Dotted eye

this includes the old DUMU.NINTU file, and the paragraphs from UTR 1 p. 342-343

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Stylistic characteristics

One of the main characteristics of this style is the variety of ways the heads of both humans and animals are depicted. In this style the eye is always large and prominent and often dotted. The eye is often made with a thin continuous outline which can be round or oval and a large heavy dot in the center. Part of the uniqueness of the style is the visual impact of this eye.

The heads of both humans and animals can be full face or profile; thin outline or thicker outline; always accent on the linear quality. The heads are portrayed as a circle in some cases the nose and mouth are added to the line of the circle.

Style of figures in animal combat scene with long homed animals (GET NUMBER).

(eg. Zamena seal of which A5q933.7 is a good example). Another characteristic is the way the lower legs of the animals are depicted in two parallel lines.

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Human figures

In examining the carving of the human figures in this Urkesh style we can see that the head of human figures is usually carved in a circle or an oval with a prominent nose formrd by a line extended from the eye circle; these figures have small lips and chin. The effect is a wide depression in the interior of the head with a large dot in the center. A good example of the human bodies carved in this style is A1.241+ composit      In this style there are wide even spaces between the figures emphasized by the fact that all the human figures have full bodies. Very seldom do bodies overlap. The human torsos are basically triangular in shape but the triangles are full and attached to other parts of the human body so that the triangle is not emphasized, see for example A6.103.

A6.103

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Animal figures

Another way of depicting the heads in this style is shown in the Drill hole bearded bull face (Alq975.18) [below to drill hole variant?]. This head is shown by a small drill hole for each eye and one at the base of the chin; the shape of the fontally positioned face is in a raised outline with the rest of the face in an undifferentiated flat plane.

Alq975.18

Head of the animals is made also by a strong exterior circle with a dot in the center; the horns are long elegant lines, see for example A6.147.

A6.147

A5.137, the winged gate on the back of a reclining bull, shows various ways the Dotted Eye style has of depicting heads. The animals have heads which are only an outline with an eye in the center and which can have other characteristics such as the addition of horns (sometimes these heads are in frontal view or in profile. The human heads have a thicker exterior line but are equally schematic.      The composition in more complicated and not as elegant. The heads are a thicker line, especially at the top. The noses are made in the same way as drill hole at the end of the line. The seated figure and the bull have this type face but the eye in the attendant is smaller and more realistically rendered. In the case of the bull the horns are shown as an angular pattern. In the bull too there is a contrast between the full body and the thin lines for the legs, especially the front legs. The legs of the servant are also shown as thin lines. The crescent with a dot in it can be seen also in the Deep Fringe style.      The nose of the animals is emphasized by a drill hole indicating the end of the nose (as in the Oval Head Variant).

A5.137

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Compositional patterns

The composition is very different in this variant however dotted eye style; 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.

Another good example is A5.180, 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 spacing of the figures in this design is very tight and no longer the elegant one of the DUMU NINTH (GET DRAWING 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.

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Geometric variant

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 eyes of the DUMU NINTU 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 A unique scene which probably belongs to this style is A5q680-o.GET DRAWING It shows what appears to be an animal herd with at least two animal necks and heads behind the full body of an animal, probably a goat, standing on all four legs. The eyes of the animals are done in the DUMU NINTU style even though the figures are very small as it must have been a small seal (the preserved portion we have is only 1 cm high but since we only have a portion of the original it must have been somewhat higher but not appreciably so).

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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.

Another good example is A5.180.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.

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.

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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