Cherubim (two winged sphinxes) protecting the Sacred Tree from human access by attacking an approaching male. A Sundisc with wings and tail hovers over the Tree. The below photo is of a Neo-Babylonian Cylinder Seal of the 6th century BCE. I have posited elsewhere that Genesis was written ca. 562 BCE, in the 6th century, in Babylonia, during the Exile. In Genesis God stations the Cherubim to deny access to the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden.
(Cf. figure 110. p. 159. Thomas Beran & Peter C. Bol, et al. Archaologie Zur Bibel, Kunstschatze aus den Biblischen Landern. Mainz am Rhein. Verlag Philipp Von Zabern. 1981 .ISBN 3-8053-0528-1 [The Lands of the Bible Archaeology Foundation, Toronto])
