Temple Mooring Peg

Mooring Peg showing King Gudea

Loaned From: The British Museum

Bronze

2200 -2100 BCE

West Asia

The British Museum

Details

Culture/Civilisation

Ancient Mesopotamia

Theme

The Great River Civilisations outside India: Mesopotamia, Egypt and China

Subtheme

Mesopotamia – The Land of the Two Rivers

Case Title

Mesopotamia - gods, temples and kings

Display Location

Coomaraswamy Hall

Findspot

Girsu, Iraq

Measurements

20 x 5.5 x 4.5 cm

Accession Number

1908,0417.2

Description

Temples to their many gods stood at the heart of Mesopotamian society.

Mesopotamians imagined a watery abyss underneath the earth. Temple foundations were secured by bronze mooring-pegs, symbolically connecting the worlds of gods and humans.

A divine figure kneels to ask the great god Ningirsu to protect the temple.

Related Objects

Temple foundation tablet

Stone foundation tablet - Dedication by Gudea to commemorate restoration of the Temple of Nindara

Figure carrying basket with soil

Certificate of incorporation in the form of a basket carrier

Fragmentary portrait of Gudea

Praying man

Ashokan Edict No. IX