Conclusion

Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati – July 2000, June 2025, September 2026

General setting

Southern Mesopotamia in the Akkadian period enjoyed a high cultural level incorporating literature, art, and efficient social and political elements. Artistically, Akkadian sculptures could portray the ruling figures and their activities (eg. Naram-sin stele) but seals sculpted in the south emphasized their deities or the struggle between pairs of animals or animals and humans.

Seal impressions have been excavated in Urkesh from the Late Chalcolithic period through the Middle Assyrian period although there are many more from the Early Dynastic and the Akkadian periods than the other periods. In the Early Dynastic period cultural life in Urkesh was influenced not only by the south but also by other nearby cities in the north, for example Brak, Chuera and G....... In this period Urkesh artists and their patrons borrowed artistic images as well as compositional elements from the south.

Tupkish: A new visual language

However during the period of the reign of Tupkish and Uqnitum there were changes in societal and political values (eg. The new prominence of Hurrians in Urkesh) which resulted in an expansion of ideas and the communication of new values which were now centered on family and household. At this time there was a turnaround in thinking by the dynastic patrons and their artists so that particular cultural values such as new rituals and social practices conveyed an ideological message proclaiming the position of the dynasts with their family and with their large personal household. The choice of iconographic elements and the composition of images therefore participate in a new cultural communication. This indicates an important emphasis on the exhibit of the relational nature of the dynasty and the art embedded in the local seals.

Their program required a new visual language; this language had a complex interrelationship among artists and seal carvers and was based on palace activities centered on the dynasts, especially the queen Uqnitum. This developed into a whole new mode of visual communication based on the interplay of the images that the king and queen projected. The totality of the images in this new program must have influenced all persons connected with running the palace and assisting the royal family. A small number of important servants, the wet nurse, cook, singer and lyre player, were recognized through their seals inscribed with their name and association with the queen. Principally these palace servants experienced a recognition that others connected with the palace did not have. However the power of these images must have extended widely in the local area.

This new artistic program based on the overall structure, compositional and iconographic characteristics of the design followed local conditions and important characteristics of palace life and interconnections during this Hurrian period. Physical position, dress, hairstyle, furniture, and most importantly the inscription on the seal contributed to their recognizable social identities. One example we can cite here is the flounced garment worn by the king in k2 and the fringed garment worn by the crown prince. This garment indicates that this figure is the most Important figure in the scent just as Uqnitum wearing it in her q2 seal of the family.

The next generations

A later king, Ishar-kinum took up the theme of one of the seals of Tupkish (k2) but changed the design to some extent.

This imitation of the earlier dynastic scenes did not last into the period after the arrival in Urkesh of a daughter of Naram-sin, Tar’am-Agade. We know she is one of his daughters because of her seal inscription. Her seal design and those of people connected with her, eg Ewrim-atal, Dumu Endan are strictly founded on designs used in this period in southern Mesopotamia. Additionally in the south we have no portraits of the royal family of Naram-sin even though the sons and daughters of Naram-sin did have seals with the inscriptions naming them and their relationship to him. However in the period of Tupkish and Uqnitum, especially in the seals of Uqnitum, royal portraits are important as is the portrait of Zamena the nurse of Uqnitum.

Tupkish workshops

What aspects of the seals of Tupkish could indicate a political or social message he wanted to convey? First of all we have few of his seal impressions; we have interpreted this as stemming from the fact that we have not had the opportunity to excavate his portion of the royal palace. The sealings we have found do not have the complete decoration of any of his seals although six of them have enough of his inscriptions to identify as belonging to him.

Sealing k1 shows a stool more than likely with him seated on it looking toward two servants. One of these servants is holding a skein probably of wool which is prominently held up on the outstretched arm of the servant so that it has a very strong position in the seal design. The visual message he wanted to communicate could have been connected with weavers and weaving activities in his palace or could indicate the importance of wool within the local society.

A second seal k2 shows him seated but strikingly he has a lion shown at ease with an open mouth below his stool. Standing on the back of this lion is the small figure of the crown prince touching the lap of the king in a gesture of homage. This seal appears to be conveying a visual political message indicating power through the lion and its position connected with these two figures. The prince is giving homage to the king but showing his political power also showing his function as crown prince because of his dominant position on top of the lion.

Uqnitum’s workshops

For queen Uqnitum we have more seal impressions and we attribute this to the fact that we have excavated an area of the palace dedicated to her and her activities. Many of her seals show working activities in the palace, eg q1, h2 and h3. Others show homage to her through the lap touching gesture we see in q4, q5 and q6 but in her case a girl is performing this ritual. This girl has a long braid just as the queen has which closely connects her with the queen; probably she is her daughter.

There is only one queen’s seal that we can identify as giving a visual political message. In q2 both the king and queen are represented facing each other but in this case the queen is wearing a flounced garment which is the most prestigious garment found on court members. Interestingly the king has on a fringed garment which is not as prestigious. The political message here appears to show that the queen is a very important member of the court as she is shown looking on as the crown prince touches the lap of the king and she is also holding a young child on her lap. So this is a family scene indicating the positions of all four members of the royal family. The scene is complemented by a large eight pointed star near the queen. This star also occurs in k2.

Patrons 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 TL.kt2 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 human headed bull deity under the inscription naming herself and the queen (AKh2). 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. In the seal of Innin-shadu (AKh4) he has a standing bull deity fighting a lion but his inscription does not mention either of the dynasts. We have however connected him with them as there are a large number of his seal impressions found in the palace of Tupkish.

Both Urkesh royal patrons 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.