Vase from Warka

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Copy of the vase in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin

The Warka vase (Uruk vase) is one of the most important examples of primeval relief art ; it comes from the fourth millennium BC. The 93 cm high cult vessel shows details of a cultic festival in relief and distributed over several registers .

Image content

The reliefs of the vase are considered to be the earliest representations of the Mesopotamian world order, divided into four areas: the flora and fauna of the Tigris and Euphrates delta are shown in the lower two registers, and in the middle the human sphere with naked men carrying baskets ; the upper register shows a cultic scene with the priestess of the goddess Inanna , the Sumerian deity of love and fertility.

The uniqueness of the early Sumerian work of art is undisputed due to its narrative power and the importance of the vessel as a cult device; the vase is also considered to be the earliest example of narrative relief art.

The fate of the vase in the 20th century

During German excavations in Uruk , today's Warka , in the winter of 1933/1934, a large number of objects came to light in the so-called archaic layer III of the temple area of ​​the goddess Inanna . Among them were the fragments of the monumental vase. A plaster cast of the reconstructed original has been shown for many decades in room 5 of the Berlin Museum of the Near East together with the fragment of another similar vessel due to its special cultural and historical significance .

At the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad, the vase was a major attraction in the exhibition of early Sumerian art. During the American invasion of 2003 , it was one of the thousands of artifacts that were stolen. The fragmented vase was returned to the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad on June 12, 2003 .

literature

  • Matthew Bogdanos, William Patrick: The Thieves of Baghdad. Robbery and rescue of the world's oldest cultural treasures , Dva 2006, ISBN 3421042012
  • Julius Jordan: Uruk-Warka. After the excavations of the German Orient Society. WVDO 51. Biblio, Bissendorf Kr Osnabrück 2006. ISBN 3-7648-2645-2

Web links

Commons : Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin - Limestone vase from Eanna temple  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

swell

  1. ↑ Everything for fertility - a missing list: The "Warka Vase" from Baghdad , Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, April 26, 2003, No. 97 / page 39