The creation of figural art was one of Childe’s criteria for the city. Pictorial art indeed becomes an important aspect of city life in the Near East and Mediterranean basin, a reflection of the changing ideologies of the peoples of the region. Throughout this book we shall be exploring pictorial imagery, keeping in mind how it enhanced the world of the ancient city dweller, from the Ancient Near East through the Roman Empire.
Religious imagery takes on an important role early in the development of pictorial art in Sumerian cities, with Protoliterate-period Uruk yielding key examples for the start of the tradition. The religious practices of the Sumerians, their gods and goddesses, mythology, and sacred architecture are of particular interest because they greatly influenced the character of religion and ritual in the Ancient Near East until Christianity became the official faith of the Roman Empire in the fourth century AD. For knowledge of Sumerian religion in the Protoliterate period, before written documents yield fuller information, we depend on depictions in such works of art as the Uruk Vase and a sculpted head, both from Uruk, and cylinder seals with carved decoration.
The Uruk Vase is a tall (1.05 m including the modern base), slender alabaster vessel with sculptured scenes of ritual activity, homage to the goddess Inanna (Figures 2.6 and 2.7). Found in the Eanna Precinct, the vase was made ca. 3000 BC. Similar ritual vessels are illustrated, always in pairs, in cult scenes on cylinder seals and indeed on this vase. The most important action takes place in the top register, where a priestess or perhaps Inanna herself receives gifts brought by priests, naked, in conformance with early Sumerian practice, as they approached the divinity. Behind them stands an intriguing figure, largely damaged, who presents a tasseled belt to the goddess. Attended by a clothed servant, this prominent person must be the ruler. The two standards behind Inanna, tall staffs of reeds with looped tops and streamers down the back side,
Represent the gateposts of her temple, with the interior of the temple shown to the right of the gateposts. Throughout Sumerian history these standards accompany Inanna, identifying her for the viewer. In archaeology and art history such identifying features are called attributes.
Figure 2.6 Uruk Vase, alabaster, from the Eanna Precinct, Uruk. Iraq Museum, Baghd
In the smaller middle zone of the vase, nude priests process with offerings of food and drink. The bottom register, divided into two smaller zones, shows the two realms which provide this wealth for the goddess: the world of animals (upper) and of plants (lower). Just below the plants an undulating band represents the ultimate source of the fertility of Uruk’s lands: the Euphrates River.
Even if its narrative scenes of processions and offerings find countless echoes throughout the art of Near Eastern and Mediterranean antiquity, this vase is unique. Someone in ancient Uruk thought so, too, and went to the trouble of repairing with copper rivets the section of rim just above the head of the goddess.
The Uruk Vase signals two important conventions of Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean art. First, the carvings on the vase would have been painted, a habit perpetuated by Greek and Roman sculptors and architects. Second, the figures were shown in profile, the standard pose in relief sculpture and painting in the Ancient Near East, Egypt, and early Greece. Only in the later sixth century BC did Greek artists break from this tradition with their depictions of the human body in a great variety of movements.
A second object from Protoliterate Uruk that ranks among the most striking finds from ancient Mesopotamia is a limestone mask of a woman, two-thirds life size, 20cm high (Figure 2.8). This too was found in the Eanna precinct. Is this the face of a goddess or a priestess? Although the mask seems marvelous as is, we have to realize that it was carefully prepared to be adorned with inlays and attachments. The broad grooves on the top of the woman’s head were surfaces that supported realistic hair or a headdress. Colored pastes or stones would have filled the eyes and eyebrows.
The mask was only one portion of a figure we can no longer reconstruct. Four holes in the flat back side of the mask permitted attachment to a flat surface. No traces survive of the accompanying body. It was made in other materials; clay or wood, when painted and decorated, perhaps with precious metals, would have served perfectly well. Such figures created from a variety of materials are described in later texts from Mesopotamia; indeed, multi-media figures were produced by all subsequent cultures of Mediterranean and Near Eastern antiquity. In today’s world they recall the construction of dolls more than anything else, or religious statuary that bears clothes.
Figure 2.8 Head of a woman, limestone, from the Eanna Precinct, Uruk. Iraq Museum, Baghdad
Finally, religious imagery frequently decorates a category of objects that first appear in the Uruk period and would become one of the hallmarks of the Ancient Near East: the cylinder seal. Although stamp seals were used from the sixth millennium BC, stone cylinders with designs carved on the curved surface became a far more popular way to indicate ownership or authority. Jars sealed with cloth, string, and clay; storage room locks sealed with clay; and documents on clay tablets were among the items marked with these distinctive pictures. The owner would roll out the seal, pushing the design onto wet clay. Since the cylinders were usually pierced longitudinally for a string, the seal could then be attached to one’s clothes or body (Figure 2.9). Fortunately for us, geometric designs did not satisfy the ancient Mesopotamians. They wanted to see gods, humans, and animals in action. As a result, these miniature scenes, enormously varied because of the need to individualize the designs, provide important evidence about Ancient Near Eastern religious beliefs. Secular subjects, such as hunting or warfare, were not nearly so popular.
Not only the cylinder seals themselves but also the impressions left in clay have survived well in the archaeological record. Since the style of carving and the subject matter change markedly through time, seals are helpful indicators for dating. In addition, tracking their distribution has yielded valuable information about Mesopotamian economies, about the increasing circulation of goods between villages and cities, and the increased control of elite groups over these resources.
The use of cylinder seals corresponds closely with the lifespan of the distinctive Mesopotamian writing system, the cuneiform script. When cuneiform was replaced by alphabets in the first millennium BC, cylinder seals faded, replaced once more by stamp seals. Before we continue our look at early Sumerian cities, let us pause to examine this writing system, for it is one of the great achievements of Ancient Near Eastern civilization. Like the representational art just discussed, the development of writing is Figure 2.9 Rolling out a cylinder seal associated particularly with the city of Uruk.
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