Sumerian Sculpture: ED Statue (2023-03-28)

Created by: Englund, Robert K.

This statue of a female figure dates from the Early Dynastic period and was discovered during an archaeological dig in the Inanna Temple in Nippur. Carved from stone, the statue also features beads in the hair and along the shoulders, possibly from a necklace that has since eroded. Statues like this one were occasionally painted or “polychromed.”

This statue of a female figure found in the Inanna Temple of Nippur demonstrates the artistic style of the Early Dynastic period (ca. 2800-2350 BC). The woman’s hair is kinked, her eyes are large and inlaid with a different type of stone than that from which her body was carved, and her body is a large mass with angular arms and clasped hands. The robe or dress she wears is given dimension, and her gender is displayed, through the wrap portion that is incised down the center of the body. Her gender is also betrayed by the remnants of blue beading in her hair and on her shoulders, that may have come from a necklace or headdress she once wore. Many female figures of this time, especially within temples devoted to goddesses like Inanna, were given jewelry (earrings, bracelets, and necklaces), especially if the figures represented a queen or her court. Image credit: Jean M. Evans, The Lives of Sumerian Sculpture: An Archaeology of the Early Dynastic Temple, p. 142, fig. 46

credit: Burton, Elizabeth M.