The deep fringe style

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

add pleated procession ......and A7.327 elemenrs of Deep fring(garments) and pointed (head of god on lower rolling

Introduction

The characteristics of this style include the carving of deep fringe depicted in the middle or edge of the garment. Pleats in 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 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 they can be long and narrow, for instance in AKc103

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 for some of their seals

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 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 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.

If we compare the image of the prince and that of the princess, while both are shown giving homage, the crown prince is taller and his garment and crown more detailed than the princess. Her dress has no fringe but her hair style in a long braid imitates the hair style of the queen. Interestingly the crown worn by the prince is different than that of the king.

The eight pointed star is depicted also in the 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.

Other scenes carved in this style.

Worship scene

A variation of the worship theme is found in A1.241 which is carved in this style; here 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 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 scenes

Another scene rendered in this style is a banquet scene. The scenes are variously demonstrated by having one or two persons while the table can have food on it or nothing on top.In AKc103 two persons are depicted holding a raised cup. They are separated by a table which does not have food but below the table is a large jar which appears to be connected with what they are drinking in a gesture which appears to be one of saluting each other. The standing figure has a deeply fringed skirt while the seated figure wares a long garment and has a long narrow beard. The long 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 shows the same triangular pattern typical for the Deep Fringe style.

Themes

While not all the banquet scenes are carved in the Deep Fringe style (see A9.33) this theme appears important to Urkesh seal cutters and their patrons............say why and get other examples.

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.

Conclusion

While in the Early Dynastic 3 seal impressions excavated in Mozan can have compositions with many figures with little space between them (see J6.8 for instance) the even distribution of the figures across the surface of the Akkadian period designs appear 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. One of the more interesting of these seal designs is J1q1146.1. Here we see a banquet scene combined with an animal combat; both have elements of the Deep Fringe style. The banquet part has three figures (seated figure, table with food on top, standing figure with extended arm holding a small jar, not the usual cup. The table has animal legs with hoofs while the one preserved leg of the stool has an animal hoof; therefore exhibiting a link between the images in the two parts of the seal design. This is not the only link however. The standing lion in the animal combat motif has a long vertical tail; the curvature of this tail reflects the head and body of the standing figure of the banquet scene next to it thereby visually linking the two motifs. This type of linking of very different motifs is unusual in Mesopotamia and Syria (see for instance the Early Akkadian seal in Boehmer 1965 Plate VII: 67).