Warka Vase

The vase was discovered by a German archaeological team led by Julius Jordan during excavations in the Eanna temple complex of Uruk, in modern-day Iraq, in the 1932-1933 excavation season. Uruk is one of the world's oldest known cities and was dedicated to the goddess Inanna.

Yes, the vase was stolen from the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad during the looting that followed the U.S. invasion in April 2003. It was recovered and returned undamaged in June of that year as part of an amnesty program encouraging the return of stolen artifacts.

The alabaster surface is carved in four horizontal registers depicting a religious procession: the bottom layer shows crops and livestock, the middle layers show nude male figures carrying offerings, and the top register shows a figure (likely a priest-king) presenting offerings to the goddess Inanna. It is considered one of the earliest known examples of narrative relief sculpture.

The vase dates to approximately 3200-3000 BC, placing it in the Late Uruk period of Sumerian civilization. This makes it over 5,000 years old and places its creation at the very dawn of urban civilization in Mesopotamia.