Explicit, Sex-Themed Visual Imagery as Rule-Based Representations in the Ancient World

One of the consequences of the 2003 US invasion of Iraq was the theft, from the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad, of a five-thousand-year-old piece of decorated pottery, the Uruk vase (Figure 3.1). This piece of art was fashioned in ancient Sumer, one of the earliest civilizations that flourished in the “cradle of civilization,” the territory between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in “Mesopotamia.” That name means “the land between the rivers” in Greek. This region is known as the “cradle of civilization” because it gave mankind its first writing system (cuneiform); its first governments, empires, codification of law (the Code of Hammurabi); and the wheel. Additionally, the peoples of the region laid the foundation for mathematics, astronomy, and medicine. The Uruk or Warka vase, which archeologists had excavated from the site of the ancient city-state of Uruk, was one of the most significant archeological discoveries of Mesopotamia. It is one of the earliest known pieces of “narrative relief sculpture.” It shed light on the worldview and culture of the people of that city-state (Haywood, 2012). Fortunately, the vase was recovered and returned to the Iraqi National Museum.