University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Papers

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of this Version

2013

Publication Source

American Journal of Archaeology

Volume

117

Issue

1

Start Page

127

Last Page

133

DOI

10.3764/aja.117.1.0127

Abstract

Fertility and abundance are important themes of ancient Mesopotamian texts and images. The goddess Inanna and her consort Dumuzi personify these ideas in texts of the second millennium B.C.E. Excavated by Leonard Woolley in the 1920s, the Royal Cemetery at Ur dates to the mid third millennium B.C.E. Among the tombs, that of Queen Puabi yielded many ornaments of gold, carnelian, and lapis. Some of the pendants realistically depict identifiable animals. Others are more stylized depictions of clusters of apples, dates, and date inflorescences. Apples and dates are both associated with the goddess Inanna, who is associated with love and fertility. Twisted wire pendants in the same group of objects are not so readily identified. I propose here that the twisted wire pendants in the Puabi assemblage may literally represent rope, symbolically reference sheep, and narratively evoke the flocks of the shepherd Dumuzi. Pairing symbols of Inanna and Dumuzi evokes life in a place of death.

Copyright/Permission Statement

© 2013 Archaeological Institute of America

Keywords

iraq, cemetery, archaeology

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Date Posted: 10 November 2016

This document has been peer reviewed.