Thread: Another very interesting Mesopotamian seal. It depicts a very unusual ploughing scene...Which i would like to interpret... 
To the right of the first figure is the symbol for grain. So this is grain field ploughing...We find this symbol in Indus Valley civilisation artefacts too...
This is the end of the "normal" and "expected" stuff on this seal. The rest is...Well mythology... 🙂 Or is it? The plough is pulled by, what is commonly interpreted as, a snake or a dragon. I would say dragon. Under the dragon is a lion. Above the dragon is a scorpion. Why?
Well it's all about solar zodiac, again. On that climatic, biological (not stellar) zodiac, animals are used to mark significant reoccurring events in the solar year. Like a lifecycle event of that animal, which happens every year at the same time and which everyone knows about.
For instance lion marks the time when Eurasian lions start mating. This happens in September for Asian lions, but might have earlier happen in August for European and middle Eastern lions...
And scorpion marks the time when Eurasian scorpions "disappear" (start hibernating, hide from cold), which happens in late October early November...
What does this have to do with ploughing of grain fields in Mesopotamia? Well according to their agricultural calendar, the first ploughing of the barley fields was done in August-September. During Leo...And the second ploughing+sowing was done in October-November. During Scorpio
Neat, right? But what about the dragon pulling the plough? Well, the beginning of autumn, Leo, was the driest part of the year in Mesopotamia. This is the time of the fire breathing, drought causing dragons...Look at the rain table for Mesopotamia. Jul, Aug, Sep - 0.0 mm rain...
So, the picture is kind of a grain ploughing solar calendar. See the "star", our sun, above the plough? And it reads: Plough the fields first when lions start mating. Sow them when scorpions disappear...Finish this during dry time, before the first rains...
Well maybe, or maybe this is all just mythology...Gods, monsters...
Just to add some more detail. In Mesopotamia people used two types of ploughs.
Left: The ploughing plough :) used in Leo for breaking the soil.
Right: The Sowing plough, used in Scorpio for furrowing, sowing and covering
Left: The ploughing plough :) used in Leo for breaking the soil.
Right: The Sowing plough, used in Scorpio for furrowing, sowing and covering
Sowing plough used in Scorpio...
