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A South Arabian Tripod Offering Saucer Said to be from Ur

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

T. C. Mitchell
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Extract

The circular tripod vessel (Plate XXI) described below, the property of Mrs. J.Worth by whose kind permission it is here published, was acquired by her late husband, Colonel J. G. Worth, at Ur, while he was serving as A.D.C. (Lieutenant) to General Loch in Iraq. Some doubt might be thought to exist of the correctness of this provenance in view of the fact that Colonel Worth had previously served for some years in Aden, but Mrs. Worth positively states that the vessel came from Ur. The possibility of such a provenance makes it worth presenting here.

The vessel, ht. 5·6 × diam. 9·15 cm., stands on three stylised animal's feet, which have grooves filed in the outer edge to simulate four toes on each (part is chipped away on two of the feet). The bases of the feet have filed cross grooves, and the lower outside edge of the bowl has a filed tooth ornament. The inside of the bowl, depth 3·1 cm., has concentric striations from grinding. The outer wall of the bowl has two protruding ridges demarcating a band in which are incised the names ‘mkhl ḥm in the South Arabian alphabet (Fig. 1). The lower cross stroke of the ms is horizontal, and in the case of the first, coincides with, though it slightly deepens, the groove defining the upper edge of the lower bounding ridge.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 31 , Issue 2 , Autumn 1969 , pp. 112 - 114
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1969

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References

1 Mrs. Worth writes, “I can assure you that the bowl did come from Ur in 1926 but I have not details of the exact spot on the site.”

2 Thompson, G. Caton, The Tombs and Moon Temple of Hureidha (1944)Google Scholar, pls. XXXVII, LVII, pp. 88, 133; Cleveland, R. L., An Ancient South Arabian Necropolis (1965)Google Scholar, pl. 90, pp. 115–117 [from Timna‘]; Rathjens, C., Sabeica II (1955)Google Scholar, figs. 572–4, p. 168 [bought in Ṣan‘ā’].

3 See references in Cleveland, , Necropolis, p. 115Google Scholar; and Hrouda, B., Tell Halaf IV (1962), p. 8Google Scholar [citing only a particular type with central leg (and fretted struts), but simpler tripod types appear at the same references; as in his pls. 53–54]; to these may be added James, F. W., The Iron Age at Beth Shan (1966)Google Scholar, figs. 31.13; 43.5, 7; 106.18; 118.16; Hamilton, R. W., QDAP 4 (1935), 56Google Scholar, no. 34 [from Tell Abu Hawam]; and Schmidt, E. F., Persepolis II (Chicago, 1957)Google Scholar, pl. 55.3 (= 56.1), 4 (= 56.4).

4 An example from Petra (Murray, M. A. and Ellis, J. C., A Street in Petra (1940)Google Scholar, pl. XV.1) is nearer to this type, and exhibits another feature, a ridge joining the three feet, which forms a link between those from Timna‘ and examples from Beth Shan and Tell Abu Hawam; the group with central leg (and fretted struts) may represent an elaboration of this type.

5 Ryckmans, G., Muséon 52 (1939), 96–97Google Scholar, pl. III, No. 270 = RES, no. 4975; Ryckmans considers this inscription authentic, though with slight misgivings. I am indebted for this reference, as for those in the following note which I did not find in Ryckmans' Noms propres or Conti Rossini, to Dr. A. K. Irvine.

6 ‘mkhl: RES, no. 3902.84; and references in Ryckmans, G., Les noms propres sud-sémitiques (1934), I, 232Google Scholar; ḥm: Ryckmans, in Thompson, Caton, Hureidha, 182Google Scholar, No. 65b; Muséon 62 (1949), 115, 117Google Scholar, nos. 435 f, s; and references in Ryckmans, , Noms propres, I, 94Google Scholar; Rossini, C. Conti, Chrestomathia arabica meridionalis epigraphica (1931), 149.Google Scholar

7 Ryckmans, G., Musèon 48 (1935)Google Scholar, pl. III, no. 140, connected by Ryckmans with the Muncherjee collection.

8 Cf. Petrie, Flinders, Funerary Furniture and Stone and Metal Vases (1937)Google Scholar, pl. XXXVI, nos. 922, 923, p. 14; Bissing, W. von, Steingefässe [Catalogue génerale des antiquités égyptiennes du musée du Caire] (1904)Google Scholar, pl. IV, nos. 18230, 18233, p. 36; I am indebted to Mr. A. F. Shore for these two references. This dating has been recently further confirmed by a vessel of this shape now in the British Museum (BM. 134979) inscribed in ink with the name Artaxerxes, see Bresciani, E., Annales du service des antiquités de l'Égypte 55 (1958), 268–9.Google Scholar See on this now, however, Naveh, J., JNES 27 (1968), 317ffGoogle Scholar, who questions the authenticity of the inscription.

9 The only examples among the tripod vessels cited above which have animal's feet are those from Persepolis (n. 3), which may further support this date.

10 Albright, W. F., BASOR 128 (1952), 39–45Google Scholar [including two from Ur]; Biggs, R. D., BASOR 179 (1965), 36–38Google Scholar; both with references to other literature.

11 Ziegler, C., ZA NF 14 (1944), 224–240Google Scholar; Woolley, Leonard Sir, Ur Excavations IX (1962)Google Scholar, pl. 36; a fragment of one (BM. 45606) was brought from Babylonia by Hormuzd Rassam in 1881, but no record exists of its exact provenance; see also two from Thaǧ in north-east Arabia, Parr, P. J., BASOR 176 (1964), 24, 28.Google Scholar

12 BM. 125042; Loftus, W. K., Travels and Researches in Chaldaea and Susiana (1857), 233–4Google Scholar; RES, no. 2689; I am indebted to Dr. R. D. Barnett for drawing my attention to this slab. The title ’fkl also occurs on an inscription from South Arabia (RES, no. 3945), showing the transmission of Babylonian cultural elements in that direction; cf. also Borger, R., Orientalia 26 (1957), 9–10.Google Scholar

13 Cf. for example the inscription from Thaǧ published by H. R. P., and Dickson, V. P. in Iraq 10 (1948)Google Scholar pl. I.1, in which the large w, the semicircular r, and the curved top of the h (this last similar to that on the subject of this paper) are very similar. This similarity was in fact pointed out by the Dicksons (p. 4). See also Ryckmans, G., Muséon 76 (1963), 419–423.Google Scholar

14 Grohmann, A., Arabien (1963), 257Google Scholar, following A. Jamme, and also citing other widely divergent views; Parr's, P. J. demonstration (BASOR 176 (1964), 22-23, 26Google Scholar) that Nabataean pottery was not present at Thaǧ (the sherd in question being medieval), might perhaps throw a different balance into some of the assessments. This was also the period of the Harran inscriptions of Nabonidus which speak of the Ḥiǧaz as an area of “plenty and wealth and abundance” (Gadd, C. J., An St 8 (1958), 62–63, 89Google Scholar), which must have depended in considerable measure on trade between South Arabia and the centres of civilisation to the north.