Image © British Museum Trustees.
If you are
aware of this blog then you are probably aware that this is a sequel to the
post Modern crimes against ancient goddesses
from early April. In that post I vented
about the wilful misuse of modern interpreations of ancient artefacts on
internet sites like Pinterest, Wikipedia and various pop history pages. And at that time, I mentioned that one
artwork, of the Mesopotamian goddess Ninhursag, came from a set of modern woodcuts
that were published fifty or so years ago in a book on ancient Sumer
Today’s
post is the sequel to the earlier post, and is aimed at introducing those other
woodcuts and a few other modern objects that are legion on the internet as real
ancient artefacts. These artworks are
quite often variously mislabelled and abused by individuals with agendas and
minimal discriminatory skills.
Again, I
reiterate that my post is not aimed at contemporary artists who produce
interpretations of ancient art. I have
absolutely no problem with this practice, which is as old as we are. All art is reception and reinterpretation of
some description, and our reception of ancient art is half the fun of appreciation
of the past. And, for the record, reception
is not required to be clinically accurate, it can be whatever the creator
envisions.
But again
this post is aimed at people who try to pass off copies, or reception of
ancient art as the real deal, whether through negligence or indifference, or due
to actual criminal inclination.
1) Enki
Left: REAL: Detail from the Adda seal from Sippar,
Akkadian period, ca. 2300 BCE. Image ©
British Museum.
Right: MODERN: Woodcut
of Enki by Nicholas Fasciano, from Samuel N. Kramer 1961.
To be
honest I have a soft spot for this greenstone seal, or at least for the
rollouts of the seal that are published.
It is stunning, so I may have to draw it one day (I have already collaborated
on a drawing of Enki from it). However,
regardless of my own response, the original is a small cylinder seal that is reputedly
from Sippar British Museum from Sir Wallis Budge in the late 19th century after he participated in an excavation season in Iraq
The inscription on the seal names Adda, hence
the name.
The
iconography on this seal shows a ritual scene that includes the gods
Inana/Ishtar, Utu/Shamash, Isimo and Enki/Ea.
The focus of the action is the sun god rising between two mountains
and supported on either side by Ishtar and Enki. The god of subterranean waters, Enki,
has his right foot planted on one of these mountains and his waters rise up either
side of him, pouring over the earth teaming with fish. His divine minister Isimo
stands behind him with his hands raised in a gesture of piety.
The modern copy
of the god Enki from the seal is by Nicholas Fasciano and is taken from
Samuel Noah Kramer’s ‘History Begins at Sumer
The woodcut
is, like the ‘Ninhursag’ woodcut, a favourite substitute for the real object on
the internet on an eclectic range of none too picky sites from Pinterest, to
the usual neo-pagan and cheerful pop history sites like Mythologynet, Realm of
History and Ancient History Encyclopedia, with varying levels of accuracy and
quality down to some really quite bonkers conspiracy theory pages ... no I will not be naming them … I feel
some compassion for Enki and the levels to which some people have reduced him.
One
resourceful individual on Pinterest has even put the original image from
Kramer’s book through photoshop and added the copyright symbol with his own
name on the image as an overprint. This activity
is not recommended, as basically by international law, if the artist has not
been dead for at least 50 years they (or their heirs) own the copyright of
their work … Including photographs.
Before you
have an embolism over photographs you may have taken in a museum, it
is no big deal taking pictures of artworks for recreational or educational reasons. However, it is illegal to use copies of an
artist’s original work to make money. Like
say selling prints or coffee cups with their artwork without paying royalties
to them, or to their heirs. Running a
photo of an artwork through a digital photographic program does not give you
copyright, or allow you to sell their artwork as a print … you own your photo,
you don’t own rights to the artwork … so seriously, don’t be an arse.
2) Shamash
Left: REAL Utu/Shamash detail on a sealing from a 3rd mill. Mesopotamian seal. Image ©
British Museum.
Right: MODERN: Woodcut of Shamash by Nicholas Fasciano, from Samuel N. Kramer 1961.
Right: MODERN: Woodcut of Shamash by Nicholas Fasciano, from Samuel N. Kramer 1961.
The woodcut
of the sun god, Utu/Shamash, from Kramer’s ‘History Begins at
Sumer’ appears not to have the same sexy allure as Enki, so in truth it receives
the bare minimum of misuse on the internet (relatively speaking), due no doubt
to him not figuring greatly in the modern fairy tales of the pseudo history
gang. But it too is a lovely woodcut, so
I refuse to leave him out.
Also, just
because I haven’t come across too many examples of mislabelling or
misinformation associated with this woodcut, does not mean they are not out
there. That is for you to keep an eye
on.
This
artwork is most likely taken from a black serpentine cylinder seal from the British Museum
in London
Crystallinks
use the modern copy under their heading ‘minor gods’ with other minor gods
like: Ishtar, Ereshkigal, Nergal and Marduk!!!!
Which immediately brought me up short.
So here’s a handy pro tip, if a god on an ancient relief or a seal has
multiple bulls horns on their crown they are a major god … a great god. Mid range gods had less horns and minor gods
only sported one set of horns … A quite
convenient god spotting hierarchy ... This is one of the best terms of
reference for identifying important Mesopotamian gods, start with the crown,
then look for their favourite weapon or symbolic animal.
However, most
of the gods in their list of minor gods are major gods. Crystallinks fail iconography 101.
To close on Shamash, it
seems my articles are never complete without the deranged rantings from the
site Mesopotamian Gods and Kings, where the modern woodcut is used as
illustration, and Utu/Shamash is rather negligently held responsible for the
activities of his reputedly genetically engineered races of giant mixed-breed son-kings. I wasn’t brave enough to click on the plethora
of links in there … it is just too awful.
