8 petal flower eareing 3D print model

cgtrader

Eight-petaled rosettes reminiscent of those found on ancient gameboards did not exclusively decorate those primitive playing surfaces but were also a staple design element for many other artifacts, thus enabling us to unravel their symbolic significance from the contexts in which they were employed. Their recurring presence on gameboards likely reflects their importance in everyday life to commemorate major events because early gameboard paths were meant to simulate real-life scenarios. It appears that these rosettes were generally a symbol representing the sun, or more specifically its cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, indicating passages from one state of existence into another. The earliest documented instance of this ancestral sign is an eight-leaf rosette carved through an ivory disk dating back to around 28,000 years ago, depicted above. Discovered in a child's burial at the late Aurignacian site of Sungir in Russia, its funerary context suggests that it may have been associated with rebirth-and-renewal ideas as early as then. Why else would anyone leave charms or other gifts with the dead if they were not expected to somehow live on and utilize them? Regardless of what this rosette signified to its ancient creator, its pierced design evokes in modern eyes the concept of passage or transition through its central funnel opening more effectively than any flat shape could. Our intuitive perception may well echo that of its long-gone maker. The widespread and long-lasting connection between that eight-petaled flower and significant life events, particularly in relation to the sun's life cycle, is further evidenced by Sig Lonegren's account as a researcher of labyrinths and archaeo-astronomy about his visit to one of Ireland's ancient burial mounds from the fourth millennium BCE. At Cairn T at Loughcrew, northeast of Dublin in Ireland, I witnessed the spring equinox sunrise. The rising sun's light focused sharply on the enormous stone that formed the chamber's back wall and slowly moved from left to right across that wall. As the climax approached, it seemed as though the sunlight would engulf a circle with an eight-petal daisy inside it (the circle and daisy were pecked into the face of that boulder on the chamber's back wall). Many ancient cultures in temperate climates marked the beginning of their year with the spring equinox, coinciding with nature's re-awakening and the commencement of new life. The equinox rosette on the wall may therefore have represented the sun's renewal itself, just as in many other megalithic examples of such solar displays and alignments that signified one of the solstices at the end of its path. Nearby in time, and leaving no doubt about their meaning, are numerous ancient Egyptian images showing the young sun god being born within a lotus blossom with eight leaves. This image still echoes the sight of a sunrise over the flooded Delta where lotus covered the waters to the horizon as it grew with the Nile's rise. It was therefore a fitting sign for that daily rebirth and new beginning. The Egyptian Book of the Dead calls the king of the gods Re in Chapter 15 the golden youth who emerged from the lotus, while in Chapter 81, the deceased utters a desire to be transformed into a sacred lotus.