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The Victory
Banquet
After the battle, the king sits at a banquet with his lords. He wears a kaunakes, a skirt made of woolen leaf petals. The kaunakes is the official attire of royalty. In one hand he holds a cup of wine. In his other hand he holds a royal scepter (or probably a date cluster, a symbol of royalty, as shown on a plaque). The front legs of his chair are shaped like ram legs. The king is drawn larger than everyone else to symbolize his great importance. He exceeds the decorative border of the panel.
The king is attended by a servant. Another servant waits on the lords. His left hand is tucked inside his right armpit, the gesture of submission and obedience. The servants are drawn smaller than the king and the lords to signify their lowly status. Even while standing they are no taller than the seated noblemen.
Each of the lords holds a cup of wine, raised in salutation to the victorious king.
The king and his noblemen listen to the music of a
bull-headed lyre, accompanied by a priest. Because of the long hair, it’s
tempting to say this a woman, and thus a priestess rather than a priest.
Although Sumerian priests were usually shown with shaven heads, some of them
had long hair (or wore a wig), as shown on a Sumerian plaque from the city of Mari. Besides that, the priest shown above is wearing male attire.
Standing behind the king is a servant. On the left is the
damaged figure of a man with two unidentified objects at his feet.
I
created a high-resolution photograph of the banquet scene by stringing together
several smaller pictures. This composite photo is huge, about 4 feet
long (and it's just half size, the full-size version is too large to upload on this website). You have never seen the banquet quite like this before.
The Victory Procession
The Victory Procession on the Standard of Ur is actually one
long line, but it's cut in two halves and stacked one on top of the other to
fit onto the standard. I have reconfigured the procession into a single long
line, the way it looked when it was passing by. The Sumerians lead the
procession, the defeated Akkadians follow behind.
The
second register of the Standard of Ur.
The Sumerians bring animals for food and for sacrifices during the victory feast.
The Sumerians in the
victory procession
The procession is led by a Sumerian with his hands folded in
prayer.
They are followed by a man leading a bull by the horns,
followed by three rams.
The bull is garlanded for the sacrifice (as explained
below).
The bodies of the rams blend together. This was a
common motif in Mesopotamian art, as seen on a Sumerian plaque from the city of
Shuruppak and on an Akkadian cylinder seal.
Right: A Sumerian has
his left hand tucked under his right armpit. He performs this gesture of
obedience for his king and the gods.
Middle: A fisherman
brings the catch of the day (for the banquet).
Left: A Sumerian holds
his hands folded in prayer.
Another bull is led by the horns (and a nose ring). Like the
one above, he is adorned for the sacrificial ceremony. He wears an apron with
an embroidered edge. Many animals in the procession also wear this garment (see
an example of an ancient Roman bull that is clothed and garlanded for the sacrifice).
As previously mentioned, the Sumerians lead the victory procession.
The defeated Akkadians follow behind.
The Akkadians in the
victory procession
An Akkadian leads a ram for the sacrifice. He wears his hair
in the Akkadian fashion. It is long and curly on top but short on the sides. He
also has a beard. He wears the “double belt” of the Akkadians. His angled-skirt
is hidden behind the ram he is herding.
On the war side of the standard, all of the Akkadians are shown
bald to deprive them of their individual and national identities, as a way of
saying, “all enemies look alike.” On the peace side, the Akkadians have
their distinctive hairstyle. Their personal and national identities have been
restored.
An Akkadian carries a small goat. On the left is an unidentified
person. It is difficult to tell whether it is male or female. The long robe
suggests this is a very important dignitary. Unfortunately, the figure is too
damaged to be properly identified (I’m very curious about this person).
With the arrival of the Akkadians, the narrative on the
peace side of the standard gets really interesting.
The
third register of the Standard of Ur.
Except for one Sumerian, all the men in the third register
are Akkadians. It’s easy to see why the men in the angled-skirts were
originally believed to be the friends and allies of the Sumerians. Here it seems
they are joyfully bearing gifts to celebrate the king's victory; "bringing
food to the picnic," as it were. However, the meaning and importance of
this scene changes dramatically when it's realized that the men in the
angled-skirts are actually the defeated enemies. They come bearing tribute for the conquering Sumerian king.
The replacement
lords
The Akkadians are led by a man with his hands folded in
prayer. He has the Akkadian hairstyle, but he doesn’t wear an angled-skirt. He
wears a version of the kaunakes, the skirt worn by royalty.
These three figures are similarly attired. I suggest they
are the "replacement lords," who were appointed to replace the captured
lords that were executed after the battle. The Akkadian lords must pay homage (show
their allegiance) to their new Sumerian king.
