Ancient Artists Picture Offerings on Cult Stands
Cult stands by themselves tell us little about how they were used, but depictions of them in seal impressions, reliefs and paintings tell us a great deal.
Babylonian cylinder seal impressions—created by rolling seals across soft, moist clay—reveal that some stands could be used in more than one way, even by the same people.
Cylindrical stands, for example, were employed by the Babylonians for at least two different kinds of offerings. One seal leaves an impression (above) that shows two worshippers who have stacked three cakes on a cylindrical stand, center, as a cereal offering to the seated deity. Another seal impression (below), this one from the Akkadian period (c. 2360–2180 B.C.) depicts a worshipper, left center, pouring a libation into a cylindrical stand. A second worshipper, far left, carries a pail.
The offering in the latter seal impression is being made before the goddess Ishtar, right center, who raises her arm in greeting as she sits on a throne decorated with crossed lions. A mace, a pole with globes attached, and an axe with a curved blade spring forth from each of her shoulders. Behind her stands a minor goddess.
Egyptian tomb paintings attest to the use of cylindrical stands in Egypt. The stands, seen between the figures (above) and in the lower right corner (below), have table-like tops and are heaped with a variety of offerings, including plants and animals.
House-shaped stands also appear in various rituals shown on Babylonian cylinder seals. In one seal impression, smoke rises from a chalice on the lower level of a house-shaped stand, left center, while an animal’s head, possibly that of a ram, rests on the upper level. A goddess, probably Ishtar in one of her forms, leads by the hand a worshipper who is carrying a goat as an offering.
Agricultural rituals also were performed on house-shaped stands. One impression from a cylinder seal shows a worshipper pouring a libation over a house-shaped stand. Two or three cakes or loaves, part of a grain or cereal offering, rest on the stand’s upper level. The weather god rides in a chariot drawn by a winged lion-griffin. Standing on the lion-griffin’s back, a goddess bears bundles of grain.
Three cakes also appear on a house-shaped stand in another cylinder seal impression. But this time the cakes sit on the lower level instead of the upper one, showing that either level could be used for this purpose.
A Babylonian relief demonstrates that two stands could be used together. In this scene, King Gudea, who ruled Mesopotamia in the third millennium B.C., pours a libation into a cylindrical stand from which a small tree is growing. The stand apparently serves as a kind of cultic flower pot and sits on the lower level of a house-shaped stand. Several cakes are stacked on the upper level.
The reconstructed limestone stele of Ur-Nammu, Sumerian king of Ur (c. 2250–2233 B.C.), portrays a similar ritual. The second register from the top has two nearly symmetrical scenes in which the king is pouring a libation before a seated deity. In both scenes, a palm tree grows from the cylindrical stand receiving the libation.
