Head from a statuette of a female deity
- Title:
- Head from a statuette of a female deity
- Collection:
- Cornell Cast Collection
- Creator:
- University of Pennsylvania, Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (American museum, Philadelphia, established 1887) (reproduction)
Unknown (original)
- Photographer:
- Mihaloew, Andreya
- Date:
- after 1925
ca. 2350-2025 BCE
2014 (image)
- Site:
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (reproduction)
Ur, Iraq (discovery site, 1925-1926) (original) - Location:
- White Hall (showcase outside Room 409), Cornell University
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (reproduction)
Ur, Iraq (discovery site, 1925-1926) (original) - ID Number:
- CCC_0837
- Accession Number:
- 774
- File Name:
- CCC_0837.tif
- Original Measurements:
- 9.5 (H) x 8 (W) x 8.5 (W) cm
- Culture:
- Sumerian
- Style/Period:
- Akkadian Period or Third Dynasty of Ur
- Work Type:
- casts (sculpture)
- Materials/Techniques:
- plaster cast (sculpture)
marble sculpture in the round with shell and lapis lazuli inlays (original) - Subject:
- Sumerian sculpture
- Image View Type:
- overall
- Image View Description:
- from front
- Measurement:
- head: 9.5 x 8 x 8.5 (centimeters, height x width x diameter)
base: 3 x 9.5 x 9 (centimeters, height x width x diameter) - Description:
- This is a cast of the head from a marble statuette of a female from Ur housed in the University of Pennsylvania Museum. The figure looks ahead with a vague smile and has thickly sculpted eyebrows. The eyes of the original are inlaid with shell and lapis lazuli with a heavy, dark outline. In this cast, the eyes are unlined and have been painted yellow with dark irises. A thick, rounded headband encircles the figure's wavy hair. The style of hair and headdress points to the identity of this figure as a deity. The excavators identified her as the goddess Ningal, but this is speculative. The original is broken from below the chin and has sustained damage to the nose, mouth, chin, and hair. This cast has been painted a grayed white to approximate the color of the marble original.
- Notes:
- Items in the Cornell Cast Collection are meant for inventory and reference purposes. Metadata may not be complete in all cases.
no. B16228 - Bibliography:
- Sir Leonard Woolley, Ur Excavations, Volume VI, The Buildings of the Third Dynasty (London and Philadelphia: The Trustees of the Two Museums, 1974), 42, 98
Sir Leonard Woolley, Ur Excavations, Volume IV, The Early Periods (London and Philadelphia: The Trustees of the Two Museums, 1956), 52, pl. 43
Trudy S. Kawami and John Olbrantz, Breath of Heaven, Breath of Earth: Ancient Near Eastern Art from American Collections, Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Willamette University (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2013), 86, pl. 4 - Repository:
- Cornell University (current)
Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Museum (original) - Collecting Program:
- Cornell Collections of Antiquities
- Format:
- Image
- Rights:
- The images in the Cornell Collection of Antiquities: Casts are protected by copyright, and the copyright holders are their creators, generally Cornell University Library, Annetta Alexandridis, and Verity Platt. This collection of plaster casts owned by Cornell University was photographed by Cornell University Library, Alexandridis, Platt, and Andreya L. Mihaloew from 2010-2015, with funding from a Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences Grant to Annetta Alexandridis. Cornell is providing access to the materials for research and personal use. The written permission of any copyright and other rights holders is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use that extends beyond what is authorized by fair use and other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. Please contact Annetta Alexandridis and Verity Platt for more information about this collection, or to request permission to use these images.