The Warka Head This woman’s head was sculpted in white marble at Uruk before BCE . The eyes and eyebrows would probably have taken lapis lazuli (blue) and shell (white) and bitumen (black) inlays, respectively. There is a groove along the top of the head, perhaps for an ornament. This is a world-famous piece of sculpture, admired for the delicate modelling of the woman’s mouth, chin and cheeks.
And it was modelled in a hard stone that would have been imported from a distance. Beginning with the procurement of stone, list all the specialists who would be involved in the production of such a piece of sculpture. The earliest cities in Mesopotamia date back to the bronze age, c. BCE .
Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin. Using bronze meant procuring these metals, often from great distances. Metal tools were necessary for accurate carpentry, drilling beads, carving stone seals, cutting shell for inlaid furniture, etc. Mesopotamian weapons were also of bronze – for example, the tips of the spears that you see in the illustration on p.
. ACTIVITY Discuss whether city life would have been possible without the use of metals.