Time and Cosmos: A Zoomorphic Cosmological Monument of the Late Antiquity (original) (raw)

Abstract: The protome of the ram from West Bulgaria is a lunisolar calendar of parapegmatic type from the period of antiquity (2nd–4th century AC), which imparts encoded calendrical, cosmological and cosmogonic information. On the protome there are marked synodic, sidereal, and draconic months; lunar, solar and draconic years, as well as different time periods – seasons and cycles. One of the images on the protome’s body can be interpreted as an image of the Draco constellation around the fixed point of the North Pole in the centre of the ecliptic. The symbols of seven luminaries – the Sun, the Moon and five planets – which were known at the beginning of the first millennium are also featured on the protome. In the context of the monument, the presence of the astronomical concept of the world axis and the centre of the ecliptic means that the creators of the ram’s protome perceived it as an omphalos, the sacred centre of the world, the zoo-morphic model of the world mountain and the...