Foundation Figurine with Stone Tablet

From the third millennium BCE the construction of important buildings was marked by the depositing of documents of various forms and sizes, mostly hidden in the fabric of the building. These identify the purpose of the building, its name and often also the reason for building it. Mentions of personal names, locations and deities are of great value, as it is only through these that such a find can be identified and a precise dating made possible. The copper figure with stone tablet is a special form, combining a cone-shaped divinity (recognizable by the pair of horns) with a 'brick' carried on its head. On the underside is the main inscription of the builder. It names, in Sumerian, twelve buildings erected by Prince Enmetena of Lagash. The figurine, which, like a cone, anchors the stone in the wall, bears a short version of the same inscription. The spiritual effect of the text, then, can be understood as binding the stone above the figure into the wall, and for this it need not be visible. The script is clearly related to the kind of cuneiform writing found on clay tablets, the signs being cut in part in the same way, but the archaic character of early Mesopotamian stone inscriptions is still evident.