Inlay: combat between a human-headed bull and a lion-headed eagle

Carved from a piece of shell, this plaque is incised with the image of a human-headed bull attacked by a lion-headed eagle against a backdrop of vegetation. Both creatures are shown with bodies in profile view and heads frontally oriented, looking directly out at the viewer. The body of the human-headed bull is stocky and powerful, and the long tail brushes the ground. His face, with large eyes whose pupils have been emphasized by drilling, is ringed by a beard of long individual locks, each ending in a curl. A row of short curls is visible at his forehead, under his large bovine ears and horns. The lion-headed eagle grips his back with talons that are depicted as human hands, and sinks its teeth into the human-headed bull’s flank. Its eagle feathers are represented by large hatched areas, and its lion head is shown complete with ears. Both the human-headed bull and the lion-headed eagle appear frequently in Mesopotamian art of the Early Dynastic period, where they are often shown engaged in combat with other animals, either real or supernatural, or human figures. The lion-headed eagle (Imdugud in Sumerian) seems to have been especially associated with the city-state of Lagash and with its chief deity, Ningirsu. The original function of this carved plaque is not known, but it may have been set in bitumen (a tar-like substance used as an adhesive) with pieces of shell and stone to create a mosaic composition, a technique characteristic of the late Early Dynastic period. A well-known example in which a male figure wrestles two human-headed bulls appears on the soundboard of the Great Lyre from the Royal Cemetery of Ur, now in the Penn Museum.