Foundation figures

Foundation Figure in the Form of a Peg Surmounted by the Bust of King Ur-Namma, Neo- Sumerian, Ur III period, reign of Ur-Namma, ca. 2112–2094 B.C.

Introduction

Foundation figures were ritualistic works of art from the Early Dynastic period that were used in the construction of ancient Mesopotamian temples. Stylized as anthropomorphic nails, foundation figures were symbolically used to mark the grounds of a temple. These nails/pegs were either hammered around the foundation of the temple, along with an inscribed tablet, or they were buried in a clay boxes under the foundation of the temple. Typically, the pegs were created to represent either the deity that the temple was honoring, or the king that orchestrated the construction of the temple. Many of the pegs discovered stand about a foot tall and show a clear attention to detail. It is believed that foundation figures were used for solely ritualistic purposes. This is because they were not meant to be seem by the public, yet still show a high level of detail and aesthetic thought.

History

The foundation figures of the Early Dynastic period are part of a long history of Near Eastern practices concerning sacred boundary marking. The earliest foundation deposits containing sculptural pegs are believed to have originated in Sumer in the third millennium B.C.E. The practice lasted at least until the rule of Rim-Suen, and Amorite king of Larsa who ruled from 1822 to 1763 B.C.E. Few foundation deposits have been discovered and documented well enough to shed light on their importance to the Early Dynastic Sumerians, but thorough archeological records for deposits found beneath temple foundations in Ur, Uruk, and Nippur illuminate how the ancient Sumerians used these figurines. The deposits discovered at those sites contained statuettes and tablets inside baked brick boxes which had been buried at strategic locations marking the perimeter, doorways, and paths of circulation inside the temples.

       Though the foundation pegs from Ur, Uruk, and Nippur were discovered under temple foundations, some scholars believe they served a different purpose prior to burial. The Early Dynastic Sumerian kings may have originally used the pegs as surveying pegs in a ritual boundary-marking ceremony to signify that the enclosed land was the dedicated site of a future temple. The pegs were later buried under the temple’s foundation, along with plano-convex tablets that represented bricks, as a link between the ruler who built the temple and both the gods and future rulers who might uncover the deposits in the course of future building projects. The discovery of foundation pegs and their accompanying deposits help archaeologists determine the nature of sites being excavated. Without locating a foundation deposit, it can be difficult to establish if the structure was a temple or an elite dwelling. Most scholars consider foundation figures to specifically delineate sacred boundaries, and their presence helps archaeologists identify temples.

       Foundation pegs should differentiated from the clay nails used to fasten votive plaques to temple walls, which were also common in Early Dynastic temples. While votive plaques may have been used to mark doorways, they served as a different kind of boundary marker than foundation pegs. Foundation pegs were made of metal, typically solid cast copper. The nails used to affix votive plaques to the walls were instead typically made of clay. Pegs and nails were also placed in different locations. As previously stated, pegs were originally used as surveying markers and later buried under the temple foundations. Nails were instead designed to affix plaques vertically to temple walls.