Antiquities - ancient Amlash sheet bronze idol

W18

Amlash sheet bronze idol

Ł250

A thin hammered and polished bronze stylised idol with punched and pierced decoration.

As with so many artifacts of the Amlash culture, these stylised idols are an enigma as to their function or significance. It has been proposed that they formed horse trappings, human armour, or functioned as mirrors but none of these theories explain their resemblance to less abstracted idols and depictions on pottery vessels of the same period. A significant number of these idols have been found and their shape appears to fit a very specific pattern; the punched dot decoration on this example is very close to another piece in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (see below).

A superb example of ancient abstract art.

Size: 8 x 5.2 cms.

One large and a smaller crack on the decorated portion, minor erosion to the edges.

Iran, Amlash Culture, 6th-4th Century BC

Ex. private collection, Bath, UK, acquired 1990's.

Cf. PRS Moorey "Catalogue of the Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Ashmolean Museum", Oxford 1971. Plates 67-69; specifically item 448 for a virtually identical example.

www.heliosgallery.com

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