He also had snakes coming out of his body...

Dog, animal calendar marker for the hottest time of the year, the time of the year ruled by Nergal, The God of Death, The personification of Destructive sun's heat, and snakes, symbol of sun's heat...

Nergal who also had a pet three headed dog...Depiction of Nergal from Hatra...

Oh and is that Heracles standing behind Kerberos pretending to be a lion man???

Hello Heracles!!! Who are you really?

Relief featuring the symbols of Herakles, the bow and the lion skin. 1st c. BC, Aedepsus, Euboea. New Archaeological Museum of Chalkis Arethousa, Greece.

The true identity of the Heracles the Archer was discussed in my posts "Cetus" and "Mithras"...

Where are you going with all of this, I can hear you wondering...

As far as I can remember, the god of Menorah is the god father of Christ...

Christ as the sun-god Helios/Sol, 3rd c. AD, Vatican. Christ is born on Winter Solstice, (re)birth day of the sun (god), he enters Jerusalem on a donkey, "animal of the (sun) gods and kings", and gets put on a cross, symbol of the sun (god). Interesting. From my post "Alexamenos graffito"...

And so, according to the psalm 22, Christ, while awaiting death on the cross, the symbol of Shamash, and while being surrounded by bulls, lions and dogs, animal calendar markers for Jul/Aug, invokes his father...

This kind of makes you wonder about what Gnostics knew when they rejected Christian god as Demiurg...And why Cathars and Bogumils rejected cross... 

But then again, this could all be just me reeding too much into things...

Or, maybe, the greatest trick The Devil ever pulled was not convincing the world he didn't exist, but convincing the world he was The God...

For the end, wisdom based on centuries of suffering...

Ethnographer interviewing an old peasant woman, Serbia first half of 20th century.

Gran, do you believe in god?

Of course I do my son. Who wouldn't believe in god?

And are you afraid of god, gran?

Of course I am my son. Who wouldn't be afraid of an evil force? 

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...

Agia Triada sarcophagus

The other day I posted this article, "Minoan bull sacrifice", with the analysis of the bull sacrifice scene from the Minoan Hagia Triada Sarcophagus, a late Minoan limestone sarcophagus, dated to around 1400 BC, excavated from a chamber tomb at Hagia Triada, Crete. 

And it went completely unnoticed??? 

In this article I want to present the full analysis of all 4 sides of this sarcophagus. Honestly this is as cool an example of symbolic religious calendar art as they come.

First, I definitely don't think that these panels depict funerary rituals, which is the most common interpretation of the scene, like in this article.

I think that they could be depicting religious rituals related to Proto Demeter, Persephone and Poseidon. The "two queens and the king" mentioned In the Mycenean Greek tablets dated 1400–1200 BC.

They are also a religious calendar closely linked to the climatic calendar.

So let start with this panel. It is clearly divided into two halves, with two sets of people, facing opposite directions performing two different (and I would say opposite) ceremonies. 

I would start with the right side of this panel, with the calf and boat offering ceremony.

The climatic year on Crete is divided into two halves: Hot/Dry half, Summer, Apr/May - Oct/Nov and and Cool/Wet half, Winter, Oct/Nov - Apr/May. Which is why we find bull associated with the sun (gods). I talk about this in my articles "Solar bull", "Water bull",  "Bactrian snakes and dragons", "Shamash young and old", "Butt chewing", "When Utu steps up into heaven", "Maran", "Sun god tablet", "Gisgis relief", "Lyres of Ur"... 

The hot dry season in Crete starts in Apr/May, in Taurus, when wild Eurasian cattle used to start calving. I talked about this in my articles "Cow and calf ivory", "Foundation peg of the goddess Nanshe", "Elamite water bull", "Human bull hybrid", "White calf", "Calydonian boar", "Cypriot stamp seal with cow and calf"...

 

Hence the offering of calves. 

