古代メソポタミアの神像とその素材

Abstract

A divine statue played a very important role in the religion of the ancient Mesopotamia. It was considered to be a vividly realistic sacred being, god of a very real sense. It was actually fed and clothed. In the first millenia B. C., the statue was made with wooden materials, I believe, according to some evidences. Then, what were the materials of the divine statues in both the second and the third millenium? Some certain year names of the period of the 3rd dynastie of Ur, Isin, Larsa and the Ist dynasty of Babylon suggest that small copper or bronze made divine statues were dedicated by the kings of those days in the temples there. Certain texts of economic concern of the Ur III period also tell us about the manufacture of the statues with copper or bronze materials. Though the numbers have still been few, lists of divine clothings and jewelries of the Ur III period, mainly of the old Babylonian period and thereafter, have also revealed to us. As I think that a large and wodden-made statue should also have required to wear clothings and jewelries, I am inclined to assume that wooden statues came to apear about this period.