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A Lapidary's Gift to Geštinanna

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

Benjamin R. Foster  and
Karen Polinger Foster
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Extract

Among the ancient Near Eastern objects in the Newell Bequest collection at Wheaton College, Norton, Massachusetts, is the gypsum stand published herewith. On the basis of its dedicatory inscription, which will be discussed in detail below, the object's provenance can be established as the sanctuary of Ningizzida and Geštinanna at Girsu (Telloh). The piece was probably found when the sanctuary was plundered by illegal diggers in August, 1924. At that time at least seven statues of Gudea and two of Ur-Ningirsu were discovered, all reportedly found together in one room. The Gudea statues are remarkable for their inherent artistic merit and because some of them show Gudea as a youth, while others depict him as a mature man.

Other furnishings from this sanctuary include a Gudea statue found by Cros and a steatite vase with interlacing serpents and dragons. The sanctuary was excavated by Genouillac in his 1929 and 1930–31 seasons. His finds included inscribed bricks and door stones; a grey marble dish dedicated to Ningizzida by Gudea; a mace-head dedicated to the same deity by Nammah, a scribe; fragments of a stele with a presentation scene; part of a blue steatite lamp showing intertwined serpents; and numerous pieces of boxes and lids of baked clay, many with representations of serpents. The architecture of the sanctuary could not be reconstructed because of the illicit digging and the inability of Genouillac's workers to trace its mudbrick walls.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 40 , Issue 1 , Spring 1978 , pp. 61 - 65
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1978

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References

1 The Newell Bequest at Wheaton College comprises a collection of Classical coins, glass, and other objects assembled by Edward T. Newell and Ada Newell. For other Near Eastern objects, see von der Osten, H. H., “Seven Parthian Statuettes”, Art Bulletin 8 (1925), 169–174Google Scholar; van Buren, E. Douglas, “A Plaque of the Third Early Dynastic Period”, RA 48 (1954), 142 fGoogle Scholar.

We are grateful to Professor J. David Bishop of the Classics Department, Wheaton College, for permission to publish this piece, and for his kind assistance in many ways. Photographs used for study were made by William C. Cooney, Richard C. Foster, and J. David Bishop. Our treatment of this piece has benefited from conversations with Alexander Kaczmarczyk, William W. Hallo, and Timothy Kendall.

2 First reported by Thureau-Dangin, F., CRAI 24 07, 1925Google Scholar; see “Statuettes de Tello”, Fondation Eugène Piot: Monuments et Mémoires 27 (1924), 97 ffGoogle Scholar.

3 de Genouillac, H., Fouilles de Telloh II (Paris, 1936), 17 note 8Google Scholar.

4 For discussion, see Thureau-Dangin, “Statuettes”; Parrot, A., Tello, Vingt Campagnes de Fouilles (1877–1933) (Paris, 1948), 160 f.Google Scholar; Strommenger, E., “Das Menschenbild in der altmesopotamischen Rundplastik von Mesilim bis Hammurapi”, BaM 1 (1960), 64 ffGoogle Scholar.

5 Parrot, , Tello, 158 fGoogle Scholar.

6 AO 11929, Genouillac, , Telloh II, Pl. XLVIGoogle Scholar: dNin-giz-zi-da dingir-ra-ni Gù-dé-a ensf Lagaški Ur-dGá-tùm-du10-gé é Gír-suki-ka mu-na-dù, “For Ningizzida, his god, (on behalf of) Gudea, ruler of Lagaš, Ur-Gatumdug built (this) temple in Girsu.” AO 13022, Genouillac, , Telloh II Pl. LIIIGoogle Scholar, a clay tablet, apparently gave the dimensions of this building or its distance to another: é dNin-giz-zi-da e-gíd dGeštin!-an!-na! / / … é d[ ] 14 … x e-gíd, “The temple of Ningizzida he measured, the temple of Geštinanna [ ] … the temple of [ ] … he measured.” This was perhaps a student's exercise in measurement, of which many examples are known from Telloh: ITT II 4410, 4505; ITT V 6675, 9256, 9267, 9300, 9312, 9316, 9347, 9382; RTC 144–160 and others.

7 Genouillac, , Telloh II, 17 ff.Google Scholar; Parrot, , Tello, 158 ffGoogle Scholar.

8 de Genouillac, H., “Rapport sur les travaux de la mission de Tello, IIe campagne: 1929–1930”, RA 27 (1930), 177 fGoogle Scholar.; Genouillac, , Telloh II, 17 ff. and Pl. XXIGoogle Scholar.

9 X-ray diffraction analyses were kindly done by L. van Zelst, Research Laboratory of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and by H. Winchell, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University.

10 Forbes, R. J., Studies in Ancient Technology VII (Leiden, 1966), 174 fig. 18Google Scholar. Gypsum (IM.BABBAR), measured by weight, is mentioned in two inventories of commodities from Girsu from the time of Gudea: RTC 821 vi 23′, and RTC 227 vii 2.

11 Lucas, A. and Harris, J. R., Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries (London, 1962), 78Google Scholar.

12 The resemblance gypsum (hydrated calcium sulphate) bears to Egyptian alabaster (calcite) has led to confusion in properly identifying gypsum artifacts. For Egyptian ware of gypsum, see Lucas, and Harris, , Materials, 413Google Scholar; for Minoan gypsum vases, see Warren, P., Minoan Stone Vases (Cambridge, 1969), 132Google Scholar.

