 In this case study, we're going to look at works of art associated with Gudea, the ruler of Lagash. And here on my map of Mesopotamia, I've pointed out the locations of Ur and Urruk. Those were the two really earliest of the Sumerian cities. And in our earlier readings about diorite, you learned about its symbolic nature and the way that it was sort of a neutral stone that, although it was an igneous rock, it hadn't sided with the volcano in the Epic of Lugal. And so it was allowed to be used for sculptural purposes. The beliefs about that stone appear to have continued on into somewhat later civilizations in the area. And so we're going to be looking at the use of diorite and also some related stones which the people of Lagash and Gersu decided to classify as diorite. So they would use stones, but they would classify them using the name of a stone that was considered to be more positive, I guess you could say. Here we're standing inside the gallery of the Louvre that contains most of the Gudea sculptures that are found in museums all over the world. Other collections have maybe one or two sculptures representing Gudea of Lagash, but most of them are here in Paris. And as you can see from this collection of sculpture and these three additional works that are also in, well one of them is in the gallery here, they all have a similar design. And most of them have some sort of an inscription that names Gudea as the patron, and they mentioned some of his building campaigns. Gudea was a ruler and he's always shown in a very particular way. There's always an emphasis in his sculptures on his arms which show great strength. Take a look at those huge shoulders and muscular arms and his eyes. His eyes tend to be exaggerated and large, so he's sort of an all-seeing ruler. They all tend to be made of diorite or something that the sculptor and inscription tells us is diorite, although the middle sculpture that I brought in in this extra group of three is of dolerite. It's also a very hard, igneous rock. They all have attributes that point to Gudea as sort of a great ruler. So they're in the standing sculpture that you see in the center here. He is holding a vase that overflows with water and fishes, kind of emphasizing the abundance under his reign. And in other works that we're going to see, he is shown sitting before the gods, sometimes with a plan of a temple that he has built for the gods on his lap. So evidence that he is keeping the gods happy and if the ruler keeps the gods happy, then of course the kingdom prospers. The inscriptions generally tell us a little bit about Gudea and what a good ruler he is, different things he's done to benefit his people. And the poses tend to be fairly standard. He's usually either standing in front of his gods or sitting, usually with clasped hands. And sometimes his clasped hands hold some sort of a vessel. And if he's holding a vessel, that means that a liquid offering could be poured into that vessel as an offering to the gods. And these are the sorts of figures that would be placed in temples so that there would be sort of constant contact between a representation of the ruler and the gods of that ruler. Here's the first of two sculptures that I particularly want to focus on in this case study. It shows Gudea seated with his hands clasped and he has a tablet with a plan of a temple in his lap. It is made of diorite, which is one of the materials we're featuring in this module. And it has an inscription on it that is very important for our particular lesson. And this inscription tells us that this statue was intentionally made out of this hard stone and tells us why. So here it reads, For this statue, nobody was supposed to use silver or lapis lazuli. Neither should copper or tin or bronze be a working material. It is exclusively of diorite. Nobody will forcibly damage the stone. And so here we have ample proof that the value of the material here is in its indestructibility. And even though over the centuries this particular sculpture has lost some fingertips, a thumb, a head, and a couple of other pieces, I think you'll agree that for something to have survived thousands and thousands of years from the ancient Near East to be now shown in the Louvre Museum today is pretty impressive. And this is really the key that we have with the use of diorite in ancient Near Eastern sculpture, particularly for the Sumerians and some of the earlier civilizations. They wanted these things to last forever. And that was more important than them being made out of a more expensive precious material. So why would Gudea want this particular sculpture to last forever? Well, part of the reason is what is shown on Gudea's lap. And I'm showing you a detailed view of the lap and also a view of a drawing here of what's represented. And we see here a line drawing of the outer walls of a temple. And then there is a measuring ruler with measurements marked out on the bottom of the drawing. And then on the left, you see kind of a sort of bird shaped, like an elongated bird shaped implement. And that is a representation of a stylus, a drawing tool. So this is proof that Gudea has planned this temple. And the inscription on the sculpture tells us that this is being built in honor of the gods. And also that Gudea is a really good overseer of his workers. He says that none of the slaves are whipped or beaten as they work on this. That everyone is well taken care of and happy. And they're sort of rejoicing as they do