Sumerian Votive Statues - Episode 1 - Mesopotamian Object Stories

Welcome to the first episode of Mesopotamian object stories. Our first objects that we will examine in this video were some of my favorite Mesopotamian objects, Sumerian votive statues. Mesopotamia, meaning two rivers, is technically the region in and around Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Mesopotamia is a blanket term I will be using for objects made in what is modern-day Iraq and Syria, but I will also include some objects from the Levant and Hittite Kingdom of what is now central and eastern Turkey. Altogether, scholars refer to this region as Western Asia or the Near East. Also, as you will learn over time, Mesopotamia and Western Asia did not consist of a single civilization like ancient Egypt, but several civilizations existed throughout the region across time. The timeline I am using in these videos is therefore more complicated than the ancient Egyptian one. The chronology of ancient Mesopotamia is a scary beast, but we will build our knowledge as we continue in further object stories and hopefully grow confident in our understanding of Mesopotamian history. This video's object group dates to the early dynastic period between 2900 and 2350 BCE and falls into the category of Sumerian sculpture created in the region of Sumer. These 12 statues make up the Tel Esmar hoard, that is, a collection of Sumerian objects from the site now called Tel Esmar but anciently called Eshnana. They were uncovered in 1934 by an expedition from the University of Chicago, and several statues from the hoard were gifted to the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, formerly the Oriental Institute in Chicago, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where they are currently on display, and the other statues are on display in the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. Scholars refer to these sculptures as votive statues, meaning they are statues that are donated to a temple as a form of worship or of dedication to the deity worshipped in a temple or chapel. These statues also were made only within a relatively small span of time within the entire Mesopotamian history and disappear entirely after the early dynastic period. Here we have what we might consider uncommon examples of the fine Sumerian sculpture that rarely survive as complete. The Tel Esmar statue hoard was found buried under the floor of the Temple of Abu, deposited near the altar of a sanctuary. Abu was a Mesopotamian god that may have been associated with plants and healing. His attributes are still largely unknown. Inscriptions on some statues reveal that the statues were most often offered in exchange for a long, healthy, and prosperous life. It would make sense to ask this of a god associated with healing and plants, which themselves are often symbols of life and prosperity. It is unknown where the statues had been placed before their burial, but it is possible that, based on fine spots of other Sumerian statues elsewhere, they had been placed at the entrance of the temple. The reason for their burial may be similar to why sacred statues and other sacred objects were buried in or near ancient Egyptian temples. It was typically done as a means to clear the clutter from temples, but because sacred objects were off-limits to callously throw away, they were buried in caches. Possibly the Tel Esmar hoard was buried for the purpose of clearing house to make space for newer objects that were being used in the temple. Collectively, the statues are made of gypsum and or limestone with shell inlay for eyes. The majority are standing, but one of the figures is carved in a kneeling position. The male figures each have long hair and beards that have jagged grooves carved to represent curly hair texture. Each male figure wears a long skirt that reaches past the knees and is decorated on the bottom with a long fringe. The skirt has a broad or double band at the waist and their chests and arms are bare. The kneeling figure is depicted as nude, perhaps with a girdle and wearing some manner of headgear. One of the male statues is bald. The female statues have their hair tied up in different hairstyles, some more ornate than others. Their dresses reach to the ankles and the right shoulder is left bare, while additional cloth is draped over the left shoulder. All statues stand erect with their heads inclined slightly upwards and their hands clasped in front of their bodies, a traditional Sumerian gesture of worship. The statues are depicted frontally, meaning that the intended viewing angle is from the front. Frontality in sculpture can indicate that the focus of the Although we refer to any sculpture as art, we must also be aware that the objects we call art are not always intentionally art. Details of ancient sculpture are generally relegated to the most important part of the statue. The emphasis of these Sumerian statues is in what they are doing with their hands and their faces. Level of detail may not always be representative of the skill of the sculptor either. A highly skilled sculptor is still able to carve what we might consider rudimentary statues, when actually the artistry is not important. However, we may consider the Telesmar statue hoard as objectively being rather well carved. As you may have noticed by now, Sumerian votive statues are characterized by their large eyes, specifically the freakishly gigantic eyes of the two largest Telesmar sculptures, my particular favorites. The staring eyes may be interpreted as symbolic of experiencing epiphany, that is, experiencing the presence of the deity and being transfixed in awe. In this, one may find that not only is the statue representing the person who donated it, but also represented the potentiality of the god accepting the offering through earthly manifestation. Therefore, the statue itself is not only an intercessor between the human and the divine, but also a narrative of reciprocity that is activated when the statue is placed in the temple. A person donates the statue to the god in his house, which is the temple, as an envoy of the donor's request. The god accepts the donation and receives the request, and then the god bestows the gift that is asked for. The heads of these two largest statues were damaged seemingly purposely before burial. The nose of the male statue and the left side of the face on the female statue were broken. But rather than interpret this as a violent act against whomever they were meant to portray, we might instead consider that the sacred power imbued in the statues was deactivated before their burial, since they were no longer in use. This could be seen as protective rather than aggressive. It is unknown who placed these statues in the temple in the first place. Originally it was interpreted that they represent deities, but this interpretation is no longer accepted. Possibly the statues were donated by people from the town, most likely elite people who could afford them. These could be single donors, a group of donors, or these statues could have been generational or hereditary donated objects, meaning the donated statue belonged to a family for many generations. Another possibility is that they are temple-made objects that people maybe left offerings for so that it would act as an intermediary for them. Statues are not individualized, but there's enough variety among them to give the illusion of individuality and to allow temple visitors to choose their representative. Dedicating the statues and or leaving offerings in front of them allowed the donor to participate in the arcane rituals that took place in the temple, to which only the priests and the king had access. Many other statues and figurines composed of ceramic were discovered at Talasmar. Their forms are more cursorily molded and are somewhat abstract and quite dissimilar to the much more detailed and comparatively naturalizing statue hoard from the Abu Temple. This does not however suggest that ceramic figurines are less skillfully made or less important than the Abu Temple hoard. These ceramic figurines were found in more domestic contexts and probably had a more everyday or utilitarian purpose and were potentially portable, which made them prone to wear and tear. The Abu Temple statues were more ceremonial and meant to be static and durable as religious relics, and thus sculptors were charged with making what we would consider today as fine works of art in the more permanent and expensive medium of stone. Gods deserve the best after all. Thank you for watching and I hope you will join me again for my next Mesopotamian object story. For further reading, please see the description box below. If you liked this video, don't forget to click the like button and subscribe to be notified of future content.