Barton Cylinder

[1] The cylinder is inscribed with a Sumerian cuneiform mythological text, found at the site of Nippur in 1889 during excavations conducted by the University of Pennsylvania.

9 Near the sanctuary of Nippur 10 a gale was really blowing unceasingly 11 there were really flashes of lightning continuously, 12 An/heaven is shouting together with Ki/earth; 13 [empty] 14 Ki/earth is shouting together with An/heaven 15 [...] about 7 broken lines column 2 1 With the true, great Queen of heaven, 2 the older sister of Enlil, 3 Ninhursag 4 with the true, great Queen of heaven, 5 the older sister of Enlil, 6 Ninhursag 7 he has had intercourse; 8 he had kissed her; 9 the seed for a set of setupletes [seven children] 10 he has poured into her womb.

[8] Jeremy Black calls the work "a beautiful example of Early Dynastic calligraphy" and discussed the text "where primeval cosmic events are imagined."

[9] Nippur, he suggests is transfigured by the mythological events into both a "scene of a mythic drama" and a real place, indicating "the location becomes a metaphor.

Piotr Michalowski says that in the second part of the text "we learn that someone, perhaps Enki, made love to the mother goddess, Ninhursag, the sister of Enlil and planted the seed of seven (twins of) deities in her midst.

"[12] Barton suggested that the text portrayed a primitive sense of religion where "chief among these spirits were gods, who, however capricious, were the givers of vegetation and life."

He discusses the text as a series of entreatments and appeals to the various provider and protector gods and goddesses, such as Enlil, in lines such as "O divine lord, protect the little habitation.