The Rise of Civilization: The Art of the Ancient Near East

The Sumerians occupied the lower valley between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in what is now southern Iraq. They established urban communities and developed the earliest known writing system. Beginning around 3200 B.C., the Sumerians constructed ziggurats and produced small-scale sculptures and objects carved from alabaster, gypsum, lapis lazuli, limestone, marble, and wood. Details and decorative elements were often inlaid using shell, lapis lazuli, red limestone, black limestone, and gold.

The invention of writing:

The Sumerians were the people who transformed the vast, flat lower valley between the Tigris and Euphrates into the Fertile Crescent of the ancient world.

The first city-states and their gods:

Ancient Sumer was not a unified nation but was made up of a dozen or so independent city-states, and each was thought to be under the protection of a different one of the Mesopotamia gods.

A mud-brick tower to the sky:

The Sumerians built towering stepped platforms of mud bricks called ziggurats, with a temple on the summit.

2-1 White Temple and ziggurat, Uruk (modern Warka), Iraq, ca. 3200-3000 B.C.

1. ziggurat
2. ziggurat
3. ziggurat
4. ziggurat
5. ziggurat
6. ziggurat

2-2 Reconstruction drawing of the White Temple and ziggurat, Uruk (modern Warka), Iraq, ca. 3200-3000 B.C. (after S.E. Piggott)

1. reconstruction
2. reconstruction
3. reconstruction
4. reconstruction
5. reconstruction

Sculpture in marble and gold:

A lifelike head of a woman carved from imported white marble originally had inlaid eyes and eyebrows and other attachments such as a wig.

2-3 Female head (Inanna?), from Uruk (modern Warka), Iraq, ca. 3200-3000 B.C. MARBLE, APPROX. 8" HIGH. IRAQ MUSEUM, BAGHDAD.

1. head
2. head
3. head
4. head
5. head
6. head

Gifts for a goddess:

A vase divided into three registers shows animals, a procession of naked men, and a "priest-king" bringing offerings to a female priestess or goddess.

2-4 Presentation of offerings to Inanna (Warka Vase), from Uruk, ca. 3200-3000 B.C. ALABAASTER, 3' 1/4" HIGH. IRAQ MUSEUM, BAGHDAD.

1. Warka Vase
2. Warka Vase
3. Warka Vase
4. Warka Vase

Statuettes of perpetual worshipers:

Statuettes show standing men and women of varying size with large eyes and tiny hands clasped in a gesture of prayer or holding a small beaker. Another statuette shows the seated figure of the court singer Urnanshe in prayer.

2-5 Statuettes of worshipers from the Square Temple at Eshnunna (modern Tell Asmar), Iraq, ca. 2700 B.C. GYPSUM INLAID WITH SHELL AND BLACK LIMESTONE, TALLEST FIGURE APPROX. 2' 6" HIGH. IRAQ MUSEUM AND ORIENTAL INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO.

1. statuettes
2. statuettes
3. statuettes
4. statuettes
5. statuettes
6. statuettes

2-6 Seated statuette of Urnanshe, from the Ishtar temple at Mari (modern Tell Hariri), Syria, ca. 2600-2500 B.C. GYPSUM INLAID WITH SHALL AND LAPIS LAZULI, 10 1/4" HIGH. NATIONAL MUSEUM, DAMASCUS. Heading #3Victory and Vultures: A stone slab carved in relief commemorates an army's victory.

1. statuette
2. statuette
3. statuette
4. statuette

2-7 Victory stele of Eannatum (Stele of the Vultures), from Girsu (modern Telloh), Syria, ca. 2600-2500 B.C. LIMESTONE, 5' 11" HIGH. LOUVRE, PARIS.

1. stele
2. stele
3. stele
4. stele
5. stele
6. stele

War and peace:

The spoils of war as well as farming and trade brought considerable wealth to some of the city-states of ancient Sumer.

2-8 War side (a) and peace side (b) of the Standard of Ur, from tomb 779, Royal Cemetery, Ur (modern Tell Muqayyar), Iraq, ca. 2600 B.C. WOOD INLAID WITH SHELL, LAPIS LAZULI, AND RED LIMESTONE, APPROX. 8" X 7". BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON

1. Standard of Ur (War Side)
2. Standard of Ur (War Side)
3. Standard of Ur (War Side)
4. Standard of Ur (War Side)
5. Standard of Ur (Peace Side)
6. Standard of Ur (Peace Side)
7. Standard of Ur (Peace Side)
8. Standard of Ur (Peace Side)
9. Standard of Ur (Peace Side)
10. Standard of Ur (Peace Side)
11. Standard of Ur - detail

A bearded bull's head decorates the soundbox of a Sumerian lyre. Other imaginary composite creatures decorate a panel on the sound box itself.

2-9 Bull-headed lyre (restored) from tomb 789 ("King's Grave"), Royal Cemetery, Ur (modern Tell Muqayyar), Iraq, ca. 2600 B.C. Gold leaf and laps lazuli over a wooden core, approx. 5' 5" high. University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

1. lyre
2. lyre
3. lyre
4. lyre

2-10 Soundbox of the lyre from Tomb 789, Royal Cemetery, Ur (modern Tell Muqayyar), Iraq, ca. 2600 B.C. Wood with inlaid gold, lapis lazuli, and shell, approx. 1' high. University Museum, University ofPennsylvania, Philadelphia.

1. sound box
2. sound box
3. sound box
4. sound box
5. sound box

A man and a woman sit and drink from beakers in a banquet scene carved in miniature on a cylinder seal.

2-11 Banquet scene, cylinder seal, and its modern impression, from the tomb of Pu-abi (tomb 800). Royal Cemetery, Ur, (modern Tell Muqayyar), Iraq, ca. 2600 B.C. LAPIS LAZULI, APPROX. 2" HIGH. BRITISH MUSEUM, LONDON.

1. cylinder seal
2. cylinder seal
3. similar
4. similar