Old Babylonian period - (c. 2004 - 1595 B.C.) - Kassite Dynasty of Bablylon (c. 1720-1157 B.C.)

1. Boundry stones (kudurru) such as this are the most characteristic survival of Kassite era Babylonia. This one records a 12th century land grant by a father to his son. In the top register are the divinities of Sin (moon), Ishtar (planet Venus), Shamash (sun), and horned crowns representing Anu and Enlil and the goat-fish of Ea. In the third register are the dragon and spade of Marduk.

That extraordinary lady, E.S. Drower, has given some remarkable material on the tradition of the Mandaeans of Iraq. This ancient religion has preserved in various rituals and myths, fragments of religious gnosis that can be traced back to Babylonia. One tale recorded by E.S. Drower, which is too complex to describe, involves the journey of a group into a no -mans-land where they find an upright column:

"For he saw a huge serpent coiled about a slab of black marble, and its head upreared, and its eyes like fire. In the middle of the slab was a lion in an attitude of threat, and by the lion's feet a large scorpion, and above it, a hornet bigger than a bird."

"There they saw the animals as they had been described to them, standing on a marble base. The lion and scorpion were of gold, the serpent, "Ur, which surrounded the group, was of steel, but of such steel as was made in ancient times, strongly tempered so that it cut iron as though it were a cucumber. The hornet was of a red metal, I know not of what kind."

Though the actual details are not very clear, it seems that the slab or column was removed, revealing a subterranean entrance:

"After they had removed the talisman, the Mandai lifted the marble slab, and beneath it they saw a deep vault going down into the earth.

One of the Mandai then descends into the vault, which is bottomless. Everything that he touched, crumbled beneath his hand. He finds a staff in the darkness and uses this to walk. After a journey of seven days he enters a world, all fair and white with a river.

Now it is obvious that the slab is a kudurru stone, defined thus in Hastings:

"The Babylonians called boundary Stones kudurru, though the name was also applied to the land within the boundary. They were sacred to certain divinities, but not themselves representatives of divinity like the Greek Hermæ, though the divinity exercised power, the power of the curse, through them." MacCulloch, J.A. Landmarks and Boundaries, Hastings.

"The kudurru, which probably had some phallic significance, varies in height from one to several feet." MacCulloch, J.A. Landmarks and Boundaries, Hastings.

"On the kudurru are usually representations of serpents, scorpions, and monsters. They may represent the demons to whom the soil belongs, and who would presumably resent trespass or removal of the landmark after the owner had duly propitiated them. Others have seen in them representations of the signs of the zodiac - a theory which receives support from from the representation of heavenly bodies and shrines (? houses of the heavens) on the kudurru. They would then have reference to the time at which the grant was made. " MacCulloch, J.A. Landmarks and Boundaries, Hastings.

"He rose and then looked at the staff. It was all of gold and bore an inscription, a talisman written from end to end of it."

"After he had been there about an hour, he saw people approaching him. They wore no clothes, but their bodies were covered with white hair, smooth, like the down on a bird's breast. On their faces the hair grew but lightly, and on the palms of their hands there was none."

He is taken to their Sultan. Because of a communication problem, the Mandai teaches the Sultan the Madaic writing

Once communication is established, the Sultan tells the Mandai the history of his white-haired people. He then mentions the vault:

Hinke, William J., A New Boundary Stone of Nebuchadnezzar I from Nippur with a Concordance of Proper Names and a Glossary of the Kudurru inscriptions Published thus Far (Philadelphia: 1907) {This is an older work, but is one of the few discussions of the symbols, astrological and otherwise, on kudurrus.  Kudurrus were Babylonian boundary stones, carved with land rental contracts and symbols of the gods guaranteeing them.}
 
Seidl, Ursula, "Die babylonischen Kudurru-reliefs," Deutsche Achaeologisches Institut Abteilung Baghdad, Baghdader Mitteilungen 4 (1968): pages 7-220, and plates 1-32 {A recent discussion of the iconography of kudurrus, including astral symbols.}