Incorrect Username, Email, or Password
This object does not yet have a description.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1984.666
Title
Plaque with Goddess
Classification
Plaques
Work Type
plaque
Date
8th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Urartu
Period
Iron Age
Culture
Urartian
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/304300

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Mixed copper alloy
Technique
Hammered
Dimensions
10.7 x 9.9 cm (4 3/16 x 3 7/8 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Artax 1
Alloy: Mixed Copper Alloy
Alloying Elements: copper, tin, zinc
Other Elements: lead, iron, silver, arsenic

XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Mixed Copper Alloy
Alloying Elements: copper, tin, zinc
Other Elements: lead, iron, silver, antimony, arsenic

K. Eremin, January 2014

Chemical Composition: SEM-WDS data from sample, Mixed Copper Alloy:
Cu, 87.4; Sn, 9.1; Pb, nd; Zn, 2.6; Fe, 0.40; Ni, nd; Ag, nd; Sb, 0.11; As, 0.31; Co, nd
Comments: Copper (zinc) sulfide inclusions.

R. Newman, June 2015

Technical Observations: There large areas of preserved bright metal on the surface. Areas of green have a nodular texture and are convincing as the product of long-term burial. Where the green has been disrupted, underlying red is present. Some edges are completely mineralized, with red penetrating through the sheet. Most of the surface is perfectly preserved, but some areas have significant corrosion. Sections of the edges and corners have broken off and are lost.

The very thin sheet was formed by hammering. The decorations were made by punching at 90 degrees to the surface with two or more elongated punches. A round punch was used to make the c. 20 circles of dots around the field. The holes at the corners for mounting the object were made with a pointed tool working from the front.


Henry Lie (submitted 2012)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Mrs. Beatrice Kelekian in memory of her husband, Charles Dikran Kelekian
Accession Year
1984
Object Number
1984.666
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request.

Descriptions

Description
This thin sheet bears an incised scene of two very angular figures in profile facing each other. The figures wear mantles decorated with stippled circles and bands of short lines. The lower skirts of the figures are decorated only with vertical columns of short horizontal lines. The figures have large eyes, large curving eyebrows, prominent triangular noses, and rounded chins (no mouths or ears). The figure on the left holds up a long object with short lines on the sides, like a feather; its other arm is lower and reaching out. The figure on the right holds up a standard with a cylindrical shape on the top, filled with short lines in columns; its lower arm also reaches out from the waist. The arms are disproportionately short and placed low on the bodies. The torsos are somewhat triangular, expanding down from the necks. The figure on the right has pointed shoes preserved.

On the top is a row of crow steps above a narrow band with short, angled marks on either side (almost a rope or chevron pattern). The field around the figures has irregular raised bosses with impressed stippled borders.

Publication History

  • Susanne Ebbinghaus, ed., Ancient Bronzes through a Modern Lens: Introductory Essays on the Study of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes, Harvard Art Museum/Yale University Press (Cambridge, MA, 2014), p. 81

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu