Statue of a woman, from the temple of Ishtar in the city of Mari,
Early Dynastic III period (2600 – 2340 BC).
The polos
The polos was a domed headdress that was worn by high-ranking
women in Mesopotamia. Many examples of the polos were found in the Akkadian
city of Mari.
This woman is a queen. She wears a kaunakes, a flounced dress with woolen leaf
petals, the official attire of royals. On her lap she holds a
date cluster, a symbol of royalty. She sits on a throne that has carved animal legs. It’s the same
kind of throne that is used by the king on the Standard of Ur. He was a Sumerian king who defeated the king of Kish and the Akkadian allies to thus become the new King of Kish, the King of Kings, the ruler of both Sumer and Akkad. See the Standard of Ur Narratives.
Click on any image. If an enlargement is available, it will
display in a separate window.
The woman on the right is the one shown above. Enlarge left,
center, right.
All of the statues of women wearing a polos were found in the
temple of Ishtar in Mari. Ishtar was the Akkadian version of Inanna, the Sumerian goddess of war.
There were some variations in the size and shape of a polos.
Some examples of the polos were quite impressive. View the polos from all angles.
According the Louvre, the polos “probably consisted of a
piece of cloth, or perhaps felt, covering a light framework to form a tall,
voluminous tiara, wider at the gently rounded top than at the bottom, and
fastened to the head by a horizontal band over the forehead. Over the back of
the neck and on either side of the face the polos belled out, giving the impression of a wig, no doubt covering the true hair discreetly visible above
the forehead.”
A Sumerian queen sometimes wore a ceremonial wig. See the wig
and headdress of Queen Pu-abi.
The artificial “wig” on the polos is important, for reasons
that I will later explain.
Other examples of the polos were more modest in appearance. The Mari Mosaic
According to the Louvre Museum, the polos “is also found in
shell mosaics at Mari depicting a ritual scene in which women wearing the polos
play a part. They may be priestesses, or perhaps laywomen who had a particular
role to play in certain ceremonies.”
There are several examples of the polos on the Mari Mosaic:
This mosaic panel was found in the temple of the god Dagan. The
details of the mosaic are best seen in an enlargement (unfortunately, there
aren’t many high-quality images of the mosaic that are freely available on the
Internet).
Everything about the mosaic − the solemn procession, the men
with their hands folded in prayer, the altar, and the ceremonial bowls and basins − all
indicate a religious context.
In the top register, men walk in a religious procession. The
man on the left has his hands folded in prayer. The man on the right carries two ceremonial cups.
The bottom registers show women making preparations for the
religious ceremony. Some of the women wear the polos, while others do not (as
seen on the lower left of the mosaic).
In the middle of the second register,
two women set up a fleece-covered altar mounted on animal legs. Three posts are set in stone weights. The posts either supported a canopy or held religious symbols, which are now missing due to damage.
On the left, a woman carries a small bowl and a basin for
use during the religious ceremony. The bowl was used for pouring libations, or
perhaps it was used for anointing.
The Mari Mosaic was found in pieces on the floor, so the
reconstruction is somewhat speculative. It seems to me that the registers are not
in the correct sequence. It looks like the men arrive for the ceremonies while
the women are still doing the setup.
Just for the fun of it, I rearranged the registers into the proper sequence:
Top: Women prepare
for the ceremony. They sew a garment(?) or a covering for the altar.
Middle: The altar
is set up. Basins and libation bowls are brought in.
Bottom: After the
preparations are finished, the men arrive for the ceremony.
The noblewomen
The Louvre states, “Many of the women wear a high headdress
called a ‘polos’ that could identify them as priestesses or ladies of the
court.”
I suggest it’s not just the headdress that identifies the
women as ladies of the court.
All of the women who wear a polos also have cylinder seals
dangling from jeweled pendants pinned to their robes. This means the women are
highborn ladies, since common women didn’t have their own cylinder seals.
Left: A garment pin
of gold and lapis lazuli. The pin has a small hole for a ring that held the pendant,
like the pin shown below.
Right: A pendant of
gold and lapis lazuli, with a cylinder seal of lapis lazuli at the end.
Queen Pu-abi also wore her cylinder seals pinned to her robe.
A cylinder seal and the impression it makes when rolled
across wet clay. A cylinder seal was the official “signature” of the owner. This
seal is from the Babylonian period. Enlarge the pin.
I further suggest that the women who wear the polos are not
just “ladies of the court." The religious context of the mosaic, and the fact that all examples of the polos were found in temples, indicates that the polos was the headdress of a priestess. Specifically, a
high-priestess, since a high-priestess was always a highborn noblewoman.
Ladies of the minor
nobility
These women have cylinder seals, but they do not wear a
polos. They are the women of the minor nobility, the laywomen or "ladies of the court" to which the Louvre refers. It looks like they are sewing
the fleece covering for the altar. The details are best seen in an
enlargement. Each woman has one garment pin, but any woman who wears a polos has two pins.
