When the Uruk Vase is read as a continuous narrative, the theme of seasonal
contrast can also be detected in the top register. In common with the double image of
the king on the Lion-Hunt Stele, two couples are present in the upper register (Figure
11. 5 ). The first fruits carried by the naked ruler and the ring posts situate the first couple
at Inanna’s doorway in the springtime. A second ruler and goddess are arranged on
either side of the first couple. The ruler parades with an attendant on the left. The
second Inanna on the right is also traveling in a procession, in the guise of twin statues
on a stepped-platform fastened to rams. In keeping with the temporal differentiation
of the lower registers, the procession is likely to have taken place in the autumn. Instead
of a consecutive narrative about one event, therefore, the Uruk Vase follows the pattern
of the Lion-Hunt Stele in compressing two related events into the frame of a con-
tinuous narrative.
The seasonal contrast depicted on the Uruk Vase corresponds to the timing of the
early Sumerian akitu, a major agricultural festival celebrated twice each year (Cohen
1993 ; Bidmead 2002 ). The unknown etymology of the term akituindicates the antiquity
of this tradition, and the names of the akitufestivals match the months in which they
took place: the autumnal a 2 – ki-ti sˇu-numun“akitu of the sowing season” and the vernal
a 2 –ki-ti sˇe-kin-ku 5 “akituof the harvest.” Since the Uruk Vase is half a millennium earlier
than the earliest text (an ED IIIa tablet that mentions an akitu-structure at Nippur,
Bidmead 2002 : 42 ) and because it depicts a biannual rite tied to the agricultural
calendar, it supports the earlier view that the Sacred Marriage was performed at the
akitu-festival as far back as the Protoliterate (Mallowan 1965 : 68 ; Jacobsen 1975 ).
The twin statues that ride on rams match the duality of the Uruk Vase, and they
match the duality of the separate offerings and festivals for Morning and Evening
Inanna listed on Uruk III economic texts (Szarzyn ́ska 2000 : 65 ). They are differently
dressed from the central Inanna, but this can be explained as everyday or masculine
dress donned for the autumn festival. The stepped altar, the structural base for the
transport of the two images, represents a temple structure particular to Inanna. House
models of this type have been found in Inanna temples at Asˇsˇur and Uruk. This object
is also represented on seals with the high side turned toward the masculine Inanna (van
Buren 1954 : 230 – 231 ). The twin statues indicate that the custom of transporting cult
images to other localities, well attested in later sources, antedates the texts. The seated
cult images of later times are considerably more stable than those on the Uruk Vase due
to their lower centers of gravity, but, like their Protoliterate forebears, they remain
perched upon models of miniature temples (Figure 11. 1 ). This strategy, which one
might call “distributed templehood,” enabled cult images to remain conceptually
tethered to sacred ground while journeying away from home.
Nevertheless, the statues depicted on the Uruk Vase (or at least the higher statue)
cannot be literal representations. No cult image would have bowls stacked in front of
its face, nor was it feasible to distribute a statue’s weight above its head. As long
recognized, the outline of the objects held by the higher statue corresponds to the EN
sign. Based on analysis of city signs on the Archaic City Seal of Uruk, Daniel
Hockmann ( 2008 : 329 – 331 ) has proposed that EN can be read in combination with the
statue’s base as the city sign of Nippur (EN.KID). The relief on the Uruk Vase depicts
a concept placed on an object associated with that concept; in the same vein, EN.KID
is an ideogram superimposed on a picture. The most logical reason for placing a city
sign on a picture of a procession is to indicate destination. The city sign on the higher
–– Kathleen McCaffrey ––