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statue
Object Type
statue
Museum number
91667
Description
Calcite statue of man with long hair and a beard; carved and polished; inscription on shoulder; the nose must have been attached separately; cuneiform inscription on back and the right shoulder.
Cultures/periods
Early Dynastic II
Early Dynastic III
(?)
Production date
2600BC
Findspot
Found/Acquired:
Iraq
Materials
calcite
Technique
carved
polished
Dimensions
Height:
14.60 centimetres
Thickness:
5.60 centimetres
Width:
12.70 centimetres
$Inscriptions
Curator's comments
Described as rosy limestone by Marchesi & Marchetti 2011 who suggest it was found near Babylon and date the piece to Early Dynastic II (or IIIa at the latest). A cueniform doodle on the back of the sculpture is considerably later and may date to the first millennium BC.
Bibliographic references
Lenormant F 1868b / Sur une statuette babylonienne d'albatre
Gadd 1934b / Babylonian stone carvings of the early period
(pl.XI)
Braun-Holzinger 1977a / Frühdynastiche Beterstatuetten
(75, 84)
Saggs 1995a / Babylonians
(33, fig.7)
Reade 2000b / Early Dynastic statues in the British Museum
(84-85)
Marchesi & Marchetti 2011 / Royal Statuary of Early Dynastic Mesopotamia
(cat.3, pp.151, 168, pls 27, 36.2)
Location
On display
(G56/dc4)
Acquisition name
Purchased from:
Capt Felix Jones
(H.E.I.C.H)
Acquisition date
1854
Department
Middle East
BM/Big number
91667
Registration number
1854,0401.31
Conservation
Treatment
: 20.03.1991