Gudea

Neo-Sumerian king (r. c. 2100-2070 b.c.e.)

• Born: c. 2120 b.c.e.
• Birthplace: Sumer (now in Iraq)
• Died: c. 2070 b.c.e.
• Place of death: Probably Lagash, Sumer (now Tello, Iraq)

Gudea ruled Lagash, rebuilt many temples there, and recorded transport of distant materials from as far away as what would now be Lebanon and the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea and the southern Persian Gulf.

Early Life

Almost nothing factual is known of his early life, so the origins of Gudea (gew-DAY-ah) are obscure. If inscriptions are any help, this possibly autobiographical statement on his Eninnu temple cylinder (Gudea Cylinder A 3:6-8) could shed some light: “I have no mother, you are my father. My seed you implanted in the womb; in the sanctuary you gave birth to me.” Because his god Ningirsu is being addressed as a sort of divine ancestor, negating or superseding human ancestry, this interpretation is difficult. One idea suggests he was a temple orphan or descended from poor priests, especially if his birth in the sanctuary is to be taken literally. The autobiographical detail may be later propaganda to legitimize dubious family origins. Gudea instead may have come from a noble family like a member of the awelum in later Babylon (although this is a non-Sumerian word) or a member of a priestly caste like the mushkenum in the contemporary state of Eshnunna. While he is later noted as en-priest, this title is also concurrently translated along with ensi, kingship, and the title of governor.

On the other hand, priesthood is partly extrapolated from his likely literacy and later record of a dearth of military conquests, although these are speculative claims. Any putative background in youth or early adulthood as a priest, then, is unknown, although it is conceivable that his ultimate rise or claim to the throne of Lagash could have been partly a result of the religious reforms or religious ascendance he brought. His name Gudea means “the called one” or “the chosen one,” and his Eninnu temple hymn inscription makes a pun on his name by repeating the prayer phrase “His call having been heard.”

Life’s Work

Whatever his past, Gudea became a great king (ensi in Sumerian) or god-king (“god of his city”) and priest who ruled the independent state of Lagash after the collapse of the empire of Akkad (Agade) and its last great king, Naram-Sin. The survival of Lagash as an independent Sumerian state between the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers of southern Mesopotamia after the fall of Akkad, when nearly all other Mesopotamian cities were in chaos or engaged in conflict, may even have been because of Gudea.

Most information on Gudea comes from his inscriptions in cuneiform language texts, many of which are found on clay tablets, such as the clay Eninnu cylinders A and B, both of which are about a foot high. These cylinders describe his building a temple (Eninnu) to the Sumerian god Ningirsu. Ceramic foundation cones inserted at the base of temples during their dedication or consecration are another source of information on Gudea. The other primary source of details about Gudea’s life and reign derive from his multiple statues of himself, which deserve special consideration.

These dozen diorite statues present Gudea as either seated or standing in formal Mesopotamian monumentality, with hands clasped together in authority. A convention in Mesopotamian art is depicting ruling males as bearded, but a beard is absent on Gudea in surviving statues, almost unique to his representation of kingship. Although speculative, several explanations have been offered. He may have been a eunuch. He may have instituted a new beardless convention that lasted only during his period, because male beardedness is representative for Mesopotamian rulers before and after him as a tradition for several millennia. Priesthood might also be inferred from the fact that some of his statues show his head to be shaved. Otherwise, he usually wears a caplike headdress with spirals or curls that scholar Michael Roaf suggests could be fur. It might be that these many statues—rare in late third millennium b.c.e. esopotamia—are even propaganda to solidify both his claimed divine kinship as well as kingship of Lagash.

Another interesting sculptural feature is that prior to Gudea, soft stone like calcite or a form of alabaster is more typical as the suitable medium for statuary. His near total use of diorite for these formal sculptures of highly artistic craftsmanship is remarkable for several reasons. First, southern Mesopotamia did not have a prior tradition or even a known craft for working hard stone, because it is an alluvial region where stone is so scarce that clay or mud brick is the dominant medium for architecture as well as for writing. Second, this use of diorite is fascinating because the source of this variety of hard igneous stone is the Horns of Makran at the south end of the Persian Gulf located at the straits of Hormuz (currently Oman), a then-distant region about 450 miles (725 kilometers) to the south. The workmanship of such hard stone may have necessitated a grinding agent, such as pulverized emery or emery powder, whose use seems to be known at contemporary and nearby Ur III from research conducted by Wolfgang Heimpel, which shows emery chips to be embedded in lead blocks for hand use. Little else would have sufficed to achieve the high polish these Gudea statues demonstrate. While Gudea may not have pioneered the use of emery, sources for emery in ancient Mesopotamia are known only in Armenia, far to the north over the Taurus and Caucasus Mountains, or even further away to the west on the Aegean island of Naxos—both very distant from southern Mesopotamia. An ability to bring luxury materials over a long distance attests to the wealth of Lagash. Thus, there are many reasons that these sculptures of Gudea are remarkable and even enigmatic.

The other important feature of Gudea’s administration is his building or rebuilding of fifteen temples in the city of Girsu, the chief city of Lagash. This in itself suggests a religious reformer or a zealous and pious king. Known primarily from the two clay cylinders A and B, the most important of these temples, as mentioned, is the Eninnu structure to Ningirsu, the patron city god of Girsu.

Gudea claimed on the cylinders that the god Ningirsu gave him the plan for the temple in a dream, and his record therein of transporting materials reveals geographical breadth possibly rivaled before only by Akkadian examples. His workers and materials are recorded as coming from fairly diverse lands—not necessarily immediate neighbors—such as Elamites from Elam (to the east across the Tigris river, currently Iraq and Iran), Susians from Susa (east in the foothills of the Zagros Mountains, currently in Iran), and crafters, carpenters, and timber from distant Magan (currently Oman) and the very distant Meluhha (currently Pakistan), identified with the Indus River and Harappan civilization, possibly mediated through Magan.

