Near East quiz #1

Protoliterate Period

Protoliterate Period

• 4200-3000 BC

Early Dynastic Period

• 2900-2334 BC

title, date, material, findspot

• White Temple and Anu Ziggurat

• c. 3300 BC, Protoliterate Period (4200-3000 BC)

• Mudbrick

• Uruk, Iraq

title, date, material, findspot

• Uruk Vase

• c. 3300 BC, Protoliterate Period (4200-3000 BC)

• Carved alabaster

• Eanna Precinct, Uruk, Iraq

title, date, material, findspot

• Head of a Woman — Goddess Inanna?

• 3300 BC, Protoliterate Period (4200-3000 BC)

• Marble

• Eanna Precinct, Uruk, Iraq

title, date, material, findspot

• Lion Hunt Stele

• c. 3300 BC, Protoliterate Period (4200-3000 BC)

• Basalt

• Eanna sanctuary, Uruk, Iraq

title, date, material, findspot

• Cylinder Seal

• 3500-3100 BC, Protoliterate Period (4200-3000 BC)

• Green Jasper

• Provenance unknown

• acquired by Louvre in 1877

title, date, material, findspot

• Administrative Text

• c. 3400 BC, Protoliterate Period (4200-3000 BC)

• Baked clay with early cuneiform writing

• Uruk, level IV, Iraq

title, date, material, findspot

• Priest King Statues

• c. 3300 BC, Protoliterate Period (4200-3000 BC)

• Limestone

• Provenance unknown, probably from Uruk

title, date, material, findspot

• Vase of Entemena

• Early Dynastic Period, 3000-2300 BC

• Silver of a copper foot

• Telloh (Lagash)

title, date, material, findspot

• Group of Statuettes

• Early Dynastic Period, 3000-2300 BC

• Stone, shell, lapis, lazuli

• Tell Asmar

title, date, material, findspot

• Entemena of Lagash

• c. 2400 BC, Early Dynastic Period 2900-2334 BC

• Black Diorite

• Ur (approx. 3 feet tall)

title, date, material, findspot

• Dudu the Scribe

• 2500-2450 BC, Early Dynastic Period 2900-2334 BC

• Basalt

• Girsu, Iraq (17.5 inches tall)

title, date, material, findspot

• Ibgal of Inanna built by Urnanshe

• c. 2450 BC, Early Dynastic Period 2900-2334 BC

• Mudbrick and stone

• Lagash

title, date, material, findspot

• Anzu Relief

• Early Dynastic Period, 3000-2300 BC

• Copper on wooden core

• Al ‘Ubaid

title, date, material, findspot

• Stele of Urnanshe

• Early Dynastic Period, 3000-2300 BC

• Limestone

• Telloh

title, date, material, findspot

• Jewellery Of Queen Puabi

• Early Dynastic Period, 2550-2400 BC

• Gold, lapis lazuli, carnelian

• Ur

title, date, material, findspot

• Helmet of Meskalamdug

• Early Dynastic Period, 2550-2400 BC

• Gold

• Ur

title, date, material, findspot

• Dagger and sheath of Meskalamdug

• Early Dynastic Period, 2550-2400 BC

• Gold with lapis lazuli handle

• Ur

title, date, material, findspot

• Offering Stand

• Early Dynastic Period, 2500 BC

• Wood, silver, shell, red limestone, lapis lazuli, gold-foil

• Ur

title, date, material, findspot

• Harp from Ur

• Early Dynastic Period, 2550-2400 BC

• gold, silver, lapis lazuli, bitumen, wood

• Ur

title, date, material, findspot

• Royal “Standard” from Ur

• Early Dynastic Period, 2550-2400 BC

• Lapis Lazuli, red limestone

• Ur

title, date, material, findspot

• Stele of Eannatum

• Early Dynastic Period, 2450 BC

• Limestone

• Girsu, Iraq

title, date, material, findspot

• Cylinder Seal of Queen Puabi

• Early Dynastic Period, 2600 BC

• Lapis lazuli

• Ur

White Temple and Anu Ziggurat

• Over 5,300 years old

• Very old monument

• Service of religion

• Ziggurat → built entirely from mudbrick

• Religious building → Temple

• Anu (made for)

• Ziggurat → to be high

• Man made, mudbrick mound that is meant as a platform to build a temple on top of it

• Mound between heaven and earth

Standard form:

• Made of mudbrick (most available)

• Corners of a Ziggurat → always oriented to the four most cardinal points

  • Trying to look like mountain sides

• Sides of Ziggurat:

  • Recesses and buttresses → slant inward when go up

• Shrines or temples on top of them

Temples on top:

