Uruk (present day Al-Muthannā), Iraq

Via flickr

Fragments of chariot decorations, bronze, silver and gold rings, from the Royal Tombs from Ur (Tell Muqqayir); ca. 2600 B.C.

[Iraq National Museum]

Want!

devillady255:

Two more books for my collection. Probably the last two for while. I keep buying but I only read like the half of them. XD

~Inanna. Lady of Largest Heart. Poems of the Sumerian High Priestess Enheduanna - Betty De Shing Meador.

~Sumerian Hymnd from Cuneiform text in the British Museum (1908) - Frederick Augustus Vanderburgh. This book’s title is a bit misleading. Because you get to page four of the book it states the hymns come from Babylonian tablets, not Sumerian ones. The hymns are to Bel Sin, Adad and Tammuz.

Relief of Ur-Nanshe, First King of Lagash

“This is a votive relief of Ur-Nanshe, the first known king of Lagash. According to an ancient literary text called the “Sumerian King List,” Ur-Nanshe was the first ruler in Lagash to call himself lugal ‘king’ rather than ensi. He is depicted twice on the relief: on the top register he carries a bowl of bricks on his head, one of the earliest examples of a typical portrayal of the ruler as participating in temple building. On the bottom register he is shown seated presiding over a ceremony inaugurating the temple that has just been built. In both depictions, Ur-Nanshe is bald with no headgear and wears a tufted woolen skirt, and is flanked by family members and functionaries.”

[Louvre Museum]

The bull on the Lyre of Ur!

(Source: brettkingery)

Stone statue of Kurlil

From Tell al-‘Ubaid, southern Iraq
Early Dynastic period, about 2500 BC

“

This limestone statue was excavated in 1919 besides the ruins of the temple at Tell al-‘Ubaid dedicated to the Sumerian fertility goddess Ninhursag. A very damaged sculpture was found alongside it, with only the upper part of the body surviving. A cuneiform inscription identifies it as Kurlil, an official in the city of Uruk who had dedicated the image to the goddess Damkina at Tell al-‘Ubaid. A cuneiform sign on the right shoulder of this statue, though very worn, can be identified as part of Kurlil’s name. The figure is therefore probably another donation by him.

The statue is typical of figurines set up in a temple to pray on behalf of the donor, though Kurlil’s cross-legged pose here is unusual.

An inscription tells us that Kurlil was responsible for building work on the Temple of Ninhursag.”

Stuff to envy!

devillady255:

New book to at to my collection:

Sumerian Mythology by Samuel Noah Kramer.

I really wanted this book for a while, but the book store was out of it. So I was happy when the store had two new copies in store last friday. ^^

archaeologistforhire:

URUK RISES AGAIN IN DIGITAL 3D

Uruk: 5000 Years of the Megacity that marks the 100th anniversary of the first excavations at Uruk

The Staatliche Museen’s Vorderasiatisches Museum (Museum of the Ancient Near East) and the Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen, Mannheim collaborated with the German Archaeological Institute’s Orient Department and the German Oriental Society  to create a comprehensive display, featuring objects from the Vorderasiatisches Museum’s own collection and the Uruk-Warka collection of the German Archaeological Institute, which is maintained by the University of Heidelberg. The German-held works will be supplemented by further extraordinary objects from other museums, including the British Museum in London and the Louvre in Paris.

The exhibition – along with these stunning digital models of the buildings promises to be an impressive demonstration of the emergence and blossoming of one of the oldest known cities in human history and will reveal how the many facets of urban life known to have first evolved in Uruk impacted not just on the ancient Near East, but the wider world as a whole.

Photo © artefacts-berlin.de; Scientific material: German Archaeological Institute (DAI)

Cool video at source too!

The ruins of ancient city of Kish