Other workshops of the Queen’s attendants

Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati – July 2000, April 2025

The queen

In most of the queen’s seals and those connected with her she is depicted and sitting on the left of the scene. The iconography emphasizes the queen because she is shown sitting on the left in four seals ( including Zamena but not included in this count the variations) either holding a child or being paid homage to through a hand on the lap (Zsiq4 and Zsiq6) and or by an attendant who extendsa long arm toward her (Zsiq4, q5,q6,q7,q8 ckckck). The large child scene (Zsiq2) may be the royal family but this is not totally clear because we do not have the head of the seated figure on the right; however I found a head facing left who is presumably the seated king on the right side of the scene.

The lyre attendant

The queen is emphasized also because of the spindle behind her in all but the lyre table scene. In the lyre- attendant scene the spindle is behind both the larger figure and the smaller attendant ( or child) who is touching her lap, while in the lyre- table scene the spindle is behind the small attendant (child ). Her seals are carved in the Deep Fringe style (need to ck if lg child is and also the small child is NOT). We don’t have enough of the bending figures scene to tell, it does have in common with the cook’s seal the iconographic feature of the bending figures over a basket (or in the case of the cook’s seal over two high necked jars in a basket). This style emphasized the three dimensionality of the figure, as well as the linear pattern of the garments by placing the fringe on the edge of the garment and by caning it deeply.

The child

The small child may not be carved in the same workshop or if it is then it is can ed by a less skilled carver. The small child scene shows figures with large heads as compared with the size of the bodies and also with over large eyes which take up a disproportional amount of the face. The style of the dress of the person (presumably the queen) who is holding the child is different than the others where the queen is depicted, that is she is usually shown as wearing a pleated dress but in the small child scene she is wearing a fringed garment as are the other figures in the scene and the other persons in the other scenes (fringe shown best in A5.61 also clearly shown in A1.276). Also the way the child is depicted as sitting on the lap but far away from the woman (queen?) and somewhat akwardly. (ck how the large child is sitting). The connection between the nurse and the child is emphasized by the authoritarian manner in which the nurse holds the wrist of the child but this is combined with a touching of the other hand which is a more intimate gesture. The bull under the inscription has a face which is carved in a finer manner with attention paid to the carving of the lips , eyes and beard. The raised leg of this human headed bull is like the statue of the human headed bull from the Akkadian building in Brak.

Other seals

There are more seals than the Queen’ s inscribed seals carved in this style. There is at least one animal combat scene ( one with lion’s mane carved emphasizing the edge , A5.135, see my notes). Also the landscape scene ( A5.115) is carved in this style. It shows a small of the evergreen tree type, growing next to a hillock out of which another leafy type grows. From this hillock a large bull or more probably cow is supporting itself. The small evergreen on the left is shown with a fiat central portion and deeply carved pattern on the edges. This alternation of the flat center and the deeply carved pattern on the edges is characteristic for this style.