Iberian Peninsula to the indus

part of a royal statue, made in an 
exotic material, lapis lazuli, that was 
intended to magnify the international 
status of the owner.
C.A.
Reference: 
Cluzan, Butterlin 2014.
72
Head of Male votive 
Statuette
Mesopotamia 
Early Dynastic II–III period
(ca. 2500–2200 BC)
Rock crystal, H. 7.6 cm, W. 3 cm
Ligabue Collection, Venice
The shaved head, the long beard and 
the rendering of the eyes, especially 
the eyebrows meeting above the nose, 
make it possible to identify this small 
sculpture as part of a votive statue of 
the Protodynastic period from Sumer. 
The hardness of the stone, which was 
probably sand polished, prevented 
the artist from carving fine details, as 
in the previous 
n°.
There is no rock 
crystal in Mesopotamia. According to 
Pliny, important sources were mined 
in Arabia, India and Anatolia. There is 
evidence for the presence of imported 
crystal beads in Mesopotamia as early 
as the fourth millennium. Sculptures 
in rock crystal were very rare in the 
ancient Near East: one example, 
dated to the mid-second millennium, 
was found in the vicinity of Tarsus, 
in Western Anatolia, a possible 
provenance for the stone.
C.A.
Reference:
 
Spycket 1981, pl. 209.

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217
216
73
torSo of feMale votive 
figure
Mesopotamia
Early Dynastic II period
(ca. 2500 BC)
Basalt, H. 12 cm, W. 7 cm
Private Collection, Paris
A confident, charming image of a 
female worshipper, her hands clasped 
in the classic Mesopotamian gesture 
of prayer. The soft flesh of the face 
contrasts with the large and deep 
hollowed eye sockets, where white 
stone would have originally been 
incrusted. She wears the woolly 
fleeced 
kaunakes 
garment of Sumerian 
sculptures during the early dynastic 
period. The shape of this feminine 
garment is typically tucked under the 
right arm, freeing the right shoulder, 
while the covered left arm emerges 
from a slot sleeve. A braid trims the 
neckline. Her finely striated hair is