CHAPTER TEN

KINGS AND QUEENS:

REPRESENTATION AND REALITY



Claudia E. Suter

No other kind of relic or text from the past can offer such a direct testimony about

the world which surrounded other people at other times. In this respect images are

more precise and richer than literature.

(John Berger)

Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.

(Albert Einstein)

R

oyal representation arose in Mesopotamia with the growth of urban centres and

the crystallisation of the state at the end of the fourth millennium BC. In hierarchic

societies, the ruling authorities tend to affirm their claim to power on a symbolic level.

Thus in the Late Uruk period, we encounter the first monumental architecture, up to

life-size statuary, stelae and other objects carved in stone with narrative scenes, and with

them the formation of royal representation that persisted beyond the Sumerian world.

This chapter focuses on early Mesopotamian royal images with narrative contexts. It

explores their message against the socio-historical context in which they were created

with the aim of elucidating what they tell us about royal ideology in addition to texts

and other archaeological findings.

KINGS AND QUEENS

Royal propaganda promoted the view that kingship was the very basis of civilisation

and that it was sacred (Sallaberger 2002 ; Michalowski 2008 ). It descended from heaven.

Chosen by the gods, the king was their representative on earth. He formed the link

between mundane and transcendent worlds. His responsibilities included feeding the

gods, establishing justice, and prevailing over wilderness and foreign enemies. In

return, the gods granted him a long rule and prosperity for his people. As provider and

protector, the king was a paragon of manliness, and through his link with the divine

world he was god-like. In contrast to Egypt, explicit self-deification with a royal cult

was confined to two short periods during which Mesopotamia was united under kings

of Akkad and of the Third Dynasty of Ur.

Kings were men. The only female king in the Sumerian Kinglist, Ku-Baba of Kish,

is characterised as a brothel keeper (ETCSL 2. 1. 1 , ll. 224 – 231 ), obviously a mockery that