Fig. 34.—Fig. 35.—Fig. 36.—Fig. 37. Four panels of mother-of pearl, engraved with Sumerian designs, which were employed for inlaying the handles of daggers. They belong to a period of decadence in Sumerian art.—In the Louvre; Cat. Nos. 232 ff.
The above brief sketch of the principal forms and productions of Sumerian art may serve to vindicate the claim of the Sumerians to a place among the more artistic races of antiquity. Much oriental art is merely quaint, or interesting from its history and peculiarities, but that of the Sumerians is considerably more than this. Its sculpture never acquired the dull monotony of the Assyrian bas-reliefs with their over-elaboration of detail, intended doubtless to cloak the poverty of the design. Certain conventions persisted through all periods, but the Sumerian sculptor was never a slave to them. He relied largely on his own taste and intelligence, and even the earliest work is bold and spirited. After centuries of independent development fresh vigour was introduced by the nomad Semitic races who settled in the north, but in the hands of the later Semites the Sumerian ideals were not maintained. For the finest period of Babylonian art we must go back to a time some centuries before the founding of the Babylonian monarchy.
[1] These have been collected and translated by Thureau-Dangin in "Les Inscriptions de Sumer et d'Akkad," the German edition of which, published under the title "Die sumerischen und akkadischen Königsinschriften" in the Vorderasiatische Bibliothek, includes the author's corrections and an introduction; a glossary to subjects of a religious character, compiled by Langdon, is added to the German edition of the work.
[2] Cf. Thureau-Dangin, "Königsinschriften," pp. 228 ff., where the lists are restored from dates on early tablets; for the earlier date-formulæ from tablets, see pp. 224 ff.
[3] See Hilprecht, "Mathematical, Metrological, and Chronological Tablets," p. 46 f., pl. 30, No. 47.
[4] Cf. "Cun. Inscr. West. Asia," V., pl. 64, Col. II., ll. 54-65.