Sumerian Art

I have always had a fascination with Mesopotamia and the cultures that develop in this region of the world. Their ability to cultivate the land and create organized city states, established a stable support system, which allowed for the exchange ideas, culture, laws, religion, and trade. Trading fostered the cross-cultural sharing of their celebrated Gods. However, each Sumerian city state had its own chief protector God. Within the temples, devoted to the city’s divine protector, there have been found votive statues, which were buried within the floor. For example, as discussed in Gardner’s Art Through the Ages (35-36), see 2-6 and 2-6A images, are the statues found at Tel-Asmar from around 2700 bce. In the follow paragraphs, I will …show more content…
It appears their objective is to maintain a constant presence in the temple. There are inscriptions on some of the statues, identifying the owner or prayers to the God. Since the temples where considered “the Sumerian waiting room for the divinity” (1), these votives would have acted as the embodiment of the individual for whom they were made.
As It happens, the features of these statues are specific in style to the Sumerians, with their cone shape and exaggerated eyes. The enlarged eyes seem to represent them keeping “a constant vigil” (2). Their hands are folded in constant prayer and they hold a cup of offering libations to their God.
In conclusion, I consider these votive statues, found at Tel-Asmar, similarly along the lines of the Ushabti; servant statues placed in a Pharaoh’s tomb to serve their needs in the afterlife. However, the Sumerian clay votive statues were focused on the present. Sumerian culture is unique in many ways. These individual statues show their artistic differences from other cultures both in their conical shape and in the enlarged ever watchful eyes. Their belief in clay statues to represent an individual’s devotion to God is also a unique trait of Sumerian