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October 14, 2005
Indus Influence on the Winged Goddesses?
Note (October 15, 2005): Before you read the remainder of this post, please read the update at the bottom. As I said in the note on the my previous post on this subject, "This blog is intended, among other things, to document my thought process, even when it is wrong."
Yesterday I wrote about the discovery of the bas-relief of four winged goddesses in Iran. On the Ancient Near East list server, Srinivasan Kalyanaraman asked if there was a picture and I directed him to the one I reproduced on my post. Here is what he said about it.
I find in this picture, three linear strokes on the top register. The woman has two wings emerging from the waistline. As you know, three linear strokes is a hieroglyh common in 'Indus script' which I have called Sarasvati hieroglyphs (not unlike Egyptian hieroglyphs, using rebus readings of homonyms). I couldn't figure out how a deer or cow is referred to. Maybe, haunch (loi and leg of a quadruped) is clear on the other three bricks. If this brick is an epigraph the hieroglyphs can be read (assuming links with Sarasvati hieroglyphs) as: kola 'woman'; rebus: kol 'alloy of five metals, furnace' er-aka = upper arm, wing; rebus: erako = molten cast; era = copper tebr.a, tebor. = thrice; rebus: tibira = copper merchant (Akkadian); ta(m)bra = copper (Pkt.)It will be interesting to inquire if any metal artefacts were found at the site. The only close-by civilization which was using epigraphs to convey messages was IVC (what I call Sarasvati civilization with 80% of archaeological sites on this river basin; cf. Kenoyer).
Before seeing the picture he had said,
Ligaturing was a unique artistic style seen on many Sarasvati hieroglyphs (seals and other inscribed objects of the so-called Indus script). In a recent excavation at Harappa, a unique ligature of a tiger's face ligatured to the breast of a woman was found. [kol 'alloy of five metals', kol 'furnace'; kollan 'blacksmith'; rebus: kola 'woman'; kola, kolum 'tiger, jackal'.] See examples in albums at: http://spaces.msn.com/members/sarasvati97 The following URL shows a terracotta feline figurine with the body of a woman ligatured to the face of a tiger: http://www.harappa.com/indus/88.html Material: terra cotta Dimensions: 7.1 cm height, 4.8 cm length, 3.5 cm width Harappa, 2384 Harappa Museum, HM 2082 Vats 1940: 300, pl. LXXVII, 67.
I'm not sure what to make of this but the idea of Indus influence in Persia is abnormally interesting and not at all impossible.
Update: Now Judith Lerner writes,
It is actually the winged figure (male) from gate R at Pasargadae. As far as I know, photos of these "winged goddesses" remain unpublished--at least electronically.
More to come, I'm sure.
Posted by Duane Smith at October 14, 2005 8:06 PM | Read more on Archaeology |
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