A MESOPOTAMIAN COPPER ALLOY HEAD OF A BEARDED MAN

CIRCA 2ND MILLENNIUM B.C.

Details

A MESOPOTAMIAN COPPER ALLOY HEAD OF A BEARDED MAN
CIRCA 2ND MILLENNIUM B.C.
Possibly royal, wearing a cap with broad rim band, with well-defined arched brows and eyes recessed for inlays, now missing
2½ in. (6.4 cm.) high

Provenance

Private collection; acquired prior to 1970.
Anonymous sale; Bonhams, London, 26 April 2001, lot 137.
Private collection, Switzerland.

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Lot Essay

This type of headdress was worn by rulers of Mesopotamian cities between 2100 and 1800 B.C. Hammurabi, King of Babylon, was depicted wearing an identical headdress on his Law Code stele, now in the Louvre, cf. D. Collon, Ancient Near Eastern Art, The British Museum, London, 1995, p. 100, no. 78. For a diorite head of Hammurabi also in the Louvre, cf. M. Roaf, Cultural Atlas of Mesopotamia, Oxford, 1990, p. 120.

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