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D: Early Mesopotamian Constellations
5: Elamite lion-bull iconography as constellations?
Persian lion-bull combat/contest scene decorating a wall (central panel, east stairway) of the apadana at Persepolis. (The finely chiseled detail of the figures is obvious.) The lion-bull combat/contest scene also appears on the west stairway of the central panel of the apadana. Further figures of the lion-bull combat/contest appear on the corner angles of the southern facade of the Palace of Darius at Persepolis.
Persepolis, the dynastic national shrine of Archaemenid Persia, was constructed from circa 520 to 450 BCE, to the commands of the great Archaemenid kings. It was a monumental architectural complex that was occupied for nearly two centuries before being burnt by Alexander the Great. The lion-bull combat/contest was an important symbol at Perseopolis and is commonly asserted to be symbolically related to the spring equinox and thus is one of the reliefs connected with the depiction of the New Year's festival (i.e., the spring festival Norouz). However, the assertion that the lion-bull combat/contest reliefs at Persepolis depict the New Year's festival (i.e., the spring festival Norouz) is not firmly established.
A number of academics (Cyril Bunt (1930), Ernst Herzfeld (1941), and Willy Hartner (1965)) held the view that the lion-bull combat/contest scenes depicted on earlier Mesopotamian cylinder seals and other items also have an astronomical significance. Willy Hartner in particular argued for an interpretation involving the establishment of Mesopotamian Lion and Bull constellations circa 4000 BCE. However, the earliest depiction of a lion-bull combat/contest is on a pitcher from Uruk dated circa 3300 BCE.
A recent and different interpretation has been offered by the young historian Francisco Prado-Vilar in his article "Circular Visions of Fertility and Punishment: Caliphal Ivory Caskets from al-Andalus." (In: Gülru Necipoglu (Editor). Muqamas XIV: An Annual on the Visual Culture of the Islamic World (1997). Pages 19-41.): "The lion-bull combat is common motif used for the glorification of royal power; it has a long tradition in political iconography, with well-known occurrences in artistic enterprises related to strong monarchic territorial structures like the Assyrian and Persian empires." Perhaps a correct interpretation has been offered by Elspeth Dusinberre, an art historian and expert on the Achaemenid (Persian) Empire, in her book Aspects of Empire in Achaemenid Sardis (2002). Page 278 has an illustration of a recently recovered seal from Sardis which depicts the lion-bull combat/contest with sun and moon motifs placed above them. The seal supports the conclusion that the Achaemenid lion-bull iconography represented the perpetual day-night revolutions. The lion stood for the sun and the bull stood for the night.
Objections to an astronomical origin and significance of the lion-bull combat/contest iconography are grounded in the complete absence of any type of supportive archaeological evidence.
The perceived problems with Hartner's Mesopotamian Lion-Bull constellation theory are:
(1) It is not established that the lion-bull iconography has a single intended meaning.
(2) The lion-bull combat/contest depictions are not consistent - in some of the earliest depictions both animals are depicted as achieving supremacy over each other.
(3) There is a complete lack of any type of supportive evidence for an astronomical interpretation i.e., from written sources such as mythological themes.
(4) The stylized lion-bull "symplegma" on an Elamite seal from circa 4000 BCE seems hardly convincing - the figures are barely touching and hardly make a convincing combat/contest scene.
(5) Hartner's earliest convincing lion-bull iconographic evidence (on a pitcher from Uruk) originated some 700 years later than the 4000 BCE seasonal marker date he identified.
(6) The earliest depiction of the eight-petaled rosette as a shoulder ornament on lions (circa 2500 BCE on a statue depicting lions supporting the throne of Innina) does not necessarily have an astral meaning.
(7) The sheer variety of animal combatants/contestants depicted in iconography makes an astronomical interpretation difficult.
(8) No one has attempted to show that changes in iconographic animals depicted in combat/contest scenes match constellation changes/additions due to the requirement for new seasonal markers to deal with the effect of precession.
(9) Splitting the lion-bull symplegma to interpret it is controversial and is not a requirement supported by recent interpreters of animal combat/contest scenes.
(10) Hartner did not track the (origin of the) lion-bull symbol to Elam - we do not know the culture responsible for originating the lion-bull symbolism.
(11) It has not been demonstrated that the lion-bull iconography at Persepolis has an astronomical/seasonal significance.
(12) It has not been demonstrated that the lion-bull iconography at Persepolis formed part of the depiction of a New Year's festival and it has not been demonstrated that a New Year's festival was held at Persepolis circa 500 BCE.
(13) A seal from Achaemenid Sardis supports the conclusion that the Achaemenid lion-bull combat/contest represented the perpetual day-night revolutions with the lion representing the sun and the bull representing the night.
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