The Mysterious Hybrid creatures depicted on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser

 

Note: This article was first published on Mysterious Universe (https://mysteriousuniverse.org/)

The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III is one of the most intriguing artifacts of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Discovered by Sir Austen Henry Layard in 1846, it is one of only two complete Neo-Assyrian obelisks yet discovered. 

This perfectly preserved monument commemorates 31 years of King Shalmaneser III’s reign, who ruled from 858–824 BCE. It was erected as a public monument in 825 BCE, in the central square of Nimrud (biblical Calah, or ancient Kalhu), located in modern-day Iraq. After its discovery, the object was transferred to the British Museum where it still resides.

The four-sided obelisk is made of black limestone, and stands just under 2 meters (6 ½ feet) tall. It has five vertically arranged panels on each side, adding up to a total of 20 panels. They depict five different subdued kings, bringing tribute and prostrating before King Shalmaneser. The tributes from each subdued king occupies four panels around the monument and is described by a cuneiform script above them.

Figure 1: Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III in the British Museum, black limestone, c 827 to 824 BCE, Nimrud, Iraq.

The really intriguing elements of this obelisk can be seen on the third panel from the top, which depicts the tributes brought by an unnamed ruler of “Musri”.  Earlier, historians used to think that Musri was a kingdom in northern Iraq, but now that it is accepted that it was a Neo-Assyrian term for Egypt, phonetically similar to the Hebrew “Mizraim”, Classical Arabic “Misr” and Egyptian Arabic “Masr”.

So, what did this subdued king of Egypt (not necessarily the pharaoh), bring as tribute to Shalmaneser III, sometime around the 9th century BCE? Human-animal hybrid beings, which are depicted alongside other easily recognizable animals! The hybrids are smaller than humans, and are held in chains like pets.

Figure 2: Tributes brought to Shalmaneser III by the king of Musri i.e. Egypt. Credit: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin, CC BY-SA 4.0

This panel shows a pair of human-animal hybrid beings, held by chains. Both the creatures have human-like head and arms, but their hind limbs are like that of an animal, and they also have a tail. The creatures appear to be capable of standing or walking on their hind limbs. One might think that they look like a miniature version of a sphinx, which, of course, is a startling thought, for haven’t we been told that the sphinx is a “mythological” creature? 

Another panel shows three human-animal hybrids, of which two are held by ropes. These hybrids seem to be quite comfortable walking on their hind legs, and are very human-like except for their long tail. One of the hybrids is perched on the shoulder of a man, which indicates that they have a friendly attitude towards humans and can be trained. They resemble the satyrs of Greek art, and the vanaras of Indian legends, which, once again makes us wonder how so-called mythical beings could have been offered as a tribute by a king of Egypt in the 9th century BCE.

Figure 3: Tributes brought to Shalmaneser III by the king of Musri i.e. Egypt. Credit: Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin, CC BY-SA 4.0

It is important to remember that the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III was a royal monument which was meant for the express purpose of recording the various tributes that King Shalmaneser had received during his reign. It was probably executed by the royal scribes, working hand-in-hand with the royal sculptors. This was not the place where the sculptor could indulge in flights of fancy, and employ religious symbols and metaphorical devices. Nor could a sculptor afford to attach a tail to a prisoner, simply because he had a personal dislike for that person. The Neo-Assyrian kings were not known for their sense of humour, and any deviation or practical joke would have been severely dealt with. 

What I am trying to get at is that, if a royal monument shows human-animal hybrid beings being received as tribute, then it is very likely that they were. And it is only because such creatures do not exist today that we find this thought so incredible.

These kinds of human-animal hybrid beings have been mentioned in the apocryphal The Book of Jasher. In Chapter 36, there is a story in which Anah was feeding his father's asses and he brought them to one of the deserts on the sea shore, opposite the wilderness. While he was feeding them, a very heavy storm came from the other side of the sea and rested upon the asses that were feeding there, and they all stood still.

“31. And afterward about one hundred and twenty great and terrible animals came out from the wilderness at the other side of the sea, and they all came to the place where the asses were, and they placed themselves there.
32. And those animals, from their middle downward, were in the shape of the children of men, and from their middle upward, some had the likeness of bears, and some the likeness of the keephas, with tails behind them from between their shoulders reaching down to the earth, like the tails of the ducheephath, and these animals came and mounted and rode upon these asses, and led them away, and they went away unto this day.
33. And one of these animals approached Anah and smote him with his tail, and then fled from that place.
34. And when he saw this work he was exceedingly afraid of his life, and he fled and escaped to the city.
35. And he related to his sons and brothers all that had happened to him, and many men went to seek the asses but could not find them, and Anah and his brothers went no more to that place from that day following, for they were greatly afraid of their lives.”[1]