3) Baal-Hadad
Left: REAL: Baal au Foudre stele from Ugarit. Image © Louvre Museum, Paris.
Right: MODERN plaque by Sacred Source.
Another popular alternative to the real object is like many of these
quite innocent at its source. It is a
glossy modern copy of the imposing Baal au Foudre (Baal wielding lightning bolt) stele that was
discovered by Claude Schaeffer in the early 20th century at the
temple of the storm god on the Acropolis at Ugarit
in coastal Syria Paris and that
is dated to the high point of the rich trading
city state of Ugarit
The modern
copy is a plaque made by Sacred Source that is sold on various neo-pagan sites
as a nice, if not overly accurate copy.
For all intents and purposes it is an innocent product of our passion
for modern reception. But on the
internet the photos of the copy have predictably been manipulated to become an
ancient artefact again on Pinterest, Crystallinks and various low-rent history
sites. Tour Egypt
But to make
matters worse, the copy has acquired a dark side via the creative imaginings of
the crazy end of the fundamental religious web.
The
Phoenician god Baal was considered a demon in the later writings of Biblical scholars and this copy of the Baal
au Foudre stele is used on many sites for memes making uninformed claims about false
gods.
It is
probably worth noting that the Baal of Phoenicia was unlikely to be related
to the earlier Baal of Ugarit, as the word simply means ‘lord’ and was applied
to many local gods in the Levant in both the Bronze and Iron Ages. Ugarit was an
important Late Bronze Age state that was never part of Iron Age Phoenicia
In
addition, the fundamentalist individuals are channelling their
paranoia towards Islam via memes with
this plaque claiming that Allah is the Phoenician false god Baal, although
where they got the idea that the Levantine Baal was a moon god defeats me: he was
predominantly a weather/storm god. The
Phoenician Baal at Carthage in Tunisia (800-146 BCE) may have been a moon god,
but that Baal is contemporary with the beginnings of the Biblical narratives,
the Ugarit
However, the
whacky religious right can’t take all the credit for this misappropriation of Baal, as the pseudo end of
the spectrum use the copy for some of their own fan fiction, like Baal … pick a
Baal, any Baal … being the name for the negative Reptilians. No, I don’t know exactly what that means …
and I honestly don’t want to.
4) Gilgamesh
Left: REAL. Hero with lion, Neo-Assyrian relief from Khorsabad. Image © Louvre Museum.
Right: MODERN. Tile of Enkidu and Gilgamesh by Neil Dalrymple. © Neil Dalrymple.
The topic of number four, is not one, but eight beautiful stoneware plaques
by the British ceramicist Neil Dalrymple.
The tiles were made for a project
commissioned by the Mythstories, Museum
of Myth and Fable at the
Morgan Library in Wem, Shropshire, in England
The images by Dalrymple show highlights of the narrative from the epic, like
Gilgamesh and Enkidu fighting the giant Humbaba, or the search for eternal
life, but they are rendered in modern reception style, as the artist clearly
chose to make freestanding interpretations that were independent from original
Sumerian or Babylonian models. The
influence of later Neo-Assyrian palace wall reliefs is the most recognisable
influence on these pieces, particularly the hero figure from Dar Sharrukin (Khorsabad)
that is in the Louvre. Otherwise they
are relatively modern in approach and modelling.
And it is probably worth mentioning that we currently do not have any
identified images of Gilgamesh or Enkidu from ancient Mesopotamian art. All objects that you may see labelled as
Gilgamesh are modern interpretations of unnamed ancient hero figures.
On the web
these tiles have been appropriated without citing artist by nearly every site
relating to the history of ancient Mesopotamia
or to crazy conspiracy theories about same.
I could not even begin to name the guilty parties here, there are simply
too many. In fact, these tiles have to
be the most popular appropriations of an artist’s work almost equal to, or more
than, the appropriation of the American artist Balage Balogh’s paintings
of the ancient Near East, in particular his painting of ancient Ur.
@https://archaeologyillustrated.com/collections/the-city-of-ur-southern-iraq-2000bc/
However, for number four, the spectacularly poor research skill award goes to a site that
ought to know better ‘Ancient World History’, which not only uses a modern
reception image and does not credit the artist for his artwork, but also claims
Enkidu and Gilgamesh were characters out of the Mesopotamian creation epic, the
Enuma Elish.
They get zero points for that truly enormous gaffe.
****
Honestly, if you are a student, or just deadly serious about knowing
stuff, do not do your research on the general web. Absolutely do not search ancient images on
sites like Pinterest, where anyone can post anything and say anything they like
about it. Broad reach internet history and
image sites simply cannot be trusted to be accurate. Go
to digital sites created by universities, legitimate research institutes and
museums, they are slightly more attentive to detail and they respect image
copyright.
Andrea
Sinclair
Links
British
Museum Adda seal
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=368706&partId=1
Shamash seal:
http://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?searchText=89110&ILINK|34484,|assetId=1567753001&objectId=804877&partId=1
Louvre Gilgamesh and Baal au foudre stele
http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=21464&langue=fr
https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/hero-overpowering-lion
Baal
http://www.religionswissenschaft.uzh.ch/idd/prepublications/e_idd_baal.pdf
Artist Neil Dalrymple
http://www.neildalrymple.com/ceramic-stoneware-sculptures/gilgamesh/
Mythstories
at the Morgan Library in Wem
http://www.mythstories.com/oldmanR.html
Artist Balage Balogh
https://archaeologyillustrated.com/category/country/iraq/
