A Sumerian Palace and the "A" cemetery at Kish, Mesopotamia

124 A SUMERIAN PALACE AND "A" CEMETERY, KISH
was found adhering to one of the slate fragments, and was pointed out to me by
Colonel Lane before he removed it from its position. The other pieces of iron of the
same button-like form were found with the fragments of inlay before the chamber
was finally cleared. These pieces of iron, which were undoubtedly the same age
as the inlay work, may possibly have been the heads of nails, but no traces of a
shank could be found with any of them. They could hardly have been pieces of
ore or meteoric iron kept as curiosities, for they were practically of the same
button-like shape and size, averaging 22 mm in diameter and 10 mm in height.
One of them is figured in Plate XXXVI (the lowest of the three objects in Fig. 2).
The animal figures shown in the plate are made of shell; on this account most
of them show a certain amount of curvature. They are beautifully cut, and evi-
dently formed part of a domestic scene similar to the one found by WooUey at
Tell el-Obeid. The largest figure shows a goat being milked from behind, a
practice which is still pursued in Iraq and also in India. In the larger figures, the
spaces between the legs were fretted out, but this was not done in the smaller
figures, presumably on account of the brittleness of the material. The animals in
repose especially show a great fidelity to nature. The larger animals have the
pupil of the eye inlaid with lapis lazuli, which was found in place when the earth
was removed from the figures. Some of the smaller figures had also been treated
in the same way, but in the majority of cases the form of the eye alone was represented.
Among the animals found were a bull, sheep, and goats, and what may
possibly have been a dog with a curly tail and apparently a saddle on its back
(Plate XXXVI, Fig. 6). The arms and shoulders of a man beautifully cut in shell
merit special attention. The object held in the two hands probably represents
the blossom of the palm that may have been used in some rite observed during
the season for the artificial fertilization of the palm-trees. The figure of a woman
(Plate XXXVI, Figs. 4 and 6) holding the same two objects as are held by the
female figure in Plate XXXV, Fig. 1, is duplicated for the sake of clearness. The
groundwork of the mother-of-pearl in which this figure is cut has not been entirely
cut away as in the other similar figures, with the result that the woman appears
to be wearing her hair loosely gathered up behind in a sort of chignon.
All this inlay work evidently formed part of the decoration of the chamber in
which it was found, but it was impossible to trace its exact position on the walls.
Woolley found the inlaid plaque of Tell el-Obeid on the outside of a building, and
has placed it high on the walls in his restoration.^' This was about the position of
our inlay, for if it were set too low there would be great risk of damage to a frieze
of this description ; the inlay could be readily picked out with the fingers.
It would seem that this inlay was wilfully broken up and destroyed. A fall
would hardly account for the damage done to the smaller figures; for instance,
the breaking of a limb into two or more pieces. Only the more solid figures were
perfect, probably because they were considered unimportant and difficult to
break up. Fire might account for much of the damage, but none of the inlay
shows any signs of being burned. The destruction done seems to be entirely due
to a systematic vandalism. The fragments of the inlay were found on a flooring