archaic mosaic wall decoration

Archaic Mosaic Wall DecorationAuthor(s): E. Douglas Van BurenSource: Artibus Asiae, Vol. 9, No. 4 (1946), pp. 323-345Published by: Artibus Asiae PublishersStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3247920 .

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E. DOUGLAS VAN BUREN:

ARCHAIC MOSAIC WALL DECORATION

THE EXCEEDINGLY INTERESTING AND IMPORTANT EXCAVATIONS, CONDUCTED

oy Mr. Seton Lloyd at Tell Uquair fifty miles south of Baghdad on behalf of the Iraq Government Diredorate of Antiquities*, shed much light upon the subjed of a sacred

precind in the archaic Uruk era, including the platform with the temple upon it. Because

of the unusually good state of preservation of the remains it was possible to verify certain

details of constru6tion which had been left in doubt in other excavations owing to less

favorable conditions at other sites.

A subjeC well illustrated at Tell Uquair is that of wall surfaces adorned with a mosaic

produced by covering the face of the wall with a thick layer of mud plaster into which

coloured cones or 'nails' of clay were stuck in such a way as to form simple geometric

patterns. That this method of ornamentation was in use in ancient times has been known

since Loftus made his famous discovery at Warka of a stretch of wall moulded with

small engaged columns with a rich mosaic decoration covering the entire surface as if

with a splendid tapestry.** The instrudive finds at Tell Uquair are an inducement to investigate the whole subjed of mosaic decoration from the earliest known specimens down to the latest and most

decadent examples which can be dated towards the end of the Early Dynastic epoch. The system of arrangement changed in the course of ages; therefore the type of mosaic

decoration employed on any given building may serve as additional evidence in an attempt to determine the approximate date of that building. Even if it cannot be aclually proved that the technique originated at Warka, the ancient Uruk, it is certain that a more prolific use of that form of decoration was made there than at any other site so far discovered.

* Seton Lloyd, Tell Uquair; Excavations of the Iraq Government Directorate of Antiquities in 1940 and

194I. With an Introduction by Professor Henri Frankfort: Journal of Near Eastern Studies (=JNES) II

(1943), pp. 132-58. * Sir W. K. Loftus, Travels and Researches in Chaldaea and Susiana, London, I857, pp. i86 iff.

323



Consequently the most complete information for a study of the subjed, which amounts

to a veritable handbook, must be drawn from the reports of the excavators of that city because there the stratification of the archaic levels has been registered with the most

precise and meticulous care.

The process of applying the clay cones has been explained as follows*. A dab of clay was rolled by hand into the appropriate shape of a cylindrical 'nail' or 'peg', now usually termed a cone in English and Tonstifte in German. It tapered towards the bottom and

at the other, thicker, end it was cut off so that it presented a round, flat surface which,

however, in the case of some especially big cones, was hollowed out into a shallow depression. The cones were fired in a potter's oven, and then the upper end of each one was dipped in colour. It has been pointed out that great manual dexterity was needful to fashion

the hundreds of thousands of cones required to execute the mosaic work. How the cones

were set in place is not certain. It is generally supposed that the work was accomplished in stripes from the base of the wall upwards. The wall-surface to be adorned was given a coating of fine mud or clay mortar slightly exceedi in depth the length of the cones, so that the latter could be stuck right into the still damp plaster until only the flat disks

of the blunt ends remained visible, thus providing an even surface for the display of

the patterns. Such a process would have been possible when dealing with stretches of

flat wall, but the series of rounded mouldings like little columns must have been worked

column by column. It is also conceivable that, instead of being thrust into the bed of

mortar, the coloured cones were laid in horizontal layers in the order necessary to make

the design, and that a thin wash of mortar was poured over each layer to fix it in place before proceeding to the next layer; that would have been a process derived from the

art of weaving, from which art the basic idea of covering bare spaces of wall with an

adornment of this kind originated.** In the present state of our knowledge it is impossible to say when the technique of

clay cone mosaic was invented. The very similar but enigmatic clay 'nails' with crooked

* Andrae, Das Gotteshaus, S. 86; Julius Jordan, Zweiter vorliufiger Bericht iiber die . . in Uruk unter-

nommenen Ausgrabungen (=UVB II): APAW Jahrg. 1930, phil..-hist. Klasse Nr. 4 (Berlin, 1931), SS. 33,

39-40; Heinrich, UVB. IV, S. 14. * Andrae, /. c., S. 78 -85; Heinrich, UVB. IV, S. 14- I5.

324



or bent ends and mushroom-shaped heads, found with clay sickles and potsherds of the

Ubaid period*, have never as yet been discovered in situ. Many solutions of their fundion

have been proposed, of which perhaps the most convincing is that of Professor Walter

Andrae who believes that they were veritable nails used to fasten in place the textile or

reed mats which hung in front of the walls of primitive dwellings.** The tip, bent at

an angle, served to hold the nail more securely in position, while the protruding head

stood out like an ornamental knob against the background of the hanging. Below the limestone foundations of the temple of Uruk V a trial pit brought to light evidence

of earlier phases of civilization. In the stratum Uruk VII were traces of walls built of long

redangular mud bricks, and near them were fallen clay cones, the blunt ends of which

were hollowed out into a shallow depression***. The same trial pit revealed the remains of

a temple in the stratum Uruk VI. The building material consisted of long redangular mud bricks which, although they must be classified as flat bricks, yet approximated in shape to Riemchen. In the debris were two heaps of clay cones which seemed to have been

plucked out and thrown down rather than to have fallen from the walls.**** The bigger heap consisted of cones of two sizes 6-7 cm. in length and 11-12 cm. The cones of the smaller

heap measured 9 -I cm in length and were coloured black; they may have formed a border, whereas the cones of the bigger heap must have covered a more extensive area.

