In Mesopotamian religious iconography the solar disc is commonly represented as a circle enclosing a smaller four-pointed star with three radiating wavy lines between each of the points. A long-lived symbol, it is attested from the Akkadian through to the Neo-Babylonian periods and almost always serves as the symbol for the sun god Šamaš (Utu). As such, the solar disc was frequently placed upon a pole as a divine standard. In Akkadian terminology, the solar disc was named šamšatu and niphu.