Depicting an anthropomorphic god as a naturalistic human is an innovative artistic idea that may well have diffused from Egypt to Mesopotamia, just like a number of concepts of religious rites, architecture, the "banquet plaques", and other artistic innovations previously. Both owls have one more feather on the right-hand side of their plumage than on the left-hand side. The lower register of the right wing breaks the white-red-black pattern of the other three registers with a white-black-red-black-white sequence. An was also sometimes equated with Amurru, and, in Seleucid Uruk, with Enmeara and Dumuzi. 12x18. Anu volunteers to speak with Tiamat and try to resolve the issue. To the north of Mesopotamia, the Anatolian Hittites were establishing their Old Kingdom over the Hattians; they brought an end to Babylon's empire with the sack of the city in 1531BCE. Portions of the tablet are missing, but it is learned that the gods decide not to save the humans from a deluge; however, Enki did warn a king named Zi-ud-sura (who may be instructed to build ark). Even though the fertile crescent civilizations are considered the oldest in history, at the time the Burney Relief was made other late Bronze Age civilizations were equally in full bloom. The artifact drove Requiar mad though and he was rendered incapable. The Gold of Mesopotamia coin features a portrait of the legendary ruler King Nebuchadnezzar II (circa 640-562 BC) wearing a horned crown. Wearing a horned crown with leafy, vegetable-like material protruding from her shoulders and holding a cluster of dates, she has the aspects of fertility and fecundity associated with Inanna, but . This resource is temporarily unavailable. However, the shallow relief of the cylinder seal entails that figures are shown in profile; therefore, the symmetry is usually not perfect. The images below show earlier, contemporary, and somewhat later examples of woman and goddess depictions. Compared with how important religious practice was in Mesopotamia, and compared to the number of temples that existed, very few cult figures at all have been preserved. When Enlil rose to equal or surpass An in authority, the functions of the two deities came to some extent to overlap. Egypt, Fourth dynasty, about 2400BCE. The extraordinary survival of the figure type, though interpretations and cult context shifted over the intervening centuries, is expressed by the cast terracotta funerary figure of the 1st century BCE, from Myrina on the coast of Mysia in Asia Minor, where it was excavated by the French School at Athens, 1883; the terracotta is conserved in the Muse du Louvre (illustrated left). His symbol is a horned crown, sometimes shown resting on a throne (see below). According to Thorkild Jacobsen, that shrine could have been located inside a brothel.[20]. Relief panel | Assyrian - The Metropolitan Museum of Art [17] A well-developed infrastructure and complex division of labour is required to sustain cities of that size. The Stele of Ur-Nammu represented Nannar, the Moon- god, with a crescent balanced on the knob of his tiara (6). By Raman spectroscopy the red pigment is identified as red ochre, the black pigment, amorphous carbon ("lamp black") and the white pigment gypsum. Ningishzida, a Mesopotamian deity of vegetation and the underworld, as well as the most likely son of goddess Ereshkigal, is sometimes depicted as a serpent with horns. Her eyes, beneath distinct, joined eyebrows, are hollow, presumably to accept some inlaying material a feature common in stone, alabaster, and bronze sculptures of the time,[nb 4] but not seen in other Mesopotamian clay sculptures. As the head is uppermost and imminently visible it is thereby ideal when seeking to make a strong social, Through published works and in the classroom, Irene Winter served as a mentor for the latest generation of scholars of Mesopotamian visual culture. the plaque, According to the British Museum, this figure of which only the upper part is preserved presumably represents the sun-god. Metropolitan Museum of Art 40.156. However modern translations have instead: "In its trunk, the phantom maid built herself a dwelling, the maid who laughs with a joyful heart. The horned crown usually four-tiered is the most general symbol of a deity in Mesopotamian art. The Crown of Horns was an evil, intelligent artifact of great power. Next page. From building projects to military campaigns, learn about Nineveh the capital of the Assyrian empire. [19] Such a shrine might have been a dedicated space in a large private home or other house, but not the main focus of worship in one of the cities' temples, which would have contained representations of gods sculpted in the round. This means that he was the father of all the gods, and also was responsible for giving them their powers and jurisdictions, as well