A Lapidary's Gift

The Neo-Summerian Offering Stand was most probably used in a similar fashion to the one depicted above. All information about the stand is derived from the inscription on the stand translated by Benjamin Foster.

It reads: "To Gestinanna, Lady of the Jar's Mouth, for the Life of Gudea, ruler of Lagas, Zikalamma the lapidary has dedicated this." This inscription reveals several things of note. First, the lapidary who shaped this offering stand by hand was named Zikalamma. Second, the ruler of Girsu when the lapidary created the Offering Stand was Gudea. This dates the Offering Stand firmly in the Third Dynasty of Ur. Finally, the inscription tells us that the Offering Stand was dedicated to Gestinanna. This type of inscription was a common formula for inscriptions during the Neo-Sumerian Empire. This suggests that the lapidary who created the Offering Stand might not have been a highly educated scholar, but instead could have been simply following the prescribed pattern for inscriptions.

Zikalamma makes reference to the fact that Gestinanna was the goddess of wine ("Lady of the Jar's Mouth"). In addition, she was the goddess of cold seasons as well as a divine poet and an interpreter of dreams. This is of note because Gestinanna was a minor deity. As such, it would not be normal to praise or worship her as a private deity. Further, wine was not a luxury good in Mesopotamia at the time. Therefore Zikalamma was making a claim about an attribute of the gods that Gudea personally identified with: drinking. This is of note because it informs us of the values of the culture that produced the object of study.

The piece was made using slow setting gypsum. Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral that was often used in buildings during the Neo-Sumerian Empire. The process of molding the Offering Stand probably involved heating the gypsum and mixing it with a stabalizer such as sand. Then, after it had set for a period of time, the gypsum could be manipulated and inscribed. Mistakes in craftmanship as well as spelling mistakes reveal the offering stand to be crafted by hand, probably by the lapidary who dedicated the offering stand to Gestinanna. Interestingly, this process of heating gypsum was quite sophisticated for the time. This implies that the lapidary who created the Offering Stand was quite skilled in the technical manufacture of offering stands. 

Text Sources

Foster, Benjamin F. "A Lapidary's Gift to Gestinanna." Iraq 40 (1978): 61-65