Figure 3.4. A magnified image of a pressing from a cylinder seal from the Sargonid (Akkadian) period, third millennium BCE, commemorating the return to fertility in the new year. The sun god Shamash can be seen arising out of the mound in the center, is greeted by Inanna as a vegetation goddess, her shoulders sprouting rays of vegetation. On the plain is a hunter with his lion. To the right is the god Enki (the Akkadian god Ea) with a Janus-headed attendant; he restrains the storm bird Zu, the adversary who stole the Tablets of Destiny; the animal at his feet is a ram (note the horn). British Museum.