Tribute
The Sumerians in the procession willingly bring food and
sacrifices for the banquet because this is a thanksgiving celebration for the
victory of their king. The same cannot be said for the Akkadians. They do not
come bearing gifts. The goods they carry are not voluntary contributions. Instead,
the Akkadians bear tribute for the Sumerian king. This is only to be expected.
They lost the battle on the war side of the standard, so it's inevitable that
they be seen on the "flip side" of the standard carrying tribute to
the victors. The display of defeated enemies bearing tribute to the conquering
king was a common motif in the ancient world.
Notice
the different angles of the Akkadian skirts.
Two Akkadian tribute bearers. They carry the tribute in bags
and in backpacks. The packs are supported by head straps.
The Akkadians carry lots
of tribute to the conquering Sumerian king. The fact that many Akkadians in the
procession are loaded like pack animals, carrying an abundance of goods,
demonstrates to the Sumerian people that their king protects them from their
enemies and he provides them with tribute from the hostile foreign lands.
There are three pairs of Akkadian tribute bearers. They are bent
down under their loads. They seem to reel and stagger beneath the weight. In
the procession, the Akkadians are the only ones who carry a load. None
of the Sumerians carry a heavy burden. Not even the donkeys carry a load.
Three Akkadian
kings
The three men in front of the pairs of tribute bearers are
shown above. The two on the right (and presumably the one on the left) wear a
distinctive kind of spiky headdress. It looks like a crown. No one is quite
sure what an Akkadian crown looked like, but I suggest it looked a lot like
this. It was a spiked headdress with tips that curve backwards. It resembles the crown of the Akkadian king on the Mesannepada seal that is shown below.
These are the “replacement kings.” They were named to
replace the Akkadian kings who were killed in battle or executed afterward. They are the
“client kings” (i.e., the puppet kings) of the king of Ur. They are his men now.
They owe him allegiance. They will administer the Akkadian kingdoms on his
behalf, under his direct supervision, because he is now the new King of Kings.
Interestingly, none of the kings wear the slightly-angled
skirt of the king of Kish, who is conspicuously absent from the proceedings. There will be no “political appointee” to fill this
very important job. It belongs exclusively to the Sumerian king. He alone will be the king of Kish.
Notice that the Akkadian peasants, lords, and kings, all pay homage to the new Sumerian King of Kings.
The heavy tribute may seem as though the Sumerian king is
imposing a harsh peace on his Akkadian subjects, but actually the opposite is true.
What’s most interesting about the peace side of the Standard
of Ur is what we don’t see.
We don’t see prisoners yoked in neck stocks and being marched
into slavery.
We don’t see long lines of prisoners of war with ropes
around their necks, being paraded before the Sumerian people to show the
military might of their king.
We certainly don’t see anything like this:
Assyrian soldiers impale people to show everyone the dire
consequences for resisting the king (detail from the siege of Lachish, circa 700 BC).
In the victory procession, the Akkadian people are not
paraded before the Sumerian king like trophies of war, as one would expect to
see in this portion of the panel. If the defeated enemies were foreign
barbarians (the Gutians, for instance) they would be displayed in the victory
procession as slaves or prisoners of war (naked, bound, and in neck stocks)
like in a thousand other victory processions throughout the ancient world. On the
war side of the standard, the captured Akkadian lords are naked and degraded,
with their arms cinched up behind them and ropes around their necks, but on the
peace side, the Akkadians are free and unfettered. They are not displayed as
miserable slaves, like spoils of war. They are not even under guard; there are
no armed Sumerian soldiers in the victory procession.
On the war side, only a few Akkadian lords
felt the wrath of the Sumerian king, for their “rebellion” against his
“rightful” claim to the Akkadian throne. On the peace side, there are no reprisals against the Akkadian
people.
The peace side of the standard perfectly illustrates the
complicated relationship between the Sumerians and the Akkadians. The
relationship was sometimes symbiotic, sometimes bloody. They worshiped the same
gods and they shared many of the same cultural values. They spoke different
languages, but through the centuries developed a kind of bilingualism. They also
benefited from their mutual trade. So far as the Sumerians and Akkadians were concerned,
they were the only civilized people, everyone else was just foreign
barbarians.
Most of the time they were at peace (the Sumerians
usually fought against each other, the Akkadians fought among themselves). At
other times they were locked in bloody combat, each seeking domination and
control of the other. The Sumerians and Akkadians had been at war, off and on,
for thousands of years. They were like two neighbors who had fought often
enough to start making up some rules about it, like an unspoken Geneva Convention.
As a result, their wars were far more civilized than most wars in the ancient
world. They never waged “total war.” They never fought wars of genocide or
annihilation. They never sought to crush or destroy each other, or to enslave
the opposing population. Instead, the losing side simply became a vassal state
of the winning side. The losers also had to pay tribute (taxes) to the
victorious king.
