Editing Caduceus (section)

===Ancient Near East===
[[File:Serpent_god_Ningishzida_on_the_libation_vase_of_Gudea,_circa_2100_BCE.jpg|thumb|upright|The Caduceus, symbol of God [[Ningishzida]], on the libation vase of [[Sumer]]ian ruler [[Gudea]], {{circa|2100 BCE}}]] 
[[File:Caduceus on Mauryan coin.jpg|thumb|upright|Caduceus symbol on a [[punch-marked coin]] of king [[Ashoka]] in [[India]], third to second century BC]]

[[William Hayes Ward]] (1910) discovered that symbols similar to the classical caduceus sometimes appeared on [[Mesopotamian cylinder seals]]. He suggested the symbol originated some time between 3000 and 4000 BC, and that it might have been the source of the Greek caduceus.<ref>William Hayes Ward, ''The Seal Cylinders of Western Asia'', Washington, 1910</ref> A.L. Frothingham incorporated Ward's research into his own work, published in 1916, in which he suggested that the prototype of Hermes was an "Oriental deity of Babylonian extraction" represented in his earliest form as a snake god. From this perspective, the caduceus was originally representative of Hermes himself, in his early form as the Underworld god [[Ningishzida]], "messenger" of the "Earth Mother".<ref>A.L. Frothingham, "Babylonian Origins of Hermes the Snake-God, and of the Caduceus", in ''American Journal of Archaeology'', Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 175–211</ref>
The caduceus is mentioned in passing by [[Walter Burkert]]<ref>Burkert, ''Greek Religion'' 1985: II.2.8, p. 158; Burkert notes H. Frankfort, in ''Iraq'', '''1''' (1934:10) and E.D. van Buren, in ''Archiv für Orientforschung'', '''10''' (1935/36:53-65).</ref> as "really the image of copulating snakes taken over from Ancient Near Eastern tradition".

In Egyptian iconography, the [[Djed]] pillar is depicted as containing a snake in a frieze of the [[Dendera Temple complex]].