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Lot Essay
Ur-Nammu was the first ruler of the Third Dynasty of Ur, an empire which stretched east from southern Mesopotamia into parts of modern-day Iran.
In this period, foundation figures were laid in brick boxes that were placed in the lower levels of building projects, almost exclusively temples. According to Muscarella (Bronze and Iron, Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 309), the canefore was "the classic (normative) form" of these pegs. The figure represents the king and shows him in the act of participating in the construction of the temple complex, literally carrying the clay for the bricks on his head. By placing the figure, or multiple figures, in the temple, the king is preserved as perpetually present in the temple he erected, and forever in the act of serving the deity therein.
Furthermore, Muscarella informs (p. 311, op. cit.) that as offerings below the temple floors and walls, these foundation figures "represent one of the few classes of artifacts that were made exclusively to be hidden away from human eyes and enterprise from the moment of their manufacture."
Several identical figures of Ur-Nammu are known: two excavated at Uruk; one from the Enlil temple in Nippur, now in Baghdad (IM 59586); one in the British Museum (ANE 113896); one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (47.49); and one in the Burrell Collection, Glasgow (see p. 311 in Muscarella, op. cit.). For the latter three, as the present example, the provenience is unknown.
In this period, foundation figures were laid in brick boxes that were placed in the lower levels of building projects, almost exclusively temples. According to Muscarella (Bronze and Iron, Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 309), the canefore was "the classic (normative) form" of these pegs. The figure represents the king and shows him in the act of participating in the construction of the temple complex, literally carrying the clay for the bricks on his head. By placing the figure, or multiple figures, in the temple, the king is preserved as perpetually present in the temple he erected, and forever in the act of serving the deity therein.
Furthermore, Muscarella informs (p. 311, op. cit.) that as offerings below the temple floors and walls, these foundation figures "represent one of the few classes of artifacts that were made exclusively to be hidden away from human eyes and enterprise from the moment of their manufacture."
Several identical figures of Ur-Nammu are known: two excavated at Uruk; one from the Enlil temple in Nippur, now in Baghdad (IM 59586); one in the British Museum (ANE 113896); one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (47.49); and one in the Burrell Collection, Glasgow (see p. 311 in Muscarella, op. cit.). For the latter three, as the present example, the provenience is unknown.