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1. Sumerian Dress Lengths as Chronological Data, II1. An Indo-Sumerian Cylinder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Simone Corbiau
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Extract

The length of the costumes depicted upon archaic Sumerian representations affords a clue for dating them. A consideration of monuments of which the relative antiquity is certain shows a gradual elongation of the dress in Mesopotamian lands, from the most ancient period down to the Sargonid dynasty.

Entemena of Lagaš, who reigned shortly before Sargonid times, wears the full length dress which extends down to his feet, it being made of six or seven rows of fleecy flounces (Fig. 1). His uncle Eannatum wears a similar dress on the Stele of the Vultures.

The grandfather of Eannatum, Ur-Nanše, has a dress which leaves off above the ankles, and is composed of only three superimposed rows of flounces (Fig. 2).

The ‘Relief Circulaire’ of Lagaš is, according to stratification, more ancient than the representation of Ur-Nanše. Here the length of the dresses is still shorter (Fig. 3).

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , Spring 1936 , pp. 97 - 103
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1936

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Footnotes

page 97 note 1

In the two following articles I am greatly indebted to the following for leave to publish drawings from the various publications noted: the British Museum (the copyright of the illustration in the Antiquaries Journal, III, pl. xxxi, belonging to the National Museum of Iraq); Dr. H. Frankfort; the Editor of the Illustrated London News; MM. le Libraire Ernest Leroux; Dr. Andrae; Mr. Arthur Probsthain; Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons; Prof. Dr. Sthamer; Dr. Ernst Weidner: to all of whom I wish to tender my thanks.

References

page 97 note 2 For some of the previous articles on Sumerian dress, particularly the kaunakēs, Heuzey, cf., Une étoffe chaldéenne (le kaunakès), Revue Archéologique, 1887, 257 Google Scholar; also Antiquités Chaldéennes, 204; Langdon, Guannaku, = καυνάκης, frilled mantle (J.R.A.S. 1920, 326)Google Scholar; Sumerian Origins and Racial Characteristics ( Archaeologia, LXX, 1918–1920, 145 Google Scholar); Cambridge Ancient History, 1. 364 Google Scholar; Przyluski, Jean, Une étoffe orientale, le kaunakes (J.R.A.S. 1931, 339 Google Scholar); Woolley, Ur Excavations, II. 238.

page 100 note 1 Dr. Landsberger observed that the dresses represented upon the cylinders of Kiš ‘A’ Cemetery are shorter than the ones pictured upon the ‘Standard’ of Ur, and he inferred from this that they were older ( O.L.Z. 1931, 125 Google Scholar, notes 2 and 5). Dr. Christian supported the opposite view, adducing the short dresses of some of the ‘Standard’ people. But these, being soldiers and working men, need not be compared with high personages in elaborate costume, for the lower classes of society always wore the short kilt necessitated by the exigencies of their profession.

page 100 note 2 Clercq, De, Collection de Clercq. Catalogue méthodique et raisonné, 1 Google Scholar. Antiquités Assyriennes, pl. 111, 26, Paris, Leroux, 1888. Reproduced by Weber, O., Altorientalische Siegelbilder, 176 Google Scholar, as of uncertain provenance.

page 100 note 3 Illustrated London News, 10 1st, 1932, 505 Google Scholar.

page 102 note 1 In SirMarshall, John, Mohenjo-Daro, 11. 445 Google Scholar.

page 102 note 2 Mythes et Symboles lunaires, 147.

page 102 note 3 See Scheil, V., in M.D.P. 11. 129 Google Scholar; Frankfort, H. in Illustrated London News, 10 1st, 1932, 505 Google Scholar; C. J. Gadd, Seals of Ancient Indian Style found at Ur.

page 103 note 1 De Clercq, op. cit. 1. 41; Weber, op. cit. 74.

page 103 note 2 Hall and Woolley, al ‘Ubaid, pl. XXXV, fig. 1.

page 103 note 3 De Sarzec Et Heuzey, Découvertes en Chaldée, pl. 46, fig. 4.

page 103 note 4 SirMarshall, John, Mohenjo-Daro, III Google Scholar, pl. XII, 22.

page 103 note 5 M.D.P. XII, fig. 73.