#ASSYRIAN TREE OF LIFE SYMBOL SERIES#

Tree of life on a rhyton from Marlik, Iran, currently at the National Museum of Iran.

Servants stood on each side of the tree with one of their hands up as if they are taking care of the tree. The branches of the tree were equally divided on the right and left sides of the stem, with each branch having one leaf, and one leaf on the apex of the tree. In ancient Urartu, the tree of life was a religious symbol and was drawn on walls of fortresses and carved on the armor of warriors. This has a solid provenance of antiquity, being found in cylinder seals from Akkad (2390–2249 BCE). In Mesopotamian mythology, Etana searches for a ‘plant of birth’ to provide him with a son. The Epic of Gilgamesh is a similar quest for immortality. In fact, no textual evidence pertaining to the symbol is known to exist. The name “Tree of Life” has been attributed to it by modern scholarship it is not used in the Assyrian sources. Assyriologists have not reached consensus as to the meaning of this symbol.

It was apparently an important religious symbol, often attended to in Assyrian palace reliefs by human or eagle-headed winged genies, or the King, and blessed or fertilized with bucket and cone.

#ASSYRIAN TREE OF LIFE SYMBOL SERIES#

The Assyrian tree of life was represented by a series of nodes and criss-crossing lines. Ancient MesopotamiaĪssyrian tree of life, from Nimrud panels.

The tree of knowledge, connecting to heaven and the underworld, and the tree of life, connecting all forms of creation, are both forms of the world tree or cosmic tree, and are portrayed in various religions and philosophies as the same tree. It is closely related to the concept of the sacred tree. The tree of life is a fundamental widespread mytheme or archetype in many of the world’s mythologies, religious and philosophical traditions.

Assyrian tree of life symbol