A History of Sumer and Akkad. L. W. King
of Gudea. But the woman's form is visible beneath the stuff of her garment, and the curves of the back are wonderfully true. Her hair, undulating on the temples, is bound in a head-cloth and falls in the form of a chignon on the neck, the whole being secured by a stiff band, or fillet, around which the cloth is folded with its fringe tucked in.
The drawing in Fig. 23 scarcely does justice to the beauty of the face, since it exaggerates the conventional representation of the eyebrows, and reproduces the texture of the stone at the expense of the outline. Moreover, the face is almost more striking in profile.[31] The nose, though perfectly straight, is rather large, but this is clearly a racial characteristic. Even so, the type of female beauty portrayed is singularly striking, and the manner in which the Sumerian sculptor has succeeded in reproducing it was not approached in the work of any later period. Another head from a female statuette, with the hair dressed in a similar fashion, is equally beautiful. The absence of part of the nose tends to give it a rather less marked ethnographic character, and probably increases the resemblance which has been claimed for it to types of classical antiquity.[32]
Fig. 24.—Limestone head of a female statuette belonging to the best period of Sumerian art.—Déc., pl. 25, Fig. 2.
The art of casting in metal was also practised by the Sumerians, and even in the earliest period, anterior to the reign of Ur-Ninâ, small foundation-figures have been discovered, which were cast solid in copper. In fact, copper was the metal most commonly employed by the Sumerians, and their stage of culture throughout the long period of their history may be described as a copper age, rather than an age of bronze. It is true that the claim is sometimes put forward, based on very unsatisfactory evidence, that the Sumerian metal-founders used not only tin but also antimony in order to harden copper, and at the same time render it more fusible;[33] and it is difficult to explain the employment of two ideograms for the metal, even in the earlier periods, unless one signified bronze and the other copper.[34] But a careful analysis by M. Berthelot of the numerous metal objects found at Tello, the dates of which can be definitely ascertained, has shown that, even under the later rulers of Lagash and the kings of Ur, not only votive figures, but also tools and weapons of copper, contain no trace of tin employed as an alloy.[35] As at Tello, so at Tell Sifr, the vessels and weapons found by Loftus are of copper, not bronze.[36] The presence of an exceedingly small proportion of elements other than copper in the objects submitted to analysis was probably not intentional, but was due to the necessarily imperfect method of smelting that was employed.
CLAY RELIEF STAMPED WITH THE FIGURE OF THE BABYLONIAN HERO GILGAMESH, HOLDING A VASE FROM WHICH TWO STREAMS OF WATER FLOW. Brit. Mus., No. 21204.
FRAGMENT OF LIMESTONE SCULPTURED IN RELIEF WITH VASES FROM WHICH STREAMS OF WATER FLOW. Brit. Mus., No. 95477
Fig. 25—One of a series of copper female foundation-figures with supporting rings, buried in a structure of unburnt brick beneath stone foundation-records. From Tello; period of Ur-Ninâ. Déc., pl. 2 ter, Fig. 3.
No trace has yet been found of any mould used by the Sumerians in the process of casting metal, but we may assume that clay was employed both for solid and hollow castings. While many figures of the same form have been found, no two are exactly alike nor of quite the same proportions, so that it may be inferred that a mould was never used a second time, but that each was broken in order to remove the casting. The copper foundation-figures usually take the form of nails, terminating with the bust of a female figure, and they were set in a socket beneath stone foundation-inscriptions which they support. Later, votive objects, cast in copper, represent male figures, bearing on their heads the builder's basket, in which is clay for the sacred bricks of the temple's foundation; or they consist of great cones or nails supporting a recumbent bull,[37] or clasped by the kneeling figure of a god.[38] Large figures of wood were sometimes covered with thin plates of copper joined by a series of small nails or rivets, as is proved by the horn of a bull of natural size, which has been discovered at Tello.[39] But hollow castings in copper of a considerable size have also been found. A good example is the bull's head, figured in the accompanying block, which probably dates from a period not later than the close of Ur-Ninâ's dynasty. Its eyes are inlaid with mother-of-pearl and lapis-lazuli, and a very similar method of inlaying is met with in the copper head of a goat which was found at Fâra.[40]
Fig. 26–27.—Heads of a bull and a goat cast in copper and inlaid with mother-of-pearl, lapis-lazuli, etc. The bull's head was found at Tello, and that of the goat at Fâra.—Déc., pl. 5 ter, Fig. 2; Zeits. für Ethnol., 1901, p. 163.
A far simpler process of manufacture was employed for the making of votive figures of terra-cotta, which, in order of development, preceded the use of metal for this purpose, though they continued to be manufactured in considerable quantities during the later periods. Here the mould, in a single piece, was cut in stone or some other hard material,[41] and the clay, after being impressed into it, was smoothed down on the back by hand. The flat border of clay left by the upper surface of the mould, was frequently not removed, so that the figures are sometimes found standing out from a flat background in the manner of a sculptured plaque, or bas-relief.
Fig. 28. Stamped terra-cotta figure of a bearded god, wearing the horned headdress, to which are attached the ears of a bull. Period of Gudea.—Déc., pl. 39, Fig. 3.
In the period of Gudea, the mould was definitely used as a stamp, thus returning to the original use from which its later employment was developed. Interesting examples of such later stamped figures include representations of a god wearing a horned headdress, to which are added the ears of a bull, and of a hero, often identified with Gilgamesh, who holds a vase from which two streams of water flow.[42] The clay employed for the votive figures is extremely fine in quality, and most of them are baked to a degree of hardness resembling stone or metal.
Fig. 29. Scheme of decoration from a libation-vase of Gudea, made of dark green steatite and originally inlaid with shell. Déc., pl. 44, Fig. 2; cf. Cat., p. 281.
The art of inlaying was widely practised by the Sumerians, who not only treated metal in this way, but frequently attempted to give more expression or life to stone statues by inlaying the white of the eye with mother-of-pearl or shell, and representing the pupil and iris by lapis-lazuli or bitumen. A similar method was employed to enrich votive stone figures of animals, and to give a varied and polychrome effect to vases carved in stone. The finest example of this class of work is a libation-vase of Gudea made of dark green steatite, which was dedicated by him to his patron deity Ningishzida. The vase has a short projecting spout running up from the