2600 BC

Understated by luscious jewellery from the royal graves of Ur, on the banks of the Euphrates, at the British Museum. The statue below is a bit later, about 2100 BC. A king called Gudea built 15 temples and also had a lot of these "postbox feet" statues made - most are in the Louvre. This one, broken (and pitted), would have been particularly large.