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The Goddess Lama at Ur

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

D. J. Wiseman
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Extract

Among the discoveries made by Sir Leonard Woolley at Ur during the 1930–1 season were four public chapels of the Larsa period. Since city temples and domestic shrines were familiar from his earlier excavations, these wayside shrines marked a new discovery of which, however, little note seems to have been made in subsequent discussions of Babylonian religion. The most discussed, perhaps because of its better preservation, is the building (A H House 3 = No. 1 Church Lane) at the corner of Church Lane and Straight Street, fronting on Carfax, with the main door into Church Lane (Fig. 1), called by its discoverer the ‘Chapel of Pa-sag’. The sanctuary proper bore signs of destruction which had preserved the contents in situ, thus enabling a reconstruction to be given of the arrangement of the main furnishings in the Larsa period.

In the centre of the sanctuary, blocking the visual access into a smaller inner room in a direct line with the street doorway, stood a low brick construction (Plate XXIa). This was coated with bitumen in the same way as were two plinths standing behind it on either side of the doorway leading into the inner room, so that this may also have been the pedestal for a statue rather than an altar. It is possible that the limestone figure of a goddess (Plate XXIIc) had been broken in its fall from this commanding position.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 22 , Issue 1-2: Ur in Retrospect. In Memory of Sir C. Leonard Woolley , Spring-Autumn 1960 , pp. 166 - 171
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1960 

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References

1 A.J. XI (Spring-Autumn 1951), pp. 368–372 Google Scholar ( = M.J. XXII (09–Dec. 1931), pp. 270–273 Google Scholar).

2 Cf. Woolley, , Abraham, pp. 104 ffGoogle Scholar; Frankfort, H., Art & Architecture of the Ancient Orient (1954), p. 55 Google Scholar.

3 loc. cit. p. 368; pl. XLVII, U.E. VII. The Trustees of the British Museum have generously given permission for me to quote from the Ur Excavation records and from the MS. of SirWoolley, Leonard and Mallowan, M. E. L. on “The Larsa Period,” Ur Excavations, Vol. VII Google Scholar. Since this is as yet unpublished, references are here made to chapter 4 of U.E. VII without page references.

4 U.E. VII.

5 Woolley considered this construction (0·75 m. × 0·50 m. × 0·75 m. high) ‘a brick altar’ (U.E. VII).

6 U.16425; see A.J. XI, p. 369 Google Scholar; pl. LI. I; U.E. VII. pl. LVb. The figure was found ‘lying on the pavement of the main court of the Pa-Sag chapel’ (cf. Pl. XXIa). It is possible that it had been placed originally on the plinth to the right of the doorway or on a base against the N.E. wall, the site of which Woolley determined by a gap in the brickwork (U.E. VII).

7 B.M.123040; U.16;96. 3 in (98 cms.) ht. Also illustrated in A.J. XI, pl. LI.2; U.E. VII, pl. LVIb; R.A. LIV (1960), p. 83, fig. 9 (rough drawing)Google Scholar.

8 “La Déese Lama” in R.A. LIV (1960) pp. 75–84 Google Scholar.

9 It is assumed that arms, now lost, were made of ivory or wood and raised in an attitude of supplication. The shape of the sockets would support this since, if the arms had been clasped against the body, they could have been cast in one piece with it.

10 This is the hairstyle of several goddesses of the Isin-Larsa—Babylon I period ( R.A. XLIX (1955) p. 114, No. 83Google Scholar).

11 The rings are painted red on another Ur figure (Pl. XXV). It is possible that they are part of the garment rather than of a necklace, though a necklace was an integral part of Ishtar's attire.

12 Lenzen, H.–Falkenstein, A., Vorläufiger Bericht über … Uruk-Warka (Winter 1953/54–1954/55), 1956, Taf. 23; pp. 42–45 Google Scholar.

Reading dl a m a g a[d a] maḫ k[i]-g a l d a-r í n a m-m i-i n-g u b. This restoration is based on an omen: šumma tērānu kīma dLama gadamāḫu (g a d a m a ḫ) … ( Clay, A. T., Babylonian Records, Nies Collection, IV, (Yale 1923) No. 13, l. 67Google Scholar; pl. 18. It is possible that the multiple wavy lines in the texture of the dress enabled the diviners to fancy a likeness with the intestines (as in ‘the face of Humbaba’ in the same text). I owe this reference to Professor C. J. Gadd.

