Roundel with horned animals

Unknown

ca. 9th–7th century BCE · Shell, gold foil, stone inlay · Ancient Near Eastern Art

This dome-shaped object may have decorated a pommel, the knob on the end of a dagger or sword handle opposite the blade. It is composed of a disc of shell, attached to a copper alloy backing by a rivet going through the center. The head of the rivet is covered with a sheet of gold foil. Around the edge of the disc runs a decorative pattern, formed of a gold foil frame arranged in a pattern of interlocking triangles, into which small inlays were set. Many of these small inlays have deteriorated or been lost completely, and those which remain appear to be made of carved shell. Inlaid into the surface of the disc are four rams, shown in profile and arranged head-to-tail with heads toward the center. In many areas of the shell surface that was hollowed out to form the bodies of the rams, a black residue is visible. This may be traces of bitumen, a tar-like substance that was used as an adhesive. The outlines of the rams are formed from strips of gold foil that may originally have been set into bitumen. Their bodies were inlaid in a contrasting material, perhaps a soft stone, which has now deteriorated into a powdery substance.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 9th–7th century BCE

Medium

Shell, gold foil, stone inlay

Culture

Iran

Department

Ancient Near Eastern Art

Credit line

Gift of Norbert Schimmel Trust, 1989