Page 266 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

NOTES

35. Illustrated London News (26 Sept. I93<>)> 524> CHAPTER 2
plate i; Heinrich, Kleinfundc, plates 25-S. r< Thc Pirst> Sccond| and Third Early Dynastic r. 18
r- *- 36. Me is not mentioned in literature, and Ins pcriocjs> abbreviated E.D. 1; E.D. 11; E.D. nr. Thc
identification with thc hero of thc Gilgamesh epic cnd 0p £j). nr> from about 2425 to 2340 b.c., is
is entirely without foundation. See Frankfort, sometimes distinguished as the Protoimperial
Cylinder Seals, 62-7. Period.
37. On a later seal (Leon Legrain, Ur Excavations, 2. Thc close connexions between thc various p. 19
m, plate 16, no. 298), thc bearded bull is shown as vnscs Qf this group arc of thc greatest interest. On
thc numcn of a mountain. It is attacked by thc the left, in plate n a, we notice a small fragment of a
lion-headed eagle, personifying thc spring rains (sec building near which thc activities of thc musicians
below). The bull seems to symbolize some power of and their companions took place. This building
thc earth, or perhaps thc scorched summer earth, recurs on a vase found at Tell Agrab (Illustrated
Thc lions would attack it, since they belong to thc London News (12 Sept. 1936), 434, figures 10, 12).
Great Mother, thc power of life. In front of it sits a person resembling those of plate
38. Discussed by Edith Porada in Journal of the 1 ib. Inside thc building we see a humped bull be­
p. 13
American Oriental Society, lxx (1950). 223 ft' fore its manger. But thc zebu is not indigenous in
Mesopotamia; it appears regularly on thc seals
39. Frankfort, Oriental Institute Discoveries in Iraq
1933/34 (O.I.C. 19), 52, figure 61; Heinrich, found in thc Indus valley, where bulls are often
shown at mangers. In one case a zebu is shown
Klcinfunde, plates 13.
accompanied by a bird (Sir John Marshall, Mohenjo-
40. The same feature occurs on a small figure of a
Daro and the Indus Civilization, plate cxi, 338),
lion found at Tell Agrab and cut from thc same and on the vase from Tell Agrab the bull is shown
hard crystalline limestone as our monster, but in together with a bird, a snake, and a scorpion. The
ncidicr ease is thc modelling an unmistakable
latter two recur in thc same form on other vases of
rendering of the symbol.
the period found in Mesopotamia and corroborate
p. 14 41. For this contrast in thc attitude towards his- the Mesopotamian origin of the example from Tell
torical events sec H. A. Grocnewcgen-Frankfort, Agrab. Thc precise nature of thc relations with
Arrest and Movement, 148-62. India which these vases bespeak remains uncer­
P. 15 42. Nics-Kciscr, Historical and Religious Texts, tain.
plate 76(e); Frankfort, Cylinder Seals, plate v(d). 3. Frankfort, Oriental Institute Discoveries in Iraq,
43. This can be seen even in thc impression here 1933/34 (O.I.C. 19)* 47. figure 53.
illustrated because the damaged spot at the base 4. Fragment from Ur (.Antiquaries* Journal, nr,
where thc cylinder is chipped appears twice and plate xxxiii) which shows the scorpion of thc vase
thereby demonstrates that thc animal on thc right from Tell Agrab and thc heads of thc panther-
is a second impression of that on thc extreme headed snakes of the Khafaje vase. Vases in the
left. Berlin Museum, and one from Mari (Syria xvi •
(1935),plate xxvii) also show snakes’ bodies marked
p. 16 44. For a detailed discussion, sec Frankfort,
Cylinder Seals, 23-9. with drill-holes.
45. H. H. Von dcr Osten, Ancient Oriental Seals in 5. Contenau, Manuel d'Arche ologie Orientale, 423, p. 20
the Collection of Mr E. T. Newell (Chicago, 1934), figure 321; palaeography links its inscription with
no. 695. that of thc Imdugud figure from Khafaje (Frank­
fort, Progress of the Work of the Oriental Institute in
46. Frankfort, Cylinder Seals, plate v(c); the
Iraq, 1934/35 (O.I.C. 20), 32, figure 25.
examples quoted in the text are discussed ibid., , c c c c - /r, 1 r
I7_29 6. So a vase fragment from Khafaje (Frankfort,
n . . . ' . . , Oriental Institute Discoveries in Iraq, 1933/34, figures
*7‘ , C imPrcssl011in our illustration is wrongly 54—5), which shows groups of animals common on
cut the temple should appear in the middle, with thc seais from Fara (E.D. 11). The scalloped designs
the three men on thc right and thc boat on the left which, on the fragment from Ur mentioned in *
note 4 above, decorate the necks of the monsters,
48. This interpretation of thc lion-headed eagle occur in E.D. 11 on lions for thc rendering of thc
has been substantiated by Professor Thorkild Jacob- mane, as its does on the mace-head of Mesilini
sen in lectures in Chicago and I am indebted to him which is also, probably, E.D. n in date,
or permission to refer to it. 7. One of the cylindrical vases in Baghdad (I.M.

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