© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/15692124-12341311 Journal of ancient near eastern religions 20 (2020) 27–47 brill.com/jane A Sacred Landscape of Sumer: Statuettes from Ur Depicting a Goat on a Tree Naomi F. Miller University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia, PA, USA nmiller0@upenn.edu Philip Jones University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia, PA, USA phjones@upenn.edu Richard L. Zettler University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia, PA, USA rzettler@upenn.edu Holly Pittman University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia, PA, USA hpittman@upenn.edu Abstract The statuettes commonly referred to as “Ram Caught in a Thicket” (2500 B C) may well be associated with what is known from later texts (2nd millennium BC) as the (daily) determining-of-the-fates ritual that occurred at sunrise. Symbolic elements (tree, ro- sette, leaf, possible mountain), and motifs (quadruped facing a tree) occur in other media—glyptic, musical instruments—and their meaning informs the unique com- bination of elements found in these two statuettes. It is proposed that the statuettes are offering stands. The composition as a whole represents a sacred landscape rather than a charming genre scene. It is likely that the statuettes were associated with the daily ritual of the determining of the fates, which would push the later attestations of that ritual and the cosmological view behind it back to the mid-third millennium BC. Downloaded from Brill.com03/23/2021 08:30:13PM via University of Pennsylvania