In the bed of the Sat-el-Agauwije in the vicinity of Warka traces of construdions of

flat mud bricks came to light. They seem to have been part of a precind 4m wide, the inner wall of which was adorned with a mosaic of clay cones of a peculiar spindle-shaped.

variety with a depression at the blunt end like those found at Uruk in strata VII and VIt. The area at Uruk later known as the Zikkurrat of Anu was in reality an artificial mound

formed by the disintegration of a long series of sacred enclosures ereded each one above

* Hall and Woolley, Ur Excav. I: Al-' Ubaiid, pp. 8,48, pls. XV, 3, XLVI, 2; Mallowan, Arpachiyahk: Iraq II

(I93 5), p. 90, fig. 49, Nr. 8; Seton Lloyd, Tell Uqair, p. 149, pl. XVI, b: Campbell Thompson, The British

Mus. Excav. at Abu Shahrain: Archaeologia LXX (918 --20), pp. 129-33; Heinrich, UVB IX, S. 35

(Redau Serqui); Jordan, UVB III, S. 28 (Anu Zikkurat, Uruk); Speiser, Smithsonian Reportfor 1939, p. 442,

pi. 4, fig. 2 (Tepe Gawra). ** Andrae, Das Gottesizaus, S. 78-9, Abb. 77, 78. *** Jordan, UVB III, Taf. 13, Schnitt C; Heinrich, UVB IV, S. 9. "* Jordan, UVB III, SS. I8 - 19, 36, Taf. 10, 2, 12,a, I3,b; Heinrich, UVB IV, S. 9. t Heinrich, UVB IX, S. 33.

325



the ruins of its predecessor, the best preserved being the 'White Temple' on its platform. The supporting walls of the terrace upon which the platform stood were battered

and thickly coated with mud plaster in which clay pots were embedded so deeply that

only their open mouths were visible.* The pots were not of one kind or shape, but

ranged from true pots to hollow cones. They measured from 30 to 35 cm. in length, and

were laid in rows touching one another, mouth outwards. Three or four rows constituted

a band running horizontally right round the terrace wall; between the various bands of

pots the face of the wall gave the effed of a plain band. It was at first thought that the

the purpose of the arrangement was to reinforce or lighten the upper part of the wall, and that the pots were concealed by a coating of mud plaster. Further investigations, how-

ever, seemed to prove that, although the pots were originally introduced for strudural

reasons, later builders realized the aesthetic value of the device, and the mouths of the

pots were left exposed so that they should form dark wells of shadow along the top line of the wall. The opinion that this scheme of decoration was contemporaneous with

the 'White Temple' was afterwards modified, for indications that the method was in use

in earlier building levels as far back as level 'F' have been discovered.** Therefore it

is now believed that, as the bands of pots served only to re-inforce the upper edge of

the terrace wall, each succeeding band marks the extent to which the wall was height- ened in each new building period. In the archaic Eanna area numbers of pots of the same kind as those described above, some broken, others intadt, were found in the debris of strata VII and VI**^. It has been

suggested that they had been used for decorative purposes of the same kind. There is,

however, no definite proof of the fad as none were found in situ.

The most splendid examples of clay cone mosaics are attributable to the period Uruk IVb.

In the Eanna area at Uruk the Pillar Terrace and the approach to it, built entirely of

Riemchen, where thus adorned. In the course of his excavations Loftus disclosed a stretch of wall decorated with mosaic in a lattice pattern of enclosed diamonds in black, white and red, which, after a return, was continued by a wall flanking a stairway. The surface

*Jordan, UVB III, S.22, Taf. 17,d; Heinrich, UVB VIII, S. 30, Taf. 9,a, 44,b,45,a;IX, S. 22, Taf. 33,b;Lenzen, Die Entwicklung der Zikkurat, S. 7. ** Heinrich, UVB VIII, S. 39; IX, S. 23. *** Heinrich, UVB IV, S. 9,

326



of this wall was broken up by a series of rounded mouldings like little engaged columns,

every rounded moulding glow-

ing with mosaics of a different

pattern of triangles, zig-zags, or diagonal lines*. At that time

the evidence for accurate dating was insufficient. Now it is

possible to prove that the

Loftus faqade was part of the

complex of buildings to which

the Pillar Terrace formed

the monumental entrance "

(Figs. i, 2). The walls of the

great court lying to south-east

of the Pillar Terrace were

sumptuously enriched with

mosaics, and the stairway

ascending from its north-east

corner to the level of the platform was flanked by a moulded

wall just like the one discover-

ed by Loftus at the south-east

corner, except that the smooth

* Loftus, Travels and Researches

in Chaldaea and Susiana, p. 187 ff; UVB IV, Taf. 7. ** Jordan, UVB III, S. 13-15, Taf. I (colour-

ed), Taf. I6, a; Heinrich, UVB IV, S. 13-17, Taf. 7, 8, 9,a, b.

.? ,;d ?

r ?? :1

.. .

r

r

s

?.

r? r, t

??

,:r

I ? .:'.'??:? a

s .. '?

a ... 1

..