• The White Temple → famous temple

• Generally rectangular in shape

• Temples made of mudbrick

• White painted plaster (outside)

• Recessed and buttressed walls in the temple

• Bent axis approach

Uruk Vase

• 3 ft vase

• Found with another pair

• Pairs of similarly shaped vases are shown in other pieces of art

• Records the most famous religious festival in the Sumerian (found in temple)

  • Narrative going on

• Fertility and control on nature

• Sculptural style

• New years festival

• Based on agricultural cycles

• Dedicated to two gods: the Great Mother and Tamus

• Vase read from bottom to the top

• Three areas/registers that are decorated

Lower Register:

• Rippled water

• Plants

• Alternating grains and date palms

• Animals with the water as well

Middle Register:

• Great Mother and Tamus have been remarried and unified

• Series of naked men carrying baskets of fruits

• Spouted vessels

Top Register:

• Baskets filled high with food

• Female → perhaps goddess Inanna – next to gate posts

• Gate posts → in a pair, Gate Posts of Inanna

• Iconography: any feature of costume, posture, gesture, and attributes 

• Female: heavy thick robe, has one arm fully covered/other arm is bare, thumb almost in mouth (gesture of prayer)

• Gate posts on the left

• Baskets with fruit

• Animals

• Two statues standing on top of ram

  • Double line = possibly two rams

• Vase is on the vase (behind the rams)

• Pairing fertility

• Registers get widder and widder when you get to the top of the vase

  • Shows progression

• Directions change in each register

  • Moving in opposite directions

• Feels like a procession
  

• Hieratic scale!!!

• Hierarchy = larger thing is more important/powerful

• Figures are bulky/stocky

  • Eyes are shown frontal (not a profile eye)

• Striding (balance, no one is falling over)

• Many depictions of animals and plants

• Even animals are bulky

Head of a Woman — Goddess Inanna?

• Thought to depict a female/goddess

• Early example of art made by humans to depict the invisible entity [god/goddess] (cult statue)

• Naturalistic

• Composite statue (made of many materials)

• Eyes are in laid (either with shells or precious stones [lapis lazuli – comes from modern day Afghanistan])

• Bitumen → black tar substance

• Body may have been made out of wood? → no longer here

• Probably dressed in clothing/linen

• May of had some earrings

• Waves of hair (depressions) → sheets of gold to make hair appear to have waves?

Lion Hunt Stele

• Basalt is a dense, black, heavy, volcanic based stone

  • Hard to carve

  • Pretty durable

• Depicts a hunter killing lions

• Guy driving a spear into lions

• Other dead lions with arrows in them

• Hunter = preist king
  

• Stele = slab of stone that is carved with either with inscription or with a visual scene

  • Has a function in some way

• Stele function: used as grave markers, propaganda pieces, tell a story, record the names of kings (public), religious purposes

• Boundary markers
  

• Same guy shown twice

• Guy is a priest king/ruler → “en”

• Powerful person because he is a mighty hunter who is defeating these mighty beasts

• Common theme of lions in Mesopotamian art

• Links hunting and power
  

• Priest king iconography in protoliterate style

  • Almost always have cap headdresses (rolled around the edges)

  • Hair is wrapped into a bun

  • Typically have a beard (false beards) → could be something that they added to their face

  • Naked torso

  • Skirts (belt or rolled up at waist)

Cylinder Seal

• Glyptic art

• Did have seals before cylinder seals

• Seemed to occur → wanted to cover more surface

• Validate documents

• Writing in clay tablets

• Every person has a tiny piece of stone that has some type of iconography (or writing) that is unique to them = their signature 

• Depict priest king in the center – feeding rams (flowers)

• Rosettes of Inanna

• Stone and ram is copper (cylinder)

• Two gate posts (left side) and animal floating = cult statue → inside part of temple and dedicating two pairs of vases

Importance: 

• Cylinder seals show us trade patterns (by what stones were used/findspots)

• Styles

• Some seals have inscriptions of the owners

• Often depict important mythological scenes, daily life scenes

• Demise of a government and society (tracks downfall)

• Even lower class people had and used cylinder seals
  

Cylinder seal in green jasper and modern clay impression

Administrative Text

• seal on back side

• cuneiform

• oldest writing come from Uruk

Priest King Statue

• rolled cap and beard

• gesture of prayer and holding an offering between his hands

Vase of Entemena

• Votive from early dynastic period

  • Votive offerings are the most common from the early dynastic period

• Made of silver and has copper foot

• Major part of relationships of humans and gods

• do ut des → Latin for “I give so that you might give”

• People gave gods votives (like statues, vases, textiles, animals, oils) expecting that the deities would give back to them

