Passionate about History: Votive Dress and Gendered Authority in Early Dynastic Mesopotamia: Tell Asmar and Khafajah

These Early Dynastic votive figures (ca. 2700–2500 BCE), discovered in temples at Tell Asmar (ancient Eshnunna) and Khafajah, that I photographed at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures at the University of Chicago reveal how clothing was used to negotiate gender, authority, and institutional identity in Mesopotamian religious space.

Male figure from the Early Dynastic Period of Sumer found in the Tell Asmar hoard. In Sumerian art, a full, styled beard was not just facial hair. It was a deliberate symbol of adulthood, wisdom, and high social rank. Its careful carving on a votive statue emphasized the dedicator's importance. Photographed at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (formerly the Oriental Institute) of the University of Chicago by Mary Harrsch.

Male figure from the Early Dynastic Period of Sumer found in the Tell Asmar hoard. Seated male figure in tufted kaunake representing institutional authority within the sacred space. Photographed at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (formerly the Oriental Institute) of the University of Chicago by Mary Harrsch.

Male figure from the Early Dynastic Period of Sumer found in the Tell Asmar hoard in modern day Iraq. Photographed at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (formerly the Oriental Institute) of the University of Chicago by Mary Harrsch.

Male figure wearing a fringed kilt from the Early Dynastic Period of Sumer found in the Tell Asmar hoard in modern day Iraq. Photographed at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (formerly the Oriental Institute) of the University of Chicago by Mary Harrsch.

Male figure from the Early Dynastic Period of Sumer found in the Tell Asmar hoard with shaved head and beardless, possibly a priest within the temple complex. Photographed at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (formerly the Oriental Institute) of the University of Chicago by Mary Harrsch.

Female votive figurine, Tell Asmar (ancient Eshnunna), Early Dynastic II–III, ca. 2700–2500 BCE.
One of only two female figures in the Tell Asmar votive hoard, this statue depicts a woman in a long, smooth wrap dress draped over one shoulder, hands clasped in perpetual prayer. Her restrained attire and modest presentation reflect Early Dynastic conventions for female piety and the carefully circumscribed visibility of women in public, institutional temple contexts. Photographed at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (formerly the Oriental Institute) of the University of Chicago by Mary Harrsch.

Female figure wearing a fully textured garment found in Khafajah’s Nintu Temple VII. Her more authoritative garment reflects the importance of the female deity Nintu (Ninhursag), a major goddess of fertility and creation. Photographed at the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (formerly the Oriental Institute) of the University of Chicago by Mary Harrsch.

The Tell Asmar hoard, buried beneath the Square Temple, contains more than a dozen votive figures—almost all male. The male figures are dressed in either tufted kaunakes made of sheep skin, associated with public status, office, and civic identity, or smooth, probably textile garments with long fringe at the hem, identifying them as likely legitimate temple donors whose identities were expressed through personal piety rather than public authority. The long fringe draws attention to craftsmanship rather than authority.

One male figure wearing a heavily tufted garment is seated. Posture functions as a hierarchizing device in Early Dynastic votive sculpture so this figure projects institutional authority and enduring presence within the temple. Seating is overwhelmingly a male-coded privilege in Early Dynastic public sculpture while standing conveys attentiveness and deference before the god but not authority.

Only two of the figures from the hoard are female. One woman is shown wearing a long, smooth wrap garment draped over one shoulder, her hands clasped in perpetual prayer. The simplicity and restraint of her dress visually distinguishes her from the male figures. Thus, female devotion is acknowledged but carefully circumscribed within a masculinized model of public, institutional piety.

By contrast, a female votive figure from Khafajah’s Nintu Temple VII presents a strikingly different image. She wears a long, fully tufted garment, rendered in horizontal registers and closely resembling the kaunakes more often associated with men. Rather than signaling masculinity, however, the garment’s texture and weight likely reflect the cultic context of the temple itself. Nintu (Ninhursag), a major goddess of fertility and creation, occupied a central theological position, and female presence was not marginal but foundational. In this setting, the tufted garment appears to communicate ritual authority, abundance, and generative power, rather than gendered subordination.

Seen together, these figures underscore an important point: Early Dynastic female dress was not uniform. While smooth, enveloping garments were the norm for women in many public temple contexts, other cults—especially those centered on powerful goddesses—allowed female figures to adopt visual markers of prominence usually reserved for men. Clothing, in these cases, becomes a key indicator of institutional ideology, not simply gender.

These votive statues remind us that Early Dynastic religion was as much about making social order visible as it was about devotion—and that the rules governing visibility could shift dramatically from one temple to another based on the gender of the resident deity.

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