.,

:? '?

jjS 't;Et;s c

t?

327

4i

.

I

_* on

*_



Fig. 2 Uruk IVb Details of fa?ade

stretch of wall was decorated with a mosaic of cones, 8-- ocm. long and I,8 -2cm in

diameter, arranged in a pattern of zig-zags. The inner faces of a door-way and the

return where the wall was joined by the one flanking the stairway were decorated with

slenderer cones, 1,4-, 6cm in diameter, set in patterns of diagonal lines. The stairway led up to a platform, the faqade of which was covered with mosaics in a black, white and

red design, but along the upper edge were four rows of big black cones, hollowed out at

the blunt end into a circular depression. The middle third of the facade projeded some-

what to make a small podium, access to which could be gained by short flights of steps to

right and left. The short stretch of projeting faCade between them was moulded with

small pilasters, the fields between them being filled by mosaics, every one of a different

pattern. On the temple platform were a double row of four pillars with a half-column

projedling from the wall at each end. Between the two half-colums on the north-

west side was the buttressed main entrance, now almost entirely destroyed. The

pillars were encrusted with mosaics in black and white lattice pattern as their stumps

328



prove, the terminal half-columns and the buttressed entrance with a charming design of

tiny superposed triangles in black, white and red. The decorative mosaic scheme of the

Pillar Terrace was continued round the walls of the so-called North-South Terrace lying below it*. The whole complex of buildings must have presented a stupendous pageant most subtly contrived so that the eye of the spedator was not wearied by monotony of design or dazzled by an unmodulated blaze of colour. Smooth wall faces were ennobled

by mosaics in a striking pattern of black, white and red. But beyond them were the

moulded walls of the stairways diversified by a skilfully disposed succession of designs. The fasade of the platform showed the same alternation of flat surfaces with uniform

designs and moulded surfaces with varigated fields, the whole decoration of the faqade

being unified by the border of big black concave-headed cones which made pools of

mysterious shadow above the interplay of colour below them. The multicoloured approach led the eye up to the austere magnificence of the black and white pillars, and they in

turn were relieved by the more varied ornamentation of the main entrance. Fully to

appreciate the supreme artistry and technical ability of the ancient craftsmen a study should

be made in detail of the extraordinary number of different effeds produced by ingenious

re-arrangement and alternation of simple geometrical lines. Much can also be learnt from

other details. For instance, in this scheme of mosaic decoration clay cones of several

sizes were used in accordance with technical requirements. Cones 8--9cm. long were

used to cover extensive smooth surfaces, small slim cones served for secondary walls, such as the short returns or the inner faces of door-ways. The black cones with sunken

depression in the blunt end bordering the faqade were much bigger than any of the

others. The cones of the Loftus faqade seem to have been on a slightly larger scale

than those employed on the corresponding walls.**

A tunnel driven into the heart of the mound beneath the zikkurrat of Ur-Nammu at

Uruk was the only possible method of proving whether earlier construdions had existed

in that area. A z m. stretch of wall running in the same diredtion as the tunnel was

entirely covered with mosaics. From the style of the work and from the potsherds and clay tablets found beside it this wall was proved to be contemporaneous with the Pillar Terracek*.

* Heinrich, UVB V, S. 6. ** Heinrich, UVB IV, S. 14. ` Lenzen, UVB VIII, S. Io.

319



Fig. 3 Uruk IVb Temple in bit res area

At the east corner of the bit res, and covered in part by that building, excavations revealed

much more ancient construdions of limestone which proved to be a precinA with walls

elaborately moulded on both sides with a system of small deep recesses between buttresses.*

The inner surface of the walls was encrusted all over with mosaic work made of big

clay cones which had not been dipped in colour, but had been baked in various degrees of temperature so that they acquired a greenish-yellow or a blue-black tint; thus the

patterns composed with them were in two colours only**. The redangular temple standing within the precind was also built of limestone. The wall faces, which seem to have been

smooth, were entirely covered with mosaic work of big cones of white alabaster and black

and pink limestone set in gypsum mortar, instead of in mud mortar according to the

usual pradise. Thus the contrast between the sombre bi-chromatic scheme of the intricately moulded precind walls and the refulgent splendour of the plain surfaces of the temple * Heinrich, UVB IX, S. 28-29, Taf. I7; X, S. 28 -29, Taf. 13, 14, I9. ** UVB IX, Taf. 34, a,b; X, Taf. 29,a.

330



exterior must have been most impressive. The interior of the temple must also have

been adorned with mosaics, for the framing of a door-way was thus treated, and fallen

clay cones were found at other points within the edifice* (Fig. 3). At Tell Uquair a sacred enclosure or terrace, surmounted by a temple on a platform, has recently been excavated.+** The outer walls of the temple had been painted white

with a coat of gypsum paint, and the clay pavement of the terrace was also coated with

gypsum plaster. Mud bricks of large format were the material employed in the construdion

of the terrace, the face of which was buttressed, and along the upper edge five rows

of big black clay cones, zo cm. in length and 8 cm. in diameter, with a depression in the

blunt end, formed a continuous band flush with the face of the buttresses***. That this

really was the summit of the wall is proved by the fad that the "top row of cones

was flush with the pavement of the platform", for "the layer of bitumen which formed

the basis of that pavement ... came in contad with the bitumen in which the top line

of cones was set". A range of five semi-circular buttresses parallel to the north-west

fasade of the temple had been built overlapping the retaining wall at platform level. They must have been in existence while the temple itself was still in use, and perhaps cor-

respond to a north-eastern extension of the platform. They were unplastered and may

originally have borne a mosaic revetment of clay cones,**** quantities of which were found

on the surface of the mound and in the debris. The cones possiby adorned other parts of the buildings, for among the frescoes painted on the altar and the inner walls of the

temple are some with geometric motives represented in such a way that they resemble

the parapet of the stairway and the faqade of the podium of the Pillar Terracet.

