El vaso de Warka,antes y después

Vaso de Warka , (Irak museum ,number IM19606)

El vaso de Warka, datado hacia el añoo 3200 a. C., fue elaborado en época sumeria arcaica, la primera y mas antigua civilización de la historia, que se extendió por el sur de Mesopotamia, en la zona de los ríos Tigris y Eufrates, (actual Irak) concretamente forma parte del período Uruk, un período arqueológico de la historia de Mesopotamia comprendido entre el 3800 a. C. y el 3200 a. C., en el último milenio del Calcolítico en la región mesopotámica.

Cerámica sumeria del período Uruk datada h. 3000 a. C.

La pieza fue hallada en 1940 durante la sexta campaña de excavaciones llevadas a cabo por arqueólogos alemanes, en el nivel IIIa-II del complejo de templos dedicados a la deidad sumeria Eanna, Inanna ; diosa del amor y la fertilidad, que forman parte de las ruinas de la antigua ciudad de Uruk, ubicadas cerca de a ciudad de Samawa, 280 km al SSE de Bagdad en la provincia iraquí de Al Muthanna.

The Warka Vase or the Uruk Vase is a carved alabaster stone vessel found in the temple complex of the Sumerian goddess Inanna in the ruins of the ancient city of Uruk, located in the modern Al Muthanna Governorate, in southern Iraq. Like the Narmer Palette from Egypt, it is one of the earliest surviving works of narrative relief sculpture, dated to ca. 3,200–3,000 BC.^[1]

Sus características son:

• Forma cilíndrica
• Altura: 1,05 metros.
• Anchura: parte superior 36 cm.
• Material: piedra de alabastro.
• Consta de cuatro franjas horizontales, con relieves que representan ofrendas relacionadas con la agricultura dirigidas a la diosa Inanna.

El vaso de Warka fue uno de los millares de objetos fueron saqueados del Museo Nacional de Iraq durante la Invasión de Iraq en 2003. Fue devuelto al mismo museo por tres iraquíes durante un alto el fuego, el 12 de junio de 2003.

Las principales ciudades sumerias.

1. Oriental Institute, Chicago, Lost Treasures from Iraq-Warka Vase, website accessed 8 June 2007.
2. ^ Oriental Institute, Chicago, Museum Photos: Iraq Museum (Baghdad, 2003), website accessed 8 June 2007.

Ralf B. Wartke, “Eine Vermißtenliste (2): Die “Warka-Vase” aus Bagdad“, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung 26 April 2003, Nbr 97, page 39.. English translation here. (The author is a deputy director of the Berliner Vorderasiatischen Museums).

Warka Vase

The detailed drawing above was made from tracing a photograph (from Campbell, Shepsut) of the temple vase found at Uruk/Warka, dating from approximately 3100 BCE. It is over one meter (nearly 4 feet) tall. On the upper tier is a figure of a nude man that may possibly represent the sacrificial king. He approaches the robed queen Inanna. Inanna wears a horned headdress.

The Queen of Heaven stands in front of two looped temple poles or “asherah,” phallic posts, sacred to the goddess. A group of nude priests bring gifts of baskets of gifts, including, fruits to pay her homage on the lower tier. This vase is now at the Iraq Museum in Bagdad.

“The Warka Vase, is the oldest ritual vase in carved stone discovered in ancient Sumer and can be dated to round about 3000 B.C. or probably 4th-3rd millennium B.C. It shows men entering the presence of his gods, specifically a cult goddess Innin (Inanna), represented by two bundles of reeds placed side by side symbolizing the entrance to a temple.

Inanna in the Middle East was an Earth and later a (horned) moon goddess; Canaanite derivative of Sumerian Innin, or Akkadian Ishtar of Uruk. Ereshkigal (wife of Nergal) was Inanna’s (Ishtar’s) elder sister.

Inanna descended from the heavens into the hell region of her sister-opposite, the Queen of Death, Ereshkigal. And she sent Ninshubur her messenger with instructions to rescue her should she not return. The seven judges (Annunaki) hung her naked on a stake.

Ninshubar tried various gods (Enlil, Nanna, Enki who assisted him with two sexless creatures to sprinkle a magical food and water on her corpse 60 times).

She was preceded by Belili, wife of Baal (Heb. Tamar, taw-mawr’, from an unused root meaning to be erect, a palm tree). She ended up as Annis, the blue hag who sucked the blood of children. Inanna in Egypt became the goddess of the Dog Star, Sirius which announced the flood season of the Nile.”

Practically all Sumerian sculpture served as adornment or ritual equipment for the temples. No clearly identifiable cult statues of gods or goddesses have yet been found. Many of the extant figures in stone are votive statues, as indicated by the phrases used in the inscriptions that they often bear: “It offers prayers,” or “Statue, say to my king (god). . . .