13 Lucas, and Harris, , Materials, 79Google ScholarPubMed.

14 Pendlebury, J. D. S., The City of Akhenaten III (London, 1951), 180 f.Google Scholar; Spiegelberg, W., “Gipsproben aus Tell el Amarna mit hieratischen Aufschriften”, ZÄS 58 (1923), 51 fGoogle Scholar.

15 See Pendlebury, , City of Akhenaten III, 243–245Google Scholar for reports by A. F. Hallimond and H. E. Cox and a comment by O. H. Myers.

16 Lucas, and Harris, , Materials, 78 and above, note 15Google ScholarPubMed.

17 Myers, O. H. in Pendlebury, City of Akhenaten III, 245Google Scholar. Both Myers and Harris conclude that the “overfiring of the gypsum is difficult to explain” (Materials, 78).

18 Research on the temperatures needed to fire Bronze Age faience has been done by Brill, R. H., “Ancient Glass”, Scientific American 209 (1963), 123Google Scholar, who proposes 870°C; Noble, J. V., “The Technique of Egyptian Faience”, AJA 72 (1968), 169Google Scholar, who suggests 950°C; and Kiefer, C. and Allibert, A., “Pharaonic Blue Ceramics: The Process of Self-Glazing”, Archaeology 24 (1971), Table I p. 112Google Scholar.

19 For fruit-stands with mouldings around the base, see Delougaz, P., Pottery from the Diyala Region (Chicago, 1952), Pl. 81(d)Google Scholar; Pl. 88(d), (e), (f).

20 Heuzey, L., “Rapport sur les fouilles du Commandant Cros—Campagne de 1905”, in Cros, G.., ed., Nouvelles Fouilles de Telloh (Paris, 1910), fig. 7 p. 294Google Scholar. See also Parrot, , Tello, 179Google Scholar; and Contenau, G., “Monuments mésopotamiens nouvellement acquis ou peu connus”, Revue des Arts Asiatiques 8 (1934), 100 f. and Pl. XXIX(d)Google Scholar.

21 These are the Copenhagen statue, published by Thureau-Dangin, “Statuettes”, the Brussels statue, published by Scheil, V., “Une nouvelle statue de Gudêa”, RA 22 (1925), 41 ff.Google Scholar; and the Gudea “au vase jaillissant,” published by Scheil, V., “Nouvelles statues de Gudêa”, RA 27 (1930), 161 ffGoogle Scholar. All are reproduced in Parrot, Tello, Pl. XV.

22 Thureau-Dangin, SAKI 12a = Sollberger-Kupper, , Inscriptions royales sumériennes et akkadiennes (Paris, 1971), IIC2aGoogle Scholar. For the epithet of Geštinanna in this inscription, see below.

23 Falkenstein, A., Die Inschriften Gudeas von Lagaš I (AnOr 30; 1966), 150Google Scholar.

24 Parrot, A., “Fouilles de Tello, campagne 1931–1932» RA 29 (1932). 56Google Scholar; similarly Toscanne, P., “Textes divers babyloniens”, RT 30 (1908), 122Google Scholar; a dedication by Lú-dŠará nu-bànda dumu Gù-dé-a nu-bànda é (ref. Hallo).

25 Scheil, V., “Nin Alla, femme de Gudêa”, RA 24 (1927). 109 fGoogle Scholar.

26 See above, note 22. Thureau-Dangin left it untranslated; Sollberger suggested “la reine qui remplit la rive (?)”; Falkenstein, (AnOr 30 (1966), 74 note 11)Google Scholar left it untranslated.

27 For gú, “neck” of a vessel, see Salonen, A., Die Hausgeräte der alten Mesopotamier, Teil II: Gefässe (Helsinki, 1966), 229Google Scholar.

28 For (Nin-)dA-zi-mú-a, see Falkenstein, , AnOr 30 (1966), 74 note 6Google Scholar; and Castellino, G., ZA 52 (1957), 47Google Scholar. For Nin-giz-zi-da, see van Buren, E. Douglas, “The God Ningizzida”, Iraq I (1934), 60–89Google Scholar.

29 Castellino, G., Two Šulgi Hymns (BC) (Rome, 1972), 54Google Scholar.

30 Römer, W. Ph., Sumerische “Königshymnen” der Isin-Zeit (Leiden, 1965), 32 line 53Google Scholar.

31 Luckenbill, D. D., Inscriptions from Adab (Chicago, 1930), No. 12Google Scholar.

32 AO 12210, Genouillac, , Telloh II, Pl. XL and 117 fGoogle Scholar. (cf. Pl. 85, 2). To judge from the photo, this inscription was scratched into the surface.

33 For a possible example of such a clay model, see Westenholz, A., JCS 26 (1974), 71Google Scholar.

34 For recent discussion of the relationship between literacy and engraving, see Lambert, W. G., BiOr 32 (1975), 220 fGoogle Scholar.; Lambert, M., RA 67 (1973), 162Google Scholar.

35 One apparent instance, RTC 183.6 (time of Gudea?) is doubtful. Perhaps [síg udu] dGešti-nanna, “wool of Geštinanna's sheep”, is intended, although there seems to be hardly adequate space for such a reading in the break.

36 Wine was a luxury product in late third-millennium Mesopotamia. In administrative account texts it is mentioned mostly in lists of fine foods given to deities and individuals on special occasions: RTC 217, 218, 244, 245, 246; MVN 3 82 (all time of Gudea?).

37 Note however the gold earring dedicated by Šulgi to Geštinanna, published by Lambert, M. and Amiet, P., RA 67 (1973), 159 ffGoogle Scholar.