In the course of brief visits of investigation paid to the site it was not possible to do

more than note traces of ancient habitation at Redau Serqui, a low mound distant about

7 km. from Uruk. Potsherds of Ubaid ware and various small objeds of that era were

colleded. Extremely hard-baked square bricks were found near a wall. They bear clear

indications of having been laid in gypsum mortar, similar to that used in the temple with

# Heinrich, UVB IX, S. 28; X, S. 28. Seton Lloyd, Tell Uqair, pp. 135 -50, pls. IV, V.

* Op. cit., p. 143, pls. VIII,b, XVI,a, XXVIII,a. * Op. cit., p. 146, pi. XV,a.

t Op. cit., p. I40, I42, pls. X, XII (wall 'A').

331



the stone mosaics at Uruk. Clay cones of two types were abundant; the bigger ones

measured ii cm. in length and 3,6 cm. in diameter, the smaller were 9,8 cm. long and

2, cm. in diameter.*

A cut made in the west corner of the terrace of Ur-Nammu's zikkurrat at Ur brought to light, apparently at a depth of about 3,50 m below the construdions of Archaic I, a

fragmentary limestone pavement on which lay big clay cones i8 cm. in length with deeply hollowed ends 7-8cm. in diameter coloured black.'* It is possible that they decorated

the upper edge of a terrace wall.

Cones of stone of three different tints, similar to those from the 'Mosaic Building' in the

btt re area, were found at Abu Shahrain, Al-Ubaid***, and apparently in the archaic Eanna

area at Uruk****. These, however, were sporadic surface finds, and unconnedted with

any building. The period Uruk IVa was illustrated at Uruk in the archaic Eanna area by Temple C, construted of Riemchen measuring i6 x 6 cm., on an imposing symmetrical plan. The inner

walls of Rooms 249, 251-5, which were all passage-ways rather than enclosed rooms, were

intricately moulded with an alternation of two simple niches on either side of a doubly recessed niche. The temple must have perished by fire, for the rooms were filled with

a deposit 60o cm. deep consisting of crumbled mud bricks, ashes and countless small black, white and red clay cones, a sure indication that the walls were covered with mosaics. t

The Jemdet Nasr Age, ushered in by Uruk III c, inaugurated a radical change in the tech-

nique of mosaic decoration which no longer spread over whole stretches of walls, but was

henceforth restrided to more limited spaces, such as the rear walls of niches. The tunnel

piercing the core of Ur-Nammu's zikkurrat at Uruk laid bare in the sedion marked in

the plan-square Pa, b XVI, a temple platform with walls built of Riemchen (28 x 8 cm.),

displaying an elaborate alternation of large and small niches. The rear walls of the larger niches bore mosaic work with a lattice pattern in black, white and red, those of the smaller

niches had a black and white zig-zag design.tt (Fig. 4). Meagre remains of walls of Uruk IIIc

* Heinrich, UVB IX, S. 35. ** Woolley, Ur Excav. V. The Ziggurat, p.6, pl. I4,6; Antiquaries Yournal (=AJ) XII (I932), p. 383. ** Hall, Ur Excav. I, p. 8; Delougaz, Iraq V (I935), p. 8. " Jordan, UVB II, S. 16. t Lenzen, UVB VII, S.6- 8, Taf.2, 14,b. tt Op. cit., S.9-II, Taf. I6a,b-

332



Fig. 4 Uruk IIIc Temple platform

also decorated with mosaics, were found in the plan-squares Oe XVI 2,3*, whereas the

walls of the great court which lay in Nd,e XIV 3-5 consisted of Riemchen (24 x 8 x 8 cm.), and were moulded with small columns separated by niches, the rear walls of which were

gay with mosaics of black, white and red zig-zags**. The dating assigned to these con-

strudions is confirmed by the discovery of inscribed clay tablets of the period beneath

the debris formed from the ruins of these buildings which were destroyed in some

catastrophe.*** In the archaic strata beneath the zikkurrat of Ur-Nammu at Ur a cut in the west corner

of the terrace brought to light below the remains of Archaic I and II an earlier wall

with sharply battered face, evidently the retaining wall of a terrace construded of Riemchen

measuring 23x1oxo1cm. The floor of the mud pavement which stretched behind the * Heinrich, UVB VI, S. 9. " Lenzen, UVB XI, S. i6, Taf. 23,a. * Op. cit., S. I6.

333



wall was littered with thousands of clay cones of several sizes.* Most of them were

8-9 cm. long and 1,5cm. in diameter, and when unearthed appeared to be coloured

black or red, or left the natural colour of the clay, probably because the original white

dye had disintegrated, for at Uruk also it was observed that the white tint was the first

to fade. Other cones were i cm. long, diameter 2,5 cm., while some were 13 cm. long and 3 cm. in diameter, these last having a slight depression in the blunt end.

