Origin
The Ancient World : The Middle East : Pre-Sargonid Period

Summary
The religious ideas of the Sumerians of the Early Dynastic IIIA period are shown with great vigor, dynamism and charm in numerous objects from Ur. Lagash, sites in the Diyala river valley and from al-Ubaid. Many fragments of the facade and lintel of a temple devoted to Ninhursag were found in the rubble at the site of al-Ubaid by Sir Leonard Woolley in 1922. One of the relief scenes depicts the process of milking and butter making by priests of Ninhursag. Ninhursag, one of the mother goddesses of Sumerian religion, gives birth, nourishes, and sustains life.

Description
During excavations in 1922 at the ruin mound of al-Ubaid, near Ur in southern Iraq, H.R. Hall and Sir Leonard Woolley discovered the remains of a circular structure, within which the platform of a temple was preserved. The temple had apparently been dismantled and large portions of picture friezes, that had adorned its facade, were found in the debris. Four registers of animal and bird friezes have been reconstructed. An inscription of king A-annipadda informs us that he built and dedicated the temple to Ninhursag, the mother goddess, wife of Enlil and mother of Ningirsu. The frieze of milking and butter making was made of shell and limestone figures, set into a background of black bituminous shale which had first been coated in bitumen.
As the scene is preserved in its restored state it shows a reed and rope cattle byre from the middle of which two cows are exiting. On the right side of the byre a man is milking a cow, holding a tall narrow jar between his legs to receive the milk. A muzzled calf is tied to the cow in front.

On the left side of the byre we see the process of making butter. All of the men in these scenes are bald, clean shaven, and naked from the waist up, indicating that they are priests of the temple. The priest on the left reaches his hand into the neck of a large storage jar, while next to him two men are engaged in pouring liquid through a strainer into a vessel on the ground. On the right of these two a priest sits on a stool next to the byre, with a huge pottery storage vessel between his knees. This jar and the strainer have distinctive rope moulding decoration around them. Pottery vessels of the type illustrated on the frieze were found by the archaeologists in a contemporary cemetery nearby.

Cultural Context
The ruin mound of al-Ubaid, near the mound of Ur in southern Iraq, harbored a town smaller than Ur during the period of the Royal Tombs. The remains of the temple of Ninhursag built there by king A-annipadda give us a vivid picture of the warm, bucolic worship of the mother goddess. Although the frieze yields much practical information on a main aspect of domestic life: milking and butter making plus illustrations of ceramic vessels used in these processes which provide archaeologists with invaluable information on the actual uses of ceramics that are found in excavations, the scene also provides important insights into the religious life of Sumerian life of that period (2600-2500 B.C.).

Ninhursag, "Lady of the Mountain," was also called "Mother of the Gods," and "Mother of Children." She was claimed for a mother by many Mesopotamian rulers, as part of the royal ideology of divine engenderment. As with Inanna, and much later goddesses such as the Greek Artemis, she was a "mistress of the animals." Human and animal life are interconnected in the cycle of inter-dependance and fertility, of life and death. The goddess is the central symbol of life, abundance and fertility. Just as the cows give their milk for the sustenance of humankind, so the goddess suckles humans. The Stele of the Vultures relates how Eannatum was engendered by Ningirsu, the son of Ninhursag, and suckled by Ninhursag.

The temple of Ninhursag at al-Ubaid attracted large numbers of burials to its precincts. In these graves Woolley found the same kinds of ceramic vessels as are pictured on the frieze. Very possibly the desire to be buried in that place, accompanied by the objects of its cult practices, indicates a belief in the efficaciousness of Ninhursag's power beyond the grave.

Image Sources
Same as in short form.

References
Hall, H.R. and C. Leonard Woolley. Ur Excavations, Volume I. Al-Ubaid. A Report. Publications of the Joint Expedition of the
British Museum and of the Museum of the University of Pennsylvania to Mesopotamia. London: Oxford University Press, 1927.
Lloyd, Seton. The Archaeology of Mesopotamia. Rev. Ed. London: Thames and Hudson, 1984.
Moortgat, Anton. The Art of Ancient Mesopotamia. London: Phaidon Publishers, 1969.