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11 Oct, 5 tweets, 2 min read
Thread: This is a detail of the griffin fresco (reproduction) from the throne room, palace of Knossos, Crete, dated to 1700-1450 BC.

In this shortish thread I would like to explain why I think that the flowers depicted around the lying griffin are sea daffodils... Image
To start, check this thread in which I showed that Minoans basically treated both the animals and plants they depicted together as calendar markers. For instance swallows nesting season overlaps with Madonna lily flowering season

Then check this thread in which I explained why I believe griffin is not a mythical animal, but actually a complex animal calendar marker for autumn (Aug/Sep/Oct)...

Now check this out: this is sea daffodil, a flower native to Crete. Compare it to the flowers depicted next to the griffin...Now the best bit is that sea daffodil flowers from Aug to Oct...Basically during autumn (Aug/Sep/Oct), the same period of the year marked by griffin... Image
Now of course we can't be 100% sure the flowers depicted around the lying griffin are sea daffodils, but there are no other similar flowers that bloom in Crete in August...So...

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More from @serbiaireland

oldeuropeanculture Profile picture
13 Oct
Thread: Sumerian limestone bowl fragment with three ibex goats following a lion...3300-3100 BCE, Currently in the Detroit Institute of Arts dia.org/art/collection…

What's all this about?

Well, I think, climate in Mesopotamia and annual lifecycle of the depicted animals... Image
I am so sorry only a fragment of this bowl has survived. But I could bet that the original bowl had

3 ibex goats, following 3 lions, following 3 bulls, following 3 leopards...

Why?
Check this thread out. It is about a copper bowl from the same period and the same area...And about the climatic year in Sumer and Elam, and local Sumerian/Elamite animal calendar markers for the four seasons

Read 4 tweets
oldeuropeanculture Profile picture
12 Oct
Thread: This is the famous Minoan "dolphins fresco" from Knossos, Crete, dated to 1500BC...

Why is it important do determine what type of dolphins were depicted on this fresco?

Spoiler: animal calendar markers...🙂 Image
In my thread about the strange "dolphin attacking ibex goat" Minoan seal, I talked about different types of dolphins that live in Mediterranean sea

Here they are again...So which one of these dolphins was depicted on the above Minoan fresco? I would say that we can pretty much immediately discard the Bottlenose dolphin because of the color... Image
Read 29 tweets
oldeuropeanculture Profile picture
23 Sep
Thread (longish): The charge of the Polish Winged Hussars at the 1683 battle of Vienna. 3000 of them took part of the biggest cavalry charge in history, which finally stopped the Turkish expansion into Europe... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of…
This is the story about their origin...

And about a very interesting and unusual Serbian phrase: "Kititi se tuđim perjem" which means "To take credit for something great someone else has done", but literally it means "To adorn oneself with someone else's feathers"...
So where do we start? With Nicolas de Nicolay, a French nobleman, who In 1567 publish a book entitled "Quatre premiers livres des navigations" which recorded his observations about the Ottoman court and peoples from his 1551 mission to Istanbul on behalf of the French government.
Read 55 tweets
oldeuropeanculture Profile picture
20 Sep
Thread: I wonder if people looking at this image realize that it contains a proof that people in one part of this map preserved a story about the arrival of agriculture as an oral legend for at least 5000 years, before it was first written down...
I am talking about these dudes here...The dudes who lived in the ancient city of Susa (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susa) which is currently located in Iran
When archaeologists excavated the city, they discovered, among other things, a text, known today as "How grain came to Sumer" (etcsl.orinst.ox.ac.uk/cgi-bin/etcsl.…)
Read 12 tweets
oldeuropeanculture Profile picture
18 Sep
Thread: Enki/Ea, the god of sweet water standing between two mountains, with trees and flowers...Enki is identifiable by the fact that he is holding two jars from which a water is pouring out, and which are symbols of the source of Tigris and Euphrates...

Super important image Image
Important cause of this: "Enki lives in Abzu, the source of Tigris and Euphrates"...The official explanation is that Abzu is "an underground aquifer"...

Which I think is completely wrong. I think Abzu was the name for the great mountains from which Tigris and Euphrates emerge... Image
That Abzu is a mountain is actually spelled for us in the Early Dynastic Za-me hymns where we read:

"Abzu, place that is a big mountain, princely crown of the heaven and earth. To the lord Nudimmud (Enki), (give) praise!"

Read 6 tweets
oldeuropeanculture Profile picture
18 Sep
Thread: Enki/Ea, god of sweet water and the annual flood. He is shown here holding two jars with water flowing out of them, which represent the sources of Tigris and Euphrates...But why is he standing on a carp fish? Image
The water flow of Tigris and Euphrates peaks during Apr/May.

Left: Tigris
Right: Euphrates ImageImage
And as I explained in this thread about the origin and meaning of the Goatfish symbol, this is the exact time of the year when the giant Mesopotamian carp swims upstream to mate.

Read 6 tweets

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