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. Reviewed by Michele A. Miller
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Although this exhibit was conceived and planned years ago, there is no doubt
that it opens with exquisite timeliness. For Art of the First Cities
focuses on the emergence of civilization in the region known to the ancient
Greeks as Mesopotamia-that is, the fertile plain that roughly lies between
the Tigris and Euphrates rivers which today lies largely within the boundaries
of the modern nation of Iraq. Moreover, as recent reports have revealed
significant looting at Iraq's National Museum, and even more devastating
pillage occurring at many of Iraq's significant archaeological sites, this
exhibit provides us with a taste of just some of the artifacts that have
been lost or are currently at risk. In fact, Joan Aruz, of the Metropolitan's
Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, and curator of this exhibit, while
lamenting that it took such tragedy to bring raise public awareness of the
Mesopotamian cultural heritage, acknowledged that publicity surrounding the
looting may have brought more people to see these important Mesopotamian
works. Once there, she hopes that visitors will go away with an understanding
that not only was this a seminal period for the birth of western culture-as
well as the history of art-but also for “what stunning material it is."
 And stunning
it is, indeed. While the appreciation of archaeological material is often
is seen as rather academic, no prior knowledge of Mesopotamian archaeology
is necessary to regard the artifacts displayed here. Exquisite in workmanship
as well as rich in materials, these significant works were manufactured thousands
of years ago to elicit admiration and continue to do so today. And the curators
have wisely let the works speak for themselves, for the most part, introducing
only subtle design elements to evoke the distinctive gateways, temples and
facades of the world's earliest cities. Likewise wall-texts are informative
but not intrusive.
Fig.1: “Standard of Ur” (detail), Mesopotamia, ca. 2550-2400
BC. Shell, lapis lazuli, and red limestone, 20 x 47 cm (photo: ©
The Trustees of the British Museum, London).
The first five galleries of the exhibit introduce the visitor to art from
Mesopotamia in chronological order. The earliest works, dating from the Uruk
and Jamdat Nasr periods, are already surprisingly sophisticated and reveal
many stylistic details that will continue on throughout the next millennium,
and beyond. One of the most historically important of these is the limestone
sculpture of a standing male, identified as a 'priest-king' by the fillet
binding his hair and crescent-shaped beard (Late Uruk, ca. 3300-3000 B.C.).
Barely freed from his block of stone, the static posture of this small nude
figure provides it with the gravity we should expect in the depiction of
one of the world's first kings, perhaps the ruler of Uruk himself, the largest
city of the time. Meanwhile, two small figures of striding horned demons
(ca. 3000-2800 B.C.) from Iran reveal an early connection to the highland
cultures of the fertile crescent in such details as upturned boots. Early
examples of the lost-wax casting technique that would later allow the manufacture
of more elaborate works, these are made of arsenical copper, an early bronze
alloy in use before tin-bronze became common. Works from the succeeding Early
Dynastic period are among the finest and most ornate of the millennium. Chief
amongst these is the treasured "Standard of Ur" (ca. 2550-2400 B.C.) in which
inlaid pieces of shell, lapis lazuli and red limestone were used to depict
colorful and detailed figural scenes of "war" and "peace"-the former showing
the king, his helmeted infantry, and chariots in action among dead and imprisoned
enemies, while the latter depicting a procession of gift-bearers and the
king seated at a banquet. Together the two sides of the box represent the
dual aspects of Sumerian kingship: military leadership versus the mediator
between humans and divine bounty. Found in the cemeteries of Ur, the box
was interpreted by the excavator C. Leonard Woolley as a processional standard
but has been more recently interpreted as the sounding-box of some unknown
musical device.
