Caption:
Cuneiform tablet: hymn to Marduk, Neo-Babylonian (?), 1st millennium B.C., Mesopotamia, Babylonian (?), Clay, 3 1/2 x 3 7/8 x 1 1/8 in. (9 x 9.8 x 2.9 cm), Clay-Tablets-Inscribed, The god Marduk first became an important god in the early second millennium B.C., when Babylon (under its most famous king, Hammurabi) became the capital city of a large Babylonian state. Marduk’s importance in the pantheon of gods rose with the fame of the city of Babylon, so that in later periods he was the supreme deity