The earliest cities in the world emerged in the region between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, the land known by the Greek name Mesopotamia. In the fertile watershed of these great watercourses, irrigation was possible, enabling small farmers to increase their productivity and the reliability of their harvests. Relieved of the need for every adult male to hunt and every adult female to gather, and no longer beholden to the migrating herds, the pastoralists of Mesopotamia were able to settle in larger groups, and had the leisure time to devote to art, administration and religious belief. While this summary is simplistic, and has recently been challenged by archaeological research that indicates it was religious gathering, not agriculture, that first encouraged humans to settle, it is evident that the changes which took place in Mesopotamia were a revolution in the way humans related to each other and their environment.

During the Early Dynastic Period, life in the Mesopotamian city-states centred on the temple, believed to be the literal home of the god. The god was believed to inhabit their cult image (a sculpture in the round), once the correct rituals had been performed. Used cult statues were interred within the mudbrick walls of the temple, helping to imbue it with spiritual significance. But Mesopotamian temples were not congregational, with access limited to priests and royalty. For the elite, then, the only way to enter the god's presence was to commission a statue of themselves, to be deposited within the temple. Depicted as full-length standing figures, with hands held together in front of the chest in a guise of ritual devotion, these figures were also believed to be inhabited by the essence of the person they represented. Whether king or (wealthy) commoner, these votive temple figures followed the same basic format. This extraordinary survival is the head of such a votive. It depicts a bald man, bare-headed, and with the characteristic squared-off Sumerian beard. Despite the wear of the ages, it is immediately obvious that the portrait is exquisitely executed, showing a mature man at the height of his powers. While the nose is missing - a common fate for ancient statuary - one can tell from the remaining bridge that it was finely proportioned. The prominent cheekbones indicate the age of the sitter and are likely drawn from his real features. The eyebrows are arched, and a slight smile (the so-called Archaic smile) dances on his lips. Stately ears, one still in fine condition, occupy much of the sides of his head. But the eye is immediately drawn to the huge empty sockets, which once would have contained eyes made from shell, basalt, obsidian or black limestone. For the Mesopotamians, the eyes were spiritually most significant. The eye has been a symbol of both good and evil from the earliest times; a window to the soul, but also a jealous observer. In the temple context, it is hypothesised that the large eyes on votive statues enabled the spirit to connect with the god, who was also depicted with oversized eyes.

The exact function of these votives is unknown. None has ever been found in situ within a temple. It appears that, at the end of their useful life, or perhaps at the decease of the commissioner, they appear to have been buried beneath the temple floor or broken up and distributed around the rooms surrounding the god's shrine. As such, it is likely that this remarkable head was separated from its body in antiquity and was meant by the Sumerian priests to be seen in this new context. An iconographically similar sculpture, surviving to its full height and with the eye inlays intact, is displayed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (40.156), and this gives a sense of the magnificence and scale of this sculpture when it was new. Nonetheless, even in its fragmentary state, it remains a striking work of clear artistic and historical importance.

References: an iconographically similar, but complete, sculpture of a similar scale is in New York (Metropolitan Museum of Art 40.156).