There is documented evidence that bizarre, human-animal hybrid beings existed in some parts of the world till the late first millennium BCE. One of the interesting accounts was written by a Greek physician called Ctesias, who served as a doctor at the court of the king Artaxerxes II of Persia. He wrote a book called Indica, which is based on various stories brought to the Persian court by visitors and travelers from India and other parts of the world. Pliny the Elder, quoting Ctesias, writes that,

“Ctesias informs us, that among these same Ethiopians, there is an animal found, which he calls the mantichora; it has a triple row of teeth, which fit into each other like those of a comb, the face and ears of a man, and azure eyes, is of the colour of blood, has the body of the lion, and a tail ending in a sting, like that of the scorpion. Its voice resembles the union of the sound of the flute and the trumpet; it is of excessive swiftness, and is particularly fond of human flesh.”[2]

Ctesias also wrote of similar hybrid animals being found in the mountainous regions of India. Pliny quoting Ctesias in Natural History, writes that,

“There are also satyrs in the mountains in the east of India...this is an extremely swift animal, sometimes going on all fours and sometimes standing upright as they run, like human beings; because of their speed only the old ones or the sick are caught.”[3]

The satyr in the above description, could, of course, refer to the Mande Burung, which is the counterpart of the Yeti that lives in the mountains of eastern India, in the state of Meghalaya. What it most certainly does not describe is the “monkey”, which is an animal that everyone in India is familiar with, and unlikely to evoke any interest. 

The accounts of Ctesias indicate that human-animal hybrids, like those depicted on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III, may have existed in Ethiopia and India around the 5th century BCE, and therefore, could have been given as a tribute by a king of Egypt in the 9th century BCE.

Another interesting incident was recorded by the Greek historian Plutarch in the 2nd century CE. Plutarch wrote in the Life of Sulla that the soldiers of the Roman general Sulla had captured a satyr sleeping during a military campaign in Greece in 89 BCE.[4] Sulla’s men brought the satyr to him and he attempted to interrogate it, but it spoke in an unintelligible sound, which was a cross between the neighing of a horse and the bleating of a goat. 

It appears from accounts such as these that, satyrs may not be imaginary creatures, as is commonly believed, but could have been hybrid beings that lived till the beginning of the Christian era and became extinct soon afterwards, as the environmental conditions continued to change. Millions of animals have become extinct over time, so why not sphinxes and satyrs? Or, perhaps, they did not become extinct, but retreated inside mountain caves and subterranean grottoes, where they are simply hibernating until conditions become favorable for their emergence? 

The question is, if these creatures actually lived in the past, how did they evolve? We know that human DNA is not compatible with that of animals, which means we can pretty much rule out any involvement of humans in this matter. What do the ancient texts and traditions have to say about it? 

When it comes to the sphinx, there is not much to go on with respect to their origin. We know that the sphinx was always regarded as a protector or guardian of a sacred sanctuary, and was generally depicted in pairs on either side of the entrance to a temple, palace or tomb. This custom was consistently followed across the world, wherever sphinxes are depicted in art and architecture - in Egypt, Greece, Mesopotamia, India and South-east Asia. 

With regards to their appearance, there are slight differences between cultures. In Greece, the sphinx was generally female, and had a pair of wings. In Mesopotamia, the sphinx was called lamassu. It combined the characteristics of a man and a bull, and was typically depicted with wings. Colossal statues of the lamassu were placed in pairs at the entrances of the royal palaces and cities. Interestingly, on many cylinder seals, the lamassu was depicted in an upright, standing position, adoring the stylized “sacred tree”, which indicates that they played an important role in the religious life of the people.

Figure 4: A gigantic sculpture of a lamassu, flanked by an equally big sculpture of Gilgamesh grasping a lion. From the throne room of Sargon II, in Khorsabad. Louvre, Paris. Credit: Sailko, CC BY-SA 3.0.

Figure 5: Neo-Assyrian Cylinder Seal from c. 9th - 7th century BCE, depicting a pair of bearded bull-men, standing on either side of a sacred tree, with the winged disk of Ashur hovering above it. Source: Met museum, Public Domain.

In India, the sphinx was called purusha-mriga or kimpurusha. It was depicted both in a standing position at the entrances of temples, as well as an upright position in front of a Shiva-linga. The Shiva-linga, which is a stone pillar symbolizing the god Shiva, is the axis-mundi of the world, and is conceptually equivalent to the stylized “sacred tree” depicted on the Mesopotamian cylinder seals. 

It is apparent that the Mesopotamian lamassu or the Indian purusha-mriga, when it is in an upright standing posture, looks quite similar to the hybrid creatures depicted on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III. 

Figure 6: A pair of Indian sphinxes, worshipping a Shiva-linga. Credit: Raja Deekshithar.

