Article

The offering of Pirig-me, son of Ur-Ningirsu I, to the goddess Nin-MAR.KI Human faced bison statuettes from the Lagash II Dynasty

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Abstract

This paper focuses on an inscribed statuette kept in The Israel Museum, Jerusalem (reg. nr. 98.71). This human-faced bison, which bears a votive inscription of Pirig-me, the ruler of the Second Dynasty of Lagash, is part of a group consisting of similar inscribed and uninscribed statuettes with a particular function. We can conclude that these objects representing a chosen divine creature, which functioned as stands, were offered to the different deities of the Lagash state and can be connected to the ruling elite of the Lagash II Dynasty.This identified group of statuettes thus opens new perspectives on the relationship between court art and the ruling dynasty, since we can follow the features of the sculptural traditions from Ur-Ningirsu I to Nammahni (from the first identified ruler to the last ruler of the dynasty). These objects shed light on the preferred divine figure, that is, the human-faced bison, among the Lagashite elite as well as on the local style of court art produced in the central workshop.

How to Cite:

Niederreiter, Z., (2018) “The offering of Pirig-me, son of Ur-Ningirsu I, to the goddess Nin-MAR.KI Human faced bison statuettes from the Lagash II Dynasty”, Akkadica 139(2), 127–158. doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/akkadica.99662

Rights: © The author