The polos: Sumerian
or Akkadian?
Many people assumed that the polos was Sumerian. This was a
reasonable assumption because all of the artifacts look like they’re Sumerian. The
problem is, all examples of the polos were found in Mari, which is an Akkadian
city. Not a single polos was found in Sumer.
The Standard of Mari. The Sumerian king is top center. He
holds a battle standard.
In November of 2013, I was researching the page for The
Standard of Mari. This when I realized that there weren’t any examples of the
polos in Sumer. It is also when I discovered why so many Sumerian artifacts were found in the temples of Mari.
The objects were placed there by the
Sumerians themselves, after the city was conquered by the Sumerian King of Ur,
the “King of Kings,” the ruler of both Sumer and Akkad. The items are votive
offerings that were placed in the Mari temples during the period of Sumerian
occupation. This includes the Standard of Mari, the Mari Mosaic, and all of the statutes of women who
wear a polos.
Still, it seemed odd that no examples of the polos were
found in Sumer. Why would the Sumerian polos show up in Akkad, but not in Sumer? I made
it my mission to find one. I looked everywhere on the Internet, but I couldn’t
find a single example. Over the years, I frequently searched for a Sumerian polos, but
without success.
Late last year, I finally found one.
Or so I thought.
A royal banquet
This plaque is from the Sumerian city of Girsu. The Sumerian
context is unmistakable.
The plaque shows a banquet scene. The servants bring food
and drink. See an enlargement of some of the details.
I posted this picture as an example of a Sumerian woman
wearing a polos. After that, I forgot about it for a while.
A few days ago, I was idly looking at the banquet scene on
the plaque.
At the banquet, a Sumerian king and queen are attended by their
servants. We know they are a king and queen, and not just a lord and lady,
because both of them hold a date cluster, the symbol of royalty.
At first I assumed the queen was wearing a polos to show
that she is a priestess. Then I wondered, why would the queen wear her
priestess hat at the dinner table? (as it were).
I took another look at the hat.
Then I realized something: It looks like a polos, but it
isn’t. The woman is not wearing a polos, the headdress of a priestess. She is
wearing a crown.
The crown of a Sumerian queen
There are no known images of a Sumerian queen wearing a
crown, but I suggest the crown looked a lot like this.
Notice her hairdo beneath the crown. It is not an artificial wig, like
on a polos.
It is a natural hairstyle, with waves and curls, like the
hair of the servant in front of her.
On a polos, the hair of the “wig” is smooth and solid.
The artificial wig on
a polos
Polos, side view. There are no striations on the side of the
wig to make it look like hair. The woman’s real hair is shown beneath her hat.
What looks like a bun of hair beneath the polos is
actually part of the hat:
The hair in the drawing doesn’t appear on the original inlay. (Note: Her
cylinder seal is missing in the drawing.)
The polos: the
headdress of a Sumerian queen in her role as a high-priestess
The crown is smaller than a polos and the hair is worn loose beneath it. The polos is larger and it has a
built-in wig.
Although a crown and a polos are two different types of
headwear, they are very similar.
I therefore suggest that the polos was a variation of the
crown.
The crown was the secular, “everyday” headdress of the
queen. Her crown was a variation of the "shepherd crown," the crown of a
Sumerian king, as explained on a separate page. In other words, the polos was a variation of the queen's crown, which in turn was a variation of the king's crown.
The polos wasn't very practical. It was overly large, and in many cases it covered the ears. Imagine a queen trying to go about her daily business while wearing a bulky polos.
All examples of the polos were found in temples, indicating the polos was only worn during religious occasions. It was worn by a Sumerian queen during the performance of her duties as a
high-priestess.
I suggest the polos was worn exclusively by a queen, and not just any lady of the court.
A previously mentioned, this woman is a queen. She sits on a
throne, she wears the royal kaunakes (the robe of woolen leaf petals), and she
holds a date cluster. She also wears a polos. This proves the polos was the
headdress of a queen, and only a queen, because a queen would not wear the same headdress
as a lesser mortal, and because no other woman was allowed to wear the same headdress as
a queen.
It's not as if some of the women who wear a polos are queens, and some of them are not. Either all of them are queens, or none of them are.
Ereš (pronounced "eresh") meaning "queen"
Every woman a
queen
I suggest that all
the women who wear a polos are queens. Every single one of them.
Each statue was personally placed in the temple of Ishtar as
a votive offering to the goddess by a reigning queen.
The queens were contemporaries. They knew each other. They were friends (and rivals). Each statue represents a living queen.
Two
Sumerian queens. Their hands are folded in ceaseless prayer to the goddess.
Notice that many of the women who wear a polos also wear the
royal kaunakes (right), but It doesn’t matter if some of the women don’t wear a
kaunakes, they are still queens. The kaunakes was “formal attire.” It was only used for ceremonial
occasions, it wasn’t worn every day.
