In Mesopotamia gods were thought to be physically present in the materials and experiences of daily life. Enlil, considered the most powerful Mesopotamian god during most of the third millennium B.C., was a "raging storm" or "wild bull," while the goddess Inanna reappeared in different guises as the morning and evening star. Deities literally inhabited their cult statues after they had been animated by the proper rituals, and fragments of worn statues were preserved within the walls of the temple.
This standing figure, with clasped hands and a wide-eyed gaze, is a worshiper. It was placed in the "Square Temple" at Tell Asmar, perhaps dedicated to the god Abu, in order to pray perpetually on behalf of the person it represented. For humans equally were considered to be physically present in their statues. Similar statues were sometimes inscribed with the names of rulers and their families.
Medium:Gypsum alabaster, shell, black limestone, bitumen
Dimensions:11 5/8 x 5 1/8 x 3 7/8 in. (29.5 x 12.9 x 10 cm)
Credit Line:Fletcher Fund, 1940
Object Number:40.156
1933-1934, excavated under the direction of Henri Frankfort on behalf of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago; ceded to the Oriental Institute in the division of finds; acquired by the Museum in 1940, through an exchange of objects with the Oriental Institute.
“Art Treasures of the Metropolitan: A Selection from the European and Asiatic Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, November 7, 1952–September 7, 1953.
"New York World's Fair," New York City Pavilion, Flushing Meadows, Long Island, April-October 1964 and April-October 1965.
“Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, November 14, 1970–June 1, 1971.
“Al-Hiba: Expedition into the Past.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, November 16, 1972–January 21, 1973.
“The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Selections from the Collection of the Ancient Near East Department,” MOA Museum of Art, Atami, Japan, The Aiche Prefectural Art Gallery, Nagoya, Japan, The Seibu Museum of Art, Tokyo, Japan, 1983.
"Art of the First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus," The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, May 8–August 17, 2003.
“From Ancient to Modern: Archaeology and Aesthetics,” Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York, February 12, 2015–June 7, 2015.
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Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1983. The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide, edited by Kathleen Howard. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 51, fig. 14.
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Evans, Jean M. 2012. The Lives of Sumerian Sculpture: An Archaeology of the Early Dynastic Temple. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 47-48, figs. 15-16.
Chi, Jennifer Y, and Pedro Azara. 2015. "Glam-UR-ous: The Art of Archaeology and Aesthetics." In From Ancient to Modern. Archaeology and Aesthetics, exh. cat. edited by Jennifer Y. Chi and Pedro Azara. New York: Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, pp. 24-26, fig. 1-2.
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Palmer, Christine Elizabeth. 2022. "Embodied Remembrance: The Inscribed Priestly Seals in Israel's Worship." In The Body: Lived, Cultured, Adorned: Essays on Dress and the Body in the Bible and Ancient Near East in Honor of Nili S. Fox, ed. Kristine Henriksen Garroway, Christine Elizabeth Palmer and Angela Roskop Erisman. Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College Press, p. 431, fig. 14.8.
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Includes more than 7,000 works ranging in date from the eighth millennium B.C. through the centuries just beyond the time of the Arab conquests of the seventh century A.D.
