Susa, Iran
Paris, Louvre Museum (Sb 47 and Sb 9099)
Diorite; H 88, W 55
Akkadian period - Kingdom of Manishtusu (2269-2255 BC)
 
Lower half of a standing statue of the Akkadian king Manishtusu, represented in life-size. Found in Susa, it bears an Elamite inscription, added by the king Shutruk-Nahhunte in the 12th century BC, in which the king speaks about his victory over the city of Akkad and the deportation in Elam of this statue.
 
The remains of the statue shows a standing figure, with the hands joined under the chest, in devotional attitude, and wearing a long, bell-shaped skirt. The skirt is decorated with horizontal and vertical fringes ending in small tufts, which, together with the oblique, naturalistic and asymmetrical wrinkles of the cloth, animates this almost perfectly truncated cone-shaped structure. In this piece we can recognize the power of tradition besides the Akkadian stylistic innovations. (AL)