Kaunakes of a Large Sumerian Prayer Statue

Culture: Sumerian

Period: around 2500 B.C.

Material: Alabaster

Dimensions: 14 cm high

Price: Sold

Ref: 6348

Provenance: German collection Ertel 1970s. Thence with Antikenkabinett Bernd Gackstätter with the inventory number 3215. On 26 October 2000 sold to the private collection of Peter Hollander (1931-2014), Amsterdam, Netherlands. Since then in a family estate. With the original invoice and original certificate from the Antikenkabinett.

Condition: A large, very finely worked out fragment.

Description: Large alabaster fragment of a Sumerian prayer statue. Preserved is the kaunakes, the Mesopotamian tufted skirt from the 3rd millennium BC, which was worn for ritual purposes. The garments consisted of a woolen fabric that was modeled as a sheepskin, in which wool tufts were woven in layers one above the other, or loops were pulled from the weft thread during weaving, so that a pile fabric was created. The kaunakes of this prayer statue is particularly finely worked. The conical skirt is structured by six encircling rows of tufts that expand downwards. Each individual tuft is decorated with three vertical, deep notches. The upper body is broken at the base . The smoothed bottom of the skirt and the leg stumps have been preserved. See for reference the Sumerian praying statues with kaunakes in Pierre Amiet “Die Kunst des Alten Orient”, fig. 288-293, Munich 1977. Mounted.