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Nov 11, 2021 16 tweets 8 min read Read on X
Thread: A while back I wrote an article about this the Khafajeh vase, which was made in Iran in the mid 3rd mil. BC by the people of the Jiroft culture...It is still one of the most amazing animal calendars I have seen so far oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2020/09/khafaj… Image
This particular scene depicts the driest and hottest part of the year in the Jiroft County, located in the Kerman Province of the South-Eastern Iran...Jul/Aug...This is symbolised by the person holding two snakes (symbols of sun's heat) standing between two lions (in Leo)... Image
This "person" is the sun god, the same dude depicted on this Bactrian seal from the same period. I talked about Bactrian snakes and dragons in this article

oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2020/06/bactri… Image
What I didn't notice at the time when I wrote my article were the tips of the lions' tails. They end in what looks like wheat ears...Why? Is this significant? Image
Well, in this article about this amazing cylinder seal, oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2021/05/shamas… I talked about young and old sun god Utu/Shamash from Mesopotamian mythology... Image
Utu/Shamash is also depicted as a bull with human face and long flowing beard...This is one of those depictions of the sun god Utu/Shamash as a bull with human face and a long flowing beard. But this time he also has a tail that ends in a ear of wheat...Why? Is this significant? Image
Well it is. Utu/Shamash is depicted as a bull, cause hot dry part of the year dominated by the sun starts in Apr/May, in Taurus, the time when Wild Eurasian Cattle begin to calve... oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2021/06/dairy-… Image
This is also the time of the peak flood of the Tigris and Euphrates, which is caused by the snowmelt on the mountains that feed these two great rivers, which is in turn caused by the sun, Utu/Shamash...Hence golden bull with blue lapis (water stone) beard oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2021/10/green-… Image
Apr/May, Taurus, is also the time when the grain harvest begins in Mesopotamia...Hence bulls and grain...And bulls with grain tails...

oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2021/10/bulls-…
oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/2021/10/how-gr… ImageImage
But what does this have to do with the lions with grain tails from the Jiroft vase? Well..."wheat harvest season is approximately 4.5 months in Iran starting in early April up to mid-August, depending on the region and it's local climate"...
According to this paper about the affect of the global warming on grain agriculture in Iran researchgate.net/publication/33…

"...most of the wheat in Iran is cultivated in October and harvested in July..."
And finally I found this: "KERMAN, Aug. 13 (MNA) – Farmers of Deh Ziyar village in Kerman province, harvest wheat using traditional methods"...
en.mehrnews.com/photo/148819/T…

Basically they are harvesting grain in Leo... ImageImageImageImage
Is Jul/Aug really grain harvest season in Kerman province? Is this why lions on this vase made by the people of the Jiroft culture from the Kerman province of Iran have tails that end in grain ears?
I just looked at the pictures of the wheat being harvested in Kerman province. It looks like one of the old wheat types, emmer, durum, which are both awned (with bristles)... Image
Durum wheat is the predominant wheat type grown in the Middle East. And it is traditionally a "spring wheat" which is sown in Feb/Mar and harvested in Jul/Aug. It has lower yields, thick husks, long bristles and is resistant to high temperatures...
It fits...

More about animal calendar markers found in ancient cultures, start here oldeuropeanculture.blogspot.com/p/animal-solar… then check the rest of the blog posts I still didn't add to this page, and finally check my twitter threads I still didn't convert to blog post...I am 7 months behind now

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More from @serbiaireland

Dec 29, 2024
Thread: Another interesting detail from this Daunian globular pottery askos, made in Canosa di Puglia and dated to 350BC-325BC, "painted with bands of decoration. This consists of flora and fauna, geometric patterns and swastikas"... metmuseum.org/art/collection…Image
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Is this the symbol? Christmas cake from Serbia with the sun and "the hands of god" cross. The hands of god cross by itself in the next picture. The hands of god represent 4 seasons with 3 months each, which means that the god whose hands these are is the Sun Image
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Read 4 tweets
Dec 28, 2024
Thread: Daunian globular pottery askos, made in Canosa di Puglia and dated to 350BC-325BC, "perhaps for funerary use, painted with bands of decoration. This consists of flora and fauna, geometric patterns and swastikas"...

That's it? metmuseum.org/art/collection…Image
What about this detail? A curly swastika with each arm connected to a sun. Two of which are red and two of which are black. Image
That this is not a one off squiggle, can be seen from the fact that we find the same motif on this Daunian askos from the Heinz Weisz collection christies.com/en/lot/lot-572…Image
Read 7 tweets
Dec 17, 2024
Thread: Finnish illustrator Aleksander Lindeberg (1917-2015) Image
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Nov 22, 2024
Thread: Boreas (1903) by John William Waterhouse...

Boreas is the Greek god of the cold north wind, storms, and winter.

When I saw this picture first, I thought: Why did John William Waterhouse depict Boreas as a young woman wrapped in a black/grey veil? Image
I wondered if he did this because Romans depicted Winter as a woman covered with a black veil...

I talked about Winter here
The problem was that The Roman winter was an Ugly Old Hag...And the woman on John William Waterhouse's painting was young and beautiful. I was sure I was missing something important, but I didn't know what...
Read 9 tweets
Oct 22, 2024
Thread: Buckle up, this is going to be quite a ride.

Meet Cetus, Poseidon's pet which he released on people that really pissed him off. Usually kings with beautiful daughters.

3rd c. BC mosaic depicting Cetus, from Ancient Kaulon, Calabria, Italy Image
Two most famous Cetuses 🙂 were so called Æthiopian (Levantine) Cetus and Trojan Cetus. This thread is about them, the two beautiful babes that were supposed to be sacrificed to them to appease them and the two heroes who strongly objected to such arrangements...

Here we go:
Queen Cassiopeia boasted that she and her daughter Andromeda were more beautiful than the Nereids. This angered Poseidon so much that he sent the sea monster Cetus to attack Æthiopia (Levant)...
Read 37 tweets
Sep 27, 2024
Thread: Two days ago I wrote this analysis of this Early Mesopotamian bowl. But ever since I wrote it, I can't stop thinking about the "bundle of stylised reeds" and what does it actually look like...Here is why:
This is part of the full object description from the museum page: "...The animals are crouched before a bundle of stylised reeds (not shown), much like the reeds carved into a door at the base of the Ziggurat of Anu..."
Anyone seen this door? Is this what this "bundle of stylised reeds" looked like? Like these two "bundles of stylised reeds" depicted behind Inanna on the Uruk (Wakra) vase ? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warka_VaseImage
Read 14 tweets

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