libations are poured by cult personnel (e.g., Winter 1985 : figs. 6 , 8 , 12 ; Figure 11. 2 in
this volume), and so does Gudea have a priest perform the libation (Suter 2000 , pl. C).
Early Dynastic and Ur III administrative texts reveal that royal women fulfilled
cultic duties (Weiershäuser 2008 ). Akkad to Ur III seal images depict them in worship
scenes (Suter 2008 ). They not only follow the king into the presence of a deity, but are
also seen as protagonists in the worship of goddesses and can pour libations, like kings.
Since the scenes that show them as protagonists are staged in an exclusively female
sphere, their occasion may have been women’s cult festivals as attested in Ur III
administrative texts. An anonymous Akkad-period seal of lapis lazuli from the Royal
Cemetery at Ur may render two episodes of such a festival (Figure 10. 6 ): it combines
the image of a royal woman libating before a goddess with that of an audience of a
group of court women with their enthroned superior, who was probably identical with
the libator and the wife of the local ruler.
High priestesses could also sponsor libations, although the performance was left to
cult personnel. The heavily restored, disk-shaped stone object with a dedicatory
inscription of Enheduana, daughter of Sargon of Akkad and high priestess of Nanna
in Ur, depicts her overseeing a libation poured probably by her male assistant, the
lagar/l(Suter 2007 : fig. 1 ). An anonymous Early Dynastic door plaque from the Gipar
at Ur (see Figure 11. 2 in this volume), seat of Nanna’s high priestess, depicts two
superimposed libation scenes: first before the temple, then before a seated god, no
doubt Nanna. The first libation is comparable to the scene on Enheduana’s Disk:
–– Kings and queens ––Figure 10.6Seal from the Royal Cemetery at Ur (courtesy of Richard L. Zettler, Associate
Curator-in-Charge, Near East Section, University of Pennsylvania Museum)