Thread: This is an impression of an Akkadian cylinder seal, c. 2217-2193 BC, currently in Louvre Museum. This also is one of the best examples of animal calendar markers I have seen... Image
It shows the same scene, a water buffalo licking a jar, held by a kneeling "man", from which water flows in two streams. The scene is depicted twice symmetrically around the inscription that reads "The Divine Sharkalisharri Prince of Akkad"...
So first, what's the meaning of the jar with two streams flowing out of it? The two flowing streams are two great Mesopotamian rivers, Tigris and Euphrates. And the jar is symbolic depiction of their source...
Now the mythological source of Tigris and Euphrates is God of fresh water, known to Sumerians as Enki and to Akkadians as Ea...Actually his penis. Apparently every year, he "stands up like a wild bull, lifts his penis, ejaculates and fills the great rivers with flowing water"...
Which is why Enki is either depicted sitting on his throne, holding a jar from which water flows out in two streams, like on this cylinder seal Image
Or he is depicted sitting on a throne with two streams flowing out of his shoulders... Image
Ok, so what about the buffaloes? Why are they licking the mouth of the water jars? It's all to do with Mesopotamian climate. The climatic year in Mesopotamia is divided into two halves: summer, hot and dry half (Apr/May-Oct/Nov) and winter, cool and wet half (Oct/Nov-Apr/May)... Image
The rain that falls everywhere in the Tigris and Euphrates catchment area and snow that falls in the Anatolian highlands and Zagros mountains during the wet season, and subsequent snowmelt, are the real source of the two great rivers...And the life in the region...
The beginning of the rain season in the area (Oct/Nov) is also the beginning of the mating season of the wild water buffaloes. Domesticated buffaloes also breed mostly during the winter... Image
So the reason why the water buffalo is depicted licking the jar, symbolic source of Tigris and Euphrates, is because the water buffalo is the animal calendar marker which marks the beginning of winter, the wet season, the real source of Tigris and Euphrates... Image
I talked about water buffalo as an animal calendar marker for winter in Mesopotamia already in this thread
One last thing. The story about ejaculating Enki says: "...Father Enki...he stood up full of lust like a rampant bull, lifted his penis, ejaculated and filled the Tigris with flowing water. He was like a wild cow mooing for its young in the wild grass..." Why?
The rain season in Mesopotamia does start with the mating season of water buffaloes (Oct/Nov). But Tigris and Euphrates reach their peak water level 6 months later, in Apr/May...Pics: water flow charts, L: Tigris, R: Euphrates ImageImage
This time of the year, Apr/May, is marked by Taurus, Bull...Why? Because this is the beginning of the calving season of the aurochs, Wild Eurasian cattle...oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2016/05/ram-an… Image
Hence Enki, the god of fresh water, was at the moment of his ejaculation, at the moment of his climax, at the moment of the peak water levels in the rivers he fills with his heavenly semen, "like a lustful bull" and "like a wild cow mooing for its young in the wild grass"...
So the wet season, the real source of the two great rivers, starts with buffalo and ends, culminates, with bull... Image

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More from @serbiaireland

23 Apr
#StGeorgesDay Thread: Every year in Serbia, a male lamb is sacrificed to St George on his day. Why? oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2018/07/aries-… Image
Because (summer) St George's day is just Christianized old marker for the end of spring and the beginning of summer...Spring needs to end so summer can begin...

The end of spring is marked by Aries and the beginning of summer is marked by Taurus...I am not here talking about constellations...I am talking about animal calendar markers, which mark either mating or birthing of the animal used as symbols... oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/p/zodiac.html Image
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22 Apr
#FolkloreThursday Thread: Here is, at first sight, a very strange Serbian superstition about dogs:

A place where a dog has scratched the ground is in Serbian called "sugreb". It is believed that stepping on this place can cause person to get sick "and even to go mad"! Image
This is why when you see that the dog has scratched the soil, you should spit on that spot, and that would "cure it"...

This is very interesting. Why would people believe this?
Well Serbs also believed that "dogs are unclean" and that "god's breath can reach 100 cubits into the earth"...What does this mean? Why did people believe this?
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21 Apr
Thread: A farmer discovers an "untouched" and "highly unusual" ancient tomb, thought to be from the Early Bronze Age, while working on his land on the Dingle Peninsula in Co Kerry, Ireland. rte.ie/news/2021/0416… The tomb contained "an unusual smooth oval-shaped stone"... Image
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oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2014/12/bullau… ImageImage
Left: One of many Native American communal grinding stones, used for grinding of acorns, USA
Right: One of many so called "bullaun" stones from Ireland, use and purpose unknown...

See all the "unusual smooth oval-shaped stones" in the holes?

oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2014/12/bullau… ImageImage
Read 4 tweets
21 Apr
Thread: The hand...Relief from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dur-Sharr… (the Assyrian capital in the time of Sargon II of Assyria), "detail of a throne???", ca 721 -705 BC...
The only throne depiction from Dur Sharrukin I found is this one. The "figure" holding a goat and poppies (???) is the same, but there is no giant hand behind...So where is the original image from?
What Assyrian god is holding the goat of rain? And poppies? Remember this guy, a Urartian contemporary of this Assyrian dude, also holding poppies, but standing on a bull??? oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2020/05/poppie…
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6 Apr
Thread: This is a drawing of a relief from Persepolis (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persepolis), depicting "The King killing Angra Mainyu", the main adversary of Ahura Mazda, the highest deity of Zoroastrianism...
In the earliest texts, Angra ("destructive", "chaotic", "disorderly", "inhibitive", "malign") Mainyu ("Energy", "Force", "Sprit", "Mind") was the antithesis of Spenta ("Holy", "Creative", "Bounteous") Mainyu ("Energy", "Force", "Sprit", "Mind")...
Eventually Angra (Destructive) Mainyu became Aka (Evil) Mainyu...Because of course everything destructive caused disorder and disorder is evil...And so Zoroastrian devil, Ahriman, was born...en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ahriman
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4 Apr
Thread: Years ago, I saw a documentary about Anatolia. In it the crew went to eat in a restaurant which only served one dish: a sort of a thick spicy lamb (mutton) stew, slow cooked for hours, and served in a copper bowl in which it was quickly fried over a blowtorch 🙂 Image
So I decided to make it today...Here is the recipe if anyone wants to try it at home. Warning, definitely not for faint hearted (it can induce a heart attack) 🙂
Ingredients:
2 lamb shanks
1 large onion
1 head of garlic
2 red chillies
2 sticks of celery
2 medium carrots
1 medium parsnip
4 large cherry tomatoes
1 glass of red vine
1/2 glass of warm water
olive oil
salt, pepper, paprika, bayleaf, rosemary, thyme, vegetable stock cube
Read 11 tweets

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