The deep fringe style

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

add pleated procession ......

Introduction

The characteristics of this style include deep fringe depicted in the middle of a long garment or alternatively this fringe can be at the edge of the garment. Pleated garments as in A5.91 can be deeply cut also. While animals are seldom represented in this style when they are the bodies of animals are depicted, as are humans, to some extent realistically. In A5.180 we see large oval eyes in the animals but the dot of the eye is not in the center as in the Dotted Eye style. This is also the carving style of the animals in the A5 composit A5.c1 Where the human also has a dot in the eye not positioned in the center composit includes A5.96, A5.101, A5.97, A5.99.1, and A5q90.2 (may be A5q790.2 see notes to Jessica. In this style there is often a wide even spacing among all of the figures.

In A15.270 the priests wear a short skirt with deep fringe decoration while the seated woman wears a long pleated garment. All the figures have large oval shaped heads, large oval dotted eyes, triangular noses, a pointed chin and prominent lips. As opposed to the Dotted Eye style the eyes are not connected with the nose,lips, or chins. The two priests have realistically rendered legs and feet. The eight pointed star and crescent moon are prominently displayed.

Beards are rarely shown on human figures in this style but when portrayed on human men or deities can be long and narrow, for instance in A1.483 where the heads of the two gods are similar to those in A15.270 but both beards of the Double Face god are long and narrow. In this A1 seal impression the central deity wares a pleated skirt and the crowns of both are depicted with sharply pointed horns.

In A7.327 we see pleated skirts, a deity with a head carved with similar charteristics to the A15 example above but in this seal the arms and hands are extended to emphasize the importance of their gestures.

and A5-A7 banquet scene composit (A5. 91, A7.257 (no figures in Jessica list), A7.312 (only one figure).

Royal iconography also uses this style

This style includes three of the queen’s lyre scenes (qu4, qu6, and qu7. Her other lyre scene, qu8, is poorly preserved. Both the lyre scenes are rendered in this style and have the usual characteristics of elongation of the most important arm, facial features, feet and ankles, carving of the fringe, even and measured placement of the figures across the surface of the design.

The detail of the fringe in Uqnitum’s lyre scenes can be seen for instance in q4 where the singer and the two standing attendants have the fringe carved as a long line of short diagonals down the middle of their garments; this pattern is clearly visible and contributes to the sense of the style. The queen too is wearing a garment with rows of deep pleats carved in her garment.

This patterning in the carving of the sides of the relief is also used in other scenes in addition to the queen’s lyre scenes. A5.135 is an animal combat scene in which the mane of what presumably are two lions is carved in this manner, that is more realistically and we see this emphasized by the placement of the foot of a nude figure on one mane. Another animal combat carved in this style is A5q845.2. In this large animals are fighting; one is a lion with open mouth whose mane over his head and down his back is carved in this Deep Fringe style of short diagonal lines but here these are emphasized by also patterning of the ruff extending beyond the lion’s neck.

The iconography used in this style can also be seen in a king’s seal, TLkt2. The fringe of the small figure of the crown prince and the ruff of the lion are deeply carved but the eye of the child is large as are the eyes in the Dotted Eye style. The standing figure has a face and head carved in a more natural manner so that there is a natural proportion between the eye, nose and lips.

The gesture of lap touching is an important sign of homage as is the extedned arm and hand of a royal person or royal servant. For example the arm and hand of the prince are exaggerated here as they touch the lap of the king, just as in the two queen scenes with the lyre player the arm of the small daughter is extended and she is touching the lap of the queen. In this case the arm of one of the attendants is elongated in the direction of the seated queen. It appears then that this elongation is an important aspect of the royal scenes and signifies homage just as the lap touching does.It is interesting to note that in the Zamena seal (TGL.cu2 ) she is touching the lap of the child seated on the alp of Uqnitum, probably signifying homage to both.

The eight pointed star is depicted also in seal of the king (TL.kt2) as well as a queen’s seal (TGL.qu2) and one of her servant Zamena’s two seals (TGL.cu2). This star is often connected in Mesopotamia with the goddess Ishtar but it is not clear what significance it has in the Urkesh seals.

A variation of the worship theme is found in A1.241 which is carved in this style in this case too the most important gestures are emphasized by being elongated. Therefore the arm of the deity is extended out and up holding the cup the arm of the figure on the other side of the altar is both extended so that the hand touches the altar; this last gesture is emphasized by the fact that above this arm is a crescent with a dot inside.

Banquet scene

Another scene rendered in this style is a banquet scene where there is a seated person holding a cup in front of whom is a standing figure who also holds a cup (composit A5.91, A7.257, A7.312,perhaps A9.33 CKCKCK). The pleated garment of the seated figure shows clearly the pleats in the thickness of the relief as it goes under the figure seated on the stool. One foot of the standing figure is preserved and is depicted in the same triangular way as typical for the Deep Fringe style.

Themes

The variation in the themes carved in this style can also be seen in the landscape A5.115. It is included in this style not only because of the way the small tree is carved but also because of the emphasis on movement in the animal’s position. In a scene with a birdman (A1.325) there are two unclear figures, next is a birdman with behind a human with a deep pleated skirt and raised arm. While the entire composition is not clear, the carving of the wings of the bird man and the garments of the other three figures are clearly in this style. Another animal scene in this style is A5q680 with a composition showing a line of animals, some overlapping. The scene shows what appears to be an animal herd with three larger horned animals behind a smaller horned animal with a long tail, probably a goat. The scene includes parts of what appears to be two eagles. The mane of the horned animals is accentuated at the edge of the bodies and the horns are thick and curving. The two large birds have long and sharply terminated wing feathers. The animals eyes are either oval or circular and have no dots in the center. 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.

Conclusion: the globular scene

The compositional effect of the placement of a small prince before the king is to leave more space in front of the upper portion of the king, therefore empnasizing the king. The even distribution of the figures across the surface of the design appears to me “classic” in the sense of an evenly measured, dignified and even solemn progression across the design. This especially seems appropriate in the case of the royal scenes. In other types of scenes such as the animal combat and the landscape a more varied composition is used which is more appropriate to these motifs.