Such intricate inlay is used on another musical instrument displayed here
from the Royal Graves of Ur, the "Great Lyre" with gold and lapis bull's
head and front panel depicting an underworld banqueting scene in which animals
and demon's drink and play instruments. Unfortunately, it is impossible to
tell as exhibited how much of the instrument has been reconstructed, but
we can recognize a similar lyre being played by a musician on the top register
of the Standard of Ur (fig. 1). Such banquets were probably part of the burial
ritual. Queen Pu-abi (identified by an inscription on her lapis lazuli cylinder
seal), for instance, was buried along with a retinue of five soldiers, a
wagon drawn by two oxen and ten female attendants (one of whom was a harpist
who carried a similar instrument) as well as
 vessels of
gold and silver, and hundreds of other precious objects. The Queen herself
was laid out in an abundance of gold and carnelian jewelry topped by an elaborate
headdress, displayed in the adjoining room as she might have worn it, of
gold and semi-precious stones whose flowing floral imagery symbolized the
wealth and fecundity of the region.
Another well-known work from the Royal Graves on display has been referred
to as the “Ram caught in the thicket” in reference to the famous
Biblical passage (Genesis 22:13), although its depiction of a goat rearing
up upon a flowering plant most probably symbolized the fertility of plant
and animal life (fig.2). Typical of the composite art that characterizes
the Early Dynastic, the work combines an extravagant array of exotic materials:
gold, silver, copper alloy, lapis lazuli, red limestone, shell and bitumen.
It is worth noting that most of these materials, as well as the carnelian
beads used in Pu-abi's jewelry, do not originate in Mesopotamia. Fig.2: Rearing goat with a flowering plant, from Ur, Mesopotamia,
ca. 2550-2400 BC. Gold, silver, lapis lazuli, copper alloy, shell, red limestone,
and bitumen. ht.42.6 cm (The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology
and Anthropology, Philadelphia). It
would be foolish to view Early Dynastic society only through the prism of
these burials, however. Urban life of this period centered around the temple
dedicated to  the patron deity of the city. These houses of the gods were
not so much areas for public worship, as are the churches and synagogues
of our day, but complexes in which offerings were made, priests engaged in
important rituals, and a large number of people were employed to produce
agricultural goods and crafts for the deity. One of the most characteristic
art forms of the Early Dynastic period were thus votive statues representing
an individual worshipper which were placed in the inner sanctuary of the
temple to intercede on his/her behalf to the god, as here suggested by their
grouping in a small, darkened room. Such votives are easily recognized by
a standard set of characteristics: hands clasped in prayer, often holding
a libation cup, exaggerated staring eyes, and the rather abstracted, geometric
rendering of the human form (fig.3). They also wear long spreading skirts,
often with the distinctively Sumerian kaunakes pattern of overlapping,
petal-shaped tufts of wool probably meant to simulate sheepskin (the same
pattern is seen on the coat of the rearing goat described above; fig.2).
Fig.3: Votive sculpture from Kafajah, Mesopotamia, ca. 2650-2550
BC. Gypsum; ht.23 cm (The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology
and Anthropology, Philadelphia). The Early
Dynastic era came to a close with the rise of the Semitic Sargon-of-Akkad
(ca. 2300-2245 BC), who quickly subjected the old Sumerian city-states in
southern Mesopotamia and ushered in an Akkadian empire further north. Sargon's
son Manishtusu and better-known grandson Naram-Sin (ca. 2220-2184 BC)
extended this empire still further and heralded a new period of building
and sculptural work. Few of these major monuments survive, however, having
been destroyed in subsequent rebuilding by later dynasties. The Stela of
Naram-Sin, which was found at Susa, where it had been brought by the Elamite
King as part of the 'booty of Sippar', is thus one of few preserved major
works of Akkadian sculpture. Commemorating the Akkadian victory over Lullubi
tribesmen, the skillful composition draws the eye up to the dominating figure
of the king--wearing the horned cap of his divinely ordained status and striding
his vanquished enemies, high above his troops and under the protective symbols
of his gods. Such well-arranged compositions, along with deep relief
and attention to detail, especially with an emphasis on musculature, are
characteristic of the classical Akkadian glyptic style that is also apparent
in the miniature carving seen on sealstones. Many of the cylinder seals on
display are tiny masterpieces, featuring finely executed scenes of contests
between animals, worshippers, or battles of the gods.
