The Copper Bull is a copper sculpture found at the site of Tell al-'Ubaid near the ancient city of Ur, now in southern

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

, by Sir Leonard Woolley in 1923. The sculpture, which dates from about 2600 BC, is now in the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

.Copper figure of a bull
British Museum, accessed July 2010

Discovery

The sculpture was found with a number of other artifacts at the base of a foundation in Tell al-'Ubaid. The sculpture was found by

Leonard Woolley Sir Charles Leonard Woolley (17 April 1880 – 20 February 1960) was a British archaeologist best known for his Excavation (archaeology), excavations at Ur in Mesopotamia. He is recognized as one of the first "modern" archaeologists who excavat ...

who was working jointly for the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology and the

.Ellen Herscher, "At the Museums: Wonders of Ur
''Archeology'', Volume 53 Number 2, March/April 2000, retrieved July 2010 The foundation which hid the sculpture was a platform made from brick and mud which had originally supported a temple to the goddess

Ninhursag Ninḫursaĝ ( ''Ninḫarsang''; ), sometimes transcribed Ninursag, Ninḫarsag, or Ninḫursaĝa, also known as Damgalnuna or Ninmah, was the ancient Sumerian mother goddess of the mountains, and one of the seven great deities of Sumer. She ...

. The bull sculpture had been crushed by the falling masonry of the damaged temple. Woolley found similar models of bulls but only this and one other were recovered in an intact state. Ninhursag was a goddess of the pastures, so it is appropriate that cows should be found around her temple; it was said that her milk sustained the kings.

Construction

The sculpture had been made by first making a wooden model of a bull. This had then been coated with

bitumen Bitumen ( , ) is an immensely viscosity, viscous constituent of petroleum. Depending on its exact composition, it can be a sticky, black liquid or an apparently solid mass that behaves as a liquid over very large time scales. In American Engl ...

. The parts of the bull were made in sections.Maude de Schauensee, ''Two Lyres from Ur''
2002, p.37-42, accessed July 2010 The legs were shaped out of wood covered in copper plate and held in place using tacks. The legs were attached and then more copper sheet covered the main body, with a different sheet for the bull's shoulders. These sheets were held in place by flat-headed nails along the back of the legs, the haunches and the stomach. The body's sheets overlapped the places where the legs had been attached. Copper bolts attached the legs to the base and the head was attached with a wooden dowel. The horns and the ears were then attached to the head.

Recovery

By the time the bull was discovered the wood had decayed away and the bull was recovered only by casting wax around the fragile remains and then lifting the remains out for later conservation. The sculpture as exhibited in the British Museum includes a horn, part of the tail and hooves which have been recreated to make the bull complete.

Ownership

The Copper Bull is in the

. The artifacts discovered by Woolley were shared between the Iraqi State which received around 50% of the objects and the

and the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology which each received about 25% of the objects.About the Excavations of Ur
, retrieved December 2015 Ur was one of the first sites excavated under Iraq's antiquity law, drawn up by

Gertrude Bell Gertrude Margaret Lowthian Bell (14 July 1868 – 12 July 1926) was an English writer, traveller, political officer, administrator, and archaeologist. She spent much of her life exploring and mapping the Middle East, and became highly inf ...

.Spotlight on Division of Finds: Penn’s acquisition of its Ur material
, retrieved December 2015

References

Bibliography

* H.R. Hall and C.L. Woolley, ''Ur Excavations'', vol. I: Al-Uba (London, Oxford University Press, 1927) * T. C. Mitchell, ''Sumerian art: illustrated by objects from Ur and Al-'Ubaid'' (London, The British Museum Press, 1969) {{British Museum Middle Eastern objects in the British Museum Sumerian art and architecture Sculpture of the ancient Near East Sculptures of cattle Iraq–United Kingdom relations Ancient art in metal Archaeological discoveries in Iraq