Image Details

Yale Babylonian Collection

A divine hymn wraps around a six-sided cylinder. This 5.6-inch-high cylinder probably bears a model text used by instructors in a scribal school. Inscribed cylinders such as this, though not necessarily having six sides, were the traditional format for exemplary texts; they were mounted on sticks that ran through a longitudinal shaft in the center of the cylinder. The text celebrates the voyage of the goddess Nisaba, presumably in the guise of her statue, from her city to the city of Eridu to receive the blessing of its great patron-deity Enki.