A Sculpted Dish from Tello Made of a Rare Stone (Louvre–AO 153)

Abstract

A fragment of a sculpted stone dish from Tello (ancient Ĝirsu), which was found in the early excavations directed by Ernest de Sarzec, has been as studied by us in the frame of a wider research project on artifacts made of a peculiar dark grey limestone spotted with white-to-pink fossil corals of the genus Waagenophyllum. Recorded in an old inventory of the Louvre, the piece in question has quite surprisingly remained unpublished until now. The special points of interest to be addressed here are: the uncommon type of stone, which was presumably obtained from some place in Iran; the finely carved lion image that decorates the vessel; and the mysterious iconographic motif that is placed on the lion’s shoulder. A partially preserved Sumerian inscription, most probably to be attributed to the famous ruler Gudea of Lagash should also be noted.1 Close formal and stylistic comparisons with other artifacts of the same period from Tello make it clear that Waagenophyllum limestone, stemming probably from some Iranian source, was imported to Ĝirsu to be locally carved in Sumerian style in the palace workshops. Mesopotamian objects made of this rare stone provide another element for reconstructing the patterns of material exchange between southern Mesopotamia and the Iranian Plateau in the late 3rd millennium Bc.