as their ranking among the deities. Sumerian an means "heaven, sky", and An can therefore be seen as the personified heavens. Each volume consists of approximately 600 pages with about 50 plates. Hammurabi and the Babylonian Empire For a while after the fall of the Akkadians, . Ancient Mesopotamian Gods and Goddesses - An/Anu (god) The feathers in the top register are shown as overlapping scales (coverts), the lower two registers have long, staggered flight feathers that appear drawn with a ruler and end in a convex trailing edge. Anu is also the King of Gods, and sometimes attributed with the creation of humans with the assistance of his sons Enlil and/or Enki. ), the religious, legal, economic and social history of the Ancient Near East and Egypt, as well as the Near Eastern Archeology and art history. See full opening hours. Over time, however, Anu was replaced by other deities in both mythology and practical worship. Half of the necklace is missing and the symbol of the figure held in her right hand; the owls' beaks are lost and a piece of a lion's tail. She was named Ki by the Sumerians, Antu by the Akkadians, and Uras by the Babylonians. Some of these monsters were created to protect the gods and their realms. Rather, they are part of the vast supernatural population that for ancient Mesopotamians animated every aspect of the world. Egyptian Hieroglyphics Isis with Horned Crown Ancient Cool Wall Decor Art Print Poster 12x18 . This is certainly not due to a lack of artistic skill: the "Ram in a Thicket" shows how elaborate such sculptures could have been, even 600 to 800 years earlier. In classical antiquity, the cornucopia (/ k r n j k o p i , k r n -, k r n u-, k r n j u-/), from Latin cornu (horn) and copia (abundance), also called the horn of plenty, was a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers, or nuts.. Baskets or panniers of this form were traditionally used . The authenticity of the object has been questioned from its first appearance in the 1930s, but opinion has generally moved in its favour over the subsequent decades. Still, he was first in a long line of supreme deities. Anu is mentioned here: "On the hill of Heaven-and-Earth, when Anu had created the Anuna gods there was no grain, no weaving, no sheep, no goat, no cloth; even the names of these things were unknown to the Anuna and the great gods ", Another clay tablet from similar time periods mentions Anu as being responsible for bringing grain out of heaven: "Men used to eat grass with their mouths like sheep. A typical representation of a 3rd millenniumBCE Mesopotamian worshipper, Eshnunna, about 2700BCE. An/Anu is sometimes credited with the creation of the universe itself, either alone or with Enlil and Ea. Concerning the Horned Cap of the Mesopotamian Gods - JSTOR [citationneeded], It is unknown what powers the artifact had before it was possessed by Myrkul other than its sentience and its capability to interfere with the minds of its wearers. Kings often wanted to emulate the characteristics of Anu and his powerful role. 2000-1595 BCE) a Sumerian prayer to An asks him to protect the kingship of Rim-Sin, king of Ur (ETCSL 2.6.9.3) and several royal hymns to An survive (ETCSL 2.4.4.5, an unfortunately fragmentary adab to An for u-Suen; ETCSL 2.5.5.3, an adab to An for Lipit-Itar; ETCSL 2.5.6.5, an adab to An for Ur-Ninurta). It was Anu's authority that granted the kings of Mesopotamia absolute power, and they sought to emulate Anu's traits of leadership. Anu punishes Ea for this, but respects Adapa's decision to refuse immortality. Request Permissions, Published By: GBPress- Gregorian Biblical Press. Ishtar temple at Mari (between 2500BCE and 2400BCE), Louvre AO 17563, Goddess Bau, Neo-Sumerian (c. 2100BCE), Telloh, Louvre, AO 4572, Ishtar. copyright 2003-2023 Study.com. VisitAccessibilityat the Museumfor more information. Frankfort himself based his interpretation of the deity as the demon Lilith on the presence of wings, the birds' feet and the representation of owls. This role seems to be able to be passed down. This item is part of a JSTOR Collection. For terms and use, please refer to our Terms and Conditions [18], The size of the plaque suggests it would have belonged in a shrine, possibly as an object of worship; it was probably set into a mud-brick wall. The only other surviving large image from the time: top part of the Code of Hammurabi, c.1760BCE. He was a relatively minor player in most stories; he was seen rather as a figure focused on the heavens and detached from the world of humans. In most religions, there's a single deity that has power over all the others. Apart from its distinctive iconography, the piece is noted for its high relief and relatively large size making it a very rare survival from the period. PDF Religion and PoweR - Johns Hopkins University