Page 52 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

THE EARLY DYNASTIC PERIOD

established as dynasts in the cities. But the temples played a dominant part in the national
economy until the end of the third millennium, and it is this function which explains
such architectural complexes as were discovered at Khafaje, Tell Asmar, Tell Agrab,
and, of a later age, at Ishchali (Plate 55), Ur and elsewhere.
Inside the shrine the statue of the god stood in front of a niche at one end of the long
rrow cclla which one entered through one of the long walls (the ‘ bent axis approach’).
11a
The space nearest to the statue might be marked as separate from the area of the congre­
gation by piers against the side wall and this device ultimately developed into the broad
cella with a central door (c.g. Figure 19). In front of the niche supporting the statue was
a brick platform which served as an altar. A little farther away there was often a brick
offering-table, but other kinds of supports were also available. There were tall pottery
stands in which flowers, branches, and clusters of fruit were placed. Carved stone or

Figure 12. Early Dynastic seal impression

bronze figures (Plates 13, 20B, and 28) supported small bowls or vases filled with un­
guents or incense (Figure 12). Rushlights (Plate 29c) and larger offering stands (Plate 45B),
perhaps representing a two-staged temple platform or Ziggurat, were also in use.18
Along the walls, on low brick benches or on the ground, stood statues of the devotees.

Sculpture in the Round
All Mesopotamian statuary was intended for temples; the human form was translated
into stone for the express purpose of confronting the god.19 The statue was an active
force; it was believed to possess a life of its own. Gudea, ruler of Lagash in a later period
(Plates 46-9), erected a statue which was called ‘ It offers prayers’.20 Another was entitled
To my king (the city god Ningirsu) whose temple I have built; let life be my reward’.21
Here the statue is, as it were, charged with a message; first it names the recipient of the
petition, then the request itself. And about 2,000 years after Gudea, a king of Assyria
wrote, I installed my royal statue ... to appeal for life for myself before the gods in
whom I have faith’,22 while a text of Gudea, giving instruction to the statue, begins:
Statue, say to my king ...’ 23 The ‘king’, in this text, was again the city-god, and the
statue was to report to him perennially the great deeds which Gudea had performed in
his service. The statues of priests and notables served the same purpose.
The cult-statue, the figure of the deity which was placed on the altar before the niche
at the narrow end of the shrine, was alive with a vitality of a higher order; for the god

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