4946. (33) Serpentine Cylinder Seal; Mesopotamia: late Akkadian period; ca. 2254-2154 B.C. This beautiful Akkadian seal shows an enigmatic mythic scene in which gods battle while another destroys a tree to let an imprisoned god ascend from under it. The imprisoned god is helped by a female goddess; perhaps the goddess of childbirth. The presence of the human female kneeling before the tree is inexplicable unless it is the union of the human female and male deity that has brought about the result of the divine birth. 鈥榃hen the Sons of God mated with the daughters of men and they bore children for them: these were the heroes of old; the men of renown.' Genesis 6: 4.