What is the carved vessel from Uruk made of?
alabaster
The vase, made of alabaster and standing over three feet high (just about a meter) and weighing some 600 pounds (about 270 kg), was discovered in 1934 by German excavators working at Uruk in a ritual deposit (a burial undertaken as part of a ritual) in the temple of Inanna, the goddess of love, fertility, and war and …
What was the original function of the Uruk Warka Vase?
The subject matter of the Warka Vase is the presentation of offerings to the goddess Inanna, a ritual enactment that may be associated with the idea of the Sacred Marriage, that is, the union of a God or a Goddess and a mortal, usually the ruler or a member of the ruling family; or the enactment of a marriage between …
What was found in Uruk?
By around 3200 B.C., the largest settlement in southern Mesopotamia, if not the world, was Uruk: a true city dominated by monumental mud-brick buildings decorated with mosaics of painted clay cones embedded in the walls, and extraordinary works of art.
What does the Uruk vase depict?
The Warka Vase or Uruk vase is a slim carved alabaster vessel found in the temple complex of the Sumerian goddess Inanna in the ruins of the ancient city of Uruk, located in the modern Al Muthanna Governorate, in southern Iraq. Lastly, the top register depicts the goddess Inanna accepting a votive offer.
What does the large carved alabaster vessel found at the temple complex in Uruk depict?
A tall vessel of carved alabaster (a fine-grained, white stone) found in the temple complex of Inanna at Uruk (FIG. 2-4) shows how early Mesopotamian sculptors told stories in stone with great clarity and energy.
Is Uruk part of Mesopotamia?
Geographic factors underpin Uruk’s unprecedented growth. The city was located in the southern part of Mesopotamia, an ancient site of civilization, on the Euphrates river.
Why did people leave Uruk?
When the Seleucids lost Mesopotamia to the Parthians in 141 BC, Uruk again entered a period of decline from which it never recovered. The decline of Uruk may have been in part caused by a shift in the Euphrates River. By 300 AD, Uruk was mostly abandoned, but a group of Mandaeans settled there, and by c.
What was the time period of the Uruk vase?
Top band (detail), Relief-carved alabaster vessel called the Uruk Vase, Uruk, Late Uruk period, c. 3500-3000 B.C.E. (National Museum of Iraq), photo: Hirmer Verlag What could this busy scene mean? The simplest way to interpret it is that a king (presumably of Uruk) is celebrating Inanna, the city’s most important divine patron.
Where was the Warka temple in Uruk located?
Warka Vase. Jump to navigation Jump to search. Copy of the Vase in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany. The Warka Vase is a carved alabaster stone vessel found in the temple complex of the Sumerian goddess Inanna in the ruins of the ancient city of Uruk, located in the modern Al Muthanna Governorate, in southern Iraq.
Where is the copy of the Warka Vase?
Copy of the Vase in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin, Germany. The Warka Vase is a carved alabaster stone vessel found in the temple complex of the Sumerian goddess Inanna in the ruins of the ancient city of Uruk, located in the modern Al Muthanna Governorate, in southern Iraq.
Why was Inanna important to the king of Uruk?
The worship of Inanna by the king of Uruk dominates the decoration of the vase. The top illustrates how the cultic duties of the Mesopotamian king as chief priest of the goddess, put him in a position to be responsible for and proprietor of, the agricultural wealth of the city state.