changed over time. Yet, since these other headgears were exclusive to them, they func-
tioned as insignia.
In imagery, royals intrude into the divine sphere precisely with regard to insignia.
As a sign of his divine status, Naramsin attached a pair of horns to his helmet (Figure
10. 9 ). Self-deified kings could appropriate divine weapons (Figure 10. 13 ). More such
images must have existed, since peripheral epigones of Mesopotamian kings are also
seen brandishing divine weapons (Suter 2010 : 345 – 346 ). On the Pir Hüssein Stela
(Braun-Holzinger 2007 : pl. 46 ), Naramsin is clad in a flounced robe, which by then
was standard for deities. The same applies to deified Ur III kings on numerous seals
(Fischer 1997 ; Mayr and Owen 2004 ); they may also sit on a divine throne rather than
on the typical royal stool. The deified Naramsin and Shulgi emphasised their god-
likeness by combining divine insignia with a divine stance (Figure 10. 9 , 10. 13 ): the
ascending pose was appropriated from the sun-god, to whom both kings likened
themselves with the aim of casting themselves as the conduit of the course of destiny
for their country (Polonsky 2000 : 99 ; Fischer 2002 ). At the same time, Naramsin
adopted the exposure of his well-formed body from the nude hero, thus endowing
himself with superhuman strength and sex appeal (Winter 1996 ).^9 Similar images
existed of Shulgi and his successors (Suter 2010 : 340 – 346 ).
It was not only deified kings who crossed over boundaries. Early Dynastic kings and
queens shared with deities the date cluster or branch held in banquet scenes (Figure
10. 2 , 10. 8 ). This object was both an insignia of rulership and a symbol for the renewal
of the agricultural cycle with which gods blessed rulers (Selz 1983 : 454 – 456 ). In the
transition from the Early Dynastic to the Akkad period, the king’s military garb and
hairstyle coincided with those of gods, and only his headgear, a headband rather than
a horned crown, identified him as a mundane king (Braun-Holzinger 2007 : 58 – 65 ).
Sargon holds the battle-net, which in Early Dynastic Lagash had been in the hands of
the city-state’s divine patron. From the Akkad period on, high priestesses regularly wear
flounced robes (Suter 2007 ). Although their crown, usually in the shape of a circlet,
distinguished them from goddesses, it seems that a pair of horns may occasionally have
been attached to it, as in Naramsin’s helmet. They are almost exclusively represented
enthroned, whether in statuary or narrative scenes carved in relief, and occasionally
appropriated a divine throne. In addition, the long, elaborately knotted beard,
especially of Akkad and Ur III kings (Figures 10. 9 , 10. 12 , 10. 13 , 10. 15 ), must have been
a sign of god-likeness, given that gods are depicted with such beards and that kings
adopted the “lapis lazuli” beard from the sun-god (Suter in press).
Moreover, royals take the place of deities in the two scenes that visualise royal
patronage. While this is perhaps more obvious for the audience scene due to the large
number of seals that depict human petitioners before a deity, the combination of royal
and divine banquets on the same object (Figures 10. 2 , 10. 11 ) and the dual function of
cupbearers suggest that it was also the case for banquets in general and not only for
those of high priestesses with their god.
CONCLUSIONS
Early Mesopotamian royal images visualise time and again the quintessential ideology
that the people’s security and prosperity depended on the ruler due to his relationship
with the gods. Rulers cast themselves as intermediaries between the mundane and–– Claudia E. Suter ––