Page 61 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

PART ONE: MESOPOTAMIA

continuous cylindrical surface caused him to animate the creatures in his design so that
each made the one gesture, with claws or mouth, which closed the ring. We shall see the
same thing on the cylinder seals of the period.
It recurs on several votive mace-heads. One of these, dedicated to Ningirsu by Mesi-
lim, king of Kish,41 shows on top the lion-headed eagle, and on the circumference a
:
series of lions, each of which attacks the one in front and is in turn attacked by the one
behind. Once more the design is interlocked and continuous. But the device is not
applied mechanically. In the macc-hcad of figure 13, for instance, the lion-headed eagle,
occurring four times, as on Entcmcna’s silver vase, grasps gazelles in each instance. Hence
the four groups remain separate and the roundness of the mace-head had to be empha­
sized by another device, namely by the sweep of the seven-headed hydra across the top.42
We must now consider a class of stonework which betrays little concern with decora­
tive effect, but aims at clarity of representation, namely, square plaques of limestone
pierced in the middle. The earliest of these date from the Second Early Dynastic Period,

Figure 13. Macc-hcad

and they continue until the end of the Third. On the early plaques the relief is clumsy,
executed in two planes without modelling. The scenes possess, however, a certain liveli­
ness. The majority render a single subject, a feast in which a male and a female personage
are the chief participants. In plate 33 a they appear in the top row. On the right a bearded
man, holding a bunch of dates or a leafy branch in his left hand, receives a cup from a
servant. On the left a woman is seated with cup and branch. A maid-servant behind her
chair waves a circular fan with one hand and holds a wine-jar in the other. In the middle
appear two entertainers, drawn back to back for symmetry’s sake; one plays the harp,
while the other dances with folded arms a kind of hornpipe.43
1 The second register, divided into three parts by the space for the central hole, shows

the bringing of provisions for the feast: on the left two men carry a large beer-jar slung
from a pole. One of them has also the circular pot stand on which the pointed vessel will
be placed. On the other side meat on the hoof is brought in the form of a goat; the ser­ I
vant carries a large knife in his hand and a pile of loaves on his head. Below is a groom
with an empty war chariot, preceded by a spearman and followed by a man who carries
some object - probably a pot - tied to a pole over his shoulder. It will be seen that the
fragments of plate 33 a do not fit properly. They did not, in fact, belong to the same re­
lief. The main sections were found at Khafaje, but the missing left-hand bottom corner
32 1

)

*
.