Dancers in the Louvre: The Iranian and Cypriot CollectionsAuthor(s): Anne-Elizabeth Dunn-VaturiReviewed work(s):Source: Near Eastern Archaeology, Vol. 66, No. 3, Dance in the Ancient World (Sep., 2003), pp.106-110Published by: The American Schools of Oriental ResearchStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3210913 .Accessed: 17/01/2012 11:51

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

The American Schools of Oriental Research is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extendaccess to Near Eastern Archaeology.

http://www.jstor.org

In these examples of painted pottery from Tepe Sialk (left) and Tchechme Ali (right) the dancers are arranged in the touching or handholding postures typical of the period.

Dancers

in the

Louvre The Iranian and

Cypriot Collections

By Anne-Elizabeth Dunn-Vaturi

M usic and dance are well represented among the Louvre's collections. In 1935, Marguerite Rutten studied music and

dance scenes housed in the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, and music at the Louvre was the subject of a catalogue dedicated to Michel Laclotte, Director of the museum, when he retired in the 1990s (de Margerie 1994). As these stud- ies suggest, the pictorial information for dance is

This detail from an alabaster wall plaque found on the Acropolis of Susa, probably dedicated to the goddess Ninhursag during the Early Dynastic II period (ca. 2650-2550 BCE), depicts a banquet on the

upper register with a man and a woman both seated and holding goblets. The woman is also holding a harp. The two nude figures in the center, one in the semi-kneeling posture and one with his legs partly bent, are interpreted as dancers, but their attitude could be a clumsy rendering due to the central perforation. The artisan was

probably unfamiliar with this type of manufacture because perforated plaques were mostly incised at Susa.

less ample than that for music. Nevertheless, it is evident that dance was commemorated in almost

every form of artistic expression, and that it was

primarily religious in nature. Unfortunately, the exact context of most of these objects is unknown, as are the precise events described on them.

106 NEAR EASTERN ARCHAEOLOGY 66:3 (2003)

During the Middle Elamite period (second half of the second millennium BCE), alongside the vast quantity of nude female figures, is a common male type: a small nude individual who plays a long-necked lute and dances in a squatting position. He recalls the Egyptian god Bes, also depicted in this position, and the "bow-legged dwarfs" associated with fertility symbols on Mesopotamian cylinder seals.

Dancers of Ancient Iran The Louvre's Iranian collection offers a better sampling of

dancing scenes than other areas of the Near East. Most of the material on display in the permanent exhibition of the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art arrived at the Louvre thanks to the important archaeological work conducted in Iran by French teams before the Second World War. These excavations were the direct result of a visit to Persia in 1889 by Jacques de Morgan, who obtained from Nasr-ed-Din Shah a concession for the French to conduct archaeological excavations throughout the country. The nucleus of the Iranian section in the Louvre is the site of Susa, in southwestern Iran, excavated by a French expedition from the end of the nineteenth century until the Islamic revolution in 1979. Several cylinder seals, terracotta figurines, a stone relief and a metal vase portraying dancing figures are reported from Susa. A selection of these objects were part of the exhibition "The Royal City of Susa" held in the Metropolitan Museum in 1992.

In early antiquity, dancing scenes were mostly depicted on pottery vessels and cylinder seals. Painted pottery was the favored medium for Iranian art during the Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods. The earliest dance motifs known from Iran are of groups of figures in stereotypical postures organized in a circle around bowls from western Iran (Tepe Musiyan, Khazineh, Tepe Giyan), the Iranian Plateau (Tepe Sialk) and northern Iran (Tchechme Ali). The scenes are almost always the same for every potsherd: rows of identical figures, with straight or partly bent legs, with hands joined, looking in the same direction. The effect of the rhythm is given by the equidistant arrangement of the figures. The role of dance for the cycle of the agrarian year is very important within the context of Neolithic society (Garfinkel 2003).

Two examples of wrestling figures. The copper pin on the right, from Bactria and dating from the beginning of the second millennium BCE, is decorated with a pair of wrestlers. Below is a figurine from Cyprus that

features two interlocked wrestling males and offers a unique pyramidal view from all angles.

I F

I

During the third millennium BCE, banquet scenes are the most common subject depicted on the wall plaques hung in Mesopotamian and Susian temples. Music often accompanied the feasts. Terracotta figurines, a reflection of popular art, are among the most original of Susa's artistic productions since the fourth millennium. The figurine-plaque created from a single-face mold became widespread from the beginning of the second millennium. Music constitutes one of the major themes treated on them.

Iranian workshops produced prestigious metal vases decorated with relief motives in the second millennium BCE. A fragment of a Middle Elamite vase offers a unique, but incomplete, scene. Figures with raised arms were either chasing away evil spirits from the bed of a sick man, or mourning a relative. This vase, like the pottery of earlier periods, evidently lends itself to this kind of circle composition. The use of the relief technique and a dark material emphasizes the dramatic attitude of the exorcists or mourners, if that is what they are-the interpretation is tentative, as the attitude of raised arms may have other meanings.

NEAR EASTERN ARCHAEOLOGY 66:3 (2003) 107

*' / A ̂ -< I .

t! - -* ?-- -

I c Ic

' * vtI l,p

108 NEAR EASTERN ARCHAEOLOGY 66:3 (2003)

Three examples of ring-dancer ceramic pieces from Cyprus. All three feature three human figures, in dancing pose, rising from a round

plaque. Two feature a tree in the center while the third has no central element. This scene is generally described as a cult scene associated with a dove divinity, probably the Great Goddess of Cyprus.

