Orion - oldest European calendar [Archive] - The Apricity Forum: A European Cultural Community

Sisak

01-08-2013, 12:47 PM

The right bank of the Danube river in eastern Croatia was settled by the population of the Vučedol Culture at the beginning of the third millennium BC. This predominant cultural phenomenon (in the period between 2900-2400 BC) had a great influence on other contemporary cultures, and it also left behind considerable traces in the European heritage as a whole.

It was contemporary with the Sumerian period in Mesopotamia, the Old Kingdom in Egypt („The Age of Pyramids“) and the early Troy (I and II). The entire range of decoration on the Vučedol vessels is based on solar and astral symbolism, as well as Venus and Mars.

The decoration engraved on a pot from the Vučedol layer in Vinkovci, dated prior to 2600 BC., displays the most complete European (Indo-European) calendar based on astral symbolism representing the relevant constellations characteristic for all four seasons. The calendar is synchronous with the Sumerian and Egyptian calendars and is by no means their replica, because it had been established on the far more northern, 45th parallel. The climatic conditions corresponding to that latitude resulted in the four seasons.

The determination of the seasons can best be understood by the positions and relations among certain engraved symbols that undoubtedly mark the constellations significant for the respective parts of the year.

In comparison with the Sumerian-Babylonian, Egyptian, Chinese, North and South American Indian, and other ancient calendars, the constellations can be clearly defined, and the zones or belts into which some vessels are divided mark the particular yearly seasons. The constellations denoting individual seasons were shown at the moment of twilight, as the first landmarks of the evening sky (Orion, the Pleiades, Gemini, Pisces/Pegasus, Cassiopeia, Cygnus). Naturally, the usual symbolism of the Sun (without a single depiction of the Moon) shows the complete absence of lunar symbolism, which is an Indo-European trait.

In the Vučedol Culture the year began with the spring equinox, when the Sun symbolically supplanted the most important winter constellation of Orion. To be more exact, that particular night the three stars of the Orion's Belt appeared a short while for the last time in the winter sky, disappearing for several months. This coincidence, the disappearance of Orion on the day of the spring equinox (which today, due to the Earth's precession takes place 50 days later), was recorded by the Vučedol culture population and it helped them in determining the first day of the new year, but also in coordinating the number of days in their year with the actual number of the days of the yearly revolution of the Earth around the Sun.