Temple building materials listed on this record include cedar from “a path cut into the Cedar Mountains,” in what he claims was the first exploitation of timber in “river transport like snakes” down the Euphrates River, as well as likely Aleppo pine brought by the same route. The use of these two timber sources as well as the Euphrates seems to have occurred contemporarily in Lebanon and Syria, which were then greatly distant, more than four hundred miles. He also claims to have been the first to exploit sources for stone quarrying and transport of blocks, repeating his “first to cut a path there” formula. He includes on his source list “red stones from Meluhha”—likely to be carnelian—as well as the Kimash copper mountain that brought him gold dust and silver ore, possibly also from Meluhha. Other imported materials include tin and lapis lazuli (although prior Mesopotamian importation of this distant stone source from current Afghanistan predates Gudea by around a millennium). His claim of pioneering certain quarries is consistent with his use of Makran diorite. Gudea appears not to have been militaristic or oriented to conquest—engaged in successful conflict only with Elam and Anshan—and his greatest successes seem to be greater as a ruler, trader, and builder. It is likely that Gudea and his dynastic successors made Lagash a stable and wealthy state.

Although previous Sumerian trade occurred at Ur and Sargon, and subsequent Akkadian rulers also had wide trade connections, Gudea claims several firsts, as noted above, for cedar timber and actual quarrying. As Akkad was an empire stretching over much of Mesopotamia and Lagash was only a small southern state of aggregate cities and land, it makes Gudea’s accomplishments stand out even more. Thus, from his accounts and considering at least the materials necessary for sculpture, Gudea appears to be very sophisticated in utilizing international craftsmanship, trade, and source materials for the late third millennium b.c.e.

Sumerian epigraphy and language study has also benefited from Gudea’s inscriptions. The listing of Gudea’s titles and administrative actions are numerous from these clay cylinders, clay foundation cones, and the stone statues. Other examples from the above-mentioned clay cylinders alone include the following. His relationship with the gods is shown in these two statements: “Guardian deities of all the countries whose command is like an overflowing water, the one who would stem it is carried off.” (Gudea Cylinder B 2:1-2); “The ruler being wise and eloquent, kissed the ground before the deities, with supplication and prayer, in humility, he prostrates.” (Gudea Cylinder B 1:12-14). His building under the gods’ patronage and the practice of making bricks is seen in the following lines: “He struck the brick mold and dropped the brick under the sun to dry.” (Gudea Cylinder A 19:3); “He laid the foundation, set the walls into the ground.” (Gudea Cylinder A 20:26).

Significance

Part of Gudea’s significance is due to his political and religious reinvigoration of Sumer after the Akkadian period of conquest, assimilation, and then decay. Another part of his importance can be found in the detailed accounts of Sumerian religious structure and ritual as well as elements of Sumerian cosmology and the names of deities and their domains. He would have been considered the primary patron of the arts of architecture and sculpture. His sculptures of himself are also fairly unique in that no other ruler of ancient Sumer has so many (twelve) surviving statues of himself, nearly all in hard diorite stone. While this may seem egoistic, there may have been a need for justifying his reign or authenticating his claims to divine kingship. On the other hand, these sculptures are in many ways very important for helping to establish the canon of Sumerian art, particularly sculpture. By his own account, he would qualify as a reformer and zealous builder of temples. Another aspect of his importance can be seen in the geographical breadth of his accounts with materials brought via far-flung trade from all over Mesopotamia and even portions of the eastern Mediterranean coast.

Under Gudea it is most clear—possibly from Akkadian precedents—that even small Sumerian states are not just city-states but incorporated several cities and surrounding countryside. Thus, he is considered responsible for the golden age of Lagash, when this state rivaled Ur in Sumer, which became prominent under the kingship of Ur-Nammu (c. 2112-2095 b.c.e.) in Ur’s Third Dynasty. His account of building Eninnu, the temple of the god Ningirsu, is the second longest extant Sumerian text up to that date, with more than 1,350 lines inscribed in cuneiform on two clay cylinders about a foot high, thus providing priceless material for reconstructing temple administration and, more important, this phase of the written Sumerian language. That Gudea could be called an administrative genius and possible artistic innovator for bringing Lagash into such prominence is not merely because of the selective nature of the archaeological record, which preserves some names and buries others in oblivion.

Bibliography

Edzard, D. O. Gudea and His Dynasty. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1997. References many of Gudea’s achievements and examines the inscriptions he left in various epigraphic media, such as clay and stone. Most of the above Sumerian translations are from Edzard.

Klein, J., and Y. Sefati. “Word Play in Sumerian Literature.” In Puns and Pundits: Word Play in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Literature, edited by S. B. Noegel. Bethesda, Md.: CDL Press, 2000. This scholarly article lists quite a few of Gudea’s inscriptions as word plays and clever puns.

Roaf, M. Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia and the Ancient Near East. New York: Facts on File, 2000. Describes Gudea’s achievements in the light of other contemporary Mesopotamian rulers, especially his trade contacts and temple building.

Saggs, H. W. F. Civilization Before Greece and Rome. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1989. Presents the anthropomorphizing nature of Gudea’s religion, as seen from temple inscriptions—particularly a hybridized Ningirsu, who was described by Gudea as part bird in contrast to humanlike divinity—as a new development in Mesopotamia. Also examines Mesopotamian trade in its broader contexts.