The Babylonian
Woman. She is described on a separate page that I wrote in January,
2019. You may want to read that page before proceeding with this one, although
it isn’t absolutely necessary.
This bas-relief is part of a small plaque from
Diqdiqqeh, a suburb in the city of Ur. The terracotta plaque was formed in a
mold and then fired in a kiln. It is dated in the Old Babylonian period
(ca. 1850 – 1500 BC). Sir Leonard Woolley found it during his archaeological
expedition in 1931.
Her face is very realistic. It looks like it was modeled from real
life. Her face has the features of an actual woman, and not just the generic
features of a stereotypical female. With her rounded face and nose, she is very
distinctive, very individualistic. She doesn’t look like the hundreds of other
women that are portrayed on the Diqdiqqeh plaques.
The artist clearly patterned the face on the features of a woman
he knew.
Yesterday, while I was researching a new page about Babylonian prostitutes,
I came across the statue that is shown below. At first, I thought it was
another casting from the same mold. Then I realized that the angle of the arms is
different.
Woolley’s notes describe the statue
as a “terracotta figurine. Moulded. Female figure, full face, nude, hands
clasped below breasts. Hair dressed with vertical lines to forehead, and heavy
back full with horizontal waves. Good model. Broken off at hips.”
Woolley states that the statue has
a “full face” and it’s a “good model.” He said the statue of The Babylonian
Woman has a “round face” and it’s “carefully made.” It’s like he is talking
about the same statue.
In my opinion, this is clearly the
same woman. The only difference is the expression on her
face. On the left, she looks at you with a calm and steady gaze. On the right, she gazes at you with a look of bemused self-confidence. The statues resemble
each other. They don’t resemble anybody else.
I had earlier written that the artist created the statue of The
Babylonian Woman “to be a realistic portrait of a woman he knew (and probably
loved). Perhaps she was his wife or his girlfriend...”
For that reason, I call this statue The Babylonian Wife, to
distinguish her from The Babylonian Woman. It’s two different statues of the
same person.
dam =
spouse = wife
The artist created two “carefully modeled” statues of the same woman. That has to mean
something. It seems to me there’s a love story here. It’s a story about a man, a young artist, who loved his wife.
I always thought she was based on a real woman. So, in conclusion, I
will close with the same words that I used to end the page about The Babylonian
Woman:
Somewhere in Diqdiqqeh, in the second millennium BC, there was a
woman who looked just like this:
See the original record at 
dam =
spouse = wife 