Wrestling is sometimes classified as a dance because the combat could be rhythmic (Matousova-Rajmova 2001). Wrestling is depicted on seals from Susa, as are acrobatic figures and other kind of dancers. One copper pin from Bactria, dating from the beginning of the second millennium BCE, is decorated with a pair of wrestlers. This pin is different than the numerous zoomorphic pins from the Louvre collection as humans are rarely represented.

Another unique pin housed in the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art is surmounted by two dancing females. It was found in a Proto-urban tomb at Tello in southern Mesopotamia.

No dancing scenes from the Persian period are housed in the Louvre, but a Sasanid masterpiece is the last evocation of dance in the Ancient Near Eastern galleries. Among the fine vessels of the Sasanians, the silver gilt vases, such as the one shown on the facing page with four dancing females, are well known.

Dancers of Ancient Cyprus Representations of the dance occur in Cyprus from the end of

the second millennium BCE onwards. Groups of ring-dancers appear not only in terracotta but also in limestone. The usual type is with the figures fixed on a round, flat plaque, arranged in a ring round a tree or a musician. Sometimes the musicians were not placed in the center, but formed part of the ring, with alternating dancers and musicians. One complete specimen of dancers around a stylized tree-a cylindrical trunk and a conical bunch of leaves or branches-was found at Chytroi and is dated to the fourth century BCE or earlier. In the Louvre, there is an exceptional group from Idalion and dated to the late seventh or beginning of the sixth century BCE. The object consists of a circular plaque in the center of which there is a columnar stand with birds, often referred to as a dovecote. Around the periphery of the disc are

NEAR EASTERN ARCHAEOLOGY 66:3 (2003) 109

Anne-Elizabeth Dunn-Vaturi is Scientific Assistant for the three departments of Antiquities in the Louvre. She has written several texts (about music, games and toys, among others) for a multimedia set produced by the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art and has taken part in the opening of new galleries devoted to ancient Iran. She Anne-Elizabeth recently published the final report Dunn-Vaturi

of C. F A. Schaeffer's excavations at Vounous (Cyprus) in 1933 (Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology, CXXX, Jonsered: Astroms, 2003).

three human figures with arms extended horizontally; a fourth dancer is now missing. At the base of the stand there are a lyre- player and a cauldron supported on a high conical foot. This scene is generally described as a cult scene associated with a dove divinity, probably the Great Goddess of Cyprus. The musician has been associated with Kinyras, the mythical king and high priest of Aphrodite, who was also famed as a lyre player.

Various instruments-lyre, pipe, tambourine-accompanied sacred dances. Among the offerings made in the sanctuaries of the fertility goddess, musicians and figurines of women with upraised arms predominate. Many figurines of women with their arms upraised were found in the temple of Aphrodite at Old Paphos. These may represent either the goddess herself or her worshippers. Raising the arms is a well-known gesture of worship, and so it is not certain that these figures are dancers.

Whereas representations of wrestlers are well known in Greek art, they are considered unusual in the coroplastic art of Cyprus. Most examples of groups of dancers were found in sanctuaries (e.g., at Ayia Irini, Ayios Iakovos, Pyla, Achna and Arsos), which, together with the discovery of a paved ring at the sanctuary of Apollo Hylates at Kourion, confirm the sacred character of the ritual. A structure dating from the fourth century BCE was found at the site of the sanctuary of Apollo, with evidence for trees or bushes within the ring. This sanctuary has also produced a number of figurines-musicians, figures wearing bull's masks or anthropomorphic masks-and a model of a sacred tree.

Some idea about religious customs can be learned from the objects found in sanctuaries and tombs. Votive masks, for example, mirror ritual practices involving real masks-some of which may be connected with funerary rituals-performed in ancient Cyprus.

Note 1. I would like to thank Annie Caubet, Curator of the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, who suggested that I undertake this article and I would like to thank Agnes Benoit, Curator in charge of the Iranian collection in the Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art, for her

permission to write it. Finally, I owe a special debt of gratitude to Caroline Florimont (Musee du Louvre) for her drawings.

References de Margerie, A. (ed.)

1994 Musiques au Louvre. Paris: Reunion des Musees Nationaux. Garfinkel, Y.

2003 Dancing at the Dawn of Agriculture. Austin: University of Texas.

Matousova-Rajmova, M. 2001 Dance in Mesopotamia. Archiv Orientalni 69: 21-32

Rutten, M. 1935 Scenes de musique et de danse (Musee du Louvre-Antiquites

orientales). Revue des arts asiatiques, Tome IX: 218-24.

110 NEAR EASTERN ARCHAEOLOGY 66:3 (2003)

.?-.. . ... rr `? ? ?'

r ?? -r ?4 . r r r. r \? :S)S,.? ? ?j? ' C C ?i? -` ?- :: .I .d .

-? --??? c ?.. I -? ' rJ,?; V' r .j?L? ?iMII- '' .. c ? ?

?2 . .P 1 ,? ?C . ?; ?I

*? ? :k,

h r.- ' ' ' - :'? ??? ji .rrc/ ?\T L .\

--e ,. dre ?? .: i .. ? .. ;f

?` ; ... ,5-t?;;+;;' ?% ??

:I C ?r' rrarera r ?-r s -?? :: .. : ? I

: ?:21 . . -'--------- : .' ?

a -0 0 -6 -