<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (November 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> This article needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . Unsourced material may be challenged and removed . (November 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) </Td> </Tr> <P> Doves, usually white in color, are used in a lot of settings as symbols of love, peace or as messengers . Doves appear in the symbolism of Judaism, Christianity and Paganism, and of both military and pacifist groups . </P> <P> In ancient Mesopotamia, doves were prominent animal symbols of Inanna - Ishtar, the goddess of love, sexuality, and war . Doves are shown on cultic objects associated with Inanna as early as the beginning of the third millennium BC . Lead dove figurines were discovered in the temple of Ishtar at Aššur, dating to the thirteenth century BC, and a painted fresco from Mari, Syria shows a giant dove emerging from a palm tree in the temple of Ishtar, indicating that the goddess herself was sometimes believed to take the form of a dove . In the Epic of Gilgamesh, Utnapishtim releases a dove and a raven to find land; the dove merely circles and returns . Only then does Utnapishtim send forth the raven, which does not return, and Utnapishtim concludes the raven has found land . </P>

What is the meaning of doves in the bible