Statuette of Gudea
Three years ago the native Arabs of Tello discovered a group of remarkably fine statuettes in low ground on the western side of Tablet Hill, mound V on the plan of de Sarzec, where Captain Cros found a small headless statuette of Gudea in 1903. The head, however, had been previously found by de Sarzec, and was joined to the torso by Leon Heuzey. A photograph of this statuette is published on plate I of the Revue d'Assyriologie, vol. vi. The monuments recovered by the Arabs from the temple of the god Ningishzida in the Tablet Hill are curiously enough all statuettes. All, with the exception of one, which is published in this communication, were illegally transported out of Iraq, and fortunately one was secured by the Louvre, where it rightfully joined the magnificent group of Gudea statues in the national museum of France. This is a fine alabaster statuette of Ur-Ningirsu, son of Gudea, 46 centimetres high, in standing position, and headless. It is reproduced in Monuments et Memoires publié par L' Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, tome xxvii, Statuettes de Tello, par F. Thureau-Dangin, plate ix; the circular base is sculptured in relief with two files of four figures each, which meet just below the feet of the patesi of Lagash.