Missing Illustration - 9. The Archaic Cosmology of Cities: Building the Kosmos on Earth
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Query: 9. The Archaic Cosmology of Cities: Building the Kosmos on Earth
Missing Illustration
Quoted text:
…Sumerian cylinder seals whose subject matter is the construction of temples and ziggurats. Illustration 9.7 shows seals from Ischali (34/36), Kish (K1420 and K2038), and a private American collection (Brett No. 13). The Ischali seal (Amiet[1] 1951: ___ [page number(s) missing]) depicts the goddess of writing, Nisaba, holding a barag sign over a ziggurat. An elaboration of this sign appears on Kish 2038. These quadrature symbols have been interpreted as signifying a divine throne or dais, or an abstraction of a four-pointed star (Amiet[2] 1951: p. 87 and van Buren[3] 1952a: pp. 68–70). They were engraved on the bricks which rulers ceremonially laid to mark temple foundations. Perhaps the idea was to depict a brick imprinted with a star-sign and cross resembling the optical illusion created by stars “giving off rays.” Whatever its inspiration, all interpreters agree that the symbol is a celestial one.
Can you help us identify what illustration was intended here? According to the Illustration list, it should be:
“Sumerian cylinder seals showing the barag city-symbol, from Pierre Amiet,[4] Culte et Mythologie (1951), plate 132, #1791, 1787 and 1788, Plate 109 #1450, #1453 and #1454, and Plate 112, #1484. (Ischali 34/36, Kish K1420 and K2038, and Brett No. 13.)”
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For context, see also this query about the image in the Illustration list.
See also these queries asking about the sources missing links or footnotes from the Chapter 9 body:
- Ischali 34/36 (originally written here as Ischali 34/6, but we added the second 3)
- Kish K1420 and K2038
- later: K2038 again
- Brett No. 13
- ↑ Pierre Amiet, Culte et Mythologie (Paris: 1951).
- ↑ Pierre Amiet, Culte et Mythologie (Paris: 1951).
- ↑ Edith Douglas van Buren, “The Building of a Temple-Tower,” Revue d’Assyriologie, Vol. 46, No. 2 (1952a), pp. 68–70.
- ↑ Pierre Amiet, Culte et Mythologie (Paris: 1951).
