The Sumerian World (Routledge Worlds)

The Sumerian sacred marriage

19; Hansen 1998: 46; Suter 2000: 223). The latter, published in the same year that the
Uruk Vase was excavated, shares a layout of three registers and a scene at the top
featuring a ruler. When the Uruk Vase is read in the manner of the Standard of Ur,
namely, as a consecutive narrative unfolding from bottom to top, the “naked priest”
in the top register is perceived as heading a procession of nude men that continues into
the middle register. The perception of a consecutive narrative has led to the conclusion
that the separation of the registers on the Uruk Vase does not reflect a distinction in
time or in idea (Perkins 1957: 55).
In the glare of the Standard of Ur, less attention has been paid to a royal monument
from the same city and period as the Uruk Vase. The Lion-Hunt Stele (Figure 11.4) uses
a continuous narrative (the depiction of a protagonist more than once within the same
frame) to portray the ruler performing multiple actions. This study proposes that the
Lion-Hunt Stele is actually the more relevant comparison. The grouping of the lowest
three registers on the Uruk Vase (which depict, in ascending order, plants being irri­
gated, alternating male and pregnant female animals, and nude figures carrying
produce) into two blocks, the so-called lower and middle registers, provides a first
indication that the Uruk Vase is not a hierarchical narrative. Why did the artist divide
three registers into two units? Content provides a clue because sowing/irrigation and
animal impregnation are autumnal events in Iraq; the main harvest takes place in the
spring. The activities depicted in the two groupings are thus chronological opposites.
Reading the middle and lower registers as paired opposites (see Figure 11.5 for a sectioned
drawing of the Uruk Vase) fits with the binary principle of composition seen on the vase
as a whole (Selz 2000: 32) and explains why the figures in the middle and lower registers
scroll in opposite directions and why they are separated by a large blank space.

Eanna Precinct, Uruk Procession to Nippur

Sowing/Irrigation

Animal Mating

Figure 11.5 Registers of the Uruk vase, sectioned to illustrate the continuous narrative

(reconstruction drawing by Catherine Lindsey after E. Lindemeyer and M. Lutz,

Uruk: Kleinfunde III, 1993: pi. 25)

Harvest

Paired Opposites

Autumn Akitu-festivalSpring Akitu-festival

Nippur