Miriam led the women in celebratory dances. Virtually all
depictions of kings or other high-status persons drinking or
feasting also show musicians and dancers.
Festivals and especially weddings were oft en the occa-
sion for group dances. Ancient Jewish texts such as the Tal-
mud describe men dancing before the bride at a wedding.
Cylinder seals from the early third millennium b.c.e. show
fi gures with linked hands apparently dancing in a circle,
and wedding dancers in present-day Syria have been ob-
served doing very similar dances. Th e arms of the fi gures
on the cylinder seals are raised to about shoulder level, and
this seems to be a common position in representations of
dancers from throughout the ancient Near East. From the
earliest images onward the dancers in these groups are al-
most always shown as being all alike in posture, stature, and
dress, perhaps in order to stress the unity and equality of
the performers.
One type of performer common to many ancient Near
Eastern cultures was the “dancing dwarf ” (a name bestowed
by modern scholars). Th e ancient images of these perform-
ers depict male musicians who, unlike most other fi gures in
the art of their cultures, are shown frontally. Th ey are naked
and appear very short and bowlegged. Until recently, schol-
ars interpreted these images as depicting individuals with
the genetic growth disorder known as achondroplasia, but
some art historians now suggest that the bowlegs and short
stature are merely artistic conventions intended to show
that the men are dancing while they play their instruments.
Th is possibility refl ects the fact that there is oft en little dis-
tinction between musician and dancer in ancient Near East-
ern art. One ivory from Bronze Age Canaan shows a woman
with a tambourine dancing energetically in front of seated
man of high status. Her knees are bent and her head turned
to one side as the artist tries to indicate her motions. Th e
conventions of ancient Near Eastern art made it diffi cult for
artists to depict rhythmic movement. Other representations
from ancient Mesopotamia show male dancers poised on
one leg, with the other one bent, perhaps to indicate a pir-
ouette. Other dancers, such as those shown on an ancient
Hittite terra-cotta jar, are shown leaping high in the air with
bent knees.
It seems that in the ancient Near East much dance was
done by professionals, performing either alone or in groups.
We know that in the ancient Canaanite city of Lachish danc-
ers belonged to a guild, and performers in other cultures
probably did too. Th ese guilds would have provided training
for performers. Nonprofessionals might also dance on spe-
cifi c occasions. At some ceremonies held by t he Hittites of an-
cient Anatolia even the king and queen might be called upon
to perform. However, it was much more common for royalty
and those of status to watch than to participate. In the art of
every culture of the ancient Near East from Sumer to Persia
the highest-ranking individuals are oft en recognizable as the
audience for dance of various kinds.
Dance in these ancient cultures had little in common
with modern-day notions. For example, there do not seem to
have been any dances where a single man and woman would
dance together as they do in modern ballroom dancing. Al-
though dancers could express themselves through their art,
the goal of ancient performance was not the expression of an
individual’s personality but communicating group solidarity,
religious belief, or social status.Lapis lazuli cylinder seal of Sin-ishmeanni, Old Babylonian, about 19th century b.c.e., showing Sin-ishmeanni being brought into the presence of
the king; the dwarf fi gure in the center is thought to represent a dancer in rituals or entertainments. (© Th e Trustees of the British Museum)
drama and theater: The Middle East 331