A SYRIAN STEATITE LIBATION BOWL

CIRCA 8TH-7TH CENTURY B.C.

Details

A SYRIAN STEATITE LIBATION BOWL
CIRCA 8TH-7TH CENTURY B.C.
Of shallow circular form, with thick walls and a flat rim, sculpted with four lion heads facing in on the rim, all with deeply-recessed eyes for now missing inlays, the details incised, one extending into a loop handle, its mane a series of diamonds and triangles, and one opposite drilled through and terminating in a projecting trough spout, with curving rectangular panels on the rim between the lions once fitted with inlays
7 7/8 in. (20 cm.) long

Provenance

G.F. Reber, Lausanne, 1928.
Bela Hein, Paris.

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Lot Essay

Stone libation bowls, typically steatite or serpentine, were common in the Near East, particularly North Syria. Some have lion heads at the rim at the end of a tapering hollow tube, presumably for insertion into a vessel containing liquid (see for example no. 235 in Muscarella, ed., Ladders to Heaven, Art Treasures from Lands of the Bible). The form of the present example is unusual in that it is a complete object.

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