The finds from Scandinavian Bronze Age are much concentrated to Denmark and in the other parts to landscape suitable for agriculture. In the big mounds they buried enough cultural items to decide that they had been in Knossos on Crete and other places.
Age of Aries, eroding rock art, customs in spring, agriculture carvings, male league, Minoan Crete, Ugarit, Aries and half-year symbols, Iphgenia is offer instead, sibylline question, new moon saturates, Aspeberget, ploughs from Beotia, priest, priestess
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Part of Ekenberg 1 Norrkauping
On this rock carvings may be figures from different times. The main part of the carving Ekenberg 1 Norrkauping has in right corner something that may be a lure alternatively an axe of the type from Austergautland.
Visit to Minoan Crete
Left to that is
a running spiral in square, which may be compared, to the decorations in the ceiling of Knossos and in tombs.Another common decoration is the running spiral they also call running dog. It may originally symbolise half years, as there are two dog-like animals in the ancient zodiac. The idea is resurrection as the main principle in universe. Another thing is that in the early symbolism there are dog-animals as half-year marks on the zodiac.One is the Canis Major with Sirius as the brightest star and the other is Sagittarius.
We may also spell the spiral "in and out". Spiral patterns had its heydays in Northern decorations in 1500 to 1200 BC. They date the sword-hilt at A to ca 1250 BC. We also see running dogs on the lower big ship. We also see the rosettes in rock carvings and they are perhaps symbols of the Morning Star.
The two ships may be half-year symbols in a moon calendar as the upper ship has a small ship with eleven strokes in front. On the deck is the symbol "throwing over". Above the stem of the lower ship a figure is looking at what may be left and it associates to the Attis myth probably concerning winery. At his side "a bird" and as we see Aegean style here it associates to the bird on the rhyton with four symbols probably connected to the calendar.
On this Minoan rhyton the bull horns stands for the spring equinox and the spiral is the autumn equinox in Libra and Arcturus, which maybe was symbolised by the sword.
The Agiri goat and bird were the winter solstice and the pillar or gateway was the summer solstice. We do not know if the long-horned goat was seen in the Northern nature. The long-legged bird is seen on several carvings in Bohuslaen too.
We can conclude that surely Scandinavian traders have visited Crete and maybe been inside Knossos in its heydays. To this picture we can add the Minoan type plough found on rock-carvings in Bohuslaen. The Danish big mounds have given finds that seem to have been influenced by the Minoans. Maybe even the hairstyle of for instance the girl from Skrydstrup was the Minoan style ...
Aries became actual as stars of the spring equinox after 1350 BC, but it is possible that it as here was a goat instead in the Minoan world.
This equipage is from Ugarit on the Syrian coast and we see they have the ram as symbol. Further we see that there are massive wheels on the wagon and the men wear long skirts. These facts we can compare with the carriages and figures mentioned in the chapter before.
On this season ship from Aspeberget Bohuslaen we see a goat as figurehead and the rest of the composition is about spring.
Saying what is a ram and what is a goat is sometimes difficult.
We see that the symbol animals may vary and that sometimes helps us to seek the origin of the ideas. In those days were no standard, as nations were not developed although they had some international customs and the astro-myths were a common shared issue. On this carving is three rams and in the area is found some carving with rams in the same style.
This stela we can date to Marduk-zakir-shumi, king in Babylonia 852 to 828 BC due to the texts.
We see that the ram is still going strong and get evidence about the other symbols of solstices and equinoxes. The bird on pillar is Cancer/Crab, the triangle is Libra and the two rising snakes stands for Capricorn.
The Pig in symbolism
In this small section from Himmelstadlund Norrkauping we see the same sword-type as at Ekenberg and daggers of same age.
The pig seems to have been a speciality for East Sweden already in Bronze Age. We know the same facts from later periods and from taxation during Middle Age.
From the Celtic France we also know that the pig was a ritual animal in many places as many place names ending in -viers for instance. Some symbols are typical astro symbolism. The figure on the lower ship may be an altar of another shape than the horn altars. We see the fire altar in Babylonian symbolism. During later periods we also see fire altars and for instance in Rome we know the Vesta altar as an important ritual altar.
