page_title: Eshnunna
section_title: Square Temple of Abu
hierarchical_section_title: Eshnunna / Archaeology / Square Temple of Abu
caption_attribution_description: English: Limestone male head of a statue from From the Single-Shrine at the Temple of Abu, Tell Asmar (ancient Eshnunna), in modern-day Dyala, Iraq. Excavated by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago in 1933 CE. Early Dynastic III, c. 2400 BCE. The Sulaymaniyah Museum, Iraqi Kurdistan. The head is on the Oriental Institute's list of Lost Treasures from Iraq after April 2003. However, it has been housed at the Sulaymaniyah Museum since October 1961, as a permanent loan from the Iraqi Museum.
context_page_description: Eshnunna was an ancient Sumerian city and city-state in central Mesopotamia. Although situated in the Diyala Valley north-west of Sumer proper, the city nonetheless belonged securely within the Sumerian cultural milieu.
  The tutelary deity of the city was Tishpak.
context_section_description: During the Early Dynastic period, the Abu Temple at Tell Asmar (Eshnunna) went through a number of phases. This included the Early Dynastic Archaic Shrine, Square Temple, and Single-Shrine phases of construction. They, along with sculpture found there, helped form the basis for the three part archaeological separation of the Early Dynastic period into ED I, ED II, and ED III for the ancient Near East. A cache of 12 gypsum temple sculptures, in a geometric style, were found in the Square Temple; these are known as the Tell Asmar Hoard. They are some of the best known examples of ancient Near East sculpture. The group, now split up, show gods, priests and donor worshippers at different sizes, but all in the same highly simplified style. All have greatly enlarged inlaid eyes, but the tallest figure, the main cult image depicting the local god, has enormous eyes that give it a "fierce power".
caption: Head of a statue from Tell Asmar, excavated by the Oriental Institute in 1933. The Sulaymaniyah Museum
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