Uruk Vase

E706729

Mesopotamian artifact Sumerian artwork alabaster vase archaeological object ritual vessel

The Uruk Vase is an ancient Sumerian alabaster vessel from the city of Uruk, renowned for its early narrative relief carvings that depict religious rituals and social hierarchy in Mesopotamian art.

Try in SPARQL Jump to: Surface forms Disambiguation Statements Elicitation Referenced by

All labels observed (2)

Label	Occurrences
Warka Vase	2
Uruk Vase canonical	1

How this entity was disambiguated

This entity first appeared as the object of triple T8041695 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.

NED1 Entity disambiguation (via context triple) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: Uruk Vase
Context triple: [Near Eastern art, hasNotableWork, Uruk Vase]

A. Standard of Ur
The Standard of Ur is an ancient Sumerian artifact from around 2600–2400 BCE, a richly inlaid wooden box depicting scenes of war and peace that offers key insights into early Mesopotamian society.
B. Esagila tablet
The Esagila tablet is an ancient Babylonian cuneiform text that provides a detailed description and measurements of the Esagila temple complex dedicated to the god Marduk.
C. Narmer Palette
The Narmer Palette is an ancient Egyptian ceremonial stone palette dating to around 3100 BCE that depicts the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under King Narmer and is considered one of the earliest historical documents in the world.
D. Ashura statue
The Ashura statue is a renowned 8th-century Japanese Buddhist sculpture at Kōfuku-ji, celebrated for its delicate, expressive depiction of the multi-faced, multi-armed deity Ashura.
E. Simuwu Ding
Simuwu Ding is an ancient Chinese bronze ritual vessel from the Shang dynasty, renowned as one of the largest and most important bronze artifacts ever discovered in China.
F. None of above. chosen
G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.

NED2 Entity disambiguation (via description) gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07

Target entity: Uruk Vase
Target entity description: The Uruk Vase is an ancient Sumerian alabaster vessel from the city of Uruk, renowned for its early narrative relief carvings that depict religious rituals and social hierarchy in Mesopotamian art.

A. Standard of Ur
The Standard of Ur is an ancient Sumerian artifact from around 2600–2400 BCE, a richly inlaid wooden box depicting scenes of war and peace that offers key insights into early Mesopotamian society.
B. Esagila tablet
The Esagila tablet is an ancient Babylonian cuneiform text that provides a detailed description and measurements of the Esagila temple complex dedicated to the god Marduk.
C. Narmer Palette
The Narmer Palette is an ancient Egyptian ceremonial stone palette dating to around 3100 BCE that depicts the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under King Narmer and is considered one of the earliest historical documents in the world.
D. Ashura statue
The Ashura statue is a renowned 8th-century Japanese Buddhist sculpture at Kōfuku-ji, celebrated for its delicate, expressive depiction of the multi-faced, multi-armed deity Ashura.
E. Simuwu Ding
Simuwu Ding is an ancient Chinese bronze ritual vessel from the Shang dynasty, renowned as one of the largest and most important bronze artifacts ever discovered in China.
F. None of above. chosen

Statements (47)

Predicate	Object
instanceOf	Mesopotamian artifact ⓘ Sumerian artwork ⓘ alabaster vase ⓘ archaeological object ⓘ ritual vessel ⓘ
alsoKnownAs	Warka Vase ⓘ linked to: Uruk Vase
artStyle	low relief carving ⓘ narrative relief ⓘ
associatedDeity	Inanna ⓘ
associatedWith	Eanna cult center ⓘ linked to: Eanna temple complex development of temple institutions ⓘ early urbanization in Mesopotamia ⓘ
countryOfOrigin	Iraq ⓘ
culture	Sumerian ⓘ linked to: Sumer
currentCity	Baghdad ⓘ
currentLocation	Iraq Museum ⓘ linked to: Iraqi National Museum
date	circa 3200–3000 BCE ⓘ
depicts	agricultural produce ⓘ goddess Inanna or related fertility goddess ⓘ nude male figures carrying offerings ⓘ presentation of offerings to a goddess ⓘ procession of offering bearers ⓘ religious ritual ⓘ social hierarchy ⓘ temple complex ⓘ
discoveredAt	Eanna temple precinct ⓘ linked to: Eanna temple complex temple of Inanna at Uruk ⓘ linked to: cult of Inanna at Uruk
discoverySite	Uruk archaeological site ⓘ
function	cult vessel ⓘ offering vessel ⓘ
hasIconography	fertility symbolism ⓘ hieratic scale of figures ⓘ temple economy ⓘ
hasStructure	horizontal bands of scenes ⓘ registers of imagery ⓘ
height	approximately 1 meter ⓘ
locatedInCollection	national collection of Iraq ⓘ
material	alabaster ⓘ stone ⓘ
period	Uruk period ⓘ
placeOfOrigin	Uruk ⓘ Warka ⓘ
regionOfOrigin	southern Mesopotamia ⓘ
significance	important evidence for early Sumerian religion ⓘ important evidence for early social stratification ⓘ key work of early Mesopotamian art ⓘ one of the earliest known narrative reliefs ⓘ

How these facts were elicited

Referenced by (3)

Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Near Eastern art → hasNotableWork → Uruk Vase ⓘ

Warka → hasSignificantArtifact → Warka Vase ⓘ

linked to: Uruk Vase

Uruk Vase → alsoKnownAs → Warka Vase ⓘ