Bowl Dedicated to the Goddess Inanna
An alabaster bowl dedicated by a merchant named AK-Enlil to the goddess Inanna, whose name is written in the far right column. The inscription is in Sumerian.
Inanna (or Inana) is the Sumerian name of the goddess Ishtar, the goddess of love and war, and one of the more complicated deities in the Mesopotamian pantheon. In the early period from which this vase comes, she is usually listed in the top tier of the pantheon after Anu and Enlil.
Nippur, Early Dynastic IIIa (c. 2600-2500 BCE).
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image from CDLI.