Main content
Ancient Mediterranean + Europe
Course: Ancient Mediterranean + Europe > Unit 2
Lesson 6: Babylonian- Babylonia, an introduction
- Ancient Babylon: excavations, restorations and modern tourism
- The Babylonian mind
- The Law Code Stele of King Hammurabi
- Hammurabi: The king who made the four quarters of the earth obedient
- Law Code of Hammurabi
- Ishtar gate and Processional Way
- Ishtar Gate
- Map of the world
- Towers of Babel
- The "Queen of the Night" relief
- Kassite Art: Unfinished Kudurru
- Neo-Babylonian
© 2023 Khan AcademyTerms of usePrivacy PolicyCookie Notice
The "Queen of the Night" relief
This large plaque is made of baked straw-tempered clay, modeled in high relief. The figure of the curvaceous naked woman was originally painted red. She wears the horned headdress characteristic of a Mesopotamian deity and holds a rod and ring of justice, symbols of her divinity. Her long multi-colored wings hang downwards, indicating that she is a goddess of the Underworld. Her legs end in the talons of a bird of prey, similar to those of the two owls that flank her. The background was originally painted black, suggesting that she was associated with the night. She stands on the backs of two lions, and a scale pattern indicates mountains.
The figure could be an aspect of the goddess Ishtar, Mesopotamian goddess of sexual love and war, or Ishtar's sister and rival, the goddess Ereshkigal who ruled over the Underworld, or the demoness Lilitu, known in the Bible as Lilith. The plaque probably stood in a shrine.
The same goddess appears on small, crude, mould-made plaques from Babylonia from about 1850 to 1750 B.C.E. Thermoluminescence tests confirm that The "Queen of the Night" Relief was made between 1765 and 45 B.C.E.
The relief may have come to England as early as 1924, and was brought to the British Museum in 1933 for scientific testing. It has been known since its publication in 1936 in the Illustrated London News as the Burney Relief, after its owner at that time. Until 2003 it has been in private hands. The Director and Trustees of the British Museum decided to make this spectacular terracotta plaque the principal acquisition for The British Museum's 250th anniversary.
© Trustees of the British Museum
Want to join the conversation?
"Thermoluminescence tests confirm that The "Queen of the Night" Relief was made between 1765 and 45 B.C.E."
I have heard of Carbon Dating tests to determine the age of an artifact, but what is a Thermoluminescence test and how does it work?(31 votes)
Thermoluminescence is used for primarily for pottery or other kinds of. It measures the last time that the pottery was heated, so when it was fired. Without going too in-depth, the pottery accumulates a type of radiation from the time it was fired and that can be measured to determine how long it has been since then. The same technique can be used on other materials, like lava, to date them as well. This method is useful when there is no biological material (which you need for Carbon-14 Dating) to test.(47 votes)
Why did people back then make symbols and statues? Was it a way of communicating or a symbol of their feelings?(3 votes)- People back then did the same as we do now. They sought to capture their fears desires and dreams and put them in a real medium. So statues of their favourite gods. Drawings and carvings. Songs and poetry and stories around the campfire while the demons howled into the night sky. This is the essence of art. These are the very foundations of society. This is what lies at the heart of humanity. They may have lived a long time ago but their thought processes were the same as ours. They sought to explain and inform, they sought to make sense of their experience. Symbols and statues...the real created from the unreal.(14 votes)
- When I first saw her, she struck me as looking similar to an Indian deity. Is there any possibility one civilization learned the art form from the other?(5 votes)
Not so much the art form (though that has been the case with other civilizations) but the gods could have been sort of transferred, through trade, war, and other contact. A very interesting thing to look into! Another thing I might add: some groups thought that other gods might exist, it was a question of whose gods were the most powerful, if that makes sense. If two countries warred against each other, the country who won was the one that had stronger gods. The countries might adopt each others gods, to get more of the gods on their side. So, it could be that in war Sumerian or Indian gods were adopted by one side or the other.(7 votes)
Is there a difference in the two images "The Queen of the Night"? I was wondering because they're the same but they're jus different colors . Do the colors mean something?(2 votes)
The colored image is a reconstruction. The original plaque was colored, but that color wore off over time. The reconstructed image on the right is a representation of what the plaque would have originally looked like when it was colored. The first paragraph of the article states that the background may have been colored black because the goddess was associated with the night. I haven't been able to find any information about the other colors used on the plaque.(12 votes)
How was the color scheme of the tablet of the goddess known?; Were there chemical traces of the natural pigments used?(6 votes)- The plaque was original painted on red so what happend ?(3 votes)
Most likely over the last couple thousand years, the paint degraded and either faded, or chipped and fell off.(5 votes)
What does baked straw-tempered clay mean? Is the straw mixed in with the clay, somewhat like adobe bricks?(2 votes)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temper
--Given that information perhaps the straw was specifically mixed in during that process.(2 votes)
How do we know it was originally painted in red?(2 votes)
I would like to know the power source of the fiery furnance mentioned in Daniel3:19,21-22 in the bible. What technology did the babylonians use to produce so much heat?(1 vote)
Wow, man. From the Queen of the Night Relief to the book of Daniel. That's quite a leap. The book of Daniel, even though found in the Bible, is not history, neither is it prophecy, it's story. Things in stories don't ever have to have happened. You might just as well ask "how did the eggs and ham get green in the Dr. Seuss book?"(2 votes)
- The article states that the Relief was reconstructed and recolored into a form approximating how it originally was. How do we know that those colors are the correct ones? Where does that knowledge come from, and what makes it academically sound rather than just guesswork?(1 vote)
3:19