The Uruk Trough is an important

Sumer Sumer () is the earliest known civilization, located in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (now south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and Early Bronze Age, early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. ...

ian sculpture found at the site of

Uruk Uruk, the archeological site known today as Warka, was an ancient city in the Near East, located east of the current bed of the Euphrates River, on an ancient, now-dried channel of the river in Muthanna Governorate, Iraq. The site lies 93 kilo ...

, Iraq. It has been part of 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 ...

's collection since 1928. Along with the Uruk Vase, the trough is considered to be one of the earliest surviving works of narrative

relief Relief is a sculpture, sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb , to raise (). To create a sculpture in relief is to give ...

sculpture from the

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

, dating to 3300–3000 BC, during the Uruk period. Simple relief sculpture is known from much earlier periods, from the site of Göbekli Tepe, dating to circa 9000 BC. It is thought to have served as some sort of

cult image In the practice of religion, a cult image is a Cultural artifact, human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit or Daimon, daemon that it embodies or represents. In several traditions, incl ...

in the temple of the goddess Inanna. The carving depicts a procession of sheep, but the meaning of this scene is unclear.

History and discovery

The trough was found at Uruk, an ancient city of

and later

Babylonia Babylonia (; , ) was an Ancient history, ancient Akkadian language, Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Kuwait, Syria and Iran). It emerged as a ...

situated east of the

Euphrates The Euphrates ( ; see #Etymology, below) is the longest and one of the most historically important rivers of West Asia. Tigris–Euphrates river system, Together with the Tigris, it is one of the two defining rivers of Mesopotamia (). Originati ...

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 ...

. During the Uruk period (4000–3000 BC)

was one of the largest cities in southern

Mesopotamia Mesopotamia is a historical region of West Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Today, Mesopotamia is known as present-day Iraq and forms the eastern geographic boundary of ...

, stretching over an area of . For a long time power seems to have been concentrated in the temples or religious organisations but eventually King Gilgamesh took over, building new structures and a massive city wall. The Uruk Trough was probably a venerated object in one of the temples in the city, perhaps devoted to the deity Inanna. The circumstances of its discovery are not known. The trough was purchased by the British Museum with the support of the

National Art Collections Fund Art Fund (formerly the National Art Collections Fund) is an independent membership-based British charitable organization, charity, which raises funds to aid the acquisition of artworks for the nation. It gives grants and acts as a channel for man ...

in 1928, just before the German Oriental Society carried out excavations at the site.

Description

The Uruk Trough is made of gypsum, is double troughed, and is approximately long. A fragment of one end of the object is now in the Vorderasiatisches Museum in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

. It contains several scenes:C. L. Woolley, "Excavations at Ur, 1928–1929", Antiquaries Journal 9, pp. 305–343, 1929 *Two male breeding sheep by a hut from which two lambs are emerging *A female goat being mounted by a male goat *A standing bull

History and discovery

Description

See also

References

Further reading