A MIDDLE ELAMITE BITUMEN ROUNDEL

CIRCA 14TH CENTURY B.C.

Details

A MIDDLE ELAMITE BITUMEN ROUNDEL
Circa 14th Century B.C.
With a band of six reclining rams in profile to the right, their long horns arching over their heads, their fur indicated by a series of small dots, enclosing a sixteen-petalled rosette, framed on the outer edge by a band of petals with triangles of dots between them, and two bands of hatching, set into a bronze casing preserving traces of gold foil along the edges of the bronze which once presumably covered the entire surface
4 in. (10.2 cm) diameter

Lot Essay

There is an exact parallel on view in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (62.115) which still preserves the gold and silver foil.
For a similar roundel from the Schimmel Collection, now also in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with an outer circle of rams around a central facing head and with similar traces of gold foil, see no. 73bis in Hoffmann, ed., The Beauty of Ancient Art, The Norbert Schimmel Collection.

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