Sometimes it was the other way around. Sometimes the Sumerians were conquered by an Akkadian king of Kish, most notably Sargon the Great. Sargon was a complete bastard in most regards, but even he did not impose a punitive peace on the Sumerians. He did not destroy the Sumerian cities he conquered, but he merely made breaches in the city walls, rendering the cities indefensible and thereby discouraging rebellion.
On the Standard of Ur, the defeated Akkadians are treated
firmly but fairly. This is how a Sumerian King of Kish ruled his Akkadian subjects,
because he wanted to make allies of his former enemies.
The defeated Akkadians bear lots of tribute to the
conquering Sumerian king, but this is only right and proper, since they're the
ones who lost the war. The heavy tribute shows the consequences for resisting
the Sumerian king. Otherwise the Akkadians are treated quite leniently. In fact, this must be the “kindest, gentlest”
victory procession ever recorded. It speaks volumes that ever since the
standard was discovered (90 years ago) the men were thought to be the allies of
the Sumerians rather than the defeated enemy. Ironically, this had been the
purpose of the scene all along, that the enemies now appear as allies.
On the
Standard of Ur, the defeated Akkadians are now like the Sumerians, they are the
subjects of the great king, the Sumerian King of Kish. It demonstrates that the
king provides a just peace for all of
his subjects.
The Sumerian King of Kish in peacetime
A similar message is conveyed on the personal seal of Mesannepada,
the founder of the First Dynasty of Ur. He was a Sumerian King of Kish. Part of
the inscription translates as “Mesannepada, the King of Kish.” This seal impression
shows a Sumerian and an Akkadian involved in a struggle together rather than against
each other. An Akkadian king is stabbing the lion that is attacking the Sumerian
hero, Gilgamesh. This conveys the idea that the Sumerians and Akkadians are now
allies, the same message that is shown on the Standard of Ur.
Note the spiky headdress with pointed tips that curve
backward. This is the crown of an Akkadian king, the same kind of crown that
is worn by the Akkadian kings on the Standard of Ur. This is an Akkadian king
of Kish, recognizable by his long flowing beard and the knotted bun on the back
of his head. Like Gilgamesh, he is a "mythical" king, because real kings are never shown nude.
Akkadian crowns
The "brand new" Akkadian kings on the Standard of Ur do not yet have the long hair and beard of traditional Akkadian kings, which required several years to grow.
The new allied army
None of the common Akkadian soldiers who were captured in battle remained
in captivity. They are now the soldiers of the king of Ur. They have been enlisted into his new army, the allied army of Sumer and Akkad.
A Sumerian King of Kish on the Standard of Mari. He holds a
battle standard featuring a bull statuette. Mari is an Akkadian city. (See the page on The Standard of Mari)
In the new army of the Sumerian king, there are clean-shaven
Sumerians and bearded men from the city of Mari (and other Akkadian cities). Their uniforms are a blend of Akkadian
and Sumerian styles. The skirts and the helmets are Sumerian, the sashes are Akkadian. The uniforms are spotted, like the uniforms on the Standard of Ur.
This is the new coalition army of a Sumerian King of Kish, the
ruler of Sumer and Akkad.
Whenever a Sumerian king defeated his Akkadian enemies to become the new King of Kish, he would portray himself as the legitimate ruler of
both nations, and his former enemies would then be portrayed as his loyal
subjects (whether they liked it or not). In this regard, the Standard of Ur and
the Standard of Mari both serve the same purpose. (I personally believe it's the same king on both standards.)
The Standard of Ur is all about the Sumerian King of Kish,
ruthless in war, but magnanimous in peace. On the war side, he is like the
young Alexander the Great, a veteran of numerous battles, leading
his troops from the front, and seeking out his enemies to engage in personal
combat. He is the king of war. On the peace side, he is like the mature Alexander. In the same way that Alexander tried to unite the Greeks and Babylonians, the king of Ur attempts to unite the Sumerians and Akkadians under a single beneficent rule. He is the king of peace.
Who is the king on the Standard of Ur?
On the Standard of Ur: King, I make a very compelling case
that he is Eannatum because the known history of Eannatum matches perfectly with the events portrayed on
the standard. However, this may be something of a stretch since Eannatum was
originally from Lagash, not Ur (although he did conquer Ur to become its king). Perhaps a better choice would be Meskalamdug. Another possibility would be his son, Mesannepada. There were many Sumerian kings of Kish during this period of
history. They all had a similar modus
operandi, and they all had similar stories to tell. For now, the identity
of the king on the Standard of Ur cannot be known with absolute certainty.
The king of Ur. The king of Kish. The king of Sumer and
Akkad.
The king of war, the king of peace.
The King of Kings.
The end panels have their own story to tell. See the
narrative of the end panels on the Standard of Ur.
Akkadian crowns 