13 gad(a)mahu is written with the determinative t ú g and never, so far as can be judged, with s í g. This may support the evidence of the statues which imply that the dress was of linen not wool. The lexicographical equation tuzzu, ‘frizzy, shaggy’ (Diri V. 139–141; C.A.D. 7, p. 8 Google Scholar) may refer the wavy lines shown on this type of dress. The reading TÚG. g ú - n í g - ḪAR- r a - a g - a (Ḫḫ. XIX. 144) may designate the garment as having rings at the neck.

14 On Ur III—O. Babylonian seals, neither the worshipper introduced to the deity by dLama nor the deified kings of Ur wear this dress.

15 See p. 172.

16 E.g. dL a m a … a l a n - e n í n - u e s t u g - g a - n i - a m u - n a - n i - RU-GÚ (S.A.K.I. p. 64 s.f.). The dedicator placed a figure of dLama in the space or chamber before the sanctuary of a goddess, as seems to have occurred at Ur. This figure had to ‘lean against’ the ear of the great goddess and speak into it petitions for the ensi. A similar practice at Ur may perhaps be seen in the bronze figure of a goddess (dLama?) found near a brick pedestal in the temple of Ningal built by Kurigalzu (pl. XXIIIc). This figure (BM.124357; U.18628; ht. 74 cms.) stands in a similar attitude to the dLama figures and wears a similar dress and neck-rings but with a flat head-dress, and without the tassel down the back.

17 Associated with figures of the persons on behalf of whom they interceded. For the dLama of Amar-Suen and Šu-Suen see referencss in R.A. LIV (1960) p. 76 n. 9–10Google Scholar.

19 Plate XXIIIe: BM. 10305 7. Gold, ht. 35 mm. Provenance unknown. Pl. XXIIIf-b. Similar figure (actual size) from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Reproduced here by kind permission of Mr. Charles K. Wilkinson.

19 E.g., B.M.127497 from Ur (1931–10–10, 442). A similar figure on a stone plaque from Mari faces left (M.1300; Syria, XIX (1937) pl. XIV 1Google Scholar). For other figurines perhaps used in pairs, see n. 42 below.

20 E.g., Porada, E., C.A.N.E.S. I, 558–565, pl. LXXVI–IIGoogle Scholar.

21 B.M.123227 (U.18037 c) Ht. 8·8 cms. Found at Ur, (Diqdiqqeh (1932)).

22 A.J. XI (1931) pl. LI.1Google Scholar.

23 Loc. cit. p. 369.

24 U.18425. Notes by C. L. Woolley in excavation records.

25 Diorite head-dress B.M.91075. Scored on the underside to fit the rounded head of a statue measuring 73 cms. in diameter. It was, therefore, intended to be fitted to an actual statue rather than be used independently as an ex-voto object (cf. R.A. LIV, p. 76 Google Scholar).

26 C.T. V, 2 Google Scholar; S.A.K.I., 194 f.x.

27 See p. 166 above. The top of the statue on the central plinth would then have been 4½–5 ft. above floor level.

28 The agē qarni (V R 33 ii.50) or aā ša bêlūti (worn by dSin with a g a d a - m a ḫ; Perry, , Hymnen an Sin (1907), pp. 24–25 (5b, 9; 5c, 16–17))Google Scholar.

29 The head-dress measures 16·3 cms. wide × 9·5 cms. high. It was made to fit on a head 9·5 × 10·5 (depth) cms. The fine small insets (7 mm. diam.) are not visible on the photograph.

30 Possibly the figure in question could have been fitted with different headgear: 1) as a human female (n a m - m u n u s), and 2) as a divinity (n a m - d i n g i r).

31 U.6352; A.J. VI (1926) pl. LXIIGoogle Scholar; see also pl. LXII.

32 U.6779; A.J. VI (1926), pl. LIIa–b Google Scholar.

33 Unless she was shown with clasped hands, since a cult-statue receiving adoration would hardly have been depicted in an attitude of intercession. The only mention of a temple of dLama does not give any indication of its location (e dKAL in Barton, G. A., Haverford Library Collection of Cuneiform Texts III, pl. 115, No. 245, ii. 7Google Scholar).

34 U. 16434; 74 cms. high × 20 cms. sq. with a cupped hollow in the top (A.J. XI, pl. L, 2; U.E. VII, pl. LVII). The head-dress worn by these women is identical in form with that shown on pl. XXIIb and worn by the figure on pl. XXIb.