After the insensate arcanist was overthrown, his killers searched for the Crown but despite powerful divinations, a thorough search of the city, and many parties of adventurers scouring the Eastern Forest over the next 150 years, they failed to find it. The god Enlil, who was a god of air and who also granted kings their authority, came to replace Anu in some places by the end of the second millennium BCE. The stylized treatment of her hair could represent a ceremonial wig. Iraq's indigenous owls without ear-tufts include the. British Museum ME 135680, Kassite period (between c. 1531BCE to c. 1155BCE), Old-Babylonian plaque showing the goddess Ishtar, from Southern Mesopotamia, Iraq, on display in the Pergamon Museum, Goddess Ishtar stands on a lion and holds a bow, god Shamash symbol at the upper right corner, from Southern Mesopotamia, Iraq, Mesopotamian religion recognizes literally thousands of deities, and distinct iconographies have been identified for about a dozen. Ishtar, the goddess of war and sexual love, offers herself as a bride to Gilgamesh. From the third millennium onwards he was worshipped, with some interruptions, together with Inana/Itar at the -an-na temple in Uruk [~/images/Uruk.jpg], and in the Achaemenid and Seleucid periods at the new Re temple with Antu. A comparison of images from 1936 and 2005 shows that some modern damage has been sustained as well: the right hand side of the crown has now lost its top tier, and at the lower left corner a piece of the mountain patterning has chipped off and the owl has lost its right-side toes. Along with creating the other gods, Anu was sometimes also credited with the creation of the entire universe. The cities of Eridu, Larak, Sippar, Bad-tibira, and Shuruppak were the first to be built. A stele of the Assyrian king ami-Adad V (c.815 BCE), making obeisance to the symbols of five deities, including (top) the horned crown of Anu (BM 118892, photo (c) The British Museum). Regardless, Anu was never fully forgotten in Mesopotamia and retained a cult of worship in many cities, especially Uruk. Sacral text was usually written in, Lowell K. Handy article Lilith Anchor Bible Dictionary, Bible Review Vol 17 Biblical Archaeology Society - 2001 "LILITH? Egyptian men and women are characterised in the visual arts by distinct headdresses. He still dwelt in the lower reaches of Skullport, feeding on careless locals, as of the late 15th century DR.[8], Following the fall of Netheril, a group of surviving arcanists fashioned the helmet The Black Hands of Shelgoth out of the remains of the lich Shelgoth. Zi-ud-sura the king prostrated himself before Anu and Enlil. . Im Rezensionsteil liegt das Schwergewicht auf Monographien. [4], Detailed descriptions were published by Henri Frankfort (1936),[1] by Pauline Albenda (2005),[5] and in a monograph by Dominique Collon, former curator at the British Museum, where the plaque is now housed. Anu and Enlil treated Zi-ud-sura kindly (missing segments) , they grant him life like a god, they brought down to him eternal life. [23] The large degree of similarity that is found in plaques and seals suggests that detailed iconographies could have been based on famous cult statues; they established the visual tradition for such derivative works but have now been lost. KK Reddy and Associates is a professionally managed firm. As misfortune would have it, the two successfully completed their projects at precisely the same time on Shadowtop Borough. 11 chapters | I have lived a hundred stolen . Moses' Shining or Horned Face? - TheTorah.com All rights reserved. A god standing on or seated on a pattern of scales is a typical scenery for the depiction of a theophany. Read about Anu's symbols and role in Mesopotamian mythology. The HC that developed in the following period, with horns tapering to points and having several pairs of inward-turned horns one on top of another, is represented until well into the. Size: 12x18 . Both hands are symmetrically lifted up, palms turned towards the viewer and detailed with visible life-, head- and heart lines, holding two rod-and-ring symbols of which only the one in the left hand is well preserved. These are artifacts found in the Temple of Ishtar in Uruk, formally meant for Anu. Wood, gold leaf, lapis lazuli and shell. Wiki Le Monde des Royaumes Oublis (French). Subsequently, the British Museum performed thermoluminescence dating which was consistent with the relief being fired in antiquity; but the method is imprecise when samples of the surrounding soil are not available for estimation of background radiation levels. Within each culture's pantheon, he is the highest deity or God. What difference did it make in how the ruler per- A year later Frankfort (1937) acknowledged Van Buren's examples, added some of his own and concluded "that the relief is