Foundation Peg, Probably of King Shulgi (2094-2047 BCE)

The modeled upper body of a nude male figure forms the top portion of this copper peg. The figure’s arms are raised with bent elbows to gracefully support a basket with a ropework base that rests upon his bald head. The figure’s clean-shaven face is broad and has rounded features, with large, almond-shaped eyes, a prominent nose, small closed lips, and large, protruding ears. A line around the torso marks the upper hem of a kilt. From this line down, the figure swells at the hips and then tapers to a blunt point forming a smooth uninscribed peg. This object portrays a king carrying a basket of clay or other building material during his ritual participation in the construction of a royal building or temple, which is typical of copper and bronze “canephore” or “basket bearer” pegs. A late third millennium BCE text (Cylinder A) of the ruler Gudea of Lagash provides a detailed description of his active role in the construction of the Ningirsu Temple at Girsu, during which he transported material in a sacred basket that he carried “on his head like a crown” (1). Although it is not inscribed and its original context is unknown, stylistically this peg is nearly identical to others that are securely dated to the reigns of the Ur III kings Ur-Nammu (2112-2095 BCE) and Shulgi (2094-2047 BCE) (2). Many of these pegs were found by archaeologists in boxes built into the mudbrick foundations of temples and palaces, often at the corners of buildings and flanking gateways. They were frequently accompanied by the remains of offerings or auspicious material such as beads, stone chips, and date pits, and some pegs were found with remnants of fabric clinging to them. Many boxes also contained remnants of what may have been wooden pegs as well as stone or metal tablets in the form of plano-convex bricks. The inscriptions on the tablets and on a number of pegs record the royal building of the relevant structure for the sake of a deity (3). The resemblance of foundation figure pegs and their associated tablets to traditional building materials illustrates their role as architectural devices. Although foundation pegs had no structural significance, their presence would have contributed symbolically to the strength and security of important buildings in Sumerian cities. NOTES: 1. See D. O. Edzard, Gudea and His Dynasty, The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Early Periods 3.1 (Toronto, 1997) 68-88, text 1.1.7, lines 24-26. 2. See O. W. Muscarella, Bronze and Iron: Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1988) 305-13; and R. S. Ellis, Foundation Deposits in Ancient Mesopotamia (New Haven, 1968) 63-69. 3. See, for example, a five-line Ur-Nammu inscription on the material from the foundation boxes of the Enlil Temple at Nippur in D. Frayne, Ur III (2112-2004), The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia, Early Periods 3.2 (Toronto, 1997) 59-61, text 1.1.24. Amy Gansell