Editing Crescent (section)

===Early history===
[[File:Sumerian_Cylinder_Seal_of_King_Ur-Nammu.jpg|thumb|[[Sumeria]]n [[cylinder seal]], dated {{circa|2400}} BC, showing the Moon god as a crescent symbol]]
The crescent shape is used to represent the Moon, and the Moon deity [[Sin (mythology)|Nanna/Sin]] from an early time, visible in [[Akkadia]]n [[cylinder seal]]s as early as 2300 BC.

The [[Egyptian hieroglyphs|Egyptian logograph]] representing the Moon also had a crescent shape <hiero>N11</hiero> ([[Gardiner's sign list|Gardiner]] [[List of hieroglyphs/N|N11]], {{Transliteration|egy|ı͗ꜥḥ}} "moon" (with increscent and decrescent variants); variant N12 <hiero>N12</hiero>). In addition, there is a [[19th-dynasty]] hieroglyph representing the "moon with its lower half obscured (N9 <hiero>N9</hiero> {{Transliteration|egy|psḏ}}, with a variant with a crescent shape N10 <hiero>N10</hiero>).<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>

The crescent was well used in the iconography of the [[ancient Near East]] and was used by the [[Phoenicians]] in the 8th century BC as far as [[Carthage]] and [[Numidia]] in modern [[Tunisia]] and [[Algeria]]. The crescent and star also appears on pre-Islamic coins of South Arabia.<ref>Tombs and Moon Temple of Hureidah, Gertrude Caton Thompson, p.76</ref>

The combination of [[star and crescent]] also arises in the [[ancient Near East]], representing the [[Sin (mythology)|Moon]] and [[Ishtar]] (the planet Venus), often combined into a triad with the [[Shamash|solar disk]].<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.</ref> It was inherited both in [[Sasanian Empire|Sassanian]] and [[Hellenistic period|Hellenistic]] iconography.