Apr/May is also the beginning of the sailing season in the Eastern Mediterranean. I talked about this in these articles "To sail - To harvest", "Coin from Byzantion", "Tetradrachm from Byblos", "Swallow tattoo", "Tuna boats", "Anat"...

Hence the offering of a boat model. 

I talked about Minoan sailing calendar in my article "Minoan dolphin fresco", about the famous Minoan "dolphins fresco" from Knossos, Crete, dated to 1500BC...

Who is the dude to whom these offerings of calves and boat models were made? The most common interpretation is that this is the dead person whose funeral ceremony is depicted??? 

I would say that it is much more likely that this dude is some kind of deity, and he could be Proto Poseidon...

From here we proceed to the small panel depicting the two goddesses riding in a chariot pulled by a horse...

There is a reason why horse was the sacred animal of Poseidon (Greek) and Yamm (Phoenician) sea gods. Horse mating season overlaps with the sailing season in Eastern Medterranean.

I talked about this in my articles "Trojan horse", "Three sacrifices", "Seahorse ring", "Tetradrachm from Byblos", "Poseidon pursuing Demeter"

Apparently, the horse pulling the chariots with two goddesses could actually have ibex horns??? Check the image, it does look like it does...Like this one from Scythia???

A horse wearing reconstructed 2,500 year-old Scythian horse decorations which were unearthed in the Altai Mountains in Siberia. 

Why horse with ibex horns? Maybe a complex calendar marker for the period between Apr/May (beginning of the horse mating season) and Oct/Nov (beginning of the ibex mating season). Which is the sailing season in Eastern Mediterranean.

BTW, I already talked about these kind of complex animal calendar markers in my article "Mythical beast from Xian", in which I presented the analysis of the symbolism of this "mythical beast", stag with eagle's head, and ten further eagle heads in the antlers. 4th-3rd century BC. Nalinggaotu, Shenmu County, Xi'an, China...

But maybe, this horse with ibex horns actually depicts the grain agricultural season. Which starts with grain sowing in Oct/Nov, when ibex goats start to mate, and ends with grain harvests in Apr/May, when horses start to mate???

Are these two women riding on the horse pulled chariot then Proto Demeter and Proto Persephone? I think so...I talked about the link between Poseidon, Demeter, Persephone and horses in my article "Poseidon pursuing Demeter"...

The same grain agricultural calendar depicted using plant calendar markers. I talked about this in my article "Poppies and pomegranates", in which I answered the question: Why are opium poppies sacred to Demeter, goddess of grain harvest, while pomegranates are sacred to her daughter, Persephone?

Anyway, where are the two goddesses driving to? Well, towards the other main panel, which depicts bull being sacrificed on a table above two ibex goats...

In "Aegean Prehistory: A Review", in in the chapter, "Neopalatial, Final Palatial, and Postpalatial Crete", Paul Rehak and John G. Younger note that:

"A major development of the Final Palatial Period is the evidence for bull sacrifice..."

"It is possible that the killing of the animal became the final feature of the Minoan bull-games, perhaps under Mycenaean influence. It also may be significant that the bull sacrifice is attested at exactly the moment when Minotaur appears on Minoan/Mycenaean stamp seals."

Hmmm...Amazing. But when did the bull-games, which ended in the bull sacrifice, take place? I think that this 1700BC Levantine seal can help us determine that. You can find the full symbolic analysis of this seal in my article "Bull leaping in Syria"...

Summer, which started with the calving of Wild Eurasian cattle, ended with mating of Wild Eurasian cattle...Mating which was marked by vicious bull fights...Where bulls charged at each other...Like this...

On this levantine seal, the bull leaping is depicted right under the charging bull, which means that the ceremony was most likely performed in Jul/Aug, at the time of charging bulls, the beginning of the Wild Eurasian cattle mating season...

The charging bull is charging towards the lion, Leo, Jul/Aug...

Leo (Jul/Aug), originally had nothing to do with stars either. It is the ancient animal calendar marker marking the beginning of the mating season of the Eurasian lions.

