The ''Ram in a Thicket'' is a pair of figures excavated at
Ur, in southern
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to the north, Iran to the east, the Persian Gulf and K ...
, which date from about 2600–2400 BC. One is in the
Mesopotamia
Mesopotamia ''Mesopotamíā''; ar, بِلَاد ٱلرَّافِدَيْن or ; syc, ܐܪܡ ܢܗܪ̈ܝܢ, or , ) is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the ...
Gallery in Room 56 of the
British Museum
The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...
in London; the other is in the
University of Pennsylvania Museum
The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology—commonly known as the Penn Museum—is an archaeology and anthropology museum at the University of Pennsylvania. It is located on Penn's campus in the University City neighb ...
in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
, USA.
Discovery
The pair of rams would more correctly be described as
goats
The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of th ...
, and were discovered lying close together in the 'Great Death Pit' (PG 1237), one of the graves in the
Royal Cemetery at Ur
The Royal Cemetery at Ur is an archaeological site in modern-day Dhi Qar Governorate in southern Iraq. The initial excavations at Ur took place between 1922 and 1934 under the direction of Leonard Woolley in association with the British Museum and ...
, by
archaeologist Leonard Woolley during the 1928–9 season. Woolley was in charge of the joint venture between the British Museum and the
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
, which began in 1922. The figure's partner is in the
in Philadelphia.
Woolley named the figure the 'Ram in a Thicket' after the story of the
binding of Isaac
The Binding of Isaac ( he, , ), or simply "The Binding" (, ), is a story from Genesis 22 of the Hebrew Bible. In the biblical narrative, God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, on Moriah. As Abraham begins to comply, having bound Isa ...
in
Genesis
Genesis may refer to:
Bible
* Book of Genesis, the first book of the biblical scriptures of both Judaism and Christianity, describing the creation of the Earth and of mankind
* Genesis creation narrative, the first several chapters of the Book of ...
22.13, in which God orders
Abraham
Abraham, ; ar, , , name=, group= (originally Abram) is the common Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father of the special relationship between the Je ...
to sacrifice his son
Isaac
Isaac; grc, Ἰσαάκ, Isaák; ar, إسحٰق/إسحاق, Isḥāq; am, ይስሐቅ is one of the three patriarchs of the Israelites and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. He was th ...
, but at the last moment an angel stops him and reveals a ram caught in a thicket by its horns, which Abraham sacrifices instead.
The figure
![Penn Museum -](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Penn_Museum_-_%22Ram_in_a_Thicket%22_.jpg)
When it was discovered, the figure had been crushed flat by the weight of the soil above it and its inner wooden core had decomposed. This wooden core had been finely cut for the face and legs, but the body had been more roughly modelled. Woolley used wax to keep the pieces together as it was excavated, and the figure was gently pressed back into its original shape. The ram's head and legs are layered in
gold leaf which had been hammered against the wood and stuck to it with a thin wash of
bitumen, while its ears are
copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
which are now green with
verdigris
Verdigris is the common name for blue-green, copper-based pigments that form a patina on copper, bronze, and brass. The technical literature is ambiguous as to its chemical composition. Some sources refer to "neutral verdigris" as copper(II) ...
. The horns and the fleece on its shoulders are of
lapis lazuli, and the body's
fleece is made of shell, attached to a thicker coat of bitumen. The figure's
genitals
A sex organ (or reproductive organ) is any part of an animal or plant that is involved in sexual reproduction. The reproductive organs together constitute the reproductive system. In animals, the testis in the male, and the ovary in the female, a ...
are gold, while its belly was silver plate, now oxidised beyond restoration. The tree is also covered in gold leaf with gold flowers.
The figure stands on a small rectangular base decorated with a mosaic of shell, red limestone and lapis lazuli. The figure was originally attached to the flowering shrub by
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...
chains around its fetlocks, but these chains have completely corroded away. It is thought that the two figures originally faced each other as
confronted animals
Confronted animals, or confronted-animal as an adjective, where two animals face each other in a symmetrical pose, is an ancient bilateral motif in art and artifacts studied in archaeology and art history. The "anti-confronted animals" is the op ...
, and that the tubes going up from their shoulders were used to support something, probably a bowl or similar object.
References
* Leonard Woolley, ''Ur: the First Phases'', Penguin Books, London and New York (1946)
* C.L. Woolley and P.R.S. Moorey, ''Ur of the Chaldees'', revised edition, Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press, (1982)
* H.W.F. Saggs, ''Babylonians'', The British Museum Press, London (1995)
* D. Collon, ''Ancient Near Eastern Art'', The British Museum Press, London (1995)
* C.L. Woolley and others, ''Ur Excavations, Vol. II: The Royal Cemetery'', The British Museum Press, London (1934)
External links
The ''Ram in a Thicket'' on the British Museum websitePenn Museum's ''Ram in the Thicket'' Collection highlight
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ram in a Thicket
Sumerian art and architecture
Middle Eastern sculptures in the British Museum
Gold objects
Individual hardstone carvings
Goats in art
Animal sculptures
Sculpture of the Ancient Near East
Ur
Ancient art in metal