Unfortunately, there are very few stories associated with the sphinx, because of which we don’t know anything about it origins or parentage. In case of the satyrs, however, a lot more information is available, which hints at a genetic experiment carried out by the gods, sometime prior to 7000 BCE, in order to produce these strange, hybrid creatures. 

In Greek art, the satyrs were shown with the ears and tails of a horse, but their face was like that of humans, and they sported long beards. In fact, apart from their ears and tail, everything about the satyrs is completely human-like. They walked upright like humans, played the aulos (double flute), lyre and other musical instruments, drank wine, and danced around merrily in the entourage of Dionysus, along with the maenads i.e. dancing nymphs. 

I have no doubt that if a satyr were to cover his ears with long, flowing hair, and dress up in a formal suit, he would be unrecognizable in any modern-day orchestra. Who knows, they might already be lingering amongst us!

Figure 7: A satyr playing the aulos to entertain Dionysus, c.480 BCE. Credit: Jean Pierre Dalbéra, CC BY 2.0.

Figure 8: Dionysos seated on stool and holding a wine cup, entertained by two dancing satyrs, c. 510 - 500 BCE. Credit: ArchaiOptix CC BY-SA 4.0.

Pan was the leader of the satyrs in the Dionysian retinue, and he was the general of Dionysus’s army during his military expeditions. He had precocious musical talent, being the inventor of the “pan flute”. An Orphic Hymn to Pan states: “Only at evening, as he (Pan) returns from the chase, he sounds his note, playing sweet and low on his pipes of reed: not even she could excel him in melody —that bird who in flower-laden spring pouring forth her lament utters honey-voiced song amid the leaves.”[5]

Interestingly, Pan was regarded as a demigod, being the son of Hermes, and he was worshiped in caves and grottoes as the god of the wilderness, pastures, groves, flocks, music and fertility. 

The satyrs of Greek art correspond to the vanaras of Indian legends, who accompanied Rama on his military campaigns. The vanaras had monkey-like faces covered with beard, hairy bodies, and a long tail. But they walked upright like human beings, and were similar to humans in their speech and customs. 

The most powerful of the vanaras was Hanuman. Like Pan, he was a demigod, being the son of the wind-god Pavan, and was therefore known as “Pavan-putra Hanuman.” Hanuman was also musically gifted, being a sitar player par-excellence, and one of the four styles of Indian (Hindustani) classical music is named after him.

Figure 9: Hanuman, with raised right hand, and holding a branch in his left hand. Ramachandra Temple, Hampi. Credit: G41rn8, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Figure 10: Rama with Hanuman (or Sugriva). Srivaikuntam temple, Tamil Nadu. Credit: Sowrirajan s, CC BY 2.0.

When the noted scholar and philologist, Sir William Jones, came to Calcutta, India, in 1783, as a Supreme Court judge, he immediately noticed the stark correlations between Dionysus and Rama, and wrote an article elaborating on these connections, which I had discussed in detail in my book, Yuga Shift. 

A number of Greek historians had written that Dionysus had been born on a mountain of India named Meros, which was located close to the city called Nysa, from where his name Dionysus (God of Nysa) had originated. It appears that Rama and his retinue of vanaras had gone westwards, propagating a mystery religion in which god-communion was achieved through ritual ecstasy. This is not surprising, considering that Rama was a great devotee Lord Shiva, and many elements of the Dionysian rites – such as the long processions, consumption of intoxicants, ritual dances, the use of serpents and phallic cult objects – are still associated with the worship and veneration of Shiva. 

After the conquests of Alexander, the Greek and Roman historians - Pliny, Solinus and Arrian - wrote about Indian customs and culture. Their writings indicate that the Indians counted their kings from 6776 BCE, starting with a ruler whom they identified with the Greek Dionysus or Roman Bacchus. Since we can be quite certain that Dionysus or Bacchus is indeed Rama, it means that the satyrs or vanaras were roaming the world since that remote period.

This brings us to the big question: how did this strange race of vanaras originate? As per the Ramayana, the gods, sages and other celestial beings mated with the animals of the forests to create powerful progenies who would be able to assist Rama in his fight against the rakshasas i.e. giants. For instance,

“When Brahma addressed them thus, those gods agreed to his order and accordingly started to parent sons in the semblance of monkeys.”6
“Thus the gods have procreated many thousands of such valorous and guise changing monkeys who with their immeasurable strength and bravery are manifest for the elimination of the decahedral demon Ravana.”[7]

So, the gods were involved in the creation of the race of vanaras. As to who these gods were, I shall not speculate here, other than to say that the accounts of most cultures portray them as extraterrestrial “humanoid” beings of great power, who came to the earth in the very ancient times, the most likely place of their origin being identified as the Pleiades star cluster. 

