Casco de Leiro:

A Breast for the Sun

Clifford C. Richey
April 2015

It would be helpful to refer to:

Scribd.com/Ancient-Depicted-Sign-Language
when reading this paper. It explains the use of Form, Imagery, Gesture Signs,
Stance, allusion, and position as used in composing glyphs.

The Casco de Leiro (Museo Arqueolxico e Histrico, Castelo San Antn, A Corua)
This gold "Helmet of Leiro" dates, roughly, to 3,-4000 years ago in northwestern Iberia.1 There is
some debate about whether the object is truly a Helmet or a Bowl2.

Illustration 1: Total Form

The gold foil and its color represents, the one, of the Sun. The Total Form of the object is that of a
Breast of the Female-earth which represents, a hill on the Female-earth.

The meaning of the count of 6 Levels (the rings around the Breast) is unknown but they probably had
an associational meaning aside from a simple numerical count as did the count of the Circles encircling
the Breast.
1
2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casco_de_Leiro
http://beacomendador.webs.uvigo.es/index_archivos/LEIRO.pdf

Illustration 2: The High

Hill

Illustration 3: The Four

Corners of the Earth

The Concentric Circles with a raised center indicates, a hill with multiple levels or a high hill or
mountain. This sign finds its opposite as a compound of concentric circles with a dark or inverted
center that means, a deep hole. The 4 Small Circles framing the Circles. The context would mean, in
all four directions, the four corners of the (red) Triangular, Female- earth, or everywhere. The 4
Circles create a Total Form of a Horizontal-rectangle or a horizontal-place. The place of the high hill.
The Count of 4 Rings indicates, the four directions, plus a Circle in the middle or the center, create a
count of 5 whose associational value means, the center. The center of the earth, but also used to mean
the center of a given culture.

Illustration 4: The Unseen

Pathway
The Triple Lines that separate the levels are the compound sign for, an unseen-pathway. The Double
Lines would indicate, unseen, while the internal Line represents a pathway.

Illustration 5: The Ones of the Sun

The individual Gold Circles, indicate, the ones of the Sun, their location. These are also unseen due to
their being positioned between two Lines. As a Line of Dots the would have signified, a pathway of
moisture.

Illustration 6: The
Location of Wetness or
Moisture
Viewing the Breast from above results in a common ancient compound sign (of Outer Circle with
internal Dots that signify wetness or moisture) that indicates the Nipple and Areola as a source of
wetness or moisture. The Center Circle, although tapered, would appear only slightly larger than the
other circles when viewed from above. The Count of the Circles is 8 which is the number-association
for, spirit.

Illustration 7: The Spirit

The sign for a non-gendered spirit is the Asterisk like sign that has 8 lines stemming from the center
and can be superimposed over the Circles of the Nipple to obtain the Asterisk Form. The Center Circle
with a smaller (dark) circle within it is the sign for a hole.

Illustration 8: The Place of Arising

The (green) Vertical Rectangle, a vertical-place, has (light-blue) Tapered sides that represent the
Curved sign for, arising, positioned, on the Left (east) and Right (west) that the rules for gesture
signing dictate as, the east and the west. These (light-blue) signs explain why the Nipple, was depicted
as tapered.

Given that there are perforations in the Breast3 (not visible in the photographs) it is possible that like
many other ancient compositions4 the Breast may have also been designed to mechanistically reenforce
the cosmology. It could have been filled with water before placement on a flat sealed surface. This
would have allowed the water to leak out of the perforations demonstrating the pathways of water
(springs) found emanating from the hillsides. Because the Breast itself is made of gold, and the color of
the Sun, the implication would be that it is, a Breast of the Sun. At first this seems nonsensical. The
depicted signs speaks to pathways of moisture and may indicate an awareness of evaporation (an
arising of the moisture) caused by the Sun. In other words it is the Sun that drinks up (draws up) the
moisture from the Breast. If this was the case then the object was neither a Helmet or a Bowl but rather
an object that demonstrated an aspect of the religion.

3
4

Ibid. There is a possibility that its uses were twofold: as a ritual basin, though it is decoratively pierced with an awl,
and inverted as an emblem of authority.
https://www.scribd.com/doc/180934034/A-Sami-Petroglyph