Page 62 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

THE EARLY DYNASTIC PERIOD

was completed in the illustration by using a portion of relief found at Ur. I mention
this not only to explain the illustration, but also to emphasize the fact that identical or
closely similar plaques of this type were set up in temples throughout the land.44 The
subject which first suggests itself - namely, a feast held after return from a victorious
war - is excluded by the absence of any specific feature identifying the historical occa­
sion. Other aspects, too, point to a recurrent, and in fact a ritual occasion for the erection
of these plaques. The attitude of the main celebrants, with cup and branch, will be re­
membered in the statues set up in the temple of Tell Asmar before the gods (p. 24
above), and we have suggested that these referred to the celebration of the New Year
Festival, when a common rejoicing united mortals and immortals. Other features in the
plaques (for instance the empty war chariot) are not incompatible with this supposition.
Some variations in the composition of these stone plaques occur. The lower register may
show a rowing boat instead of a chariot; or scenes of entertainment: men wrestling and
boxing45 or dancing46 or climbing trees.47 I11 the upper register the divine participants
are sometimes shown, served by priests in ritual nakedness. But some plaques are too
different to be considered variants of plate 3 3 a. They may show libations being poured
before the gods, and a few seem purely decorative. Yet on one of these, that of the High
Priest Dudu of Lagash,48 we find, besides symbols of the god Ningirsu, an inscription
saying that the plaque was dedicated £as a support for a mace’.49 Maces, such as that
shown in figure 13, were common votive offerings to the gods. They were kept, like
other emblems, in the temple, and in later times (and perhaps also in the Early Dynastic
Period) they played a part in the administration of oaths.50 It is possible that the plaques
with festival scenes served the same purpose as that of Dudu, namely to support a divine
emblem; it is also possible that they were pegged to the temple wall in honour of the
benefactor who had contributed the means for holding the feast. But none has been
found in its original position.
A few generations before Dudu a ruler of Lagash, Urnanshe, had the plaque (Plate
33 b) made. In its carving it shows a great advance over the earlier type illustrated in the
same plate; the details of the figures are now modelled, not engraved. Yet it is an artless
piece of work. Urnanshe is shown carrying a basket of mud to mould the first brick of a
new temple he is to build. In the right-hand bottom comer he celebrates the completion
of the work. His family is commemorated by two stiff rows of figures, identified by
their names.
We know that steles existed on which historical events were commemorated, but
since the wars between the city-states see-sawed without decision, not one of these
monuments has survived complete. The best-preserved fragment was found at Lagash
(P ates 3 4 5)» and records a victory of its ruler Eannatum over the neighbouring city of
Umma. The people of this city had destroyed a boundary stone solemnly set up under
a Prcyious kmg and had occupied fields belonging to Lagash. In the upper part of the
tc c (P ate 34) Eannatum is seen advancing before the phalanx of his heavy infantry;
the spearmen are protected by a wall of shield-bearers. They march over the pros-
1 , 0 *cs enemies. On the right vultures and lions are shown devouring
corpses. Below this scene of carnage Eannatum again appears, this time in his

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