The scanty vestiges ot Uruk IIIb afforded evidence of at least one innovation in mosaic

technique. At Uruk in the area PbXVI,i a Riemchen wall was traced which ran parallal to the fine wall with niches of Uruk IIIc, and seems to be part of a remodelling of the

sacred precind. The recesses between the buttresses of this wall were adorned with

mosaics, but the novelty consisted in the use of terra-cotta blocks and corner-pieces which delineated the fields of mosaics**. Terra-cotta pieces of this kind had been found

in the earlier excavations**, but as they had fallen and were not in situ it could not

be accurately determined to which archaic period they belonged. In the north corner of

the terrace there were traces of a small Riemchen platform orientated quite differently. Flat niches adorned the face of the wall and one of them was filled with mosaic work.****

The remains of Uruk IIIa are more plentiful. It almost seems as if in that age the master-

craftsmen experimented to determine what might be the best suited and most aesthetically effedive treatment of mosaic decoration. In the archaic Eanna area, in spite of extensive

destrudion, it was possible to trace a terrace of considerable dimensions, a retangular(?)

building standing upon it, and the adjoining 'Labyrinth'. On the ground around them

lay quantities of clay cones in heaps or in adhering masses. Evidently the buildings formed an entity, for they stood upon the same ground-level and the same decorative

scheme was applied to them all, that of small flutes set in broad buttresses between which

were wide flat recesses. The rear walls of the recesses were filled with mosaic work of

big cones coloured the deep plum-red tint which is charaderistic of Jemdet Nasr ware.

The mosaics of the flutes were composed of slenderer cones arranged in black, white

and red triangles. These mosaic fields were segregated by plain bands of terra-cotta

* Woolley, Ur Excav. V, pp. 5-6, pls. I I,b, I3,b, 14,6; AJ. XII (I932), p. 383. * Lenzen, UVB VII, S. II. " Jordan, UVB II, S. I5, Abb. 5. `* Lenzen, UVB VII, S. 12, Taf. 3, i8,b.

334



Fig. 5 Uruk IIIa Detail of frieze

coloured black which passed horizontally over buttresses and recesses alike.* It is possible that this new type of wall decoration was further enriched by the addition of an inlaid

terra-cotta frieze of figures, for fragments of such a frieze were found quite near, although,

unfortunately not in situ*. The friezes seem to have represented a byre with cattle, an adaption of the motive carved on contemporary stone vases and cylinder seals***, as

well as a stag and perhaps other animals. The figures are modelled in a highly con-

ventionalized style which, nevertheless, appears realistic because the rendering is skilfully

simplified so that only essential stru6ural elements are indicated in low relief by a delicate

gradation of planes. Thus a few bold curved lines impart to the locks of the bull's

* Jordan, UVB II, SS. I5, 33, 39, Abb. 18; III, S. 9; Heinrich, UVB IV, S. 20-2 I; VI, S. 13, Taf. 4 (ground

-plan); Lenzen, UVB YIII, S. 13- 4. ** Jordan, UVB II, Abb. 23, 28-9, 3I; III, S. 9; Lenzen, XI, S. 22. 2 Contenau, Antiq. Or. I, p. 6, AO. 8842; Frankfort, ILN No. 5082, Sept. 12, 1936, p. 35, fig. 2, No. 2; OIC No. 20, p. 71, fig. 54; Van Buren, Antiq. Or. i8 (I939), p. 69, note 6 (with bibliography).

335



mane a sense of impetuous forward swing caused by the

animal's violent motion*. The detached pieces which were

grouped together to compose the frieze must have been

inlaid against a background of small red cones coloured

plum-red, for such cones were found still adhering to some

of the pieces**. At certain points the decorative elements

were fastened more securely to the background by means

of clay nails or pegs, the heads of which were fashioned

like the corolla of a rosette*** (Figs. 5, 6). Access was gained to all the other rooms comprising the

Fig. 6 Uruk IIla Detail of frieze 'Labyrinth' through the passage-way or anteroom 167. The

wall spaces between the doorways in ...... ... this room were separated into regularly

spaced fields by small columns projeding

mud plaster covering the fields was worked

plastically into a lattice pattern. Over

this a very thin wash of gypsum plaster was spread, and the bars of the plastic

lattice pattern were then picked out in

black, white, red and yellow paint. Ap-

parently this type of decoration easily - . faded or was damaged, for it had to be

given a fresh wash of gypsum at short

intervals. These frequent restorations

gradually obliterated all traces of the ]

lF

I[ [

original plastic work, and on the last

occasion there was no attempt to retrace -

* UVB II, Abb. 29. ** UVB II, Abb. 28, 3 1.

" Op. cit., Abb. 21. Fig. 7 Uruk IIIa Room I67,'Labyrinth'

336



but triangles were paint-

ed on the gypsum wash

in black, white and red*

(Fig. 7). The connedion between

is not clear. Of the three

rooms only the middle

one Room 241, could be

entered from the outside, and the imposing but-

tressed door-way testifies

to the importance of the Fig. 8 Uruk liIa Walls of a platform

chambers to which it gave

access XV. In the rubble around the base of the walls were adhering masses of the mosaic decoration which once encrusted those walls. These mosaics illustrate a technical in-

novation, for the cones were not dipped in colour and then stuck into the mortar to

make the pattern, but they were first set in place and then the whole prepared surface

was painted in broad stripes. This series of rooms was afterwards converted into trea-

sure vaults to contain what was apparently a sacred deposit of animal figurines, seals,

fragments of gold and silver and other objedCs. Still further within the core of the later zikkurrat, in plan-squares Pa XVI,2, Pb XVI, ,

Pc XVI,2, the Riemchen walls of a platform were discovered, having the same orientation

as the temple platform of Uruk IlIc which formerly stood on the spot. The flat niches

of thie walls were filled with mosaics demarcated by corner-pieces and bands of terra-cotta

Heinrich, UVBIV, S. 21, Taf. iob. ** Heinrich, UVB VI, I3.

