Conclusion

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Urkesh Partons and Artists

In conclusion we can say that the Hurrian dynasty of Urkesh, as patrons, acted in a very explicit working relationship with the artists connected with their court. As patrons the dynasty had specific objectives. Both the king and the queen wanted to portray themselves as dynasts within settings highlighting their powers as rulers, that is connecting them with court settings reflecting known palacial environments. So the scene of the lyre player and singer must have been known as part of the queen’s section of the palace. They are intimately connected with the queen not only because they are in a scene depicting the queen but also because they are placed prominently below the inscription with her name.

The dynasts also connected themselves with symbols, for instance the lion, which showed the power and prestige of this dynasty. Tupkish in K2 is not fighting the lion but has the lion passively placed under his seat. Even the wet nurse, Zamena, shows herself connected with them as she has a reclining lion under the inscription naming herself and the queen. This is unique among the seals of Uqnitum’s servants; the unique status of Zamena is also indicated by the large number of her seal impressions we found in our palace excavations; more than the royal cook, Tuli, who also names the queen in her two seals.

At the same time they emphasized intimate relationships expressed through touching gestures which had a significance well beyond the family setting. To do this they developed with their artists and seal carvers a new iconography and a new linking of texts and seal iconography never before seen so clearly expressed in the art of Syro-Mesopotamia. This cooperation and indeed mutual interdependence between artists and royal patrons is not as clearly articulated again until the Achaemenid empire.