Extracted from Dotted eye

Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati – July 2000, December 2025

Compositional patterns

The seal compositions can be very different in this style. For instance whole or partial animals can be scattered indiscrimently over the entire field. A5q704Oi is a good example. The animal heads are large and because of the way they are carved, prominent. The bodies are formed around one or two drill holes (eg. one for the scorpion). Most of all the composition is a scatter of figures in different directions and made up of some descrete figures (sometimes linked in confused ways) as well as parts of figures. Both animals and geometric designs are found in an incoherent overall compositional arrangement.

In A5q68 The spacing of the figures in this design is very tight and in some cases overlapping, this is very unusual in this style .

These style characteristics must also be the case for the other bird-nude scene - CK COMPOSIT). The star in A5.70 GET DRAWING is similar to the DUMU NINTU style because it has a depression in the center and a dot within this. The two faces however are shown in a style close to the faces in the Deep Fringe Style. This is an indication that there is an overlap between the two styles.

Conclusion to Dotted Eye Style

These stylistic characteristics appear in both seals with inscriptiona and seals without inscriptions. This style can then be considered as part of a queens workshop. ck Zamenas si

Geometric variant DELETE IF DON’T FIND THESE 2 DRAWINGS

Some of the figures in these seals can have a very geometric quality. For example A5q923.6 GET DRAWING shows a small figure with a circle as the outer portion of the head and with a depression in the center which gives a similar effect as the dotted eye style. The next figure is a large person with the head and the torso in the shape of a triangle a single drill hole serves as the neck. This same figure appears to be rolled on A5q939.9. GET DRAWING

Fussy variant

“fuzzy” seems better

here under dotted eye, or separate page?

A very fussy extreme to this style can be seen in two other sealings: A5.180 and A5.153. A5.180 is an animal combat scene with small figures with heads done in the same way as the other seals carved in the DUMU NINTU style. This rolling shows the origin of this style in the Early Dynastic period because of the small fussy drill work (SEE one of the styles of the Brak sealings). A5. 153 GET DRAWING is a scene in which the line around the face is fuller but there is still a depression before the eye and the eye is shown as a dot in the one head we have on the rolling. The composition is unique in that there is a frame around two. The frame appears to be rectangular and is wide at the top and double along the side before the next box which has an unclear figure in it. The heads are carved in the same way as the Dotted Eye Style but the nose of the animals is emphasized by a drill hole indicating the end of the nose (as in the Oval Head Variant). The composition is very different in this variant however; whole or partial animals are scattered indiscrimently over the entire field. A5q704Oi is a good example. The animal heads are large (as in Dotted Eye?) and because of the way they are carved prominent, the bodies are formed around one or two drill holes (eg one for the scorpion). Most of all the composition is a scatter of figures in different directions and made up of some descrete figures (sometimes linked in confused ways) as well as parts of figures; both animals and geometric designs are found in an incoherent overall compositional pattern.

180 not good ex

Another good example is A5.180.SEE ABOVE an animal combat scene. The body of the caprid is full but the legs are very linear, the bulbous nose is out of proportion with the face. The horns are not a clear linear pattern but have some unclear curved lines associated with them. On the other hand the lion has a face in outline with a large dotted eye in the center. His open mouth is a thicker line than his head. The figure in the homed cap on the end of the scene carries a long weapon and is shown by a large nose. He may be holding the tail of the lion. To the left is a seated figure but its relationship to the rest of the scene is unclear.

Fussy Inin Shadu style A5q704ol is a good example of the disorganized compositions of the Fussy Inin Shadu style. While the finest examples of the original style arc an elaborately interlocked pattern which at the same time highlights the individual figures (as opposed to the ED III animal combat scenes which emphasize the interlocking of the figures in the pattern at the expense of the individual figures) this example with its unclear mixture of humans and animals and parts of animals is at the opposite extreme. There is also a mixture ot puffy, budging forms with the characteristically extreme linear heads wit hdotted eyes.

Drill hole variant (OK here?)

Eyes of figures shown in profile on Inin Satu seal appear to have been drilled with a tubular drill (CK). This is also the case in the variant which contains the circus scene where the humans have their heads shown in profile and eyes which appear to have been carved with a tubular drill.

In the Inin Shadu seal the eyes of the human headed bull and the caprids are carved in a different manner from the humans.

The Drill Hole animal combat scene is in this style

MAYBE PUT LATER toward the end of this text This style is also connected with the royal seals from Urkesh; both those of the king and queen as well as their attendents. In the example of the seal of Zamena (AKh2) we see that the heads and eyes are large with the eyes centrally placed in the heads which are in profile; this is the case for Uqnitum as well as the child and servants depicted in the seal. All the noses are triangular. While the torsos are not triangular the arms of Zamena, the child and the servant are all thin and depicted with straight lines. The chins, especially the one of Zamena, are pointed and the triangular noses are connected to the line around the eye. While we have few kings seals TGL.kt1 appears to be carved in this style. Interestingly the later cook’s seal (AKh5), where we have her name Tuli, is a variation of this style; the noses are not connected with the line around the eye and the arms and legs of the human figures are slightly more realistically depicted. In this style the human figures bending forward in the royal seal impressions (AKq1,AKh3) are found in only a couple of other Urkesh seals (A5.120, A1.310)