The Standards of Mesopotamia in the Third and Fourth Millennia BCE

Depictions of standards form a fundamental part of the visual repertoire of ancient Mesopotamia. These depictions can offer great insight into the thought world of the peoples with which they are associated, because different standards were associated with different deities, and could be found in multiple contexts. In this book, Renate Marian van Dijk-Coombes examines the standards which are represented in the visual culture of the third and fourth millennia BCE, covering the Uruk, Early Dynastic, Akkadian and Neo-Sumerian periods. She analyses each of the different standards, how they looked, what they symbolised and the context(s) in which they were found. In addition, developments and changes in the representation of these standards are traced across the periods under discussion.