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slabs, the impression of verticality conveyed by the niches being thus accentuated by the horizontal terra-cotta bands which ran uninterruptedly across both niches and pro-

je6tions. The bands were painted black-white-black, or wholly black. The mosaic patterns seem to haye been of black and white zig-zags and lattice, for no cones tinted red

were found* (Fig. 8).

Fragments of Jemdet Nasr ware were abundant at Tell Uquair, but no platform or temple of that period have survived. That such construcions once existed seems indicated by the discovery of terra-cotta corner-pieces and slabs like those found at Uruk, one being

especially interesting because it still preserves at the back the modelled clay handle to

tie it into the masonry. Another corner-piece is pierced behind to enable it to be tied

into the strudure of the wall**. With these terra-cotta pieces were clay cones of a small

type coloured black, red and yellow, presumably discoloured white, as well as a large cone coloured red with the blunt end hollowed out, recalling the fields of big red cones

which alternated with the tri-coloured designs in the smaller fields on the walls of the

group of buildings of this period at Uruk.

A temple on a platform was excavated at Tell Brak in Syria. The temple was built of

mud bricks and the outer walls were covered, at least up to a certain height, with a

mosaic of clay cones with "their heads decorated with bright red paint, while above the

mosaic was a frieze consisting of rosettes with petals of black shale and white marble

with a central corolla of red limestone"***. The interior of the temple was equally

magnificent, for the walls of the shrine were overlaid with copper panelling. What is

believed to have been the base of the cult statue stood, three feet in height, against the

south wall of the shrine. Right round the upper part of the three exposed faces of this

pedestal ran a frieze arranged as follows: a plain gold band fastened down with gold- headed nails with silver shanks; a band of blue-black limestone carved with three rows

of concentric circles which simulated the sunken ends of big black clay cones; a band

of plain white marble; a band of corrugated green shale; a plain gold band.**** The ex-

* Lenzen, UVB VII, S. 12-13, Taf. I7,a,b. ** Seton Lloyd, Tell Uqair, pp. 154-5, pl. XXVIII,a, Nos. I, 2, 4, 5.

** Mallowan, ILN No. 5222, May 20, I939, p. 883, fig. 13, p. 884, coloured pl. I,b. ** Op. cit., p. 884, fig. 17, coloured pl.I,a.

338



cavator remarks that the bottom band of corrugated green shale was probably a copy of the originally fluted exterior of the temple walls. That may be true; the whole frieze

seems a development of the scheme first evolved on the fasade of the temple platform of Uruk IVb. In general, however, the scheme at Tell Brak appears to have much closer

affinities with decorative work at Uruk attributed to the time of Uruk Ila. Mosaics of

red cones only occur at both places; the stone rosettes with sharply pointed petals from

Tell Brak resemble in style the clay rosettes from Uruk, if allowance is made for differences

in material. A fragment of corrugated limestone, believed to be a piece of the inlay once

adorning the sides of a little coffer shaped perhaps like a temple*, came to light in the

region where the best preserved examples of the work of Uruk IlIa were excavated.

The pieces seem on too small a scale to have served an architectural purpose, but it

indicates that at Uruk corrugated stone was a familiar architedural ornament. The stone

fragments of 'temple models' found in the filling deposit between the building levels C

and D-E below the 'White Temple', have been compared with the corrugated piece, but

they were different. They are not corrugated, but reproduce a buttressed fasade, the

flutes in the buttresses being indicated by grooved lines**. One piece (Taf. 48, 1) is inter-

esting because above the fluted buttresses two plain bands alternate with two bands both

consisting of two rows of punched holes, thus imitating the borders of big black clay cones with a sunken depression in the blunt end. It is fortunate that at Tell Brak so

much of the sumptuously appointed shrine had been preserved, for it seems to have

been wrecked by an enemy who apparently tore off the costly ornamentation and left

devastation behind him.

Near the west side of the Oval at Al-Ubaid a mud brick was picked up. It was broken

in the middle, but clearly its face had originally been divided into two panels filled with

a lattice pattern painted in black and white.*** This seems like a local adaption of the

final phase of the ornamental treatment of the interior of Room 167 in the 'Labyrinth' at Uruk. Bricks of precisely the same type were picked up as surface finds at Eridu, but they were unpainted.**** That might be because the design painted on them had

* Lenzen, UVB XI, S. 24, Taf. 37, h. * Heinrich, UVB VIII, S. 45, Taf. 48, k, 1, n. .* Delougaz, Iraq V (1938), p. 7, pl. IV, 5, 6. Op. cit., p. 7, pl. IV, 7.

339



faded. The clay nails with heads worked separately and fastened in place with loops of copper wire*, which were also strewn on the surface of the mound, may have belonged to a decorative scheme of the time of UrukIIla. They are technically akin to the rosettes

which were attached to a nail and fastened in position in a somewhat similar fashion.

It is not unlikely that some of the multitudinous clay cones with the blunt ends some-

times painted black or red found scattered over the cemetery area, in the trial trench, and in the packing beneath the ramp**, may have belonged to mosaic decorations of the

time of Uruk Ilia.