In the "THE ASIATIC LION: A study of ecology and behaviour" by Paul Joslin we can read that based on the observation of the large number of wild lions, the mating season of the Asiatic lions starts in August and lasts until October. 

Which is why autumn starts in Leo (Jul/Aug). And why lion is the symbol of autumn...I talked about this in my article "Symbols of the seasons"...

Another clue that bull leaping was performed in Jul/Aug can be found on the so called Theseus ring, gold "Mycenaean" signed ring from the Acropolis of Athens, 15th c. BC. Currently in NAM Athens. where we also see that a charging bull is charging towards a lioness...

Was bull leaping a popular activity in Mycenae? Or is this just another looted Minoan treasure? I talked about this ring in my article "Theseus ring"...

So if the bull sacrifice was performed in Jul/Aug, in Leo, maybe it was performed as part of this sailing ceremony depicted on Minoan frescoes. I talked about it in my article "Minoan dolphin fresco".

In this article, I explained why lions were depicted on the sides of Minoan ceremonial ships:

Writing in the 8th century BC, Hesiod says that:

"Fifty days after the solstice, 

when the season of wearisome heat is come to an end, 

is the right (best) time for men to go sailing"

This is at the end of July beginning of August. In Leo...At the beginning of the mating seasons of lions 🙂

This is the time when Romans celebrated the Neptunalia. Apparently the authorities are not sure why Romans celebrated Neptune at exactly that time of the year. I will let authorities ponder this further... 

Here I will propose that maybe Minoans also celebrated sea god in Leo...And that they sacrificed bulls to their sea god, Proto Poseidon...

That the bull sacrifice was indeed performed in Jul/Aug, at the beginning of autumn, can be seen from the fact that the next panel depicts the two goddesses riding on a chariot pulled by a griffin.

Now griffin is a complex animal calendar marker for autumn. I talked about this in my article "Minoan flying goddess with griffin", in which I analyse this Minoan gold signature ring depicting a flying griffon and goddess, from cemetery at Archanes, Phourni, in Crete, 1700-1450 BC.

After this small panel, we arrive back to the original panel where according to the common interpretation, we see "what could be continuation of the bull sacrifice scene, where the bull's blood is poured into a cauldron, standing between two poles, topped with labris and a bird".

This could be the case, but this could also be symbolic closing of the water flowing season in Crete, which takes place a the end of the wet season in Apr/May. This is an annual flow rate chart for the Koiliaris River Basin near Chania, Crete from this article...

You can see that the water flows through the river during the wet season. The flow suddenly increases in Oct/Nov, when the first rains arrive and suddenly decreases in Apr/May, when the rains stop.

After that the only water that is available is the water that comes out of the low elevation karst springs, or the water that was collected in cisterns, like this one...Pic from this article... 

I wonder if the horns of consecration are actually bull horns at all, or more precisely, if they are only bull horns? Could they be symbolic depiction of dry river beds during the hot dry half of the year which starts in Taurus, Apr/May?

The Cretan gorges, like Samaria gorge, are open for hiking only during the period May to Oct, when they are completely dry...

I wonder if this pouring of blood ritual is symbolically sacrificing the (summer) bull (blood) for winter rain?

BTW, a guy playing a 7 string lyre is also another calendar marker for Apr/May, Taurus. And another symbol for the hot dry season, which according to Sumerians lasted 7 monts...I talked about it in my article "Lyre of Apollo", about animal and plant calendar markers, tortoise, bull, ram, snake, embedded into the story about the birth of Hermes, particularly the part related to him making the first lyre, which he later swapped with Apollo for the caduceus...

And in my article "Lyres of ur" in which I analysed the symbolic significance of the ceremonial Sumerian bull headed lyres. A lyre player from "The Standard of Ur", a Sumerian artefact found in one of the largest royal tombs in the Royal Cemetery at Ur, associated with Ur-Pabilsag, a king who died around 2550 BC. Now in the British Museum...

This concludes my analysis of the sarcophagus. What do you think? Cool? I think so...

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...