Animal-Shaped Amulet: Leaping Bull
Unknown · Jemdet Nasr period, circa 3000 BC
A bull caught in mid-leap, carved from a piece of limestone barely longer than a finger. The animal's legs are tucked and stretched as if it were running or jumping, and the compact silhouette, with its curved back and lowered head, gives the small stone a real sense of movement. Turn your attention to the smoothed surfaces and the simplified anatomy: the sculptor kept only what was needed to make the bull recognisable, and the piece was meant to be held, worn or hung rather than looked at from a distance.
Amulets of this kind belong to the Jemdet Nasr period, around three thousand BC, when the first cities of southern Mesopotamia were developing writing and administration. Animal figures in stone served as personal charms and sometimes as stamp seals, their flat undersides carved with a simple design. The museum attributes this one to Mesopotamia on the basis of its style, since it came without a recorded findspot, and it was purchased in nineteen thirty-two. The bull, symbol of strength and fertility, would remain one of the favourite animals of Mesopotamian art for the next three thousand years.
Did You Know? Many animal amulets of this period doubled as stamp seals, with a pattern cut into their flat base.
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