across the millennia in the work of Mesopotamian artisans.
Each major city had its patron deity, which was depicted in ce-
ramics and sculpture and featured in temples decorated with
statues and paintings of the god. Some of the more important
Mesopotamian gods were the sky god, Anu, worshipped in
Sumer; the fertility goddess, Inanna, of Uruk; Nergal, the god
of the underworld; and Ishtar, a goddess associated with the
planet Venus, love, and war. Th ere were a lso gods of t he moon
(Sin) and of the sun (Shamash). Th ese deities were shown in
anthropomorphic (human) form, along with important sym-
bols of their power and attributes.
Shamash, for example, is shown near a disc representing
the sun. Sin appears near a crescent symbolizing the moon,
and the goddess Ishtar is depicted with an eight-pointed star.
Th e water god, Er, is most oft en shown with streams fl owing
from his shoulders or from a jar. Adad, the god of storms, ap-
pears with a lightning bolt and stands on the back of a bull.
A goddess of healing, Gula, was associated with the fi gure of
a dog. Th e messenger of the gods, Ninshubur, holds a staff in
his hands, and Nusku, the god of fi re, holds a lamp or fl ame.
Marduk was the principal god of Babylon. He was originally
a god of the earth and of agriculture, and he appears with a
spade in the shape of a triangle. Assur, the god of the power-
ful realm of Assyria, wears a horned headdress and a staff or
spear as a symbol of his offi ce.
Mesopotamian artists also relied on a large repertoire of
minor spirits, usually taking the form of a familiar animal.
Lions were a favored species and appear winged, half-human,
and with their maned heads atop the form of a powerful bird
with long talons. Bulls are shown with their horns and oft en
in the form of half-man, half-bull. Other familiar animals are
snakes, turtles, scorpions, sheep, goats, and horses. Th e evil
goddess Lamashtu, daughter of Anu, had the head of a lion-
ess, the ears of a donkey, and the feet and talons of a bird.
Lamashtu commonly stands on top of a donkey, holds a pair
of snakes in her hands, and nurses a pig or a dog.
art
Clay fi gurines in a rounded female form date to the early
Neolithic Period (10,000-3,000 b.c.e.) and are the earliest
works of art from Mesopotamia. Th ese were found in great
number at Hassuna, a site that gave its name to a period of
art dating to about 5800 b.c.e. Statuettes and household vases
carved in clay and alabaster have been uncovered in graves
near Samarra, which lent its name to the following period, of
the late sixth millennium b.c.e. Th ese fi gures were decorated
with stone necklaces and shells for eyes. Samarran artisans
also created new geometric, human, and animal forms for
use on their fi nished potter y. Halaf works, from 5300 b.c.e. to
about 4500 b.c.e., display religious symbols, such as a double
ax head and the stylized head of an ox.
Th e fi rst cities of Mesopotamia were built in the plains be-
tween the lower Euphrates and Tigris rivers, the region known
as Sumer. Trade and a centralized government brought about
the invention of cuneiform writing, in the form of angular
marks made with sharpened reeds (cuneus in Latin) on wet
clay tablets. Sumerian palaces were decorated with elaborate
friezes, horizontal wall paintings that depicted royal proces-
sions and mythological scenes.ART OF THE SUMERIANS
During the Uruk Period, named for an important Sumerian
city, sculptors began working in new materials and giving
their fi gures a larger and more lifelike appearance. Using
a fl at wall or a fi nished ceramic piece, they carved away
the smooth surface to create geometric or fi gurative art in
a technique known as bas-relief. Artists of this time began
moving away from conventional shapes and styles to give
their fi gures individual characteristics and emotions. Nev-
ertheless, Mesopotamian art remained two dimensional,
with the human body and animals portrayed in fl at profi le
against a patterned background, as in the wall paintings of
ancient Egypt.
Th e famous Warak vase, found at the site of Uruk, is
carved of alabaster and shows four diff erent designs on par-
allel horizontal bands known as registers. Th e bottom band
shows a row of barley and palm plants, and above is a line of
rams and ewes. At the next level appears a procession of men
carrying jugs and baskets, and at the top is a lord or king at-
tended by servants and a temple priestess. Th e Warak vase
displays the dedication of the Sumerians to Inanna, the god-
dess of fertility and of the fruit of the land. It also serves as a
textbook example of Mesopotamian pictorial style, in which
a scene or story is depicted in registers against a fl at, stylized
background and in which fi gures are given importance ac-
cording to their size, position, and the detail of their clothes
and adornment.
Metalsmiths of this time began mastering new tech-
niques of casting and shaping copper, bronze, silver, and
gold. Th e lost-wax process allowed artists to form a desired
fi gure out of wax, surround it with clay, and then fi re the
clay to melt the wax. Th e result is a hollow, hardened clay
mold into which molten metal is poured; aft er the metal
cools and hardens, t he mold is broken away to revea l t he fi n-
ished piece. Mesopotamian smiths brought the art of lost-
wax casting to a very high level, creating jewelry, statuettes,
and other objects that could also be etched and engraved in
minute detail.
In the Uruk era the Sumerians raised stepped temples
known as ziggurats, used to bring the kings and priests closer
to the gods of the heavens. Th e ziggurats served as symbols of
the power and wealth of the kings who raised them. Th e exte-
rior walls were elaborately decorated with horizontal friezes,
and the interior featured paintings of scenes from mythology
and religious symbolism. Th e Sumerians also gave detailed
attention to the burial of their monarchs. Th e Royal Cemetery
at the city of Ur has provided archaeologists with the larg-
est single treasure of ancient Mesopotamian art in existence.
Nearly two thousand graves were unearthed at this site in
the 1920s, many of them containing valuable worldly goods98 art: The Middle East