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Notes on the Sargonid Cylinder Seal, Ur 364
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2014
Extract
Sir Leonard Woolley's finds of cylinder seals at Ur include the beautiful example (Pl. XV, 1), made in the time of the dynasty founded by Sargon of Akkad (c. 2340–2160 B.C.), and perhaps more precisely during the reign of King Shar-kali-sharri (c. 2224–2199 B.C.). As in the well-known cylinder seal inscribed with the name of one of Shar-kali-sharri's officials, in the De Clercq Collection, there is in Fig. 1 frequent and adroit handling of overlapping details which convey some idea of space. Moreover, the De Clercq cylinder also furnishes the first dated example of the posture in which a figure kneels on one knee—the so-called Knielauf—in other than contest scenes. In Fig. 1 the posture is used to reduce the height of the nude bearded guardian with a gatepost (here a figure of minor importance), without reducing its scale. Such a device was of importance only for artists concerned with a measure of naturalism, a tendency which characterizes the style of the Akkad dynasty and which, to judge by the dated seals and impressions, increased until the time of Shar-kali-sharri. At the same time, the incipient schematization of certain details such as the wings flanking one of the ascending gods in Fig. 1, may also mark a relatively late date within the Sargonid dynasty. In the absence of more dated glyptic material of this period, however, these remarks remain highly tentative.
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- Research Article
- Information
- IRAQ , Volume 22 , Issue 1-2: Ur in Retrospect. In Memory of Sir C. Leonard Woolley , Spring-Autumn 1960 , pp. 116 - 123
- Copyright
- Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1960
References
1 Woolley, C. L., Ur Excavations II, The Royal Cemetery, 1934, pl. 215, No. 364, U. 9750Google Scholar. Described under the latter number (Text Vol. p. 548) as “with copper caps.” The enlargement here reproduced is copied with the author's kind permission from Gordon's, C. H. The Living Past, New York, 1941, seal 15, opp. p. 125 Google Scholar.
2 The dates of the Akkad period follow those given by Gelb, I. J., Materials for the Assyrian Dictionary (henceforth MAD) II, 1952, pp. 8–9 Google Scholar.
3 Collection de Clercq … I, Cylindres orientaux, Paris, 1888, No. 46Google Scholar; more readily available in Frankfort, Henri, Cylinder Seals, London, 1939, Pl. XVIIcGoogle Scholar.
4 For a careful analysis of the posture cf. Schmidt, E., “Der Knielauf und die Darstellung des Laufens und Fliegens in der älteren griechischen Kunst,” Münchener archäologische Studien, … A. Furtwängler …, 1909, especially pp. 355ffGoogle Scholar. where the author observes that the original Near Eastern posture was stationary.
5 For a partial list, cf. Borowski, E., Cylindres … orientaux … collections suisses, Artibus Asiae suppl. III, 1947, pp. 56–7Google Scholar. A complete list will undoubtedly be included in R. M. Boehmer's comprehensive treatment of Sargonid glyptics, in preparation.
6 The fullest description was given by Mrs.Buren, E. D. Van, The Flowing Vase and the God with Streams, Berlin, 1933, pp. 36–7Google Scholar. The present summary varies from this account in the description of the creature here assumed to have been a winged lion and in the description of the miters, also from her description of them in the article “Concerning the Horned Cap of the Mesopotamian Gods,” Orientalia N.S. 12, 1943, pp. 318–327 Google Scholar.
7 Right and left are here described as seen in the impression of the cylinder seal.
8 This was also the opinion of Henri Frankfort who interpreted the group of god with mace and god in the shrine on Ur 364 as reflecting a hierarchy in which Ea stood above the sun god, cf. “Gods and Myths on Sargonid Seals,” Iraq I, p. 25 Google Scholar (referring there to Pl. IVa Ur 364, and Cylinder Seals, p. 102, referring there to Pl. XVIIIk).
9 Ur Excavations II, Text, p. 362, s.v. No. 364, last sentence.
10 The Flowing Vase, p. 37.
11 Frankfort, , “Gods and Myths …,” pp. 25–26 Google Scholar and Cylinder Seals, pp. 102–3.
12 For easy reference cf. Barton, G. A., The Royal Inscriptions of Sumer and Akkad, Yale Univ. Press, 1939, pp. 100–150 Google Scholar.
13 The god is only mentioned in Sargon's inscription in which the king enumerates his conquests in the regions of the Middle Euphrates. Barton, op. cit., p. 108. For extensive comment on this deity cf. Schmökel, H. in Reallexikon der Assyriologie, henceforth RLA, II, 1938, pp. 99–101 Google Scholar.
