The Royal Standard of Ur: circa 2550 - 2400 B.C. In the top panel, the king (top center) leads his troops and chariots to war. The scene shows lines of captured prisoners and the bodies of the enemy being trampled beneath the horses' hooves. The bottom panel shows some peaceful pursuits. The king (top row, third from the left) drinks and celebrates his victory while listening to the music of a bull-headed lyre (see below). The bottom rows show his subjects contentedly engaged in farming and herding.
The Ram in the Thicket: circa 2550 - 2400 B.C. Excavated, like the above Royal Standard, from the royal tombs of Ur. For an enlarged view, see A Masterpiece.
Cylinder seal impression. A carved stone cylinder was rolled across a wet clay tablet to form an official, individualized seal. This one shows the winged goddess Inanna standing above the sun god Utu as he rises between the mountains. To the left of her is an unidentified hunter/warrior god. To the right is Enki, the god of the Abzu (the underground water table) surrounded by water and fish. Beside him is Isimud, his two-faced minister. This seal belonged to a scribe.
Cuneiform writing:
Gudean inscription, dedicated to the goddess Ba-u.
Another Gudean inscription, dedicating a statue of himself to the goddess Geshtinanna. The inscription is written on the back of the statue of Gudea seen at the top of the page in the Gudea translation.
The earliest form of writing: Pictographs, the precursor to cuneiform writing, where the sign resembles the object it represents (grain, hand, etc.). On the early tablets, the signs are written vertically.
The evolution of writing: from its earliest form (column I, circa 3200 B.C.) until the end of Sumerian civilization (column VIII, circa 2000 B.C.).
In column I, the signs are simple pictographs ("picture words"). In col. II, the signs are rotated 90 degrees, from the vertical to the horizontal. The pictographs become abstract symbols in columns III - VI, and they become more simplified in the last two columns.
Note: The reason a female servant/slave is equated with a foreign/mountain woman is because the Sumerians (who lived in low-lying river regions) were often at war with barbaric tribespeople from the neighboring mountains. As is so often the case in history, the properous, cultivated lowlanders were at war with the rough, uncivilized highlanders. The captives from these wars provided the Sumerians with a steady supply of slaves and conscript labor (see The aftermath of battle, below) although it was sometimes the Sumerians who got the worst of it during these frequent border raids. Click on the chart to enlarge it.
Interestingly enough, most of the signs on this chart can also be found on Tablet #36.
Photograph courtesy of the Library of Congress.
Cuneiform tablet, in a clay envelope, with a (faint) seal impression. Business transactions were often wrapped in a clay envelopes and then impressed with the writer's seal to prevent tampering with the contents. This tablet was written by Lugal-e-ban-sha, a scribe for the governor of Umma. Lugal-e-ban-sha lived at about the same time as the scribe who wrote "The Great Fatted Bull". More than a hundred tablets by Lugal-e-ban-sha can be seen in museums all around the world, along with those of his brother, En-kash. Sadly, when a large cache of tablets is found, it usually means the office (or temple or school) where the tablets were stored, was destroyed when the city was sacked, and the tablets were buried en-masse beneath the fallen debris. Sometimes the tablets were hardened into brick by the flames of the burning buildings. Ironically, it was the destruction of the civilization around them that preserved these tablets for prosperity. The tablet of "The Great Fatted Bull" might have been preserved in the same way. The date of the tablets suggests they may have been buried in the final collapse of Sumerian civilization. One can only guess at the fate of the scribes who wrote these tablets.
Cylinder seals:
Cylinder seal, and the impression it makes when rolled across wet clay. The manufacture of cylinder seals was a highly regarded art form in ancient Sumer. The engravers had to carve the hard cylinder stones using only simple tools. The images and lettering had to be craved in both spatial and photographic reverse, so that they would be raised from the surface, and facing in the right direction.
Cylinder seal impression showing fighting/dancing animals (bulls and lions). A common motif.
Royal ostrich hunt, cylinder seal impression. This seal is from a later period. The look on the ostrich's face is priceless.
A cylinder seal impression showing Enki and other gods. The gods are recognizable by their horned helmets.
Bronze bull figurine.
Bull-headed lyre: All the bull heads shown on this website are lyre ornamentations. This bull and the one pictured on the Home Page are from the Royal Tombs of Ur. I'm not exactly sure why the Sumerians depicted bulls with a false beards. In this picture, and in the one above it, one can see the strap of the beard going across the bull's nose.
Musician playing a bull-headed lyre. Detail from the Royal Standard of Ur. The woman, probably a singer, is the only woman pictured on the Standard of Ur.
