Stele of the protective goddess Lama

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The stele bears an image of a goddess, her horned headdress unmistakable as she stands with arms raised to her left side. Her hair is pulled back tightly, with a single lock cascading down over her shoulder, and her elaborate five-tiered skirt features 17 lines of cuneiform writing that adorn it beautifully. The "interceding goddess" seen here with her arms upraised in prayer is a familiar figure from earlier Mesopotamian art. In this era, she acts as an intermediary between mortals - often the king - and high-ranking gods or goddesses. Here, she's identified by the inscription as Lama, the protective goddess who safeguards and shields. This stele was erected to honor the goddess Inanna "for the life of" the Kassite king Nazi-Maruttash. The Sumerian language used in the inscription is an ancient tongue that had fallen out of use centuries ago. It also contains a warning: anyone who tampers with or removes the stele will face a curse. This particular stele was one of a pair thought to have been set up in the sacred Eanna precinct, known as "House of Heaven," at Uruk, where Inanna was revered and worshipped. Its counterpart, located in the Iraq Museum, Baghdad, faces in the opposite direction and features the same inscription. The Eanna precinct had served as a place of worship for nearly two millennia before being renovated during the Kassite period. It's possible that these stelae were deliberately crafted to draw upon the archaic image of the protective goddess, which had largely fallen out of favor after the Old Babylonian period. They may have also utilized an inscription in a long-abandoned language to increase their effectiveness at the ancient temple.