Artworks- Worshipper Statuettes Victory Stele of Naram-Sin Ziggurat Sumerian- Artworks- Worshipper Statuettes Victory Stele of Naram-Sin Ziggurat

Sumerian- The Sumerians were the people who transformed the vast, flat lower valley between the Tigris & Euphrates into the Fertile Crescent of the ancient world. Sparsely inhabited before the Sumerians, this area is now southern Iraq. In the fourth millennium BCE, the Sumerians established the first great urban communities and developed the earliest known writing system.

Worshipper Statuettes, from the Square Temple at Eshnunna (modern Tell Asmar), Iraq, ca. 2700 BCE. Gypsum inlaid with shell and black limestone, male figure approx. 2’ 6” high. Iraq Museum, Baghdad. Insight into Sumerian religious beliefs and rituals comes from a cache of sculptures reverently buried beneath the floor of a temple at Eshnunna (modern Tell Asmar) where the structure was remodeled. The statuettes range in size from well under a foot to about 30 inches tall. All of the statuettes represent mortals, with their hands folded in front of their chests in a gesture of prayer, usually holding the small beakers the Sumerians used in religious rites. Similar figurines from other sites bear inscriptions giving such information as the name of the donor and the god or even specific prayers to the deity on the owner’s behalf. Scholars have explained the exaggeration of the eye size in various ways. But because the purpose of these votive figures was to offer constant prayers to the gods on their donors’ behalf, the open-eyed stares most likely symbolize the eternal wakefulness necessary to fulfill their duty.

Victory Stele of Naram-Sin, from Susa, Iran,2254-2218 BCE Victory Stele of Naram-Sin, from Susa, Iran,2254-2218 BCE. Pink Sandstone, approx. 6’ 7” high. Located at the Louvre, Paris. Stele=is a stone or wooden slab, generally taller than it is wide, erected for funerals or commemorative purposes, most usually decorated with the names and titles of the deceased or living — inscribed, carved in, or painted onto the slab. It can also be used as territorial markers to delineate land ownership. This stele commemorates Naram-Sin’s defeat of the Lullubi, a people of the Iranian mountains to the east. On the stele, the grandson of Sargon leads his victorious army up the slopes of a wooded mountain. His enemies fall, flee, die or beg for mercy. The king stands alone, far taller than his men, treading on the bodies of two of the fallen Lullubi. He wears the horned helmet signifying divinity—the first time a king appears as a god in Mesopotamian art. Three stars shine (as far as we can see, the top is damaged) on his triumph. By storming the mountain, Naram-Sin seems to be scaling the ladder to the heavens.

Ziggurat (northeastern façade with restored stairs), Ur (modern Tell Muqayyar), Iraq, ca. 2100 BCE. Around 2150 BCE, a mountain people, the Gutians, brought Akkadian power to an end. The cities of Sumer, however, soon united in response to the alien presence, drove the Gutians out of Mesopotamia, and established a Neo-Sumerian state ruled by the kings of UR. This age, which historians call the Third Dynasty of UR, saw the construction of the ziggurat at Ur, one of the largest in Mesopotamia. The base is a solid mass of mud brick 50 feet high. The builders used baked bricks laid in bitumen, an asphalt like substance, for the facing of the entire monument. Three ramp like stairways of a hundred steps each converge on a tower-flanked gateway. From there another flight of steps probably led to the temple proper, which does not survive.

Compare and Contrast two of the works! Compare/Contrast Ways in which the artworks were created Type of sculpture (sculpture in the round= meant to view from all angles vs. relief sculpture=meant to be viewed from one side) Materials Purposes/functions Places they were found/where they are today