A MESOPOTAMIAN ARAGONITE AMULET

LATE URUK/JEMDET NASR PERIOD, CIRCA 3200-2900 B.C.

Details

A MESOPOTAMIAN ARAGONITE AMULET
LATE URUK/JEMDET NASR PERIOD,
CIRCA 3200-2900 B.C.
In the form of a nude figure kneeling in prayer, his hands clasped at his chest with the elbows bent outward, his feet and toes articulated under his bent legs, the cap-like hair with an incised fringe across the front, the face with prominent triangular nose and large almond-shaped eyes, the pupils recessed, drilled vertically between the feet
1 1/16 in. (2.7 cm.) high

Provenance

German Private Collection, acquired in 1985.

Lot Essay

For the style and scale, see the squatting female worshipper, no. 2 in Ortiz, The George Ortiz Collection. See also no. 25, p. 59 in Harper, Aruz and Tallon, eds., The Royal City of Susa, Ancient Near Eastern Treasures in the Louvre, in which Benoit informs that such amulets were created in the tradition of "the practice of worshippers placing images of themselves in temples."

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