Philip Jones
University of Pennsylvania, Penn Museum, Department Member
- Ancient Near East, Anthropology of Food, Assyriology, Institutions, Sumerian & Akkadian literature, Ancient History, and 19 moreAncient Mesopotamian Religions, Sumerian Religion, Cuneiform, Hellenistic History, Akkadian, Sumerian, Religious Studies, Sumerology, Mesopotamian Archaeology, Ancient Near Eastern Religions, Royal ideology in the ancient Near East, Ancient Near Eastern Languages, Ancient Near Eastern History, Ancient Near East (Archaeology), Mesopotamian Religions, History of Religion, Mesopotamia History, Neo-Babylonian period, and Sumerian Languageedit
The statuettes commonly referred to as “Ram Caught in a Thicket” (2500 BC) may well be associated with what is known from later texts (2nd millennium BC) as the (daily) determining-of-the-fates ritual that occurred at sunrise. Symbolic... more
The statuettes commonly referred to as “Ram Caught in a Thicket” (2500 BC) may well be associated with what is known from later texts (2nd millennium BC) as the (daily) determining-of-the-fates ritual that occurred at sunrise. Symbolic elements (tree, rosette, leaf, possible mountain), and motifs (quadruped facing a tree) occur in other media—glyptic, musical instruments—and their meaning informs the unique com-bination of elements found in these two statuettes. It is proposed that the statuettes are offering stands. The composition as a whole represents a sacred landscape rather than a charming genre scene. It is likely that the statuettes were associated with the daily ritual of the determining of the fates, which would push the later attestations of that ritual and the cosmological view behind it back to the mid-third millennium BC.
Research Interests: Sumerian Religion, Near Eastern Archaeology, Iconography, Assyriology, Mesopotamian Archaeology, and 11 moreAncient Religion, Women in the ancient world, Mesopotamian Religions, Ancient Near East, Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East, Archaeology of Ritual, Sumerology, Ancient Near Eastern Religions, Animals, Royal cemetery at Ur, and Archaeology and Art History
The Warka Vase is an iconic artifact of Mesopotamia. In the absence of rigorous botanical study, the plants depicted on the lowest register are usually thought to be flax and grain. This analysis of the image identified as grain argues... more
The Warka Vase is an iconic artifact of Mesopotamia. In the absence of rigorous botanical study, the plants depicted on the lowest register are usually thought to be flax and grain. This analysis of the image identified as grain argues that its botanical characteristics, iconographical context and similarity to an archaic sign found in proto-writing demonstrates that it should be identified as a date palm sapling. It confirms the identification of flax. The correct identification of the plants furthers our understanding of possible symbolic continuities spanning the centuries that saw the codification of text as a representation of natural language.