Page 48 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

THE EARLY DYNASTIC PERIOD

Figure 9. Development of a steatite vase, from Khafajc (cf. plate iib)

network of figures in flat relief, obviously related to the Brocade Style of the seals. None
of the early examples is complete. One from Bismaya (Plate iia) shows a figure with
plaited hair, approaching from the left and bearing a branch, to meet a group of musi­
cians: two men play on harps or lutes, then follows a drummer, carrying his instrument
under his left arm while strumming with the knuckles and fingers of his right hand.
After him comes a trumpeter. These figures all wear feathers in their hair, and their kilts
were inlaid with pieces of white limestone, of which one has been preserved. The lowest
row of figures, which we have described, derives some order from the fact that it follows
the base of the vessel. Above it figures of men appear in wild confusion. They are shown
running to the right where a large figure is blocked out and was once inlaid. The feet
and the front edge of its long kilt are preserved. It may have represented a god or a king.
The few intervals between the figures are engraved with plant designs.2
The vase of plate iib and figure 9 shows a more orderly arrangement. It contains a pair
of humped bulls, of the Indian Zebu breed, which is not native to Mesopotamia. But the
vase was not imported. The snakes with drill holes which were once filled with coloured
inlays of paste or stone recur at Khafaje3 and elsewhere.4 Other elements of the decoration
likewise recur on Mesopotamian vessels of steatite. The meaning of the design remains
obscure. It seems certain that it is in some way concerned with the great natural forces
which the Mesopotamians worshipped. It consists of four groups, forming a continuous
frieze of even density, as on the cylinder seals. A long-nosed, long-haired Sumerian
figure is seated upon two humped bulls; above are a snake, the crescent moon, and a six­
leaved rosette, the last possibly emblematic of the planet Venus, a manifestation of
Inanna-Ishtar. From the hands of this personage flow two streams of water. Plants which
appear in front of one bull and at the rim of the vase may well be thought to spring from
this life-giving stream. In another group the same (or a similar) personage appears stand­
ing between, or upon, two panthers. The rosette recurs; this time the hands grasp snakes.
They possibly symbolize the fertility of the earth, balancing the fertilizing power of
water in the other group. But this is a mere hypothesis, as is the suggestion that the
rosette in both groups may identify die chief figure with Inanna. When we follow the
design of the right we meet the scorpion of the Agrab vase, and then a fresh group:
a lion and an eagle devouring a bull. The space left between this scene and the first is
occupied by a date-palm flanked by small cunning bears who lick their p aws after eating
the sweet fruits.
A word must now be said about the chronology of these interesting vases. None of
them was found among remains of the First Early Dynastic Period, but die feathers

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