genuine". Compte-rendu de la these de doctorat d'Iris Furlong Divine headdresses of Mesopotamia in the Early Dynastic period (BAR International Series, Oxford, 1987), presentant les resultats de ses recherhces sur la typologie, l'iconographie et la repartition regionale et chronologique des cornes et couronnes a cornes utilisees comme attributs des divinites de la periode du Dynastique Archaique en . Mesopotamia is important because it witnessed crucial advancements in the development of human civilisation between 6000-1550 BC. +91-7207507350 Mesopotamian Gods Mythology & History | Who is Anu? | Study.com Yahweh does this to prevent them from also eating from the Tree of Life (i.e., immortality). The Sumerian people wrote of him as the incarnation or personification of the sky itself. Enrolling in a course lets you earn progress by passing quizzes and exams. Der abgedeckte Zeitraum umfat das 4. bis 1. [4], Once every ten days the wearer of this crown could teleport without error. To manufacture the relief, clay with small calcareous inclusions was mixed with chaff; visible folds and fissures suggest the material was quite stiff when being worked. Overall, Anu of the Akkadians was originally called An by the Sumerians, who lived in ancient Mesopotamia, or modern-day Iraq. [1], In 644DR, the Crown was finally rediscovered by the archwizard Shadelorn. At around the same time, Anu features for the first time in Assyrian royal inscriptions; ami-Adad I (ca. The power of being the Father or King of all gods is treated as a responsibility by Anu and the Anunnaki, as well as in the Mesopotamian legends as a whole. At that time, because of preserving the animals and the seed of mankind, they settled Zi-ud-sura the king in an overseas country, in the land Dilmun, where the sun rises. For example, the Eanna Temple in the city of Uruk was originally dedicated to Anu by his cult. However, it was later transformed to worship Inanna. cornucopia, also called Horn Of Plenty, decorative motif, dating from ancient Greece, that symbolizes abundance. Last entry: 16.00(Fridays: 19.30). Requiar used it to slay 30 other archwizards and conquer Shadowtop Borough. A creation date at the beginning of the second millennium BCE places the relief into a region and time in which the political situation was unsteady, marked by the waxing and waning influence of the city states of Isin and Larsa, an invasion by the Elamites, and finally the conquest by Hammurabi in the unification of the Babylonian empire in 1762BCE. However, the Museum declined to purchase it in 1935, whereupon the plaque passed to the London antique dealer Sidney Burney; it subsequently became known as the "Burney Relief". For terms and use, please refer to our Terms and Conditions Plenderleith in 1933. "[33] The earlier translation implies an association of the demon Lilith with a shrieking owl and at the same time asserts her god-like nature; the modern translation supports neither of these attributes. With this distinguished role, Anu held the venerated position of being head of the Anunnaki, or the pantheon of gods. An or Anu was the Mesopotamian embodiment and deity of the sky. In Sumerian texts of the third millennium the goddess Ura is his consort; later this position was taken by Ki, the personification of earth, and in Akkadian texts by Antu, whose name is probably derived from his own. In creating a religious object, the sculptor was not free to create novel images: the representation of deities, their attributes and context were as much part of the religion as the rituals and the mythology. In the following centuries cultic activity for An/Anu is attested at Uruk and Nippur, and he begins to occur in royal titles: Lugalzagesi (ca. [1] This passage reflects the Sumerians' belief in the nether world, and Frankfort cites evidence that Nergal, the ruler of the underworld, is depicted with bird's feet and wrapped in a feathered gown. This story is included in the prologue of the Epic of Gilgamesh. [11] The lions' bodies were painted white. First print edition: 9789004122598, 20110510. The options below allow you to export the current entry into plain text or into your citation manager. So the "god"-kings wore them, at least according to relief sculptures of them. Note the four-tiered, horned headdress, the rod-and-ring symbol and the mountain-range pattern beneath Shamash' feet. A stele of the Assyrian king ami-Adad V (c.815 BCE), making obeisance to the symbols of five deities, including (top) the horned crown of Anu (BM 118892, photo (c) The British Museum). Its like a teacher waved a magic wand and did the work for me. Enlil - god of air, wind, storms, and Earth; Enki - god of wisdom, intelligence, magic, crafts, and fresh water; Ninhursag - fertility goddess of the mountains; Nanna - son of Enlil, and the god of the moon and wisdom; Inanna - goddess of love, fertility, procreation, and war; Utu - son of Nanna, and the god of the sun and divine justice. The Archive for Oriental Studies publishes essays and reviews in the field of ancient Near Eastern philology (languages: Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Hurrian, Elamish, etc. Der abgedeckte Zeitraum umfat das 4. bis 1. ", In 2008/9 the relief was included in exhibitions on Babylon at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, the Louvre in Paris, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.