honor to their god building this temple. The inscription tells us that the temple is being built for the god Ningersu, who is the patron god of the city state of Lagash. And the god of earth and plow. And so this would have been really important for Gudea because if you have the god of earth and plow favoring you, that means that you're going to have good harvests. You're going to have plenty of food. And this sort of abundance was something that was considered the responsibility of the ruler. If the ruler had the gods happy with him, then the gods would come through and you would have good harvests and plenty for the people. In times of famine, that might mean that the gods were mad at your ruler and that could end very badly for this person. The inscription also tells us, as I mentioned before, why Gudea is such a good ruler. And on the inscription there's a whole laundry list of gods who hold him in their favor. And then he also mentions, again, how well he treats his workers. Now let's look at the pose of Gudea in this figure and in two other figures. This seated pose is one that we associated with many sculptures of Gudea and also of other rulers of the city-states of Lagash and Gursu that came before and after Gudea. And according to scholars and based on inscriptions and archaeological finds, we believe that sculptures like this would be set up in front of the sculpture of a god so that they would act as some sort of a mediator between worshipers, ordinary people, and the chief god. And so Gudea here is shown seated as almost sort of a lesser god who would intercede with the gods on behalf of his people. That's kind of the way that saints would be treated in medieval art before the Virgin Mary. People would pray to her to intercede on their behalf with Christ and with God the Father, for example. And the laps of these seated sculptures would be flat and it's believed that offerings would actually be left on them. So they almost acted as altars in and of themselves. And they would be used to hold either offerings that would be sort of solid and stable or also have libations, liquid offerings poured out onto them. Here's the second sculpture that I want to particularly focus on in this case study. And this one shows Gudea. It was made around 2090 BCE. So it's about 1300 to 1000 years after some of the earliest Sumerian sculptures that I was discussing in your early readings prior to these case studies. This work was found in Gursu, which was the sister city-state of Lagash. And it stands just over two feet tall at 29 inches. So it's a bit larger than it actually looks in the photo. It tends to, in books, look a lot more sort of diminutive than it is. And as you can see, Gudea is holding a vase in his hands and from it flow two streams of water that have fish leaping out of them. And this is a really clear indication of abundance. Of course, Mesopotamia is the land between the two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates. And in addition to the grains that grew abundantly in this flood plain, people also relied heavily on fish in their diet and on pure, clean, fresh water. And so having this sort of motif is an indication of Gudea being a good ruler and the effect of his rule being this plenty, this abundance, this lack of hardship for his people when it comes to getting food. Now, a stone like this would have been classified by the sculptors of the day as diorite. We know that it's a slightly different stone, Dolorite, which is also a hard igneous rock. But of course it had to be classified as diorite in order to be sort of a favorable stone at this time. I just want to finish with some wonderful details here and I'm bringing them in to show two things. First, I want you to notice the iconography. That is what the images are on this work and what they mean, what they're telling us. So you can see those fish leaping in the stream up the side of Gudea from that stream that's coming from the vase he holds. And then here at the bottom, this wonderful image, you can see that that water is then flowing into yet another basin, which is then overflowing with additional water. So it's this clear cut image of abundance. The other thing I want you to notice is take a look at the evidence of working on this stone. You can see traces of the tool marks. You can get a sense from the somewhat rough texture of the stone of just how difficult it was to work. There the lines would have had to be engraved in very carefully and with a great deal of repetition, sort of ground down slowly and patiently in order to appear. And some of the signs that this is a hard stone to work are things like the fact that the opening between Gudea's upper arm, the bicep and his side hasn't been completely hollowed out. That would have represented way too much work for the sculptor in this case. Take a look at the way that his hand and fingers come together around the bottom of his upper arm if you look at the detail on the left. So there's all sorts of signs here that give us a sense of just how difficult this material is to work. And it's this difficulty in working that has kind of a positive flip side and that is that this is permanent. This is considered to be indestructible. This is the closest thing that Gudea could have to an eternal representation of himself. So he's ensuring that he's going to be recognized during his lifetime and also long after his death he will be perpetually recognized as one of the rulers of Lagash and Gersu.