Page 80 - The Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient_Neat

THE NEO-SUMERIAN PERIOD
was shown pouring libations before the throne of a deity, while above him a goddess
lidding the flowing vase (Figure 18) sends water from the sky. This upper part, like the
register beneath it, originally showed the same scene repeated twice; the king, once fac­
ing to the right and once to the left, stands before a god in one case, a goddess in the
other. The repetition destroys the narrative interest of the scene; perhaps it is merely a
symmetrical rendering of Urnammu’s worship of a divine couple - the moon-god
Nannar and his consort Ningal - enthroned side by side in their shrine. In any case, the
stele, like the seal designs, illustrates the same absorption in ritual which distinguishes the
art of Gudea from that of the Akkadians.

Figure iS. Goddess pouring water from sky,
from the Stele of Urnammu of Ur
(of. Plate 53)

The god holds an emblem conventionally known as ‘ the ring and staft ’ and often
interpreted as a symbol of justice. This is probably correct, but on this stele the symbolic
objects are recognizable for what they are, namely, a measuring rod and line.15 The
figurative use of measuring instruments as symbols of justice is understandable, and the
detailed rendering on the stele is, perhaps, due to the nature of the event commemorated
on this monument: the founding of the god’s temple by Urnammu. Below the scene
analysed, the king is shown carrying builders’ tools on his shoulder. A priest assists him,
and he is preceded by a god. Fragments indicate that a procession moving in the opposite
direction filled the remainder of the register; we have here, then, again, a static anti­
thetical grouping of figures, not a consecutive narrative. Traces of a ladder below suggest
that building operations were actually depicted. On the other side of the stele we see, at
the top, a repetition of the scene with which we started our description, and, below,
ceremonies related to the dedication of the temple. Men pour blood from the carcass of
a decapitated lamb - a rite known in the later New Year Festival to have served as the
ritual purification of the building. An ox is cut up; huge drums are sounded. On a flat
band of stone between two registers a list of canals dug by Urnammu is engraved. This
stele, then, is poles apart from those of Eannatum, Sargon, or Naramsin. It is a monu-
ment of piety, not of worldly achievement, and this explains the static, hieratic, char­
acter of the composition. It would be rash to deny that the kings of Ur erected steles to
commemorate their victories; they were active soldiers as well as administrators. But so
ar not a trace of secular monuments has been found.
The most impressive building of Urnammu
was the Ziggurat of the moon-god. It
stands within
a court, as docs the temple-platform in the oval at Khafaje (Plate 12) and
5i