The Ashmolean

Iraq: Navel of the World

Worship [3]

In the third millennium BC it was common for worshippers to commission small statues of themselves, to worship perpetually in front of the statue of their god. The statuette on the right, from c.2500 BC is typical: the worshipper with large, adoring eyes, holds his hands in an attitude of prayer and wears a sheep-skin skirt. At the bottom are the heads from two similar statues: a bearded man, and a woman with an elaborate hairdo.
[1919.65, 1946.265, 1946.266]

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