But did the gods actually procreate with the forest animals for the purpose of creating the vanaras or did they use advanced genetic manipulation techniques? Probably the latter, for that is the method that the gods had adopted for the creation of human beings, as per the Mesopotamian epic of creation, the Enuma Elish.

The Enuma Elish relates that the gods lived on the earth in the beginning, and toiled hard to make the rivers, lakes, mountains and other features of the ecosystem, so that our planet could become habitable. After Marduk slayed Tiamat, the monstrous serpent of the oceans, he wanted to create man, so that man could take over the labors of the gods and the gods could rest. Enki (or Ea), the Lord of Underworld, then created man from the blood of Qingu, who was one of the underworld divinities who had instigated Tiamat to rebel against the gods. These are the exact lines from the Enuma Elish:

27 The Igigi, the great gods, answered him (Marduk),
28 That is, Lugaldimmerankia, the counsellor of the gods, the lord,
29 "Qingu is the one who instigated warfare,
30 Who made Tiamat rebel and set battle in motion."
31 They bound him, holding him before Ea (Enki),
32 They inflicted the penalty on him and severed his blood-vessels.
33 From his blood he (Ea) created mankind,
34 On whom he imposed the service of the gods, and set the gods free.[8]

Although the text doesn’t say so explicitly, it is quite likely that Enki extracted Qingu’s DNA from his blood and re-engineered it to create human beings. This would explain why the “gods” could mate with humans and produce demigods, as so many ancient texts assert. The DNA of the gods must be very similar to human DNA, since inter-species breeding is impossible, particularly for humans.

The gods may have also deactivated certain genetic sequences in the human DNA, which we now call the "junk DNA" or "non-coding DNA", which does not code for any protein. A staggering 98% of the human genome is junk DNA!! In my book Yuga Shift, I have proposed that, in the higher Yugas, Yogis or spiritual adepts were able to activate portions of the junk DNA, and thereby acquire many "yoga siddhis" or magical powers, which have been mentioned in the Vedic texts - such as increasing or decreasing the size or weight of the body, becoming invisible or shapeshifting, healing by chanting etc. All of these abilities seem mythical to us today, because we have forgotten the spiritual practices that can activate the junk DNA, but things may have been drastically different in the past.

If human beings were created by the gods through genetic manipulation, then it is quite likely that a similar process was followed for the creation of the vanaras, satyrs, sphinxes and many other kinds of magical, hybrid beings that are depicted in ancient art and architecture. In other words, the creation of these enigmatic, hybrid beings was a genetic experiment of the gods.

One of the questions that comes up, when we talk about the possibility of hybrid creatures existing on our planet a few thousand years ago is, why haven't we found their fossils?

We ought to remember that, as per scientific estimates, more than 99% of all species that ever lived on earth, amounting to over five billion species, have died out. The vast majority of species that become extinct are never scientifically documented. A typical species becomes extinct within 10 million years of its first appearance.

Finding relatively intact fossils of animals that lived sometime in the past 12,000 years (i.e. post Ice Age) is almost impossible, since animals do not receive burials, unlike humans, and their remains are destroyed, eroded and washed away. Although mummification was practiced in Egypt, it was performed only for the pets of the pharaohs and for a few specific animals that were sacred to the gods. 

In case of hybrid creatures, finding partial remains would be of no use. If part of the upper torso is found, it would be regarded as a human fossil. If part of the lower body is found, it would be considered as animal remains. And if portions of both are found, it would interpreted as a human and his pet that was buried along with him.

However, if we go by the extant texts and the archaeological depictions, it seems that these hybrid beings existed in the past, and their DNA may have degraded over time due to the accumulation of harmful genetic mutations. As a result, either they slowly became extinct, or they retreated to some hidden location, such as mountain caves or underground caverns, where they may be hibernating till the return of more favorable conditions. 

The Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III shows that some of these hybrid creatures were still around in the 9th century BCE. They had shrunk in size by then, and were caught by humans and possibly trained as pets. However, their numbers would have substantially reduced by that time, to the extent that they became rare or exotic animals, and were offered as tributes to kings.  

References

[1] The Book of Jasher, Internet Sacred Text Archive, https://sacred-texts.com/chr/apo/jasher/36.htm
[2] Pliny the Elder, The Natural History 8.30, https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plin.+Nat.+8.30#note1
[3] Pliny the Elder, The Natural History 7.2.6, https://topostext.org/work/148
[4] Hansen 2017, pp. 167–168.
[5] Hymn 19 to Pan, ed. Hugh G. Evelyn-White.
[6] Valmiki Ramayana 1.17.8
[7] Valmiki Ramayana 1.17.17
[8] Enuma Elish, Tablet VI, lines 33-34, https://www.worldhistory.org/article/225/enuma-elish---the-babylonian-epic-of-creation---fu/