Investigations carried out by means of trial trenches at Fara produced quantities of Jemdet Nasr painted ware, stamp-seals and other objeds, but did not suffice to throw any light

upon the building aivities of the era***. The earlier excavators had not succeeded in

reaching the more archaic levels, but they had made sporadic finds at various points of

clay cones coloured red or black and measuring from 8 to 9 cm. in length****. The meagre number of cones found might be taken to imply that at Fara mosaic decoration was

not much used, although it should be remembered that these were just a few cones

which had worked upwards from lower levels. As abundant traces of Jemdet Nasr culture

were discovered at Fara, but no objet belonging to any more remote period, the as-

sumption seems justified that these cones had fallen from the decoration of buildings of

the late Jemdet Nasr Age when, indeed, the use of mosaics was restrited to comparative-

ly small fields.

To distinguish clearly the work of Uruk II from that of the preceding age was a difficult

task. As more intimate knowledge of the charaderistics of the various building periods at Uruk was gradually acquired in the course of excavation it was realized that con-

strutions, which had previously been assigned to Uruk II, when square bricks were the

characeristic building material, really belonged to Uruk IIIa or even to one of the phases of Uruk I. At one point in the archaic area, P XIII, buildings of Uruk I7 were founded

in a deep layer of debris, evidently of slow growth, consisting of disintergrated mud

bricks, ashes, potsherds and many clay conest. These last may be vestiges of the wall

* Op. cit., p.8, pi. IV, 9. o. ** Woolley, UrExcav. I, p. I53. E. Schmidt, Excav. atFara: MJ XXII (I93x),

pp. 200- 12. *** Heinrich, Fara, S. 72 -3, Taf. 34, g. t Heinrich, UVB VI, S. i6, Taf. 9 (ground plan).

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decoration of buildings of Uruk II when, it is believed, the mosaics were limited to

small fields framed in terra-cotta borders like those of Uruk IIIa*.

At the north-west side of the retaining wall of the zikkurrat of Ur-Nammu at Ur the

limit of the cemetery area co-incided with the edge of a series of archaic temple ter-

races covering part of the ground afterwards occupied by the zikkurrat. At a depth of 6 m. below the modern surface construdions came to light built of alternate courses

of plano-convex and square bricks. The excavator explains this abnormality as a tran-

sition from the use of Jemdet Nasr Rienrchen to the plano-convex bricks of the Early

Dynastic period. On the ground small clay cones lay in heaps, and with them were

sherds of Jemdet Nasr ware.** If not adually belonging to the time of Uruk II the decor-

ation of which these cones formed part must have been very close to that epoch. The tunnel penetrating into the core of the zikkurrat of Ur-Nammu at Uruk disclosed

that in the time of Uruk 17 a terrace surmounted by a platform had been ereded on

the site of earlier construdions of a similar charater. Both the outer and the inner walls

of the platform were decorated with mosaics on the rear walls of flat recesses. The clay cones were first stuck into the plaster and then the whole surface was painted in coarse

stripes.*** In this area new donstrudions arose in the time of Uruk 16 when the building material

was plano-convex Riemchen, and in the plan-square Pa XVI, part of a wall was found

having three fields of mosaic in flat recesses. After the clay cones had been put in place a

design in black, white and red was painted on the surface. ****

It has been suggested that the stone figurines of sheep, fragments of which were discovered

in the debris filling rooms of Uruk 13, had originally stood, one behind the other, along the walls of a temple of that period to make a frieze just as the copper bulls did at Al-

Ubaid t. In favour of the theory is the fad that the sheep were all carved out of the same

bituminous limestone, fully plastically, but intended to be seen in one asped only. Behind

some of the bodies the loop-boring, by means of which they could be fastened to a back-

* Lenzen, UVB VIII. S. 9. ** Woolley, AJ IX (I929), pp. 328-9; XII (I932), p. 381, pl. LXXI, I -2.

*** Heinrich, UVB VI, S. 15; Lenzen, UVB VII, S. 17. ** Lenzen,UVB VII, S. I8. t Lenzen, UVB XI, S. 21-2, Taf.33, a-c.

341



ground, can be seen. The heads are never direded straight forward, but are turned over

the shoulder like those of animals walking in file from right or left. The strongest ob-

jedion to the theory is the fad that the figures are not worked alike; some are well

carved and every detail is rendered, the bodies of others are merely blocked out. Horned

and hornless animals are represented. At Al-Ubaid the copper bulls were all alike, and

so were the inlaid 'ducks' of the upper frieze. A repetitive frieze embodying such marked

gradations of treatment would have produced a disturbing effedt instead of the sense

of harmoniotis rhythm induced by the friezes at Al-Ubaid.