14 In Old Akkadian texts Šamaš is always written, as later, with the Sumerian ideogram UTU. The inscriptions therefore do not permit of a distinction between Šamaš and Utu suggested by Legrain for the interpretation of Fig. 1.
15 Gelb, MAD passim writes dA-ba4 (I owe this reference to A. Goetze). Earlier, Poebel read za(m)-a-mà ( Historical Texts, Univ. of Pennsylvania, Univ. Mus., Bah. Sect., (henceforth UMBS), IV, 1, 1914, pp. 173–216, passim)Google Scholar. Thureau-Dangin, F. in Revue d'assyriologie VII, 1909, p. 181 and Note 3Google Scholar and in later publications consistently read dA-MAL which was generally accepted.
16 Gelb, MAD passim.
17 In the theophoric names of the Akkad period Ishtar's name is written Eš4-dar without divine determinative but when the goddess as such is mentioned as in the copies of historical inscriptions, her ideogram is that of the Sumerian goddess Inanna. Jacobsen, Th. deduced from this evidence that only the Sumerian goddess was named in these inscriptions (Journal of the American Oriental Society 59, 1939, p. 491, note 16)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
18 The extensive worship of this god in the Akkad period is also evident from the fact that Sargon's daughter was high priestess of Sin at Ur ( Gadd, C. J. and Legrain, L., Ur Exc. Texts I, 23 Google Scholar) and that the fourth ruler of the Akkadian dynasty bore the name Narām-Sin. For comments on the relation of Sin worship in the Akkad period to that of the late Assyrian Sargonids cf. Lewy, J., “The Late Assyrobabylonian Cult of the Moon …,” Hebrew Union College Annual XIX, 1946, especially p. 487 Google Scholar.
19 Ea (written EN. KI) also occurs in the historical inscription of Narām-Sin from Huseyin, Pir, Unger, E., Istanbul Asaritika Müzeleri Nesriyati XII, 1934. p. 40/II/1Google Scholar.
20 Cf. Frankfort, , Cylinder Seals, pp. 95–110 Google Scholar. As noted by Frankfort, p. 95, not all of the sun god figures discussed by him can be identified with Šamaš.
21 Mackay, E., A Sumerian Palace … at Kish, Mesopotamia, 1929, pt. II, Pl. XXXV 2, 3Google Scholar.
22 Cf. Oppenheim, A. L., “Mesopotamian Mythology I,” Orientalia N.S. 16/2, 1947, p. 216, line 114, and p. 217, note 3Google Scholar.
23 Cf. Barrelet, M.-Th., “Déesses armées et ailées,” Syria XXXII, 1955, pp. 222–237 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
24 Syria XXXI, 1954, Pl. XV/1Google Scholar.
25 Barton, op. cit., p. 124, 59–61; the same passage repeated on p. 136, 9, II/1–6 in the inscription describing the triumph over Elam, Rīmuš stated that Šamaš and A.MAL gave (military) strength, Barton, op. cit., p. 126, XXVI 11–14.
26 Cf. Ebeling, E. in RLA I, 1928, p. 91 Google Scholar, and Deimel, A., Pantheon Babylonicum, Rome, 1914, p. 50 Google Scholar. s.v. 80. In the Akkad period A.MAL was Sargon's personal god but was also mentioned by other rulers of the dynasty (see the following references and also note 25); Jacobsen, in JAOS 59, 1939, p. 491, note 16CrossRefGoogle Scholar would consider the mace mentioned in Sargon's inscription as connected with the character of dA-MAL-gig-du11-ga as disease-decreeing god and suggests that his identification with the Akkadian dBennu, god of epilepsy also throws light on his character; Maništušu called himself šakkanakku of dA.MAL on the cruciform monument which was proved by I. J. Gelb to have been a forgery of the Old Babylonian period ( Journal of Near Eastern Studies VIII, 1949, p. 348 Google Scholar). If the forger, however considered Manigtusu's title worthy of mention, it must have been important and characteristic. Šar-kali-šarri mentions the foundation of temples in Babylon for Anunitim and A-MAL ( Thureau-Dangin, F., Recueil de Tablettes … No. 118, 1903, p. 56 Google Scholar).
27 Barton, op. cit., p. 110/VII 45–54; the text in Poebel, , UMBS IV/1, p. 180, lines 27–35Google Scholar.
28 Weidner, E. F., Handbuch der babyl. Astronomie. Assyr. Bibliothek 23, 1915, p. 52, line 25 (VR pl. 46, line 25)Google Scholar.
