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Lot Essay
The Tree of Life or sacred tree can be found in nearly all Near Eastern cultures, as well as various religions and mythologies worldwide. Seen in Mesopotamian art as early as the 4th Millennium B.C., from the 2nd Millennium B.C. it had spread across the entire near east, Egypt and Greece. In The Epic of Gilgamesh for instance, the hero undertakes a journey to find a life-giving tree. From the 2nd Millennium the use of flanking animals was common - goats, ibex, stags were all symbols of regeneration and sexual potency. In various ancient cultures the pomegranate fruit represented fertility and abundance. According to the historian Herodotus, during the Graeco-Persian wars the Persian spearmen carried spears decorated with gold and silver pomegranates to give them powers of invicibility (Book VII, chapter 41).
For a bronze tondo with similarly decorated animals cf. O. White Muscarella, Bronze and Iron, Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988, pp. 248-253, no. 344.
For a bronze tondo with similarly decorated animals cf. O. White Muscarella, Bronze and Iron, Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988, pp. 248-253, no. 344.