I made this Sumerian sculpture that I saw on google when I was researching. I read about it and I became really interested. I learned that it was originally carved to complete a whole statue from different colored stones. It was made in Mesopotamia in 2700 B.C. The Sumerians would mostly use Clay because that was what they had access to. In this case this may have been something created for someone important because stone was not something that the Sumerians had easy access to. They would also use Stone, wood, and metal but those had to be imported. The Sumerians made art primarily for religious proposes. Painting and Sculpting was the main art they created. The art the Sumerians created and their techniques later “inspired” ancient western Asia. Must of the art from the Sumerian Civilization we have today was revealed by excavations at Ur, Babylon, Uruk, Mari, Kish and Lagash. Ur an ancient city of Sumer, Mesopotamia. The city is also known as Ur of the Chaldees. It was also a main piece of the Sumerian culture and it was first re-discovered in the 19th century. Babylon, an ancient city of Mesopotamia, was another really important city of the ancient Middle East, it was on the Euphrates River. It became Important when Hammurabi made it capital of his kingdom of Babylonia. Hammurabi (1792-1750 B.C) founded an empire that was eventually destroyed by raids from Asia Minor. The city was then destroyed in 689 B.C by the Assyrians. Uruk or Erech was an ancient Sumerian city on the Euphrates and North West of Ur in present day Iraq. Uruk was the largest city in Mesopotamia and a major religious center. Mari was another ancient city of Mesopotamia (modern-day Syria). It is on the middle of Euphrates and it was first discovered in the 1930’s by Arabs digging graves. Kish was in the Euphrates valley and it was 8 miles East of Babylon and 12 mi easy of modern day Hillah, Iraq. Lastly Lagash or Shirpurla now located at Telloh, SE Iraq. After The fall of Akkad, Mesopotamia was going crazy and Lagash was able to maintain a peaceful environment.

Bibliography

“Sumerian Face of a Worshipper.” Art Finding. Art Finding, 2011. Web. 17 Oct 2011. <http://www.artfinding.com/Artwork/Masks/Sumerian-Face-of-a-Worshipper/6721.html>.

Ellie, Crystal. “Sumerain Art and Architecture.” Crystal Links. Crystal Links, 2011. Web. 17 Oct 2011. <http://www.crystalinks.com/sumerart.html>.

See C. L. Woolley, Ur Excavations (1956) and The Art of the Middle East (1960); Seton Lloyd, Art of the Ancient Near East (1961); H. Frankfort, Cylinder Seals (1965); H. W. F. Saggs, The Greatness That Was Babylon (1966).