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canvas prints map canvas prints archeology canvas prints archeological canvas prints artifact canvas prints history canvas prints historic canvas prints historical canvas prints ancient civilization canvas prints ancient canvas prints cuneiform canvas prints cuneiform writing canvas prints pictographs canvas prints cuneiform tablet canvas prints clay tablet canvas prints stylized symbols canvas prints

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Clay cuneiform tablet, from 1500 BC, features the first known depiction of a map, showing fields belonging to royal estates in Nippur. Nippur was one of the most ancient of all the Sumerian cities. It was the special seat of the worship of the Sumerian god Enlil, the Lord Wind, ruler of the cosmos subject to An alone. Nippur never enjoyed political hegemony in its own right, but its control was crucial, as it was considered capable of conferring the overall kingship on monarchs from other city-states. With the establishment of the Babylonian empire, under Hammurabi, early in the 2nd millennium BC, the religious as well as the political center of influence was transferred to Babylon, Marduk became lord of the pantheon, many of Enlil's attributes were transferred to him, and Ekur, Enlil's temple, was to some extent neglected.