With the holiday season coming up and those bags of cinnamon-scented pine cones hitting store shelves soon, I think it would make a great topic of conversation at your next holiday party to explore…
Pine Cones in Ancient Mesopotamia | ALL MESOPOTAMIA ALL MESOPOTAMIA Information, news, photos & videos about ancient Mesopotamia. HomeAbout All Mesopotamia RSS ← In Chemistry, it started as a woman’s world A Mesopotamian treasure trove in New Haven → Pine Cones in Ancient Mesopotamia 22 Oct With the holiday season coming up and those bags of cinnamon-scented pine cones hitting store shelves soon, I think it would make a great topic of conversation at your next holiday party to explore the significance of pine cones in Mesopotamian mythology and art. Pine cones are symbolic in that they are where the life cycle of a pine tree begins, and conversely, where new life begins. Many reliefs excavated at Mesopotamian sites depict gods or super beings holding a bucket in one hand and a pine cone in the other. It is clear that the pine cone was dipped into the bucket and used to sprinkle a substance, sometimes blood, as in this depiction of Tammuz, a winged Babylonian deity associated with regeneration: Pine cones are representative of continuing life, and Tammuz represents regeneration. Source: http://www.crystalinks.com/dilmuntoearth.jpg The pine cone and bucket depiction was not reserved to deities. Super beings, genii, which are like gargoyles in that they ward off evil spirits with people as well as buildings are also depicted holding pine cones in Mesopotamian art. This Blessing Genius stood guard at the gate of the city of Khorsabad, providing protection and blessings to those who walked through the city’s gates: The pine cone is used by the genii to sprinkle water on passersby, to bless them. Source: http://www.louvre.fr/llv/oeuvres/detail_notice.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673225255&CURRENT_LLV_NOTICE%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673225255&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=9852723696500800&bmLocale=en For further information on pine cones and their significance, here are the amazing links we used to prepare this piece: http://www.markbeast.org/mark-beast-paganism.html http://www.crystalinks.com/sumergods.html http://www.ehow.com/list_7628863_life-cycle-pine-trees.html http://www.louvre.fr/llv/oeuvres/detail_notice.jsp?CONTENT%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673225255&CURRENT_LLV_NOTICE%3C%3Ecnt_id=10134198673225255&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=9852723696500800&bmLocale=en Share this:TwitterFacebookMoreTumblrLike this:Like Loading... Related Dissecting Mesopotamian JewelryJuly 24, 2012In "Artifacts"Breasts in MesopotamiaOctober 23, 2012In "Art"Aliens in Mesopotamia!March 7, 2012In "Mythology" 4 Comments Posted by ALL MESOPOTAMIA on October 22, 2011 in Assyrian, Mythology Tags: Art, history, iraq, mesopotamia, mythology, pine cone ← In Chemistry, it started as a woman’s world A Mesopotamian treasure trove in New Haven → 4 responses to “Pine Cones in Ancient Mesopotamia” tskraghu October 22, 2011 at 1:19 am V interesting! Reply AllMesopotamia October 24, 2011 at 3:18 am It is very interesting, indeed. Just imagine how much we take for granted that is so significant in ancient history and art. Glad to have piqued your interest, and I hope you will continue to find all our posts and links as interesting! Reply aarongraham October 22, 2011 at 2:09 am Facinating…I mean that! I’m a writer of fiction and I just might have to use this “Pine Cone” angle in one of my scenes. Reply AllMesopotamia October 24, 2011 at 3:17 am It is wonderful to know that this post has inspired you in this way! I look forward to your fiction, especially the scene that will contain the pine cone. Best of luck, and thank you for your lovely feedback. Reply Leave a Reply Cancel reply Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: Email (required) (Address never made public) Name (required) Website You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. ( Log Out / Change ) You are commenting using your Twitter account. ( Log Out / Change ) You are commenting using your Facebook account. ( Log Out / Change ) Cancel Connecting to %s Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Δ Search All Mesopotamia Follow Blog via Email Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. 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