Burney Relief
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The Burney Relief, named after a former owner, is the common term for an early 2nd millennium BC (ca. 1950 BC) Mesopotamian (Babylonian, not Sumerian or Assyrian, as sometimes described) terracotta relief of a nude winged goddess-like figure with eagle's talons, flanked by owls and perched upon supine lions. Apart from its distinctive iconography, the piece is noted for its relatively large size (ht. 49 cm) and consequent high relief; though figurative terracotta relief plaques are a feature of the Old Babylonian period, they are normally of much smaller dimensions. Though in private ownership for many years, the relief was well known through its former on-loan exhibition in the British Museum in London. In 2003 it was bought by the Museum as part of its 250th anniversary celebrations and renamed "Queen of the Night", and since then has toured museums around Britain, with pagans in some locations being allowed to organize religious ceremonies in her honour. The figure has been identified with the Sumerian Kisikil-lilla-ke of the Gilgamesh epos, and, somewhat improbably, with 7th century BC Babylonian Lilitu. Otherwise, she has been identified as the goddess Inanna (Sumerian) or Ishtar (Babylonian) in the myth of her visit to the Underworld, but the Underworld symbolism is now taken to suggest the most likely identification to be the goddess Ereshkigal, Inanna's sister and Queen of the Underworld.
The piece has sometimes, on stylistic grounds, been regarded as not genuine, but scientific testing now appears to confirm its authenticity. A very similar relief dating to roughly the same period is preserved in the Musée du Louvre (AO 6501).
[edit] References
- F. Davis, "A puzzling "Venus" of 2000 B.C.: a fine Sumerian relief in London". The Illustrated London News. 13 June 1936 (issue 5069) 1047.
- D. Opitz, "Die vogelfüssige Göttin auf den Löwen". Archiv für Orientforschung 11 (1936-37), 350-353.
- E.D. Van Buren, "A further note on the terra-cotta relief". Archiv für Orientforschung 11 (1936-37), 354-357.
- H. Frankfort, "The Burney Relief". Archiv für Orientforschung 12 (1937-39), 128-135.
- Th. Jacobsen, "Pictures and pictorial language (the Burney Relief)". In: M. Mindlin, M.J. Geller and J.E. Wansbrough, eds., Figurative Language in the Ancient Near East, 1-11. London: University of London School of Oriental and African Studies.
