Figure 4. Votive objects (to scale) dated to the Early Dynastic period (2900-2350BCE). Left to right: Votive calcite bowl from Nippur, 2600-2350 BCE (MMA 59.41.11, Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0 1.0 Universal); Stone votive statue from Tell al’ Ubaid of an individual named Kurlil, 2600-2500 BCE (BM 114207, courtesy of the British Museum); Votive clay figurine of a sheep from Ur, 2600-2350 BCE (B17201, Courtesy of the Penn Museum)

Memories for Life: Materiality and memory of ancient Near Eastern inscribed private objects

The Memories for Life project, funded by the Swedish Research Council, was initiated in 2017 to study the hundreds of objects dedicated by non-royal individuals to the divine in the ancient Near East. These objects, inscribed in the cuneiform script in the Akkadian and Sumerian languages, inform us about worship practices and dedicatory traditions spanning…

Tracing motives for votive offerings in Greek and Roman votive inscriptions

Laura Aho is a doctoral student at the University of Helsinki (Finland), where she is working on a dissertation on Greek and Roman votive inscriptions. In this post she shares some aspects of her research to-date, as well as discussing some of the challenges that she has been facing. The problem with deducing motives for…

The Votives Project

Offerings to the Gods from Antiquity to the Present

Tag Archives: inscriptions

Memories for Life: Materiality and memory of ancient Near Eastern inscribed private objects

Tracing motives for votive offerings in Greek and Roman votive inscriptions