Thanks for a very interesting article, Andrew. I have a couple of points that might be of interest to you.

There is a Sumerian bird associated with the headwaters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and it’s completely unknown except in name. If you search at Tigris, you'll find it was once known as Idigna.

As my speciality is the study of the earliest Sumerian symbols, their origins, real meanings, and the re-translation of certain literary texts through a monosyllabic process, I came across the symbol IDIGNA in the context of the two rivers and decided to take a look at the oldest version. On the electronic Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary, it’s shown in late abstract cuneiform and given as composed of three symbols. That's what I expected to find in the photos on the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. Instead, I found ten instances and three well-preserved tablet fragments from the Uruk IV period, 3350-3200 BC, all showing a bird in flight. I call it the Idigna bird. It seems to have gone completely unnoticed.

Another point: I’m certain it was not originally meant to designate the Tigris alone. This is the bird between two rivers which links it to the region of Gobekli Tepe, etc.
It couldn’t be categorized as a swan (neck too short), but it is a bird potentially associated with a very special place and also a written word that can be analysed. The Idigna bird will be brought back from obscurity to claim its own chapter in my current work on the forgotten language.

As this is my first mention of it, it’s entirely possible that some well-intentioned Assyriologist will add their pinch of salt; The IDIGNA symbol being simply a reference to the river Tigris. How dare she, etc, etc. That, of course, would be as satisfying as saying that the birds on the pillars of Gobekli Tepe are there because they’re pretty. There’s a lot more to it than that as we both know.

kalahamsa, the ‘swan of eternity’: KAL or KALA is also of Sumerian origin. It has a variety of meanings including vessel and rare or precious, and another phonetic value, LAMMA. My very long translation has confirmed that this is the stone bull man of the same name who stares straight ahead in museums these days. The winged and crowned bull man is a complex reference to time, while the Brahma stories are as confused and hence as unsatisfying as most ancient texts. KAL appears throughout as the dim-witted guardian of gateways and temples, including cosmic. A feature of the KAL character in that long text is that his “strong arm” or “wing” is often “called upon”. It’s all about time and it’s also the etymology of calendar, etc. ("from calare "to announce solemnly, call out," as the priests did in proclaiming the new moon that marked the calends." From PIE root.) KAL does well to stare straight ahead because, if he started talking, he would upset quite a few applecarts.

He ends up down below – probably a reference to or a reason for the reclining bull charms that were buried in front of homes. And that’s not to say that his wings aren’t those of a swan!

Madeleine