Page 46 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

THE PROTOLITERATE PERIOD
the temple; the other naked man carries a bead necklace. Between these priests walks a
man who looks like a suppliant conducted by the two priests to the Mother Goddess.
On the opposite side of the temple47 another man appears to move towards her shrine
with outstretched arms while two others punt and steer towards it a boat decorated with
flowers. The extraordinary vivacity of these lithe figures makes one almost forget that
their actions remain completely enigmatic to us.
Even designs which arc mainly decorative use religious motifs. The serpent-necked
lions of plate 8b and the copulating vipers of plate 8a arc known as manifestations of the
chthonic aspect of the god of natural vitality, who is manifest in all life breaking forth
from the earth. The eagle, lion-headed or otherwise (Plate 8, a and b), represents the god
as bringer of the fertilizing rain. It is the bird Imdugud which represents the dark clouds
of the storm.48 The ibexes and the rosette, like any combination of herbivorous animals
and plants, point to the Great Mother.
The seal engravings, many times more numerous than all the other works of art that
have come down to us, disclose most fully the richness and vigour of this first great
phase of Mesopotamian culture. Like the larger works in stone, they show vigour and
sensitivity, and a great eagerness to explore the possibilities of expression. The true
measure of the achievement of the Protoliterate Period can be taken only when we see
it against the foil of the prehistoric age which preceded it and which produced only in
its architecture a prototype of the splendour that was to follow.

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