29 For a collection of material concerning maces and literary references to them cf. Cocquerillat, D., “Les masses d'armes d'après les textes,” Revue d'Assyriologie XLVI, 1952, pp. 121–136 Google Scholar.
30 Cf. especially the mace of the war-god Zababa which also features in his renderings in Hittite images ( von Brandenstein, C. G., “Hethitische Götter und Bildbeschreibungen …” Mitt. der vorderasiat.-ägypt. Gesellschaft, 46/2, 1943, p. 6, line 18Google Scholar; p. 10, line 7; p. 35 s.v. GIŠTUKUL and the comment on GIŠTUKUL by Güterbock, H. G., Orientalia N.S. 15, 1946, p. 485 Google Scholar.
31 For refs. cf. Ebeling, , RLA I, p. 91 Google Scholar.
32 Orientalistische Literaturzeitung XV, 1912, p. 484 Google Scholar.
33 Ebeling, in RLA I, p. 91 Google Scholar refers to the line mentioned in note 28 where the gods themselves are not equated but merely the stars identified with their weapons are listed. Deimel, in Panth. Bab., p. 50 Google Scholar refers to an article by Scheil, V. in Recueil de travaux … 34, 1912, p. 109 Google Scholar where a vague suggestion is made for connection between the local god of Kish, Ahima, and Marduk, great god of Babylon.
34 For the approximate historical development of the Babylonian lists of stars, cf. Van der Waerden, B. L., Babylonian Astronomy II …, Journal of Near Eastern Studies VIII, 1949, especially pp. 16–17 Google Scholar.
34b A. L. Oppenheim informs me that the god, whom he now writes dAmbà, is a Šamaš figure and, according to B. Landsberger, one of the early pre-Sumerian gods. If he was indeed a Šamaš figure, he could have well been pictured in conjunction with that god, as I have assumed in the interpretation of Fig. 1.
35 For renderings of Ziqqurats from Old Babylonian to Assyrian times, cf. Dombart, Th., “Alte und neue Ziqqurat-Darstellungen,” AfO V, 1928–1929, pp. 220–229 Google Scholar; also the note Porada, E., Bulletin of the Amer. Schools of Or. Res., 1945, No. 99, pp. 18–20 Google Scholar. For pre-Akkadian scenes interpreted as building of a temple tower, cf. Amiet, P., “La Ziggurat …”, Revue d'Assyriologie XLV, 1951, pp. 80–88 Google Scholar; van Buren, E. D., “The Building of a Temple Tower,” Revue d'Assyriologie XLVI, 1952, pp. 65–74 Google Scholar.
There are several stepped structures seen on cylinders of the Akkad period, e.g. the cylinder in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, published by Munn-Rankin, M., Iraq XXI, 1959, pl. V, No. 7Google Scholar; Frankfort, Cylinder Seals, pl. XXIIIa, but none carries a temple on its top like Fig. 1.
36 Lenzen, H. J., “Die Entwicklung der Zikurrat …” Ausgrabungen der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft in Uruk-Warka 4, n.d.; forward dated Aug. 1941, especially pp. 51–55 Google Scholar. Lenzen does not consider them as images of mountains. Fig. 1, however, with the diagrammatic mountain markings on the steps suggests that this idea was also involved among the multiple meanings represented by the ziqqurat. The existence of elevated structures preceding the temple towers is also indicated by the term ḫ u r .s a g, for forerunner of the temple tower (cf. The Assyrian Dictionary s.v. gigunu 8′ p. 69).
37 Safar, Fuad, “The History of Eridu,” Sumer III, 1947, p. 98 Google Scholar.
38 Frankfort, , “Gòds and Myths …” p. 26 Google Scholar, Cylinder Seals, p. 103.
39 Frankfort, Cylinder Seals, Pl. XXIIk. I wish to thank Mr. Paul Lampl for the drawing of this and the following illustrations.
40 Cf. Buren, E. D. Van, “How Representations of Battles of the Gods Developed,” Orientalia N.S. 24, 1955, e.g. figs. 13, or 16Google Scholar.
41 SirGardiner, A., Egyptian Grammar, 3rd. ed., Signlist, A. 7 (p. 442)Google Scholar. I owe to Dr. Walter Federn the information that the hieroglyph is not found in its regular form before the First Intermediate period; it occurs once in abbreviated form (as all human figures are in the Pyramid Texts) in the Pyramid of Pepi II Neferkara (K. Sethe, Pyramidentexte 491 c N. According to Hayes, W. C., The Scepter of Egypt, pt. 1, 1953, p. 58 Google Scholar, the date of the Vlth Dynasty of which Pepi II was the last significant ruler, extended from 2420–2280 B.c. The closest correspondence to the posture in Egyptian relief is seen in the battle scene from the causeway of the Unas pyramid, Orientalia N.S. 17, 1948, Pl. XXIII, Abb. 8Google Scholar.
