Statue of Napir Asu
The statue of Napir-Asu is now in the Louvre in Paris (inventory no. Sb 2271). It is one of the major works of Elamite art. Napir-Asu was the wife of Untaš-Napiriša , who lived around 1275 to 1240 BC. Ruled. The statue of Napir-Asu was found in Susa , the capital of Elam.
The statue is roughly life-size at 1.29 m. The head is missing and most of the left arm is also lost. The statue shows the standing queen dressed in a long, wide robe. She wears a shirt with short sleeves and four bangles on her right arm. The upper part of the shirt is decorated with a pattern of circles with dots, reminiscent of eyes. The skirt she wears appears to be wrapped around the body and is decorated with geometric patterns. The lower part of the skirt appears to be fringed. The hands are crossed over the stomach, with which the figure assumes a prayer position. On the front there is an inscription in Elamite language with a curse against anyone who should damage the statue or its inscription. The Elamite gods Napiriša , Kiriša , Inšušinak and Beltiya ( my lady ) are invoked.
The statue was found in 1903 by Jacques de Morgan in the temple of the Sumerian deity Ninḫursanga , who was founded by the Sumerian king Šulgi (about 2094 BC to 2047 BC). Napir-Asu's father was probably the Babylonian king Burna-buriaš II , which in turn could explain the finding of the statue in the temple of a Mesopotamian and not Elamite deity.
The statue still weighs 1750 kg today. Various fragments of Elamite bronze art originate from her time, which document a heyday in bronze processing. The statue was cast in a mold. There is a core made of bronze with 11% tin content. The actual statue is made of copper with a tin content of only 1% and is made using the lost wax technique. The inscription was scratched after casting. The statue was once probably decorated with silver and gold sheet.
Web links
- Statue of Queen Napirasu, wife of King Untash-Napirisha . On: louvre.fr ; last accessed on November 14, 2016.
Individual evidence
- ^ Edith Porada : Aspects of Elamite art and archeology. In expedition. Vol. 13, No. 3/4, 1971, ISSN 0014-4738 , pp. 28-34, here p. 30, ( online ).
- ^ A b c Daniel T. Potts: The archeology of Elam. Formation and transformation of an ancient Iranian state (= Cambridge world archeology. ). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1999, ISBN 0-521-56358-5 , p. 218.
- ↑ Statue of Queen Napirasu On: louvre.fr Last accessed on November 14, 2016.