The next few galleries focus on the broad connections between early civilizations
ranging from the Mediterranean in the west to the Indus Valley in the east.
Aruz has a long-standing interest in the interactions of cultures, and she
was determined with this exhibit "not to portray Mesopotamia in a vacuum."
To do so, she had to obtain objects on loan from nearly 50 museums and
collections around the world--a feat that could only have been accomplished
by a museum with the stature of the Met. Of course there is irony in the
fact that works on loan from the modern governments of Iraq and Iran are
conspicuously absent from this exhibit (while only a very few of the anticipated
artifacts from Syria were able to leave the country), a casualty of present-day
circumstances, indicating that trade is perhaps more impeded now by war and
politics than it was in the third millennium.
Trade between
these early civilizations appears to center on the exchange of certain limited
luxury goods. Sources for the distinctive deep blue, gold-flecked stone,
lapis lazuli, occur only in the Badakhshan mountains of modern northern
Afghanistan, but beads and other goods manufactured from lapis dating from
the third millennium have been found throughout a vast area. True etched
carnelian beads were only produced in the Indus Valley, but not only were
these traded throughout the Aegean and Near East, but often local cultures
manufactured their own imitations from other materials. Artistic styles and
motifs often were “exchanged” along with such goods. Vessels of
the “Intercultural Style,” for instance, were made of particular
softstones su ch as chlorite, and shared a range of motives in low relief
including date palms, guilloche patterns, and figural elements (often animals)
in predatory scenes. A particularly fine example of such a vessel, found
in Mesopotamia but perhaps manufactured in Baluchistan, mixes stylistic elements
originating in Iran and Central Asia with iconography (including the
bulbous-nosed 'hero and the humped bull) from not only from Mesopotamia,
but also Iran and the Indus Valley (fig.4).
Fig.4: Cylindrical vessel with heroes and animals, Mesopotamia, mid-third
millennium BC. Chlorite, ht.11.4 cm; diam. 17.8 cm (photo: © The
Trustees of the British Museum, London).
The exhibit ends, appropriately, at the close of the third millennium in
Mesopotamia, a time when city-states in the south again rose to prominence
following the collapse of the Akkadian empire. Major works from this time
reflect the power of the new kings, such as Gudea at Lagash and Ur-Namma
at Ur, who consolidated their rule through the construction and elaboration
of temples designed to elicit divine favor. Statues of Gudea are
identified by dedicatory inscriptions to the temples he constructed, and
in one telling work, now headless, he is depicted as an architect, with the
plan of a major temple to his god Ningirsu on his lap, along with a stylus
and graduated rule. We are fortunate that Gudea preferred that his statues
be carved of hard stones (usually diorite imported from the Magan in the
Arabian Gulf), thus ensuring their durability-over twenty sculptures of him
and his son, Ur-Ningirsu, are known to survive. All of these share a certain
elegant simplicity in modeling that, enhanced by the high polish obtainable
in the material, evokes a certain strength in repose.
Fewer statues of Ur-Namma, the founder of the great Third Dynasty at Ur,
are known, although he shared a taste for ambitious building programs, and
is often recognized for refining the form of the impressive ziggurats that
have come to characterize Mesopotamian cities. The exhibit is fortunate to
have a fragment of the famed 'Stela of Ur-Namma' which originally depicted
several scenes in five horizontal registers relating to the building of a
temple. In the surviving fragment the King is shown pouring a libation, as
well as performing the 'first brick' ritual prior to construction.
By the end of the third millennium the Sumerian empire again fell to invaders.
As this exhibit clearly demonstrates, however, Mesopotamian achievements
in art (as well as architecture, literature, law and the sciences) continued
to influence the civilizations that came after, right up to our very own.
Thus the current uncontrolled looting taking place in Iraq is revealed as
a loss not only to the peoples of that region, but to all of us who are the
privileged heirs of this determining culture. Who knows what further great
works that could shed light on this founding civilization are now being
irrevocably lost?
This article appears in Vol.3 No.4 of Athena
Review.
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