That is why none of the women on the Mari Mosaic wear the kaunakes.
They are merely setting up for the religious services, the rituals have not yet
started. The women will later wear their formal kaunakes during the solemn ceremonies.
Four of the six Sumerian
queens on the Mari Mosaic
Notice that there are a
lot of women on the mosaic who wear the polos.
Not counting the two damaged figures next to the altar, there is a total of six women on the Mari Mosaic who wear a polos (assuming none of them appear more than once on the different registers).
Can they all be
queens?
Generally, when you see a queen, you see only one. Any other
women in attendance are usually just her ladies-in-waiting, or perhaps they are
women of the lesser nobility. To have six
queens in a single picture is exceedingly rare (I personally don’t know of any).
However, there’s a very good reason why so many Sumerian queens appear on
the Mari Mosaic.
Remember, the Sumerian artifacts were placed in the temples
of Mari when the city was occupied by the Sumerian King of Kings and his
Sumerian allies. Many Sumerian kings from neighboring city-states were his
allies in his military campaign against the Akkadians (see the Standard of Ur Narratives).
After the war, the allied kings and their dependents (their male relatives, officials, retainers, etc.) were appointed as the
administrators of the newly conquered territories. These dependents included
their wives. Although the women did not have government positions, they formed the new Sumerian royal courts in the cities of Akkad. They were also
installed as the new high-priestesses in many Akkadian temples, since the Sumerians and the Akkadians practiced the same religion. So, at this
time in history, there were plenty of Sumerian queens in Mari and in other
Akkadian cities.
The Mari Mosaic. The
royal standard of a Sumerian queen?
A king had his own royal standard, so why shouldn’t a queen?
It’s entirely possible that the Mari Mosaic was the royal standard of a queen.
Unfortunately, most of the plaque is missing due to damage. Whether or not it
was a standard depends on the missing parts of the narrative. If the missing
portions were the same as the other parts (i.e., if they only showed the preparations
for the ceremonies) then the mosaic is probably just a commemorative plaque with
a religious theme.
On the other hand...
Many of the most important parts of the
narrative are missing due to damage.
For instance:
This small fragment is all by itself in the lower right
corner of the panel. It is shown with increasing magnification (and some loss of image quality). It shows a
polos being carried (notice the hand), or more likely, the polos is being
placed on someone’s head. I suggest the Mari Mosaic portrays the investiture of
a new high-priestess for the temple of Dagan. In this case, the mosaic may be the royal standard of a queen.
The new
high-priestess
It’s easy to pick out the new high-priestess among the six
queens that are portrayed on the Mari Mosaic.
She’s the one who is drawn larger than everybody else to show her greater importance, and she's the one with
the tallest polos.
I believe the queen appeared in all three registers of the panel, but this is the only image that survived the damage.
Even while kneeling she is the tallest person on the Mari Mosaic.
She is the newly appointed Sumerian high-priestess of the temple of Dagan in Mari.
I believe this is the exact same woman. She is represented
in the temple of Ishtar, just like all the other Sumerian queens. She sits on
her throne in all her royal regalia. She wears the kaunakes skirt and a
matching ceremonial shawl draped over her polos. Her new polos is the one being carried on the Mari Mosaic. I suggest her ceremonial shawl is the same cloth that is being sewn by the ladies in the lower register of the mosaic. Next, the shawl is consecrated on the altar in the middle register. Then in the top register, in an image that is now missing due to damage, she wears the ceremonial shawl draped over her polos while she sits on her throne, exactly as shown above. It portrays her investiture as the new high-priestess for the temple of Dagan in Mari.
One more thing:
If the Sumerian King of Ur is the “King of Kings” then his
wife must be…
The Sumerian “Queen
of Queens”
The King of Kings and the Queen of Queens.
I believe this woman is the wife of the king on the
Standard of Ur (whom I also believe is the same king as the one on the Standard of Mari).
One queen in the temple of Ishtar has to be the wife of the Sumerian king who conquered Mari and the other Akkadian cities. After all, he's the reason why the Sumerian queens were in the Mari temples to begin with.
So of course his wife is present in the temple of Ishtar, along with all the other queens. She was probably the high-priestess of the temple. Ishtar was the goddess most favored by the king of Ur, the king of war.
This woman is the most obvious choice for the wife of the Sumerian king. They both wear the royal
kaunakes. They both sit on the same kind of throne.
He was the king of Ur who conquered all of Sumer and Akkad
to become the King of Kings.
His queen was a formidable person in her own right. She was the high-priestess of Ishtar. She ran the royal court of the king, and her own court as well. She
ruled over all the other queens of Sumer and Akkad.
She was the most powerful and influential woman in all of
Mesopotamia.
See
the picture magnified 
Ereš (pronounced "eresh") meaning "queen"