The "Death Pit" of the Royal Tombs of Ur. During the burial of Queen Pu-abi (see below) men and women were sacrificed to be her servants in the afterlife. They were arranged as shown, then given poison to drink.
Sumerian ring and coil money. The silver was cut to length as needed.
Artist reconstruction of the ziggurat at Ur.
King Shulgi, son of Ur-Namma; with the royal family. They all stand with their hands folded in the prayer position, watching as the statue of Nanna, the moon god, is carried into his sanctuary at the top of the temple.
Sumerian dagger.
Game Board. circa 2550 - 2400 B.C. Believed to be a precursor of backgammon.
Plate, Jemdet Nasr period, circa 3000 - 2900 B.C.
Pottery, Jemdet Nasr period.
Carved stone bowl dedicated to Inanna.
Carved cup, with a scene of a lion attacking a bull. This bull is also wearing a false beard.
Gold drinking cup. Circa 2550 - 2400 B.C.
Gold ostrich-egg vase with inlay. Circa 2550 - 2400 B.C.
A Sumerian reed house under construction. Young reed saplings were planted in the square outline of a house. When the reeds had grown to full height, they were bundled together and bent over the middle to form the roof, as shown. This kind of house is still built in Iraq today. Note the supervisor on the right. Artist: Richard Hook.
A reed house, as it would appear in a Sumerian village.
Three views of Anzud, the lion-headed eagle. See Gudea translation on this site.
Anzud, with two lions.
Stone mace head. Anzud is also known as Imdugud.
Pendant, gold and lapis lazuli.
The Sumerians at war:
Sumerian battle scene. Artist: HongNian Zhang. Click on the picture to enlarge it.
Stele of Naram-Suen. The Akkadian king (top) advances to victory against a tribe of hillsmen.
The Vulture Stele of king Eannatum, which shows vultures feeding on the enemy dead.
Photograph of another section of the Vulture Stele. This is the world's first depiction of modern, organized warfare; and the first depiction of a modern soldier: In both panels, King Eannatum (on foot, and in a chariot) leads his soldiers to war. These are indeed "soldiers", not just warriors, but soldiers, in the modern sense of the word. Every man is "in uniform", identically armed and equipped, as supplied by the state; rather than each man bringing his own weapons to the battle, as occurs in tribal warfare. Notice how the soldiers attack in a tight, disciplined formation, with many men acting as a single unit, as they advance to victory over the bodies of their enemies. This isn't the disorganized mob of individual combatants that's typical of the more primitive forms of warfare. These soldiers are professionals. Circa 2500 B.C. Click to enlarge.
The aftermath of battle: Top panel: A Sumerian king, in shepherd's attire, and holding a shepherd's crook, stands with his foot astride a cringing prisoner of war. The king receives the blessings of Inanna, the goddess of war, who holds a prisoner at the end of a rope. Below: The captives are herded into slavery.
Sumerian war chariot.
Heaven.
Wall painting from the city of Mari, showing the home of the gods. In the top panel is an unidentified god, probably An, the lord of the heavens. On the upper right is a winged bullman. Bottom panel: Enlil, the chief Sumerian god, is attended by a minor female goddess (shown wearing a horned helmet) and by two Sumerian kings, wearing shepherds' hats. Wind pours out from a jar, signifying that Enlil is the god of the winds. The Sumerian kings symbolically water The Tree of Life (it's a rather scrawny-looking Tree of Life, in my opinion; see Ur-Namma and Enlil, below). Note the bull on the left, and the celestial figure on the right. Click on the picture to enlarge it.
Sumerian jewelry: From the Royal Tombs of Ur (except for beaded necklace).
Beaded necklace, circa 3000 - 2650 B.C.
Part of the gold leaf headband worn by queen Pu-abi (see below).
Sumerian women:
The High Priestess of Ur.
Sumerian woman at the time of Gudea (circa 2130 B.C.) possibly a member of his family. Her hands are in the prayer position. The same is true for priestess pictured above.
Another Sumerian woman, from the city of Mari.
The "Uruk woman", named for the city in which it was found. The joined eyebrows, seen on many Sumerian statues, is a symbol of beauty.
A reproduction (?) ascribed to be Inanna, the goddess of love and war; but most probably a minor goddess, because there aren't enough horns on the helmet to signify a higher rank.
Golden headdress worn by Queen Pu-abi. Excavated from the Royal Tombs of Ur. Most of the best known Sumerian artifacts came from her tomb. More of these artifacts can be seen in the Masterpiece section.
Another headdress from the same tomb; worn by one of the women who was sacrificed to serve Queen Pu-abi in the afterlife.
Heaven. 
Another Sumerian woman, from the city of Mari.
