Sumer

The Stele of the Vultures

The earliest known war monument argues, through the god Ningirsu holding a net full of captured enemies and vultures carrying off severed heads, that a city-state's disputed border with its rival Umma becomes permanent only once divine violence has been carved into stone as its witness.

Read the text

Commentary

Readers' notes on this work. No account needed - be scholarly, or at least civil.

Loading commentary…