Architectural Representations on Steatite Vases

Abstract

Among the pre-Sargonid finds from several Mesopotamian sites as well ox as from Susa and Mari there are several complete or nearly complete stone vases carved with peculiar and intriguing decoration and numerous fragments of such vases. The material is nearly always a rather soft stone, varying in colour from pale bluish grey to dark brownish green, and is usually identified as steatite. Two shapes are prevalent, a cylindrical cup or vase with a flat base, the height of which is somewhat less than the diameter, and a relatively taller more graceful vase, also with a flat bottom, which is narrower at the mouth than at the base and has slightly incurving walls. We were fortunate in finding a specimen of each type in one room of Sin Temple IX at Khafajah. They are shown in Plates VIa and VII respectively.One motif, perhaps the most common in the decoration of such vases, is obviously a representation of some sort of structure consisting chiefly of wicker-work. Sometimes it occupies the entire surface of the vessel (as in Plate VIa); occasionally it occurs in combination with other designs (as in Plate VII). It is with this motif that we are chiefly concerned here. A ubiquitous element in such representations is a panel formed by triple vertical bands on either side and a triple downcurving band at the top. Inside, at the bottom of each panel, there is what seems to be a screen consisting of a horizontal member with a crosshatched rectangle under it. Above the screen are fairly wide vertical bands which apparently are meant to be represented as being behind the screen. (In the vase shown in Plate VII they actually are carved on a somewhat deeper surface than either the frame or the screen.)