struction resembling an oven. Women never mingle with men in “masculine” occu-
pations which are mostly rendered in complex style, but occasionally the genders
appear together on schematic seals; some images may depict a family with children
represented by tiny figures. Seal imagery suggests men and women largely worked in
separate groups, presumably also at different locations, but it is unknown if the women
depicted on schematic seals are synonymous with the female slaves/maids in texts, or
if they were married and lived with their family. There are few images from the Early
Dynastic period showing men or women working other than in ritual scenes because
written language could record economic matters in detail on tablets.
Toward the end of the Late Uruk period (Uruk III c. 3000 – 2900 ) for the first time the
name of a woman was inscribed on a relief presumably from Tell Uqair, probably the
ancient city Nutur, whose proprietary goddess is Ninhursanga. This relief is known as
“Blau Plaque” (Figure 18. 1 ) and records a land transaction involving seller(s) and a buyer
who is depicted on a second inscribed relief. The woman, whose name is written KA-
GÍR-gal, faces a man of high status, indicated by skirt and headband, holding an
unidentifiable object. She may be his wife, daughter, or an independent woman, and
her function as seller, co-seller, or witness is evidence of women’s agency. KA-GÍR-gal’s
facial features, hair style and garment resemble the small statue of a woman from the Sin
temple at Khafajeh (Figure 18. 2 ), the oldest known sculpture of a woman “worshipper”
dating to the Jemdet Nasr period (Uruk III, c. 3100 – 2900 ). Early Dynastic (c. 2900 – 2350 )
statues of women and men were found in temples throughout Mesopotamia.
Five “categories” can be distinguished: single or groups of women in cult/ritual,
individual women in legal transactions, groups of women in daily life scenes, and
“géme” receiving rations. According to context, a single woman has high rank because
–– Julia M. Asher-Greve ––Figure 18.1“Blau plaque,” Jemdet Nasr period (London. British Museum 862660.
© Trustees of the British Museum)