Among the earliest specimens of Babylonian metallurgy may be mentioned a number of very small copper representations of animals in a crouching attitude, and all apparently belonging to the domestic order, though in some cases they are so covered with vert-de-gris that it is difficult to determine with precision what animals they are intended to represent. They are probably to be regarded as sacrificial offerings to the gods, being in fact economical substitutes for actual victims. They were found by De Sarzec in the lowest and therefore earliest strata of the ruined mounds of Tellô. Another class of metal objects to which we must also assign a date earlier than the time of Ur-Ninâ, the founder of the first dynasty of Lagash, comprises a number of copper statuettes, all much the same in shape, contour and style, though not in size. They all show a woman’s bust, her hands clasped across her chest, and her hair hanging about her neck like a heavy wig, while the waviness of the hair is indicated by strongly-marked horizontal lines (cf. Figure [38], C). The style at once recalls the figures on the crude bas-reliefs belonging to the same period. A further peculiarity of these little figures is the manner in which they all terminate in the point of a nail, by means of which they were destined to be fixed in the ground with a view to deterring the advance of demons from the nether world.
Fig. 38.—A, C (cf. Cat., p. 295). Musée du Louvre.
B (cf. Déc. en Chald., Pl. 2 tert., No. 3).
So too Ur-Ninâ employed copper extensively as the material for his votive statuettes. A number of these statuettes were found at Tellô by De Sarzec; they all exhibit much the same characteristics as the earlier figures referred to above, and represent a woman whose hands are clasped across her breast, and whose hair hangs down her back in strongly marked perpendicular streaks, while the body similarly finds its termination in a nail-point destined to be stuck in the ground (cf. Fig. [38], A). But the chief point which distinguishes Ur-Ninâ’s statuettes from those belonging to the earlier period lies in the additional rôle which they were expected to play; not only were they protective amulets, but they were also required to carry stone tablets on their heads. To enable them to bear their burden the more easily, they were fixed into a kind of flat ring, the end of which was made to resemble the tail of a bird, which thus assisted the head in its otherwise arduous task (cf. Fig. [38], B). Five of these little figures still carried on their heads a thick tablet of greyish stone, convex on the uppermost side, like the bricks of this same king. They were generally found buried in hollows about twenty-eight inches in breadth, length, and height, and walled in with bricks and bitumen. Later on in the dynasty the practice of providing these statuettes with bird-tailed rings to assist in supporting the inscribed stone tablet appears to have fallen into disuse; at all events the statuettes of Entemena, the fourth successor of Ur-Ninâ, show no such rings; the alabaster tablets are simply bored with holes, into which the head of the statuette was firmly inserted.
Another class of copper statuettes of somewhat later date is that comprising the so-called “Kanephores” or basket-carriers. The oldest of these likewise come from Tellô: they are sometimes male, sometimes female figures, but they all carry baskets on their heads. One of them is seen in Fig. [39], B. In this case the garment is arranged in such a manner as to show the formation of the legs. The inscription informs us that this statuette was dedicated by Gudea to Nin-girsu. Regarding the assumed contents of the baskets it is impossible to dogmatize: possibly they are supposed to contain offerings, but De Sarzec regarded these figures as representations of the patesi himself, conveying clay in the sacred basket for the construction of the temple.
The directions issued by the god Nin-girsu to Gudea in a dream regarding the building of his temple, have direct reference to a symbolical action which certainly has a close resemblance to that in which these Kanephorous figures appear to be engaged. Gudea was presented with a sacred brick on a cushion, which, after the performance of various rites and ceremonies, he placed upon his head and carried to the temple—an outward and visible sign of his obedience to the divine will and of his determination to restore the time-honoured fane of his god. But whatever the correct interpretation of these Kanephorous figures be, they certainly recall the task in which Ur-Ninâ is engaged on the famous bas-relief in which he is portrayed surrounded by his family and the court (cf. Fig. [26]).
Another of the same class of figures and also reproduced in Heuzey and De Sarsec’s monumental work, bears an inscription of Dungi, king of Ur (circ. 2400 B.C.), but the lower limbs instead of being modelled out, are in the form of a cone; the other statuette illustrated on the same plate[106] is on the contrary very carefully modelled, and is clad in a short garment reaching to the knees, but unfortunately bears no inscription.
