Cuneiform tablet: hymn to Marduk; Neo-Babylonian (?); 1st millennium B.C.; Mesopotamia; Babylonian (?); Clay; 3 1/2 x 3 7/8 x 1 1/8 in. (9 x 9.8 x 2.9 cm); Clay-Tablets-Inscribed; The god Marduk first became an important god in the early second millennium B.C.; when Babylon (under its most famous king; Hammurabi) became the capital city of a large Babylonian state. Marduk's importance in the pantheon of gods rose with the fame of the city of Babylon; so that in later periods he was the supreme deity