Ville royale de Suse VI: Les Figurines de Suse, vol. I: Les Figurines humaines, IVe-IIe millenaires.

• Author: Carter, Elizabeth

This volume describes more than 1400 terra-cotta human figurines from Susa dating from the prehistoric period to the end of the second millennium B.C. A second volume is planned to deal with the 800 or more figurines dated from the first millennium B.C. until the seventh century A.D. The volume has two goals: the publication of the Louvre collection of essentially unprovenienced human figurines and the analysis of excavated pieces from the Ville Royale A and B excavations of R. Ghirshman. Between prehistoric times and late in the third millennium B.C., human figurines seem to have gone out of fashion in both Mesopotamia and Susiana (p. 16). The introduction of the mould at the end of the third millennium B.C. and a relatively simple process of production (pp. 233-34) appear to have caused figurines and figurine-plaques to flourish again in Susiana and Mesopotamia (p. 36). The popularity of plaques and figurines may also be the result of increased access to images that were once restricted to the elite (Cholidis 1992: 193-94; Auerbach 1994: 355). Spycket argues that since these humble baked-clay objects are part of local popular culture, they should reflect native Susian traditions more closely than contemporary official art (pp. 3, 227).

Some minor comments and corrections to the catalogue are listed below.

1. The earliest figurines modeled in clay from Susiana are the T-shaped figurines from Tepe Tulaii (Hole 1974: fig. 15: e-k) dated to the Archaic Susiana Period (ca. 5500 B.C.), not the painted "torsos" (p. 7 and nos. 1 and 2) of Middle Susiana date (ca. 5000 B.C.).

2. On pp. 37 and 63 "Shakkanakku" has been used for "Sukkalmah."

3. There is a distinct possibility that some of the bowlegged lute players (e.g., nos. 1238-39; 1262-67) were meant to be hermaphrodites (cf. Ghirshman 1964: 6).

4. The strong eye contact of the figures portrayed on the bed-plaques (e.g., nos. 1339-1449) appear to relate, not to the divine, but to the human sphere. On the other hand, two plaques (nos. 1362-63) where the female figure looks outward and less involved might well depict a human-divine relationship.(1) Full discussion of the plaques and their possible uses as votive gifts as well as their posited links with the sacred marriage ritual are found in Cooper (1974) and Cholidis (1992:172-83).

After the catalogue, the second section of the volume presents the author's major conclusions on the function and chronology of the figurines, an informative discussion on the processes of production, and finally a brief excursus on the possible reasons for the apparently intentional breaking of many of the Elamite figurines.

Spycket's analysis of the excavated figurines from Ville Royale A leads to a two-part division of the material into...