009 Female Head - SUMER

009 Female Head - SUMER

Gypsum
H: 3.25 cm
Provenance: no indication; probably Diyala Valley (Khafaje?)
Sumerian
Early Dynastic II-III. c. 2700-2500 B.C.

Condition: deeply fissured in several places, unevenly broken at neck. The surface somewhat weathered and "changed" in places.

See cat. no. 7 for general remarks.

She wears an elaborate hairdo surmounting her hair at the back in the shape of a prominent cone. She bears similarity with some small heads from the Sin Temple VIII at Khafaje [1]. Her eyes are not inlaid, but carved and, though in the minority, other small heads from Khafaje are worked like this [2].







1 Baghdad, Iraq Museum: Frankfort, H.: Sculpture of the Third Millennium B.C. from Tell Asmar and Khafajah, OIP 44 (Chicago, 1939), no. 133, pp. 70-71 pl. 86.

2 E.g. Baghdad, Iraq Museum: Frankfort, H.: op. cit., no. 140, pp. 72-73 pl. 88.