Head of Gudea, ensi of Lagash (2144–2124 BCE): Art, History and Details

Head of Gudea, ensi of Lagash (2144–2124 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Gudea was an ensi or ruler of the southern Mesopotamian city-state of Lagash in the 22nd century BCE. Archaeologists have found over 30 complete and fragmentary statues of his likeness and over 2,400 inscriptions mentioning his name. Gudea was both a political and religious leader, and most of the statues depicting him were housed in temples.

Object facts

• Title: Head of Gudea, ensi of Lagash
• Date: 2144–2124 BCE
• Culture: Mesopotamia, Iraq, Lagash (Tello)
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: dolerite
• Dimensions: Overall: 21 x 17.8 x 20.4 cm (8 1/4 x 7 x 8 1/16 in.)
• Collection: Near Eastern Art
• Department: Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art
• Accession number: 1963.680

A detail from the museum

This head was originally on the body of 1963.154; however, they were separated in 1974 when it was realized they did not belong together.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Scheil, Vincent. "Nouvelles Statues de Gudea." Revue d'Assyriologie et d'Archeologie Orientale, volume 27, no. 4 (1930): 161-166. pl. V.
• Parrot, André. Tello; Vingt Campagnes de Fouilles (1877-1933). Paris: A. Michel (1948): 167-169.
• Shepherd, Dorothy G. “Gudea, Patési of Lagash.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 50, no. 9 (1963): 243–248.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.