[47]. (PDF) Horned gods in ancient motifs | Elham Talebi - Academia.edu The Standard of Ur He was said to have created the heavens, as well as all the other gods and even many of the monsters and demons of Mesopotamian mythology. However, no traces of yellow pigment now remain on the relief. Alabaster. [26] The bird's feet have not always been well preserved, but there are no counter-examples of a nude, winged goddess with human feet. E. von der Osten-Sacken describes evidence for a weakly developed but nevertheless existing cult for Ereshkigal; she cites aspects of similarity between the goddesses Ishtar and Ereshkigal from textual sources for example they are called "sisters" in the myth of "Inanna's descent into the nether world" and she finally explains the unique doubled rod-and-ring symbol in the following way: "Ereshkigal would be shown here at the peak of her power, when she had taken the divine symbols from her sister and perhaps also her identifying lions".[43]. Burney Relief - Wikipedia Semantic Scholar is a free, AI-powered research tool for scientific literature, based at the Allen Institute for AI. Additionally, this power is described as being passed down to humans, specifically to the kings in Mesopotamia. Akkadian writings of Anu seem to fill in some gaps missing about An from weathered Sumerians artifacts. Today, the figure is generally identified as the goddess of love and war ", BM WA 1910-11-12, 4, also at the British Museum, line 295 in "Inanna's descent into the nether world", "(AO 6501) Desse nue aile figurant probablement la grande desse Ishtar", "Complexity, Diminishing Marginal Returns and Serial Mesopotamian Fragmentation", Colossal quartzite statue of Amenhotep III, Amun in the form of a ram protecting King Taharqa, Kition Necropolis Phoenician inscriptions, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Burney_Relief&oldid=1141940511, Ancient Near and Middle East clay objects, Middle Eastern sculptures in the British Museum, Terracotta sculptures in the United Kingdom, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with dead external links from August 2017, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, The hypothesis that this tablet was created for worship makes it unlikely that a demon was depicted. Exploring Four Empires of Mesopotamia.pdf - Cliffsnotes.com The Burney Relief (also known as the Queen of the Night relief) is a Mesopotamian terracotta plaque in high relief of the Isin-Larsa period or Old-Babylonian period, depicting a winged, nude, goddess-like figure with bird's talons, flanked by owls, and perched upon two lions. During the early dynastic period (middle of the 3rdmillennium BC) the horned crown (HC) is developed in Mesopotamia in order to enable recognition of the divine character in anthropomorphic representations of gods. In later texts the crown of the Moon-god is compared to the moon (J7). Bibliography (pp. The contributions to this volume in her honor, By clicking accept or continuing to use the site, you agree to the terms outlined in our. However Frankfort did not himself make the identification of the figure with Lilith; rather he cites Emil Kraeling (1937) instead. Room 56. The Old Babylonian composition Gilgame, Enkidu and the Netherworld (ETCSL 1.8.1.4) refers to the primeval division of the universe in which An received the heavens (lines 11-12), and we see him ruling from here in the flood poem Atrahasis. In a typical statue of the genre, Pharaoh Menkaura and two goddesses, Hathor and Bat are shown in human form and sculpted naturalistically, just as in the Burney Relief; in fact, Hathor has been given the features of Queen KhamerernebtyII. - Definition & Significance, Gods of the Home: Primal Roman Religious Practices, The Meso-American Religious Rites of Passage, Hanging Gardens of Babylon: History, Facts & Location, The Incas: Definition, History, Religion & Facts, The Lydians: History, Religion & Civilization, The Phoenicians: History, Religion & Civilization, The Egyptian Goddess Isis: Facts & Symbols, Mesopotamian Goddess Tiamat: History & Symbols, Mesopotamian God Enlil: Mythology & Symbols, Mesopotamian Goddess Ereshkigal: Powers & Symbols, Mesopotamian Demon Pazuzu: Spells & Offerings, Mesopotamian God Ashur: Definition & History, Orphism: Definition, Religion & Philosophy, World Religion: Hinduism: Help and Review, World Religion: Buddhism: Help and Review, World Religion: Confucianism: Help and Review, World Religion: Christianity: Help and Review, MTEL Middle School Humanities (50): Practice & Study Guide, Library Science 101: Information Literacy, Richard Wagner: Biography, Music & Operas, Rondeau Music: Definition, Form & Examples, Composer Thomas Tallis: Biography & Music, Johann Pachelbel: Biography, Music & Facts, Johann Sebastian Bach: Biography, Music & Facts, The Beginnings of Opera: Influences and Components, C.P.E. [2] But stylistic doubts were published only a few months later by D. Opitz who noted the "absolutely unique" nature of the owls with no comparables in all of Babylonian figurative artefacts. Collections and Festschriften are briefly discussed. Anu was associated with Mesopotamian kings and kingly power, and was widely worshiped in the city of Uruk. He is a wild man whom Gilgamesh defeats and befriends. An important administrative device typical of Mesopotamian society. Some objects in this collection feature onthe British Sign Language multimedia guide. [34] This single line of evidence being taken as virtual proof of the identification of the Burney Relief with "Lilith" may have been motivated by later associations of "Lilith" in later Jewish sources. Tiamat warns Enki, who decides to put Apsu into a sleep, ultimately killing him. Yes, Anu did create Enkidu in the Epic of Gilgamesh. It is also distinct from the next major style in the region: Assyrian art, with its rigid, detailed representations, mostly of scenes of war and hunting. The other one is the top part of the Code of Hammurabi, which was actually discovered in Elamite Susa, where it had been brought as booty. He was also associated with the form of a bull (sometimes he was the bull and sometimes it was his companion), and was frequently symbolized by a horned crown. Her toes are extended down, without perspective foreshortening; they do not appear to rest upon a ground line and thus give the figure an impression of being dissociated from the background, as if hovering.[5]. Ancient South Arabia was centred on what is now modern Yemen but included parts of Saudi Arabia and southern Oman. The following is the fragmented Sumerian story: What is called the "Barton Cylinder" is a clay cylinder which has a Sumerian creation myth written on it dating back to around 2400 BCE. Compared to visual artworks from the same time, the relief fits quite well with its style of representation and its rich iconography. Egyptian goddess Hathor is also commonly depicted as a cow goddess with head horns in which is set a sun disk with Uraeus. As elsewhere, in Mesopotamia the ownership of gold was . Apart from its distinctive iconography, the piece is noted for its high relief and relatively large size making it a very rare survival from the period. The review section focuses on monographs. Room 55 traces the history of Babylonia under the Kassites and the growth of the Babylonian state. For the sake of continuity, An will be referred to as Anu for the remainder of the overview. [31] In that text Enkidu's appearance is partially changed to that of a feathered being, and he is led to the nether world where creatures dwell that are "birdlike, wearing a feather garment". An interpretation of the relief thus relies on stylistic comparisons with other objects for which the date and place of origin have been established, on an analysis of the iconography, and on the interpretation of textual sources from Mesopotamian mythology and religion. [7] The British Museum's Department of Scientific Research reports, "it would seem likely that the whole plaque was moulded" with subsequent modelling of some details and addition of others, such as the rod-and-ring symbols, the tresses of hair and the eyes of the owls. 3. The discourse continued however: in her extensive reanalysis of stylistic features, Albenda once again called the relief "a pastiche of artistic features" and "continue[d] to be unconvinced of its antiquity". Joseph Comunale obtained a Bachelor's in Philosophy from UCF before becoming a high school science teacher for five years. 300 to 500 years earlier, the population for the whole of Mesopotamia was at its all-time high of about 300,000. (Tablet IV, lines 4-6). [28] However, the specific depiction of the hanging wings of the nude goddess may have evolved from what was originally a cape.[29]. Anu is also associated with a sacred animal, the bull. The bird-feet are detailed,[nb 8] with three long, well-separated toes of approximately equal length. The relief is displayed in the British Museum in London, which has dated it between 1800 and 1750BCE. Mesopotamian sky-god, one of the supreme deities; known as An in Sumerian and Anu in Akkadian.