The Standards of Mesopotamia in the Third and Fourth Millennia BCE

An Iconographic Study

by Renate Marian van Dijk-Coombes

Book cover: The Standards of Mesopotamia in the Third and Fourth Millennia BCE

Extent: 444 pages

Publisher: Mohr Siebeck

Subjects: Ancient Near East, Art & Art History, Religious Studies

Series: Orientalische Religionen in der Antike

Series volume number: 52

Language: English

Hardback (Published)

(April 2023)

ISBN: 9783161614651

9.45 x 6.65 inches

Price: $180.00

In stock

Standards are represented in the visual culture throughout Mesopotamian history. Renate Marian van Dijk-Coombes examines the standards of the third and fourth millennia BCE and details which standards are recorded in the visual repertoire over time.


Depictions of standards form a fundamental part of the visual repertoire of ancient Mesopotamia. These depictions can offer great insight into the thought world of the peoples with which they are associated, because different standards were associated with different deities, and could be found in multiple contexts. In this book, Renate Marian van Dijk-Coombes examines the standards which are represented in the visual culture of the third and fourth millennia BCE, covering the Uruk, Early Dynastic, Akkadian and Neo-Sumerian periods. She analyses each of the different standards, how they looked, what they symbolised and the context(s) in which they were found. In addition, developments and changes in the representation of these standards are traced across the periods under discussion.

  • By (author) Renate Marian van Dijk-Coombes