Ancient Near Eastern Art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v ...

pie buildings was cleared before construction
and the soil specially prepared. One
customary practice, dating from as early
as the mid-third millennium B.C., was the
burial of foundation figures at selected
points beneath the temple. A nude male
figure supporting a box (fig. 7) may have
originally served this purpose. Foundation
figures often end in a tapered naillike
form so that, in a sense, they secure
the building in place. This is true of many
Sumerian figures (see fig. 45) and of a
particularly striking example (see fig. 35),
probably from northern Mesopotamia,
topped with a snarling lion.
The conquest of the Near Eastern
lands in the fourth century B.C. by
the Greek ruler Alexander of Macedon
brought foreign craftsmen in considerable
numbers to the Near East, and the
architecture soon reflected their presence.
Stone was used more frequently for buildings
of importance, and Greek capitals,
columns, and moldings began to trans-
form the appearance of buildings. A
bearded male head of Parthian date (first
to second century A.D.) provides evidence
of western influence in the rather
realistic style and the function of the
piece as a waterspout (fig. 8). The person
portrayed, however, has the moustache,
long, loose locks of hair, and prominent
nose of a Near Easterner, probably an
Iranian. The head was originally glazed,
and the beard still retains traces of iron
pyrites. P.O.H.
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