Among the remains of the temple excavated at the last-named site there is no trace of

the use of clay cone mosaics. The inlaid pillars consisted of palm-logs coated with bitumen

against which triangular tesserae of mother-of-pearl, red sandstone and black bituminous

shale were pressed to make geometric patterns, and then secured in place with copper wire passed through a loop-boring at the back of each piece.* Parts of numerous pillars were found, but there is no certainty as to just where or how they adually stood. The

rosettes, thought to have been aligned in some way along the fasade, resemble those found

at Tell Brak, and the same method of securing them must have been employed. The

strudtural destrudion was so extensive that any attempt at a theoretical reconstrudion

must nesessarily be conjedural. Nevertheless, the ornamental details surviving make it

evident that the shrine represented a transition from an earlier pidorial scheme of decoration

to a later conception in which plastic elements predominated. The inlaid friezes are in

the pidural tradition, for they derived from the clay friezes inlaid against a mosaic back-

ground of Uruk IIIa. The copper bulls and the foreparts of lions**, themselves the fore-

runners of the terra-cotta lions guarding the entrance to temples at Lagas and Susa***

and the copper lions of the temple on the slopes of the zikkurrat at Mari****, testify to the progress of a tendency towards plasticity. Perhaps the germ of this tendency

may be sought in the plastic rosettes, apparently an innovation of the time of Uruk Ila,

* Hall and Woolley, UrExcav. I, pp. I5, I7, 40, o00, pls. XXXIV, 3 (coloured), XXXV, 6,7. ** Op. cit.,

pp. 30-2, I 2- 13, pls. X, i-6, XI, i -5. *** de Genouillas, RA XXVII (1930), pp. 169-70, 179; Lampre, Deleg. en Perse: Mem. VIII, pp. 164-7, figs. 324- 5. ** Parrot, Syria XIX (1938), pp. 25 -6.

fig. 15, pl. X, 1-4.

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Fig. 9 Uruk I I Details of frieze

And yet at Tell Brak, in addition to the rosettes, there was also the frieze of the pedestal carved with projeding knobs and corrugations in a tentative endeavour to break away

by a multiplication of planes from the flat uniformity of purely linear pidorial treatment.

The frieze itself was transitional because in it the chiaro-scuro and colouristic effeds

of the earlier ornamental system were applied to a new sculptural medium.

In the time of Uruk II a large court and other buildings stood in plan-squares Qa, b XV,3,4. The deposit caused by the detrition of the walls contained fragments of a clay frieze

which had been inlaid against a mosaic background of red clay cones*. Similar fragments had been found earlier in a very disturbed area**. Thus this was the first time that

such pieces had been discovered in a stratum which could be dated with precision. The

figures more recently found were those of sheep; among the fragments discovered earlier

* Lenzen, UVB XI, SS.g, 22, Taf. 34, a-e.

** Jordan, UVB II, S. 33 -6, Abb. i9, 24 -7; III, S. ii, Taf. i8,b.

343



bulls and gate-posts were represented, as well

as the terra-cotta corner-pieces which went

with them. These latter, and the bodies of

the animals also, were stamped with incised

circles, perhaps to harmonize the figures with

~i I~lScattered~their mosaic background. Included in the

Lagas. They we decorative scheme were clay rosettes and

Tcrosses mounted as the heads of short pegs. The rosettes of UrukI' were modelled in

one piece with the peg, and the petals had

not the sharp contours of the earlier types. The animal figures are rendered in outline

only without inner modelling, a few incised

lines sufficing to indicate essential details.

Whereas in the earlier series the hairy skin

Fig. io Uruk I D l of fe bulging over the hoof is carefulla rendered*,

in the later series the hoof is simply reserved

by a line**. The tufts of long hair ending in a spiral curl growing from the leg joints, and the reversed triangle of the bull's spirally twisted tail are details charaderistic of Early

Dynastic III**' (Figs. 9, io). Scattered clay cones were found on the ground at Surghul****, and in trial trenches at

Lagast. They were unrelated to any building and therefore cannot be dated accurately.

They are, however, important as evidence that at those two sites buildings decorated

with mosaics once existed.

This brief survey of the subjed indicates that mosaic wall decoration was reserved ex-

clusively for the adornment of certain parts of sacred precinds. Occasionally the outer

walls of temples were thus adorned, as is proved by the temple in the bit ries area, the

building on the platform of the time of Uruk IIla in the Eanna area, and perhaps the

* UVB II, Abb. 3I. **

Op. cit., Abb. 24-6. *** Op. cit., Abb. 25. '*** Koldewey, ZA II (I887), S. 416. t de Genouillac, Fouilles de Telloh I, pp. 6, 23, pl. 44, No. I,a--d, g-h.

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temple at Tell Brak. The evidence seems to show that it was usually the approach to

the shrine or to a cult chamber within the sanduary that was embellished in that manner, the walls of the terrace or platform on which the temple stood being included in the

designation 'approach'. Accordingly in Uruk IVb the walls of the great court lying below

the platform and those flanking the stairways leading up to it, the faSade of the platform itself and the pillars standing upon it to form the monumental entrance were all ablaze

with mosaics. The platform facade at Tell Uqair was adorned in like manner. The

mosaics found within the temple in the bit res area ornamented the framing of a door-

way which was probably that of an anteroom to a cult room beyond. Temple C of Uruk IVa was entered through a series of rooms, the inner walls of which were covered with mosaics. To reach the rooms in the 'Labyrinth' of Uruk IlIa it was necessary to

pass through the anteroom 167 with its plastic mural decoration derived from mosaic

technique. In the same period a group of important rooms were accessible only through a buttressed door-way enriched with mosaics.

The finest expression of piCtoral decoration was in the time of Uruk IVb. In Uruk IlIa indications can be noted of a desire to subordinate line and colour to form. The sandtuaries of later ages may have been "all glorious within", but outwardly they never again glowed with the sumptuous refulgence attained by the harmonious blending of intricately pat- terned mosaics.

I am indebted to the courtesy of the Members of the Warka Expedition for permission to publish the illustrations accompanying this article.

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archaic mosaic wall decoration

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