• Found in a temple

• Inscribed on top of the vessel
  

• Material is interesting

• Around 2500 BCE, metals like silver, copper, and gold became the rage → see an increase in votives made from these materials

• Anzu (lion headed, eagle bodied) – earthly embodiment of Ningursi (god of Thunder)

• God would have violent/war like characteristics

• Two eagle legs out controlling rams (grabbing their backs)

• “Domesticating animals”
  

• Band of animals → animals look a little chunky (little bit of proto-literature style)

• Name of ruler who is the dedication of this vase

• What he is the ruler of and the connection to the deity

• God also is connected to him because he is using the offerings

Group of Statuettes

• Embodies the biggest change of votives during this period

• Votives are no longer animals/vases → now are humans worshiping their deities

• Found underneath the temples (buried)

• Representing the worshippers

  • Posture is religious

  • Arms are bent (some holding cups) → gestures of prayer/offering

• Early Dynastic: large eyes (usually inlaid with shells/lapis lazuli), geometric and abstracted, hands come together, gestures are similar, men have stylized beards/hair, looking up/not looking ahead, very broad shoulder/skinny waists, unrealistic shows of muscles, flounced skirts

Two figures that are different:

• These two figures are different → size and dress

• Fancy stuff on their bases 

  • Abu (man’s base) → god of vegetation

    • Represent Abu, representation does not seem to be finished

    • Eagle in the center, two animals lying on either side with vegetation growing out of their backs

  • Woman had a figure standing next to her

• Guy looks like a priest king → rolled skirt, hair and beard are longer, eyes are bigger

• Woman has clothing that shows a shoulder, but covers her other shoulder

Entemena of Lagash

• Priest King

• Importance:

  • Subject – depicts ruler of Lagash (Entemena)

  • Earliest depictions of a Mesopotamian ruler

  • Material – diorite (black diorite), imported (used a lot in royal structures)

  • Inscription on the shoulder (early example of words/image working together)

    • Gods favor his rule

    • Building temples

    • Gives a name

• Set up by ruler in temple in Ur, and it was a votive offering

  • Sumerian god of the sky

• Same overarching cone shape, standard clasps hands in prayer, multi-layered flounced coat, broad shoulders

Dudu the Scribe

• Votive statues also showed members of societies beyond rulers

• Found in temple for the god of thunder

• Not the ruler!!

  • Range of people

Ibgal of Inanna built by Urnanshe

• Oval shaped temple

• Oval temples → outer walls are oval shaped

• Core central role that religion plays in

• Cities usually have one god that protects each city

• Functional, religion core of the city

• The patron of the temple is important (as well as his grandson)

• Built by Urnanshe, later got renovated by his grandson

  • Continuity of sacred space/conservation of sacred space

Anzu Relief

• Found in a lot of debris

• Decorative sculpture

• Emblem → god of Thunder

• Not sure where is would actually be placed, possibly on top of the door (lintel)

• Complex sculptures 

• Style: playing with the plain of the relief → bodies (Anzu and innocent deer) are in relief

  • Heads are projecting out of the relief and become 3-dimensional

• Anzu is so powerful that his head projects way above the rim of the relief

• The antler spill over the frame

• Lion headed eagle body → earthly representation of Ningursi

Stele of Urnanshe

• More temple decoration

• limestone plaque that was meant to decorate the wall of a temple

• Wall in the middle → put giant nail in the middle to put in the wall

• Beginning of a long tradition to decorate temple walls

• Plaque shows ruler (biggest person [top left]) and is engaged in building a temple

  • Basket of mud on his head

  • Going to make the first mudbrick to build a temple that he is paying for

  • Approached by a line of family members (first figure may be daughter)

• On the bottom, he is sitting down

  • He is celebrating and is holding a cup

  • Guy behind him is holding a drinking vessel → gives him more drink when he needs it

  • Approached by his son

• Entire thing is covered in scriptures (to identify rulers and deities)

• All done in standard Early Dynastic style

  • Profile bodies and frontly eyes

  • Hands are clasped (prayer position)

  • Flounced skirt

  • Broad shoulders

  • Mix of writing and art

Jewellery of Queen Puabi

• Incredible headdress

• Hold headdress

• Rosettes of Eanna

• Chest was covered with beads that draped down

• On fingers = 10 gold rings

  • Lavish amount of jewellery = very wealthy

• Jewellery is characterized by trades – trade network (lapis comes from Afghanistan)

