Time and Cosmos: A Zoomorphic Cosmological Monument of Late Antiquity

The protome of the ram from West Bulgaria is a lunisolar calendar ofparapegmatic 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 alsofeatured 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 zoomorphic model of the world mountain and the world tree. The suggestion is confirmed by the structural particularities of the protome, by the images of mythological characters and by scenes of cosmogonic motifs. The given artefact represents the conceptualisation of the world in a generalised, syncretised and interdisciplinary way through the language of astronomy, mythology and calendaristics.In the period of antiquity, time and space were perceived as a united integer and as an endless divine beginning connected with the universe and its divine essence. The calendar is an attempt to comprehend the phenomenon of an infinite and cyclic time and use it in practice during the terrestrial life.