Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
A goose sleeping with its head turned and tucked between the wings on the back forms the head of this pin. When viewed from the top, it is hard to recognize an animal in the simplified forms, but the bird and pose are immediately intelligible from the side. The underside is flat, as if the goose were swimming. There are two ribs at the join with the round, tapering shaft.
Around 20 pins of a similar shape have been excavated in the Surkh Dum sanctuary (1). In the excavation report, the sleeping water bird is called a “duck.” In fact, the specimens from Surkh Dum have shorter necks, while the bird’s neck on the Harvard pin forms a loop like the horns of the gazelle’s heads on other Luristan pins (2). Sleeping water bird finials on pins and bracelets appear to have been an invention of Luristan metal smiths, and occurred throughout the late second and early first millennia BCE (3). The shaft of the pin is much less corroded than the head. It was perhaps inserted into a standard or tubular idol to fix it to its support, as is attested for some Luristan pins, possibly including one of similar type (4).
NOTES:
1. See E. F. Schmidt, M. N. van Loon, and H. H. Curvers, The Holmes Expedition to Luristan (Chicago, 1989) 270, 309-10 (27D.16.8), pls. 172.H-T and 181.G-J. Compare also P. R. S. Moorey, Catalogue of the Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, 1971) 194, no. 317, pl. 50; and N. Engel, Les bronzes du Luristan: Énigmes de l’Iran ancien, IIIe-Ier millénaire av. J.-C., exh. cat., Musée Cernuschi (Paris, 2008) 134, no. 117.
2. See, for example, O. W. Muscarella, Bronze and Iron: Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1988) 130-31, no. 205.
3. Muscarella 1988 (supra 2) 130; and B. Overlaet, The Early Iron Age in the Pusht-i Kuh, Luristan, Acta Iranica 40, Luristan Excavation Documents 4 (Leuven, 2003) 205-206.
4. For a discussion of this (re)use of pins, compare E. De Waele, Bronzes du Luristan et d’Amlash, Publications d’historie de l’art et d’archeologie de l’Université Catholique de Louvain 34 (Louvain-La-Neuve, 1982) 151; for a pin terminating in a sleeping water bird, see ibid., 104 and 130-31, nos. 123C and 182, fig. 104; and A. Godard, Les bronzes du Luristan, Ars Asiatica 17 (Paris, 1931) nos. 125 and 205-205bis, pls. 33 and 56.
Susanne Ebbinghaus
