HomeEssay 1: Material Culture

Essay 1: Material Culture

Essay 1 focuses on the analysis of an object chosen from a pre-selected collection. The goal is to contextualize the object and use it as a starting point to discuss some of the larger topics covered in the course.

Objects

Warka Vase
Carved alabaster vessel found in the ruins of the Eanna, the temple complex of the goddess Inanna in the city of Uruk. The vase is decorated in four registers showing, from bottom to top, vegetation, a procession of animals and nude males carrying…

Relief of Ur-Nanše
Perforated limestone slab showing Ur-Nanše, the founder of the First Dynasty of Lagaš. According to the Sumerian King List, he was the first ruler in Lagaš to call himself lugal rather than ensí. The plaque was excavated at the ancient city of…

Standard of Ur  (Peace Side)
The “Standard of Ur” was found in one of the largest royal tombs in the Ur cemetery (PG 779), associated with Ur-Pabilsag. It has been reconstructed as a hollow wooden box with panels inlaid with a mosaic of shell, red limestone, and lapis lazuli…

Standard of Ur (War Side)
The “Standard of Ur” was found in one of the largest royal tombs in the Ur cemetery (PG 779), associated with Ur-Pabilsag. It has been reconstructed as a hollow wooden box with panels inlaid with a mosaic of shell, red limestone, and lapis lazuli…

Stele of Ušumgal
Gypsum alabaster stele carved on four sides, likely the record of a land transfer. It was acquired by the Metropolitan Museum in 1958 from a private collector (hence no provenance). The stele shows a large man, possibly labelled…

Banquet Plaque from Tutub
Perforated gypsum plaque excavated by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago in 1933/34 at the Sin Temple in Tutub (modern Khafajah). The plaque is organised in three registers. The top one shows two seated banqueters (male on the right,…

Votive Plaque of Dudu
Perforated plaque made of a bituminous stone showing Dudu, high priest of Ningirsu in the reign of Entemena, prince of Lagaš. The plaque is divided into four unequal sections. To the right, a large figure leaning on what appears to be a long staff…

Obelisk of Maništušu
The obelisk is a diorite, four-sided stele that narrows upwards, in a pyramidal-form and bears a long cuneiform inscription in Akkadian. It was commissioned by Maništušu, son of Sargon the Great, King of Akkad. The obelisk was taken to Susa by the…

Victory Stele of Narām-Sîn
Large victory stele carved in pink limestone to celebrate the triumph of King Narām-Sîn of Akkad over the Lullubi a mountain people of the central Zagros region. The stele was taken to Susa in the 12th century BCE by the Elamite king…

Essays

Adam and Eve.jpg

Expelled from the Garden of Eden

by Ricardo Jasso Huezo

Why would a politician —the leader of a certain political group— call himself a "god"? Even more, why would the "divinity" of a leader be depicted in a public monument? What is behind the "Victory Stele" of Akkadian king Naram-Sin?

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Standard of Ur (War)

by Robert Ledniczky

As Britain consolidated their colonial power in the wake of the first world war, other agents of the Empire were engaging in other operations, including imperial excavation. Between 1922-1934, British archeologist Leonard Woolley would conduct his most famous excavations for the British Museum in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania Museum.

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The Centralization of Power Through Economic Conquest: The Obelisk of Manishtushu

by Andrew Pottorf

Over the span of roughly two centuries, the Sargonic dynasty attained a greater level of territorial control than previously realized in the ancient Near East, achieving what may be considered the world’s first empire. This empire was formed and maintained through conquests, both military and economic, that transferred political power from various city-states and regions to the Sargonic rulers and their loyal dependents.

Ur_Standard_Peace.jpg

Standard of Ur: A Story of Social Organization

by Ameek Shokar

In the late 1920s, British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley embarked on journey to complete an extensive excavation of the ancient city of Ur. The prize discovery of Woolley’s dig was a trapezoidal wooden object that has become known as the Standard of Ur. The object was found in the tomb of next to a man who Woolley believed might have used the object as a standard used a symbol of the state in battle.