Stele of the Vultures

The Stele of the Vultures is a

Stele of the Vultures
monument from the Early Dynastic IIIb
period (2600–2350 BC) in
Mesopotamia celebrating a victory of
the city-state of Lagash over its
neighbour Umma. It shows various
battle and religious scenes and is
named after the vultures that can be
seen in one of these scenes. The stele
was originally carved out of a single
slab of limestone, but only seven
fragments are known to have survived
up to the present day. The fragments
were found at Tello (ancient Girsu) in
southern Iraq in the late 19th century
and are now on display in the Louvre.
The stele was erected as a monument to The stele in the Louvre Museum (front and back).
the victory of king Eannatum of
Material Limestone
Lagash over Ush, king of Umma.[1][2]
It is the earliest known war Size height: 1.80 metres (5 ft 11 in)
monument.[3] width: 1.30 metres (4 ft 3 in)
thickness: 0.11 metres (4.3 in)

Discovery Writing Sumerian cuneiform

Created Early Dynastic III period (2600–2350 BC)
The stele is not complete; only seven Discovered Tello, Iraq
fragments are known today. The first
three fragments were found during Present location Musée du Louvre, Paris
excavations in the early 1880s by the Identification AO 16 IO9, AO 50, AO 2246, AO 2348
French archaeologist Ernest de Sarzec Registration
CDLI P222399 (http://cdli.ucla.edu/search/a
at the archaeological site of Tello,
rchival_view.php?ObjectID=P222399)
ancient Girsu, in what is today southern
Iraq. Another three fragments came to
light during the excavations of 1888–1889. A seventh fragment, which was later determined to be part of
the Stele of the Vultures and thought to have come from Tello, was acquired on the antiquities market by
the British Museum in 1898. While two initial requests to hand this fragment over to the Louvre were
denied by the British Museum, it was eventually given to them in 1932 so that it could be incorporated in
the reconstructed stele together with the other fragments.[4] It was first translated by F. Thureau-Dangin in
1907.[5]

Description
The complete monument, as reconstructed and now in display in the Louvre, would have been 1.80 metres
(5 ft 11 in) high, 1.30 metres (4 ft 3 in) wide and 0.11 metres (4.3 in) thick and had a rounded top. It was
made out of a single slab of limestone with carved reliefs on both sides.[6] The stele can be placed in a
tradition of mid- to late-third millennium BC southern Mesopotamia in which military victories are
celebrated on stone monuments. A similar monument is the Victory Stele of Naram-Sin, created during the
Akkadian period that followed on the Early Dynastic III period.[7]

The two sides of the stele show distinctly different scenes and have
therefore been interpreted as a mythological side and a historical
side. The mythological side is divided into two registers. The upper,
larger register shows a large male figure holding a mace in his right
hand and an anzu or lion-headed eagle in his left hand. The anzu
identifies the figure as the god Ningirsu. Below the anzu is a large
net filled with the bodies of naked men. Behind Ningirsu stands a
smaller female figure wearing a horned headband and with maces
protruding from her shoulders. These characteristics allow the
figure to be identified as the goddess Ninhursag. The lower, smaller
register is very badly preserved but, based on comparisons with
contemporary depictions, it has been suggested that it depicted the
god Ningirsu standing on a chariot drawn by mythological
Fragment of the Stele of the animals.[6] A more recent analysis suggests that the chariot is
Vultures. approaching Ninhursag standing outside a sacred building.[8]

The historical side is

divided into four horizontal registers. The upper register shows
Eannatum, the ensi or ruler of Lagash (his name appears inscribed
around his head), leading a phalanx of soldiers into battle, with
their defeated enemies trampled below their feet. Flying above
them are the vultures after which the stele is named, with the
severed heads of the enemies of Lagash in their beaks. The second
register shows soldiers marching with shouldered spears behind the
king, who is riding a chariot and holding a spear. In the third
register, a small part of a possibly seated figure can be seen. In front
of him, a cow is tethered to a pole while a naked priest standing on
a pile of dead animal bodies performs a libation ritual on two plants A fragment of the Stele of the
spouting from vases. Left of these scenes is a pile of naked bodies Vultures showing vultures with
surrounded by skirted workers with baskets on their head. Only a severed human heads in their beaks
small part of the fourth register has been preserved, showing a hand and a fragment of cuneiform script
holding a spear that touches the head of an enemy.[6] Some
Sumerologists have proposed reconstructing a caption near the
enemy as "Kalbum, King of Kish".[9]

The inscriptions on the stele are badly preserved. They fill the negative spaces in the scenes and run
continuously from one side to the other. Of the original roughly 840 lines 350 are complete and 130 are
partially preserved.[10] The text is written in Sumerian cuneiform script. From these inscriptions, it is
known that the stele was commissioned by Eannatum, an ensi or ruler of Lagash around 2460 BC. On it,
he describes a conflict with Umma over Gu-Edin, a tract of agricultural land located between the two city-
states.[6] The conflict ends in a battle in which Eannatum, described as the beloved of the god Ningirsu,
triumphs over Umma. After the battle, the leader of Umma swears that he will not transgress into the
territory of Lagash again upon penalty of divine punishment.[11]
Upper register of the Another fragment Detail of the "battle" Detail of the "battle"
"mythological" side fragment fragment

