Iberian Peninsula to the indus

part of the coiffure/jelwelry?).
Together with the two statuettes in 
the Musée du Louvre in Paris and the 
figurine in the Musei Civici in Padua 
(
here cat. 66
), recently rediscovered, 
the Zurich “king-priest” is part of a 
group of four statuettes, obviously 
all found together around 1860 
in Southern Iraq and then soon 
purchased by European residents on 
the local market. The Zurich statuette 
is the smallest but, nevertheless, the 
most elaborate and finest specimen 
of the group. The statuettes have to 
be connected with the “king-priest” 
or the “great man”, i.e. the leader of 
the city state of Uruk, which – after 
the intensive field work of the last 100 
years in this early Mesopotamian site 
– has become a well-known motif in 
sculpture, reliefs and seals of the Uruk 
period in the late fourth millennium 
BC.
M.B.
66
Standing nude “King-prieSt” 
Southern Mesopotamia
Uruk period (ca. 3300–3200 BC)
Limestone, H. 30 cm, W. 9.8 cm
Musei Civici agli Eremitani – Museo 
Archeologico, Padua
Bibliography:
Gambino, Rova 2005, 
fig. 1.
The figurine represents a standing 
male in frontal position, the arms 
tightly bent under the chest with 
clenched fists separated by a narrow 
space. The legs are thick and squared; 
they are separated, on the front as well 
as on the back, only by an incised line; 
the feet are massive and unrealistically 
thick. The head is spherical in shape 
and rests directly on the shoulders; it 
is covered by what appears to be a 
hemispherical cap, but may actually 
represent a headband holding the 
figure’s hair. The face is framed by a 
flat, crescent-shaped beard, which, 
in the front view at least, masks the 
absence of the neck; the eyes, the 
ears and other details are delimited 
by incisions and underscored by 
a light relief. The body is strictly 
symmetrical in all details. There is a 
remarkable contrast, in the style of 
the figure, between the upper and 
the lower part of the body: while the 
former is well modelled and rich in 
details, the latter appears as a squared 
rough-hewn block of stone, on which 
the genitals stand out as the only 
accurately rendered detail. The back 
of the figure is definitely coarser in its 
appearance, but not completely flat 
and devoid of details. The summary 
treatment of body volumes is not 
lacking in vigour and conveys an 
impression of power and strength. The 
figure’s preservation is remarkable: 
it is complete and unbroken, except 
for a modern break which cuts it 
approximately into two halves at the 
level of the waist. Its surface is slightly 
worn and covered by a yellowish, 
slightly pinkish homogeneous patina. 
Some incised details have nearly 
been obliterated by wear and a few 
protruding areas (e.g. the nose and 
the lips) have partially chipped off. 
It is an almost exact replica of three 
well-known statuettes, two of which 
are exhibited in the Départment des 
Antiquités Orientales at the Louvre 

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209
208

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211
210
67
Bull-Man
Southern Mesopotamia, Umma
(Modern Jokha,
1
)
Early Dynastic I period
(ca. 2900–2650 BC
2
)
Alabaster, H. 34.8 cm
George Ortiz Collection, Geneva
Bibliography:
Aruz, Wallenfeld 2003, 
no. 18 with previous bibliography.
The statue was carved from 
translucent alabaster, with details 
made of different materials, possibly 
shell, lapis lazuli, gold, silver or 
copper. Various drilled holes remain 
for the incrustation of horns, tail and 
lower legs; those in the beard suggest 
that originally the hair was possibly 
accentuated by a metal sheet, and the 
two in the chest probably served also 
for affixing or inlaying. The eyes and 
eyebrows would have been inlaid.
The use of composite materials 
belongs to a tradition that began 
in the Late Uruk period, though this 
figure is later in date.
3
The inscription behind the right 
shoulder of this figure is generally 
accepted as “For Enlil Pabilgagi, king 
of Umma”,
4
a major Sumerian city best 
known in history for the war with its 
neighbour and rival, Lagash.
The statue represents a nude bull-
man, a mythological figure, and 
has a companion piece in the Iraq 
Museum in Baghdad.
5
They are 
the only two known examples of 
Mesopotamian bull-men in the 
round. More commonly, the bull-man, 
often ithyphallic, appears on seals 
with heroes and in animal combat 
scenes. Both statues are carved from a