  • Blue, red, and gold

• Buried with 3 cylinder seals

• Just under 5 feet tall, about 40 when she died

• 3 attendants in chamber with her

• Massive amounts of funerary goods around her

Helmet of Meskalamdug

• In adjacent tomb from the Jewellery

• Tomb has lots of war gear

• Material is interesting – gold and some gold and silver

  • Metalworking skills

• Little lines of gold throughout the entire helmet

  • Repoussé – technique where you push designs in metalwork from the inside

    • Working from the inside of the helmet

• Little balls of gold

• Iconography: band that goes around the head (priest king), bun at the back of the head (priest king), headdresses that are depicted in stone reliefs and other statues

Dagger and sheath of Meskalamdug

• Ceremonial weapon meant to be buried with king

Offering Stand

• Would of had a table on its back

• Offering stand

• Other wooden objects that are covered in gold, lapis lazuli, etc

• Offering for the dead

• Two of these were found

  • One in UPenn and other at British Museum

• Perched

• Rosettes of Eanna

• Posture in which goats could actually be in → seen in nature

  • Trying to eat the rosettes

  • Or could be a sexual stance

• Fertility

• Inlaid with use of bitumen and covered in precious stones

Harp from Ur

• Harp found in tomb 1237 (reconstructed)

• Development of critical technologies for excavation organic material

  • Woolley realized that they were coming across finds with organic material that disintegrated

  • Dirt would hold the organic material and the shape of the object

• Wooden cords inlaid with gold, silver, and lapis lazuli

• Woolley developed a technique of putting plaster into dirt and let it dry

  • Able to recover

• Soundbox of harp

• Harp comes from Queen Puabi’s tomb

• Ancient instruments and cuneiform tablets that talks about music (what it was and what is sounded like)

  • Scales, tuning and playing instruments

• Two basic parts to the instrument

  • Bull head and art scenes

• Inlay (bitumen [tar like substance]) → lapis lazuli, gold, etc and stick it into the bitumen

  • Show wealth of royal family

• Total of 11 string instruments were found at Ur

• Harp on the harp

  • Animals are playing a harp

  • Object is being depicted on the object
    

Series of reliefs:

• Donkey is playing harp

• 2nd: offering stand – food and bowl

• Ritual scene

• Preparing for a banquet or a ritual – see this on limestone plaques all the time

• Animals are taking over human tasks

• 1st: middle → belt, but naked, and in combat scene 

  • Flanked on both sides with mythological creatures

  • Early on protoliterate kings

  • Belt and beard make him some type of hero

• 4th: scorpion and human

  • Mythological

  • Drink behind him

  • Rattles in his hand – connects to Egypt
    

Bull:

• Cast out of gold and bear is lapis lazuli

• Bulls are associated with royal court

Royal “Standard” from Ur

• Two sides

• Don’t understand the function 

  • Could be placed on top of a stick and be carried around

• Not entirely sure how this was actually made
  

• One side shows war

• Other side is a banqueting scene showing victory and peace

War

• Period of tension between various city-states

• Read bottom to top

• Bottom: chariots moving to the right

  • Trampling dead enemies

  • Horses are walking – knees start to get bent, start running, and then leaps

    • Get more vigorous

• Middle: men walking

• Top: in the middle there is the King himself

  • Leading men which marched up

  • King is larger than anyone else

    • Hieratic scale (taller than anyone else)

Celebration of Victory:

• Bottom: animals and figures carrying

  • Lead by a guy in a pyrus gesture (?)

• Middle: more figures being lead and walking to the celebration

• Top: king is bigger 

• Music in celebration

  • There is a harp

Stele of Eannatum

• “Stele of the Vultures”

• Holding Anzu (Anzu clasp)

• Recording of history

• Victory of neighboring people

• People of Uma destroyed a burial stone of Girsu and settled on the land that belonged to a city-state (Girsu)

• Battle began

• Result of battle

• Sets this Stele up → “let’s look at what happened last time”

• On the bottom, the King is holding a stake (charging at enemy), trying to get King of Uma

• In top register, lots of men behind him → walking on top of dead people of Uma

• Vultures carrying away heads of enemies

• Plenty of writing included to spell out the victory

• We know the king:

  • king/warrior iconography

  • helmet/hairstyle → hair in bun and a band circling around head

Cylinder Seal of Queen Puabi

• Lapis lazuli

• Worn on a necklace

• Iconographic:

  • Bottom register – offering stand

    • Animal leg on the top

    • ‘X’ in the middle

  • In profile, but eyes are frontal (Early Dynastic style)

  • Flounced skirts

  • Most have bare chests

  • Headdress on Queen Puabi

  • Shawl with one shoulder covered and another shoulder uncovered

  • Broad shoulders

  • Banqueting scene

    • People are in attendance for the Queen

• Cuneiform writing (inscription to say whose seal it is) – signature

  • Seal states “Queen Puabi,” not queen of a husband or queen of a king
    

• Banqueting scenes are not related to gender, but rather for royalty