SX 1: Bulls on Sky-Shell

Press of a Sumerian cylinder seal dated to around 2200 BCE. Each of the 6 text columns is a label for each of the 6 images.

It is now located at the Louvre (AO 22303, Département des Antiquités orientales). It was donated to the museum in 1967 by a collector so it was not found in an archeaological excavation. Online at: https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010147030

Translation (each column a label for respective image in scene)

 The text translation is:

  1.  AN's ejections are the milk which fills the fertility-fluids for the land.
  2. Fertility-fluids
  3. The cloud's streams are passing-through to the earth
  4. Storage is being filled by the fertility-fluids
  5. The pests are ejected
  6. Servant of wisdom

Lexicon used for this translation: About This Early-Sign Sumerian Lexicon  

Column 1 (SX 1.1)

Sumerian

  1. AN SAR GA X14
  2. X17 URU

English Translation

  1. AN's ejections are the milk which fills
  2. the fertility-fluids of the land

Comment: An's ejections are sunlight and heat 

Column 2 (SX 1.2)

Sumerian

  1. X17

English Translation

  1. The fertility-fluids

Column 3 (SX 1.3)

Sumerian

  1. KU X12 X15 KI

English Translation

  1. The cloud's streams are passing-through to the earth

Comment: The bull represents the chaotic rain bringing storm clouds.

Column 4 (SX 1.4)

Sumerian

  1.  IB X14
  2. X17

English Translation

  1. Storage is being filled
  2. by fertility-fluids

Comment: Cattle were the main storage of a family's wealth.

Column 5 (SX 1.5)

Sumerian

  1. DUB SAR

English Translation

  1.  The pests are ejected

Column 6 (SX 1.6)

Sumerian

  1. ARAD ZU

English Translation

  1.  Servant of wisdom