ABU, GOD OF VEGETATION

Though present-day Iraq once comprised a large part of ancient Mesopotamia, the entire area used to be very different from its modern arid landscape. Water was abundant back then, when cereal grains, the dietary staple, grew wild entirely without human cultivation, and the copious rainfall provided sustenance for the wondrous emergence of what the ancient world came to call the Garden of Eden. The resident deity Abu, rendered here in all his resplendent veggie raiment, dates to approximately 2500 BCE, according to scholars,  and is shown standing on his ziggurat, the sanctuary where his worshippers would gather.  The cuneiform writing on the base of the original sculpture has been translated as the title of this work indicates.  This replica was created by a contemporary cult, known in rough translation as the Fertile Crescent Chamber of Commerce.