The Babylonian Woman’s Image in Scenes on Pottery Plaques during the Ancient Babylonian Era: A Study of Unpublished Samples from the Iraqi Museum

Abstract

Babylonian women played important roles in the Mesopotamian civilization and participated with men in all daily life activities. Like agriculture, trade, industry, and housework, in addition to being a mother and educator, she held various administrative, religious, and social positions in the royal court, temple, and all state institutions. The Mesopotamian artist was not isolated from the role undertaken by the Babylonian woman, so he executed the most wonderful artistic scenes with different contents in various styles and methods, as the depiction of women in the various arts of Mesopotamia dates back to prehistoric times, but the arts of the Babylonian era represent the pinnacle of what art has reached in terms of detailed realistic embodiment, as the artist wanted to express the status of women in the most beautiful image of them. Based on that, the importance of our choice of the research topic and the selection of a group of pottery tablets from the Iraqi National Museum as models for study came, in order to present an archaeological human study with a descriptive and analytical artistic method that includes clarifying information on the selected artistic pieces in terms of (shape, raw material, dimensions, artistic style followed in the artistic achievement), in addition to studying (the shapes and their appearance, their clothes, their decorations, their function, their role), as it became clear after studying the artistic scenes that depicted the Babylonian woman, the sculptor’s interest in the proportions and anatomy of the body and interest The female organs, as the sculptor made it a symbol of ideal beauty, and this indicates that the sculptor possessed a high artistic taste and a great ability to express realism, whose events stem from truth. The study models were distinguished by combining two or more artistic styles, dominated by realism, and the sculptor gave formal embodiment an important role in its artistic components, as he began to search for an embodiment that would glorify women and give them a role in religious rituals and ceremonies. The sculptor was not satisfied with the realistic tendency, but was able to achieve vitality and movement in his works and his depiction of the Babylonian woman.