A.-K. Wassiliou-Seibt, Corpus II (WBS 28,2, 2016).pdf (original) (raw)
In the Autumn of 195 9, I was permitted as an und ergraduate to participat e in a graduate seminar on Royal Ico nography taught by Edit h Porada at Columbia University. Th e topic I was given for this, my first class presentati on, was an investigation of the Ur III seals on which th e figure of a seated king was represe nte d. In th e afte rma th of th at present at ion, I was couns eled by a quote attributed to Leo Oppenheim the gist of which was that th e mark of the scholar is to be able to come back tim e and time again to th e same material with a fresh eye and an open mind. Thus, when provided with th e opp ortunity to contribute to th e present volume, it seeme d appropria te to tak e up on ce again th ose Ur III seals with seated king. In th at respect , it is hoped to be a tribute both to the teac hing of Edit h Porada, underscoring the important role of seminar presentations and research topics in the groo ming of young students, and to the scholarly work of Edith Porad a, a major portion of which has been concerne d with exte nding our und erstanding of th e cylinder seal as a source for and a conveyor of ancient Mesopotamian cult ure. • • • The present study, th en, is an invest igation of the icono graph y of th e 'presentatio n scene' wit h seated king: its component parts and associated roy al att ribu tes, an d its meaning when jux taposed with similar scenes conta ining seate d gods. It is argued that th e king fu nctions on a distinct, if parallel, plane from that of the gods, with th e cup held by most kin gs as a highly charged attribute ; that the realm in which the king' s role most closely echoes th e divine is in his role as giver and maintainer of justice; and that, in thi s sense, th e mod ern distinction betw een " worship" and" audi ence," ritual and civil peti tion , sacred and secular should not be impose d up on th e Mesopo tamian situatio n. It is ultimately suggested that th ese seals, far from being mechanically repetitive in a pejo rat ive sense, are rather standardized much in th e way of early coinage and later identity cards. By representing the king, they procl aim his ability to direct and maintain the sta te. And at th e same time, th e individual app roaching the king in the se ' presenta tion scenes'-presum ably th e seal owner himself, identified by nam e, offi ce and pat ron ymi c in the legend on most seals-is th en also esta blished within th e sta te system by virtue of his associa tio n wit h th e king. F or it must be rememb ered tha t not only th e indi viduals represented, bu t the seals th emselves, are agents of the system-artifacts of the bureaucratic and administrative net work , tha t serve to validate tran sactions at many levels. Imagery on th e seals, then, must be und erst ood not as independent or rand omly selec ted moti fs, bu t as motifs with a contex t: keyed to the functi on of the seals wit hin th e Ur I I I state .