Historical Context
Editorially reviewedNeo-Sumerian rulers buried inscribed pegs and tablets in temple foundations as a building record for the god and for later restorers. The kneeling-god subtype is a Lagash II figurine class, not a glyptic contest motif and not a first-millennium deposit figure. Keep it separate from Ur-Namma/Shulgi basket-bearers and from Gudea’s Nanshe bull-in-reeds peg.
Provenance: Type-object Louvre AO 260, Girsu (Tello), copper alloy, found with foundation tablet AO 259. De Sarzec excavations, 1877–1881. Deity on unsigned pegs is read from the tablet, not the pose.
Research status: reviewed · reviewed 02/09/2026
Sources
4 referencesLouvre AO 260 kneeling-god foundation figurine
Musée du Louvre, figurine de fondation AO 260: copper-alloy kneeling god, Girsu (Tello), Neo-Sumerian Gudea, c. 2120–2110 BCE; found with tablet AO 259. Height 21 cm. (Musée du Louvre)
Supports: Type-object for the Lagash II kneeling-god peg.
Louvre AO 259 foundation tablet
Musée du Louvre, tablette AO 259: Sumerian foundation text of Gudea, found with figurine AO 260, Girsu, c. 2120–2110 BCE. (Musée du Louvre)
Supports: Accompanying tablet that identifies the deposit; unsigned pegs take their deity from the tablet, not the pose.
Foundation Deposits in Ancient Mesopotamia
Richard S. Ellis, Foundation Deposits in Ancient Mesopotamia (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968), on peg figurines versus later deposit classes. (Yale University Press)
Supports: Places the kneeling-god peg in the third-millennium foundation-deposit practice and separates first-millennium figures.
Heuzey Catalogue des Antiquités chaldéennes
Léon Heuzey, Catalogue des Antiquités chaldéennes (Paris, 1902), pp. 304ff., nos. 147–155, kneeling foundation gods from Tello. (Musée du Louvre)
Supports: Early catalogue grouping of the Girsu kneeling-god peg series.
How to cite this page
Kneeling God Foundation Peg — Documented Sumerian Motif, Lagash II. Sanctum Hex Vault. Reviewed 02/09/2026. https://vault.sanctumhex.com/symbols/historically-documented-sumerian-and-early-akkadian-visual-motif-types-from-southern-mesopotamia-c-3500-1800-bce-drawn-from-cylinder-seals-votive-plaques-temple-fittings-and-royal-standards-motif-types-only-exclude-modern-anunnaki-claims-invented-occult-seals-and-later-neo-assyrian-palace-types-presented-as-sumerian-kneeling-god-foundation-peg-documented-sumerian-motif-lagash-ii
https://vault.sanctumhex.com/symbols/historically-documented-sumerian-and-early-akkadian-visual-motif-types-from-southern-mesopotamia-c-3500-1800-bce-drawn-from-cylinder-seals-votive-plaques-temple-fittings-and-royal-standards-motif-types-only-exclude-modern-anunnaki-claims-invented-occult-seals-and-later-neo-assyrian-palace-types-presented-as-sumerian-kneeling-god-foundation-peg-documented-sumerian-motif-lagash-iiObject
Kneeling God Foundation Peg — Documented Sumerian Motif, Lagash II
Lagash II copper foundation figurine of a kneeling god in a horned cap, the lower body forming the burial spike.
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