Oval head

(Examples: A5.112, A1.187. Alq899.1, A5q835.3 circus) Human heads are carved with as single curved line for the top of the head and a Vshaped line for the sides and chin . The top oval line can sometimes be extended to form the nose or the nose can be indicated by a single drill hole. In the center of this oval the eye is indicated by a single drill hole. The effect is then similar to the Dotted Eye style heads because of the reserved space around the eye in the interior of the prominent outline (a circle in the case of the Dotted Eye and an oval in the case of the Oval variant). In Al l 87 there is much space between the figures. The figures have flat bodies and stick-like legs, also this seal has a prominent geometric pattern on the right. Flat bodies with stick like appendages are also characteristic of the figures in the circus scene A5q835.3. The lower portion and right arm (see A5.159) of the nude female are rendered with sharp geometric lines while the arms and legs of the birdman are thin lines.

Related to the theme and style of carving of the circus scene is A5.108 (drill hole bull head and nude female). As in the drill hole aniimal combat scene, the bull’s face is deliniated by a single drill hole for each eye and one for the point of the chin The outline of the face and the pattern of the horns are linear. His triangular shaped hat however is filled in (modeled???). The lion’s head seen from the top with two drill holes for the eves and the volume for the body without any details indicated for the mane or musculature is similar to the bull’s head. The same combination of linear and fuller descriptions of the body can be seen in the nude woman on this same sealing: the pubic triangle, the legs, and one arm (CK ) are linear while the torso is modeled as an undifferentiated volume (filled in or modeled ). However the composition of the circus is very different from the rest of this group In this scene the space is crowded, the figures small, and some turned sideways. There is a sense that the seal carver wanted to accumulate a number of known themes by rendering one or teo figures from the theme The result is an eclectic group of figures summing up a group of ideas rather than presenting one idea which is more the norm in Mozan seals (and in late Early Dynastic and Akkadian seals generally)