The Iraq Museum has acquired by confiscation a number of Sumerian statues. Their provenance unfortunately is unknown, but their many similarities to statues from the Diyala sites suggest that this new group may have come from the same region. For dating these new pieces, therefore, I have relied on Frankfort's publications of the Diyala group.
The first statue (Plate XXIIa, b) portrays a youth. The head has been broken but repaired. The front of the body is damaged, presumably where it lay face to the ground. The eye inlays are missing and the nose is damaged. The hands are broken, so we cannot see clearly how they were folded. The hair is rendered in horizontal ridges and is divided into two symmetrical halves falling down over the shoulders and chest. The short kilt is in shape a truncated cone, with double overlapping tassels at the bottom. The legs are complete and are supported by a stone slab resting on a “T”-shaped base.
The back of the head is broken on the left-hand side, but the parting of the ridged hair is clear (Plate XXIIb). The tasselled girdle has been carefully worked and carved in relief. There are two statues from the Diyala region similar to this figure. One (no. 33) is poorly made and does not bear close comparison with the new piece; the other (no. 32) is roughly worked and has been damaged by salt, whereas that of Plate XXIIa, b is more carefully carved and can be ranked with the best works of the period.