35 Similar geese support the seated goddess Bau (U.6779 A.J. VI (1926) pl. LI a–b Google Scholar) found in room 20 of the Larsa Gi-par-ku at Ur. Geese and women are also the subject of cylinder seals frotp Ur (e.g., U.16123, 16,300; Cf. B.M. 123281 ( B.M.Q. VIII (1933) p. 42 Google Scholar; pl. IXe); for the type see also Porada, E., C.A.N.E.S. I, 200 Google Scholar; Delaporte, , Louvre, pl. 75, 1 (A. 189))Google Scholar.

36 A.J. XI (1931), p. 371, pl. XLIX.2Google Scholar.

37 The use of bitumen as a base might imply that this originally stood on the right or central brick plinths in the main sanctuary.

38 The location in the niche of the naos was the main reason for Woolley describing it as ‘the cult statue of. Pa-sag’ ( A.J. XI, p. 370 Google Scholar; U.E. VII, pl. LVIa, cf. pl. LXIb).

39 These included three clay vases, a clay incense burner, pottery fragments beads and stone pestles. There were, however, also six pear-shaped mace-heads and a diorite duck-weight. Woolley also lists ‘64 inscribed clay tablets, the contents of which all seemed to be connected with the affairs of this chapel’ (U.E. VII). It is, however, not possible from the excavation notes, to identify these tablets. If they are the group of sixty-four tablets marked as ‘A H’, they are business documents mainly from the reign of Rim-Sin, in whose 26th–34th years tablets of dDumuzi-gamil were dated ( U.E.T. V, p. 78 Google Scholar). Nothing in these tablets connects them with the shrine and they may have been a later intrusion.

40 Woolley, , A.J. XI, p. 369 Google Scholar.

41 U.16426 (A.J. XI, pl. L.1; U.E. VII, pl. LXIX). Similar figures are on the terracotta plaque (U.16500A; pl. XXIVc) and the model cart or seat (plate XXIVe; see also n.44).

42 A smaller example of the same figure was found on the house site (U.16433). The figures may have been in pairs, Cf. B.M. 103225 (facing left) (J.R.A.S. 1926, pl. XIII; E. D. Van Buren, Clay Figurines of Babylonia and Assyria, No. 1015).

43 U.16346–7. The imitation mesh of reeds or netting on the base is the only decoration. (U.E. VII, pl. LXXXIII, 26).

44 U.16345 (U.E. VII, pl. LXXXIX, 220). The high back of the wheeled chair bears a relief of the bull-legged deity holding a pole cf. U.16426. Such ‘chariots’ have been associated with the goddess Ishtar.

45 These objects, and the skull of a water-buffalo (by N. E. wall) afford no evidence for the assignation of the chapel.

46 U.16543 (unpublished); inscribed ln 1n í g - ú - r ù 2d ḫ e n d u r - s a g.

47 A.J. XI (1931), p. 370 Google Scholar. The association with travellers is based on C.T. XVI, 15b, 21Google Scholar; 49, 302; cf. XV 6–7.10 (d ḫ e n d u r - s a g - g á = d Išum nagir sūqi šaqummi).

48 A.J. XI (1931), pp. 376–1Google Scholar. See also Fig. 1.

49 For references see C.A.D. 7, pp. 4–5 Google Scholar (sub. ibratu, ‘open-air shrine’). Logogram: u b - l í l - l á; for the association with streets see Maqlū V, 41 Google Scholar (‘may the street and alley turn against her; may the ibratu and its nēmedu turn against her’).

50 nēmedu is a stand rather than a type of altar ( Dhorme, E., Les Religions de Babylonie et d'Assyrie, p. 189 Google Scholar; cf. C.A.D. 7, p. 5 Google Scholar).

51 See p. 166. This may also be implied in the parallelism with muḫru, pitqu and imdu in K.A.R. 177, ii. 13.

52 8 u b - l i l - [ l a dI n a n n a - k ex]; C.T. XXIV 33 & 36 Google Scholar restored from K.A.V. 145, 4 Google Scholar.

53 K.A.V. 145, 3 Google Scholar (as restored C.A.D. 7, p. 5 Google Scholar).

54 S.B.H., p. 142, iii, 12.

55 loc. cit. p. 92a; 5 f ibratu šitultia, ‘the ibratu where one comes to take counsel of me’.

56 Gordon, E. I., Sumerian Proverbs, I, 142, pp. 110–111Google Scholar.