Inlay: dancing man ca. 2600-2350 B.C. Sumerian This curved plaque cut from a piece of shell is decorated with the incised image of a bare chested dancing man, wearing a short belted skirt with a tufted fringe. He raises his hands with elbows bent, and his legs are deeply bent, suggesting lively motion. The mans head and beard are shaved, suggesting that he is participating in a religious ceremony which required ritual purification of the body. The mans face appears in profile, with a prominent nose, sloping forehead, foreshortened ear, and an eye emphasized by a drilled pupil. The plaque was probably set in bitumen (a tar-like substance used as an adhesive) with pieces of shell and stone to create a composition in contrasting colors, a characteristic technique of the late Early Dynastic period exemplified by the well-known Standard of Ur, now in the British Museum. Nippur, the great holy city of southern Mesopotamia, was the home of the chief deity Enlil and housed temples to Enlil a