Symbolic links between the Pashupati Seal and the Lascaux Shaft Scene


The Pashupati Seal, image from Wikipedia

The Pashupati Seal was recovered from Mohenjo-Daro, Indus Valley (now mainly in Pakistan) and thought to date to around 2000 BCE. It shows a seated Master-of-Animals figure, surrounded by 4 opposing animals, which is consistent with Gurshtein's theory of an early system of zodiacal dating using precession of the equinoxes.

Many other Master-of-Animals figures are known; see here. They are mostly consistent with either the Greek zodiac or the Gobekli Tepe zodiac.

The problem with this Master-of-Animals is that the zodiac doesn't conform to one we know. At 2000 BCE the solsticial/equinoctial constellations are; Taurus (spring), Capricornus (winter), Libra (autumn) and Leo (summer). Thus, using the Greek zodiac we should have a bull, sea-goat, scales and lion, respectively. Of course, the scales and sea-goat are not actual animals, so we shouldn't expect to see them in a proper zodiac anyway. This leaves the bull and feline symbols, which are consistent with the Greek zodiac. But we also have an elephant and rhino. Can these represent zodiacal constellations?

Well, let's consider the Lascaux Shaft Scene, which is exactly 13,000 years (0.5 great years) older, and therefore we can expect the summer/winter and spring/autumn symbols to have switched places.


The Lascaux Shaft Scene, images from Alistair Coombs

Here, we also have bovine and rhino forms, in addition to a bird and a horse on the back wall. Again, 4 animal symbols plus a dying man, similar to Pillar 43 at Gobekli Tepe. Now, according to my 2019 paper with Alistair Coombs, the bull symbolises pseudo-Capricornus, not Taurus, just as at Gobekli Tepe. Here, it is supposedly the rhino that represents pseudo-Taurus. And the horse on the back wall symbolises pseudo-Leo while the bird symbolises pseudo-Libra. So, let's just summarise this;

                                    Summer                Autumn                      Winter                        Spring

Pashupati Seal          Tiger (Leo)        Elephant (Libra?)     Bull (Capricornus)        Rhino (Taurus)
Lascaux Cave      Bull (Capricornus)     Rhino (Taurus)           Horse (Leo)               Bird (Libra?)

In the 2017 paper with Dimitrios Tsikritsis, we deduced the bull symbolises Capricornus at Gobekli Tepe. And this also seems to be the case at Catalhoyuk. It makes sense too at Lascaux, where the entrance to the cave, the Hall of Bulls, faces the setting sun on the summer solstice, i.e. it faces the Bull (Capricornus=summer solstice) constellation. So, does the bull also symbolise Capricornus on the Pashupati Seal? Did the Indus Valley civilisation use an ice-age zodiac? I suspect they did, except for the tiger as Leo.

This would mean the elephant as Libra is also a relic from the ice age. Indeed, there are plenty of elephant/mammoth paintings in ice-age caves, and the ones that have been radiocarbon dated are all consistent with Libra. However, in the Lascaux Shaft Scene the bird seems to represent Libra instead, which is consistent with Pillar 43 at Gobekli Tepe.

The horse as Leo in the Lascaux Shaft Scene is also a very nice fit. The horse and Leo look very similar. Notice how the horse is missing its legs, like the constellation in Stellarium. 

So it seems we can interpret the Pashupati Seal with an ice-age zodiac, except where the tiger is Leo (consistent with the Greek zodiac).

By the way, the rhino appears on many seal stamps from the Indus Valley civilisation. Often, it is called a mythical 'unicorn' because the symbol is usually drawn with only one horn. But clearly, the picture is of a rhino, not a unicorn. This is very obvious. So, it appears Indus Valley seal stamps with rhino/unicorn pictures are using the same system of zodiacal dating, as predicted by Gurshtein, where the rhino symbolises Taurus, which is the spring equinox constellation at the time.



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