The Song of the Hoe

en-e níĝ-du7-e pa na-an-ga-mi-in-è

Anonymous / tradition · c. 18th century BC (Old Babylonian copies of an older Sumerian composition) · Nippur (Iraq) · poetry

A hymn to the humble digging tool argues that civilization itself began with the hoe, crediting it with separating heaven from earth, breaking open the ground where humans first sprouted, and building every brick wall and watercourse that followed.