CHAPTER X—SHELL-ENGRAVING AND IVORY-WORK
(A) SHELL-ENGRAVING
THE art of engraving on shell in Mesopotamia dates back to the earliest days of Sumerian civilization. The most ancient of these engravings are executed on shells with rough surfaces, of which those of the oyster seem to have been the most popular.
Some of the fragments recovered are clearly shaped and fashioned for inlaying purposes, while others, of curved shape, can be fitted together and once formed part of an engraved and delicately moulded vase or cup. Some time later mother-of-pearl became the popular material among engravers, who used it to great advantage. Mother-of-pearl is undoubtedly more effective and striking than ordinary shell, but it has its disadvantages and drawbacks, for it is both brittle and scaly, and in consequence of this the engraver seems to have been compelled from the necessity of the case to confine himself to the use of flat blades or flakes when employing this material.
| Fig. 78.—(Louvre) Cat., p. 389. | Fig. 79.—Déc. en Chald., Pl. 46, 4. |
One of the most ancient specimens of the shell-engraver’s art as yet discovered is that reproduced in Fig. [78]. This fragment is convex in form and a truncated triangle as regards its shape. A lion is seen in the act of strangling a bull; with one of his fore-legs he is grasping his victim round the neck, and the other is thrown around and over the bull’s back, while he is burying his teeth in the bull’s neck. The general style to which this engraving conforms, the full-face view of the lion, the act in which he is engaged, and the combined vigour and crudeness which characterize this production, vividly recall the mace-head of Mesilim, king of Kish (cf. Fig. [26]). The comparison between the two is so striking that we can hardly be wrong in assigning this engraved shell to approximately the same period, i.e. to the time before Ur-Ninâ, the founder of the first dynasty of Lagash. It was discovered at Tellô in the neighbourhood of Eannatum’s well and is just under three inches in height. In Fig. [79][138] we have another fragment of a very archaic shell-engraving; a human-headed and streaky-bearded bull is being attacked by a lion-headed eagle; the shell itself is extremely thin, and the engraving very delicate, but the design itself as well as the mode of its execution both testify to its great age. The shell work of the time of Ur-Ninâ and his successors is well illustrated in Fig. [80]. We have here a sketch of a man bearing a net; the man is clean-shaven and bald, and his face is of precisely the same type as that so frequently represented on the sculptures of Ur-Ninâ’s time. His only clothing is a short “kaunakes” skirt, the fringe of which is portrayed in the fashion characteristic of the earliest Sumerian works of art. In his right hand he carries a battle-axe, while with his left he holds the ends of two sticks from which is slung the net or basket already referred to. This small relic was found in the same neighbourhood as the preceding, and is just under two inches high. Another interesting specimen of Sumerian shell-engraving is published by Mr. L. W. King in the Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology, 1910, pp. 243-5. It represents a bearded hero embracing an ibex. It is worthy of note that the hero’s dress does not consist in the Sumerian skirt, but in a loin-cloth. Probably the finest example of early Babylonian shell-work is that reproduced in Fig. [81]; the leaping kid is wonderfully realistic both in form and attitude and has clearly been studied from nature. Of the mother-of-pearl work of a somewhat later date we have a good example in Fig. [82]. Here Gilgamesh is depicted in standing posture holding in either hand one of the long “staves” seen elsewhere, and specifically on the famous green steatite vase of Gudea (cf. Fig. [90]). Gilgamesh is portrayed full-face and has the long vertically streaked beard so frequently seen on the cylinder-seals. This fragment is just under two and a half inches in height, and emanated from the same place. The engraved oblong mother-of-pearl plaques would appear to have been used for the decoration of the handles of knives or daggers.
| Fig. 80. | Fig. 81. (Musée du Louvre) | Fig. 82. Cat., pp. 393, 401. |
In Fig. [83] we have one of the best preserved and most interesting specimens of later shell-work in Mesopotamia. This fragment was discovered at Warka (Erech), but is clearly Assyrian in style: the elaborately caparisoned horses remind us strikingly of the horses sculptured in relief on the palace walls of Ashur-naṣir-pal at Nimrûd (Calah), while the floral decoration betrays Egyptian influence and recalls the carved ivories which were found amid the débris of that king’s palace. The ruined mounds of Assyria herself have yielded but few specimens of the shell-engraver’s art, and those that have