Editing Star and crescent (section)

===Origins and predecessors===
[[File:Ibbi-Sin enthroned.jpg|thumb|Sealing depicting the [[Third Dynasty of Ur|Neo Sumerian]] King, [[Ibbi-Sin]] seated with a star or [[Dingir]] and crescent adjacent to him]]
[[File:Kudurru Melishipak Louvre Sb23 n02.jpg|thumb|Depiction of the emblems of Ishtar (Venus), Sin (Moon), and Shamash (Sun)  on a [[kudurru|boundary stone]] of [[Meli-Shipak II]] (12th century BC)]]
[[File:UrfaMuseumNabonidSymbole.jpg|thumb|Venus, Sun and Moon on the Stele of [[Nabonidus]]  (r. 556–539 BC) found at [[Harran]] ([[Şanlıurfa Museum]])<ref>A similar stele found in Babylon is kept in the British Museum ([http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=367113&partId=1 no. 90837]).</ref>]]
Crescents appearing together with a star or stars are a common feature of Sumerian iconography, the crescent usually being associated with the moon god [[Sin (mythology)|Sin]] (Nanna) and the star with [[Ishtar]] ([[Inanna]], i.e. [[Venus]]), often placed alongside the sun disk of [[Shamash]].<ref>Michael R. Molnar, ''The Star of Bethlehem'', Rutgers University Press, 1999, p78</ref><ref>"the three celestial emblems, the sun disk of [[Shamash]] ([[Utu]] to the Sumerians), the crescent of Sin (Nanna), and the star of [[Ishtar]] ([[Inanna]] to the Sumerians)" Irving L. Finkel, Markham J. Geller, ''Sumerian Gods and Their Representations'', Styx, 1997, p71. André Parrot, ''Sumer: The Dawn of Art'', Golden Press, 1961</ref> 
In Late Bronze Age Canaan, star and crescent moon motifs are also found on [[Moab]]ite name seals.<ref>Othmar Keel, Christoph Uehlinger, ''Gods, Goddesses, and Images of God in Ancient Israel'', Fortress Press, 1998, p. 322.</ref> <div>The [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]] representing "moon" (<hiero>N11</hiero> [[Gardiner's sign list#N|N11]]) and "star" (<hiero>N14</hiero> [[Gardiner's sign list#N|N14]]) appear in ligature, forming a star-and-crescent shape <hiero>N11:N14</hiero> , as a determiner for the word for "month", ''{{lang|egy|ꜣbd}}''.<ref>A.H. Gardiner, ''[[Egyptian Grammar: Being an Introduction to the Study of Hieroglyphs]]''. 3rd Ed., pub. [[Griffith Institute]], Oxford, 1957 (1st edition 1927), p. 486.</ref></div>

The depiction of the "star and crescent" or "star inside crescent" as it would later develop in [[Bosporan Kingdom]] is difficult to trace to Mesopotamian art.
Exceptionally, a combination of the crescent of Sin with the five-pointed [[star of Ishtar]], with the star placed ''inside'' the crescent as in the later Hellenistic-era symbol, placed among numerous other symbols, is found in a [[kudurru|boundary stone]] of [[Nebuchadnezzar I]] (12th century BC; found in [[Nippur]] by [[John Henry Haynes]] in 1896).<ref>W. J. Hinke, ''A New Boundary Stone of Nebuchadrezzar I from Nippur with a Concordance of Proper Names and a Glossary of the Kudurru Inscriptions thus far Published'' (1907), [https://books.google.com/books?id=Ml5MAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA120 120f].
[[University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology]], object nr. [http://www.penn.museum/collections/object/244029 29-20-1].</ref>  An example of such an arrangement is also found in the (highly speculative) reconstruction of a fragmentary [[Ur-Nammu stela|stele]] of [[Ur-Nammu]] ([[Third Dynasty of Ur]]) discovered in the 1920s.<ref>J. V. Canby, [https://web.archive.org/web/20230725073947/https://www.penn.museum/documents/publications/expedition/PDFs/29-1/Monumental1.pdf Reconstructing the Ur Nammu Stela], ''Expedition'' 29.1, 54&ndash;64.</ref>

A very early depiction of the symbol (crescent moon, stars and sun disc) is found on the [[Nebra sky disc]], dating from {{circa|1800|1600 BC}} (Nebra, Germany). A [[:File:Mycenae ring 2.jpg|gold signet ring from Mycenae]] dating from the 15th century BC also shows the symbol. The star and crescent (or 'crescent and pellet') symbol appears 19 times on the [[Berlin Gold Hat]], dating from c. 1000 BC.