Reconstruction of Reconstruction of Building funeral Inscription "Akurgal

the layout of the the layout of the mounds, Stele of the king of Lagash, son
"historical" side "mythological" side Vultures of Ur-Nanshe"
(𒀀𒆳𒃲 𒈗
𒉢𒁓𒆷𒆠 𒌉
𒌨𒀭𒀏).[12][13]

Second scene with

Sumerian army

References
1. Sallaberger, Walther; Schrakamp, Ingo (2015). History & Philology (https://www.assyriologie.
uni-muenchen.de/personen/professoren/sallaberger/publ_sallaberger/wasa_schrakamp_20
15_arcane1.pdf) (PDF). Walther Sallaberger & Ingo Schrakamp (eds), Brepols. p. 74-75.
ISBN 978-2-503-53494-7.
2. The Cities of Babylonia (https://books.google.com/books?id=6BY7AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA28).
Cambridge Ancient History. p. 28.
 3. Bahrani, Z. 2008. Rituals of war: The body and violence in Mesopotamia, New York: Zone
Books.
4. Barrelet, Marie-Thérèse (1970). "Peut-On Remettre en Question la "Restitution Matérielle de
la Stèle des Vautours"?". Journal of Near Eastern Studies (in French). 29 (4): 233–258.
doi:10.1086/372081 (https://doi.org/10.1086%2F372081). JSTOR 543336 (https://www.jstor.
org/stable/543336). S2CID 161359212 (https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:16135921
2).
5. F. Thureau-Dangin, "Die sumerischen und akkadischen Königsinschriften" (SAKI). Leipzig,
pp. 10-21, 1907 (transliteration and translatio
6. Winter, Irene J. (1985). "After the Battle is Over: The 'Stele of the Vultures' and the Beginning
of Historical Narrative in the Art of the Ancient Near East". In Kessler, Herbert L.; Simpson,
Marianna Shreve (eds.). Pictorial Narrative in Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Center for
Advanced Study in the Visual Arts, Symposium Series IV. Vol. 16. Washington DC: National
Gallery of Art. pp. 11–32. ISSN 0091-7338 (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0091-7338).
7. Pollock, Susan (1999). Ancient Mesopotamia. The Eden that Never Was. Case Studies in
Early Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-521-57568-3.
8. van Dijk-Coombes, Renate Marian. "Lions and Winged Things: A Proposed Reconstruction
of the Object on the Right of the Lower Register of the Mythological Side of Eannatum's
Stele of the Vultures." Die Welt Des Orients, vol. 47, no. 2, 2017, pp. 198–215
9. Thorkild Jacobsen, Toward the image of Tammuz and other essays on Mesopotamian
history and culture 1970, p. 393; Eva Strommenger, Five thousand years of the art of
Mesopotamia 1964 p. 396
10. Alster, Bendt. "Images and Text on the 'Stele of the Vultures.'" Archiv Für Orientforschung,
vol. 50, 2003, pp. 1–10
11. Frayne, Douglas R. (2008). Presargonic Period (2700-2350 BC). Royal Inscriptions of
Mesopotamia: Early Periods. Vol. 1. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. pp. 126–140.
ISBN 978-0-8020-3586-8.
12. Sallaberger, Walther; Schrakamp, Ingo (2015). History & Philology (https://www.assyriologie.
uni-muenchen.de/personen/professoren/sallaberger/publ_sallaberger/wasa_schrakamp_20
15_arcane1.pdf) (PDF). Walther Sallaberger & Ingo Schrakamp (eds), Brepols. pp. 74–76.
ISBN 978-2-503-53494-7.
13. Découvertes en Chaldée... / publiées par L. Heuzey . 1ère-4ème livraisons / Ernest de
Sarzec - Choquin de Sarzec, Ernest (1832-1901) (https://1886.u-bordeaux-montaigne.fr/s/18
86/item/342322). pp. Plate XL.

Further reading
Nadali, Davide. "How many soldiers on the 'Stele of the Vultures'? A hypothetical
reconstruction." Iraq, vol. 76, 2014, pp. 141–48
Romano, L., La Stele degli Avvoltoi. Una rilettura critica, in Vicino Oriente, XIII, 2007, pp.
205–212, 3–23
Winter, Irene J. "Eannatum and the 'King of Kish'?: Another Look at the Stele of the Vultures
and 'Cartouches' in Early Sumerian Art." Zeitschrift für Assyriologie und vorderasiatische
Archäologie 76.2 (1986): 205-212

External links
The Stele of the Vultures in the Louvre (https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl01012179
4)
 Text of the inscriptions on the Stele of the Vultures in: Kramer, Samuel Noah (2010). The
Sumerians: Their History, Culture, and Character (https://books.google.com/books?id=iY9xp
4pLp88C&pg=PA310). University of Chicago Press. pp. 310–312. ISBN 978-0-226-45232-6.

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