Glyptics

Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati – August 2014, August 2024

The functional setting

This excavation unit is located near the formal paved courtyard of the Tupkish palace. The function was indicated by the discovery of a large number of ceramic vessels. These were excavated in a room as aggregate a34, and the ceramics was analyzed as assemblage b1.

In this assemblage there were over 40 vessels of which 36 were restored. Relatively few bowls were found in the room but there were many conical cups. For the most part the room was filled with jars and the variety is very interesting; they ranged in size from very small narrow necked jars to jars with a 50 cm rim diameter. We have concluded from this that the room was used to store a variety of goods for immediate, not long term, use. What was stored in the jars was probably scooped out via the conical cups which would also indicate that large quantities were not needed at any one time.

When we first discovered the deposit only the largest jars and a few cups and small bowls were visible. As we removed the vessels it became apparent that smaller vessels had originally stood near the larger jars in no discernible order. It may be that these vessels contained goods that were connected with events in the formal paved courtyard or areas nearby or that they were used as scoops as suggested above.

The sealings in unit A15

In A15 the storage function was very different from the storage areas we have connected with the kitchen in excavation unit A6, where a large number of seal impressions was excavated. However here in A15 a relative few seal impressions have been found due we think to a different function for the stored items here.

Unfortunately not all the seal impressions we excavated in A15 were described and drawn during the excavation seasons,with the result that conclusions here about the A15 glyptics are necessarily preliminary. Due to the sudden beginning of the war in Syria in March 2011 we were not able to return to the site of Mozan/Urkesh after the end of the 2010 excavation season to finish this work on A15 as well as on other pending excavation projects.

The sealings in sector AK

Since at least part of A15 was a storeroom the variety of seal impressions can help to determine more precisely the function of the unit. We know that the corpus of seals and sealings excavated in the ancient city of Urkesh continue from the Akkadian period through the Mittani period. For the most part the corpus consists in seal impressions on clay but a few cylinder seals have been found also and interestingly a seal impression of a stamp seal was discovered in A15 (A15q59.1). The most important seal impressions found in sector AK of the Palace AP are inscribed and belong to the royal house of Urkesh: to king Tupkish, queen Uqnitum, and later to a woman we presume to be a queen of Urkesh, Tar’am-Agade who is a previously unknown daughter of Naram-Sin.

A number of servants associated through their inscriptions with Uqnitum have in their iconography a unique connection between their iconography and the work that they perform in the palace. One such servant is the chief of the royal kitchens named Tuli. Her seal shows a butcher and a servant making something (possibly butter) in two jars placed in a basket. A second prominent figure in the court of Uqnitum is the nursemaid Zamena. Her seals depict her standing in front of and touching the smallest of the royal children held in the lap of Uqnitum. In a seal impression from A15 (A15.323) an important detail of a Zamena seal was discovered showing that the servant of Uqnitum standing behind the seated queen is actually involved in braiding Uqnitum’s hair. This gives us a further insight into the personal life of Uqnitum and also that of Zamena seeing her standing in front of the queen and her daughter during this intimate moment in the day.

While the seal impressions of Tar’am-Agade were found in a cache of door sealings we do not know her relationship to other figures whose seals are represented also in the cache. We think that the presence of the seal of an endan (Hurrian for king) in the cache probably indicates that he is married to Tar’am-Agade but this is not so stated in either of their seal inscriptions or in the iconography. Two other important groups of seal impressions in the same cache belong to Ishar-beli and Ewrin-Atal. Both have a unique iconography. In the case of Ewrim-Atal he has the standard Akkadian contest scene but the uniqueness lies in the fact that he is an official with a Hurrian name; there is only one other known official with a foreign name who had the privilege to have the contest scene on his seal during the Akkadian period. This other official is Elamite.

While some of the important iconographic innovations have been pointed out, it should be stressed that all the iconography connected with the royalty in Urkesh is unique, and unexpected from the point of view of previously known Akkadian iconography

Iconography

Animal combat scenes are found in A15 as they are in most of the excavation units of the palace, e.g. A15q874.1.

Tables, especially the table with bird shapes on the tops of the legs, are often found in the palace but here in A15 a different table and also a possible cabinet with shelves was discovered in a number of seal impressions found in A15c1. Tables characterize scenes of drinking (and eating/banqueting) if what is interpreted as bread, is present. However in A15.320.1 we have a seated figure holding a conical cup and above the cup a pile of three long ovals which may be bread, but no table – making the iconography of this seal unusual.

One cylinder seal was excavated in A15 which is especially important because it was found discarded in the palace and its iconography displays a ritual as it is being enacted (A15.270).

Unusual in A15 was the discovery of a stamp seal made of clay (A15q59.1). While it is broken, about half was preserved so that the iconography of a fish could be identified.

Style

In A15 many of the sealings that we found are small pieces which give only a fragmentary portion of the entire scene (for example A15q341.2). The most complete scenes are the Zamena seal A15.323 and the cylinder seal showing a bull ritual (A15.270).

The Zamena seal is carved in the well known Urkesh style of queen Uqnitum.

The uninscribed cylinder seal of the bull ritual has many characteristics of the royal seals which we have described as the Deep Fringe style (see TGL Style and Workshops). The characteristics of this style, which we also find in this A15 bull ritual seal, include a wide even spacing between all the figures. But here in the bull ritual seal the space between the seated figure and a priest is filled with a star and a crescent moon. The heads of the figures are large in proportion to the bodies. All the figures are active. While there is a human seated person in the composition, she is not just an observer or recipient but rather she is active in the scene as she holds a tool with which she is stirring something in a tall vase. The two bearded priests each have a central role in the ritual as one holds the knife that he had just used to cut off the bull’s head while the other holds the headless bull carcass in a reversed position to allow the blood to drain. 2 The figures are carved with the central oval eye with a dot in the center of the eye. If we look at the bull head we see that the oval of the eye is very large. The placement of the bull’s head in the scene is emphasized in that the head is behind the stool which we see because of the position of the horn. The two priests have especially prominent lips that the seated figure does not have; perhaps emphasizing a type of communication, prayers perhaps. The seated fig has a triangular nose and lips.

The arms and legs of the two priests are realistically shaped with long wavy lines as in the seal of Innin-shadu and the butcher in a Tuli seal. The priests ankles are carved in the shape of small triangles. Additionally both priests have fringe down the front of their skirts which is wide and emphasized. This sometimes occurs in the royal seals, there the fringe can be on the edge of the garment (e.g. the prince in the q2 family seal) and other times in the center of the garment (as in q4 the two servants).

To sum up we see in this A15 seal as well in the royal seals that the most important gestures in the scene are emphasized by being elongated, as in all the arms of the figs in this seal. The even distribution of figs across the scene and the emphasis on ritual gestures gives a sense of evenly measured, dignified, and even solemn progression across the design.