Women & Girls in the Ancient World/ PART 3: The Diyala Statues

The Diyala statues
The Edgar and Deborah Jannotta Mesopotamian Gallery, the Oriental Institute Museum 

How did the ancient Mesopotamians worship their gods? What do excavated artifacts tell us about religion in ancient Mesopotamia? What roles did women play in Mesopotamian religious life?
Dr. Kate Grossman, one of the presenters in the Women & Girls in the Ancient World: Their History, Our History May event, is taking us to ancient Mesopotamia. In this post, we will look at the Diyala statues, which are displayed in the Edgar and Deborah Jannotta Mesopotamian Gallery at the Oriental Institute Museum. Dr. Grossman shares her insights into the relationships between these artifacts and ancient religious life (especially that of women) in Mesopotamia.

Male and Female Statues. Gypsum. Early Dynastic period (ca. 2750-2500 B.C.). Iraq, Diyala Region.
Excavated by the Oriental Institute.

Women & Girls in the Ancient World/ PART 2: Cosmetic Containers in Ancient Anatolia

Women and Girls in the Ancient World: Their History, Our History returns! In this post, we are excited to present ancient Anatolian cosmetic containers, exhibited in the Henrietta Herbolsheimer, M.D. Syro-Anatolian Gallery at the Oriental Institute Museum.


Cosmetic Containers
Henrietta Herbolsheimer, M.D. Syro-Anatolian Gallery, Oriental Institute Museum 

Beauty and fashion were significant for women and men in the ancient Near East. High-ranking women in particular did their best to preserve and valorize their beauty. The high quality of clothing and jewelry being worn can be seen in surviving artistic representations. Hairstyle and makeup also played an important role in the lives of ancient Anatolian women. Evidence for hairstyles is found in the archaeological record, but information about makeup is difficult to decipher from artifacts. What can we infer about ancient cosmetics?

The pictures below are ancient cosmetic boxes.

OIM A26986 – Chatal Höyük, 1^st millennium BCE

 

OIM A12634 – Tell Judaidah, 1^st millennium BCE

Women & Girls in the Ancient World/ PART 1: Spindle Whorls in Ancient Anatonlia

Women & Girls in the Ancient World: Their History, Our History is a celebration of women and girls in the ancient world at the Oriental Institute on May 5, 2013. Four female archaeologists – Megaera Lorenz, Debora Heard, Kate Grossman, and Benedetta Bellucci–brought their expertise and knowledge by showing the visitors artifacts and presented the stories of mothers, daugthers, queens, and common women of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, Anatolia (Turkey), and Nubia (northern Sudan and southern Egypt) in the galleries of the Oriental Institute Museum. This post and the upcoming posts will recap a few of the objects selected by the four archaeologist speakers in this family program. The posts also include additional student and classroom activity suggestions for your teaching.

Spindle Whorls
Henrietta Herbolsheimer, M.D. Syro-Anatolian Gallery, Oriental Institute Museum

  

What is a spindle whorl?
 
A spindle whorl is a pierced object, circular in section, used on a spindle to weigh it down and help the spinning process. In the ancient world in general, spinning was done by hand, with a spindle that was nothing more than a rod with a spindle whorl.

Spindles were usually made of wood. The spindle whorl, though, was often made of harder, heavier material, such as ceramic, stone, or bone. Since the wood has deteriorated and disappeared, this is what we find in excavations: little discoid objects called spindle whorls.

A spindle whorl can have different shapes, as you see in the photograph. Eight spindle whorls dating to the first millennium B.C.E.

Walking through the Syro-Anatolian gallery, you can also see a beautiful little spindle whorl bearing an inscription in Phoenician script:  

"This produces spun (?)yarn."

On Teaching the Art of Predynastic Egyptian Pottery

A three-part demonstration of how to make a predynastic Egyptian style pot presented by Brian Zimerle, Preparator of the Oriental Institute Museum.

On Teaching Scribes in Mesopotamia

Professor of Hittite and Anatolian Languages Theo van den Hout at the University of Chicago tells us about who scribes in Mesopotamia and Anatolia were.

This video was made for the Oriental Institute Museum special exhibit "Visible Language: Inventions of Writing in the Ancient Middle East" (September 28, 2010 through March 6, 2011). Visit our website for more videos and download the exhibit catalog.