Archaic Tablet 8383

Nippur Archaic Cylinder

To judge from the script, the Nippur cylinder illustrated on this plate (8383 in the Nippur collection of the University Museum) may date as early as 2500 BC. Although copied and published by the late George Barton as early as 1918, its contents, which centre about the Sumerian air-god Enhil and the goddess Ninhursag, are still largely unintelligible.

Nevertheless, much that was unknown or misunderstood at the time of its publication is now gradually becoming clarified, and there is good reason to hope that the not too distant future will see the better part of its contents ready for translation.

From Sumerian Mythology by Samuel Noah Kramer.