Ancient Near Eastern Art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v ...

his gods was not personal
diate one of many modern believers.
Instead, it was distant and formal, defined
essentially through the performance
of elaborate rituals. Ancient man's
primary function on earth was to serve
the gods, whose decisions and actions
determined the outcome of all events and
mankind's ultimate fate.
It seems that the common man was
excluded from all but the major religious
festivals; in most rituals participation was
the privilege and the responsibility of
priests and, most important, of the king.
These rites are not clearly understood,
and what little we know comes largely
through texts written in various dialects,
visual representations, and archaeological
remains.
Mesopotamian deities were conceived
in human form and were believed to
reside in images erected in cult buildings.
This image was the focus of the cult and
was carefully nurtured through many precisely
prescribed rituals for feeding, clothing,
and washing, in the hope that the
god might then be pleased and disposed
to act favorably toward his subjects.
Cuneiform texts tell us that most of the
cult images-none of which are entirely
preserved-were made of precious woods
and were either dressed in elaborate
garments or covered entirely with gold.
They had staring eyes inlaid with precious
stones, often lapis lazuli, for the
pupil and shell or alabaster for the surrounding
white. Statues of other deities
and of important, often royal, worshipers
were frequently placed in the temples.
The gypsum statue (fig. 21) was found at
Tell Asmar in the Square Temple, which
was built shortly before the middle of the
third millennium B.C. It is probably an
image of a pious worshiper, not a deity;
his hypnotically staring eyes may resemble
those of his revered god.
Offerings of food and drink were brought
to the deity every day; they were "consumed"
by it behind drawn curtains. In
addition to the ritual feeding, libations
were offered, usually of water, wine, beer,
oil, or the blood of a sacrificial animal.
These liquids were poured from a special
vessel onto an altar or into another sacred
receptacle or object. Such a ceramic
vessel (fig. 22), probably from Syria, is in
the shape of a two-storied tower topped
by a human figure wearing a conical cap
and restraining two felines by their tails.
Between them is a narrow-necked opening
through which a blessed liquid was
poured, to flow from one of the two doors
cut into the front of the tower vessel.
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