42 Gardiner Sign-list U6, 7; a representation of the object in use in the Vth Dynasty tomb of Ti is reproduced in Klebs, L., “Die Reliefs des alten Reiches,” Abhandlungen der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Phil. historische Klasse 3, 1915, p. 46, Abb. 33Google Scholar. The tool was also used in building as in the tomb of Rekh-mi-Re, (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Egyptian Expedition Publications XI/1, 1943, Pl. LVIII)Google Scholar. The identity of the Egyptian and Akkadian words for the same instrument has long been recognized, cf. Müller, W. Max, “Die ältesten Zeugnisse für den Hackbau in Asien and Ägypten,” Orientalistische Literaturzeitung, 1909, No. 3, p. 107 Google Scholar; also Hrozny, B., “Sur quelques rapports entre Sumer-Akkad et l'Egypte au IVe millenaire av. J.-C.,” Archiv Orientalni 10 (1938), 369–74Google Scholar. I owe these references to Dr. Federn.
43 In a paper read at the VIII. Recontre assyriologique, P. Gilbert pointed to some analogies in Mespotamian and Egyptian sculpture. These, however, were not sufficiently extensive to provide a convincing case for contact between the artists of the two countries in the Sargonid period.
44 Frankfort, , “Gods and Myths,” p. 26 Google Scholar, Cylinder Seals, p. 103, Gordon, , The Eiving Past, p. 125 Google Scholar, Legrain, , Ur Exc. II, text, p. 362 Google Scholar, Mrs.Buren, Van, The Flowing Vase, p. 37 Google Scholar.
45 Delaporte, Musée du Louvre … Pl. 72, 9 (A. 154). The drawing was made from the reproduction in Frankfort, Cylinder Seals, Pl. XXIId, where the hindquarters of the god's lion dragon were cut off.
46 E.g. the illustrations assembled by Buren, E. D. Van, “The Raingoddess …” Analecta Biblica 12, 1959, Figs. 2–6 and 8Google Scholar.
47 Speleers, Louis, Catalogue des intailles … musées d'art et d'histoire, Bruxelles, 1943, No. 861, p. 76, said to come from TelloGoogle Scholar.
48 Frankfort, Cylinder Seals, Pl. XIX a.
49 In Fig. 1 the line which appears to issue from the lion's mouth and which could be fire can also be interpreted as a continuation of one of the streams which surround the shrine and its guardian.
50 von Soden, W., in Archiv für Orientforschung XVIII/2, 1958, p. 393 Google Scholar. This probably accounts for the occasional alternation between bird-headed and lion-headed eagles in Mesopotamian iconography, e.g. Corpus I, Nos. 97–100 and Moortgat, A., Vorderasiatische Rollsiegel, Berlin, 1940, No. 99Google Scholar. For Early Dynastic examples: Frankfort, Cylinder Seals, Pl. XXIIIa-c and g for Sargonid examples which may refer to the same bird creature.
51 Ur Excavations II, Pl. 213, No. 323 shows a similar rendering of the profiles, especially of the nude bearded hero. The unnaturally bent elbows of the twin bull-man in the centre of that seal are paralleled in an impression from Tell Asmar, naming Šu-dur-ul the last king of the Sargonid dynasty ( Frankfort, H., Stratified Cylinder Seals … OIP LXXII, 1955, Pl. 65:701Google Scholar). This provides some slight indication for a late dating of Fig. 1 if the identity in style between the cylinders Fig. 1 (Ur 364) and Ur 323 is accepted.
The second cylinder which shows close relationships with Fig. 1 is Ur Excavations II, Pl. 206, No. 198 which is unfortunately reproduced by a damaged plasticine imprint but shows the fine carving of the miters and garments as Fig. 1. It must be added that time has not permitted a thorough search in published and unpublished collections for other examples of this workshop.
52 Based on Egyptian concepts, Dr. Federn, for example, suggested a different interpretation of the lion and small deity flanking the figure of Šamaš. He will continue to investigate the matter independently.
53 Schmökel, H., “Hammurabi und Marduk,” Revue d'Assyriologie LIII, 1959, pp. 183–204 Google Scholar, showed that even in the time of Hammurabi the god did not achieve a dominant position. His frequent association with Šamaš is reminiscent of the position of A.MAL in the Sargonid period.