1984.666: Plaque with Goddess

Identification and Creation

Object Number

1984.666

Title

Plaque with Goddess

Classification

Plaques

Work Type

plaque

Date

8th century BCE

Places

Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Urartu

Period

Iron Age

Culture

Urartian

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/304300

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Mixed copper alloy

Technique

Hammered

Dimensions

10.7 x 9.9 cm (4 3/16 x 3 7/8 in.)

Technical Details

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Artax 1
Alloy: Mixed Copper Alloy
Alloying Elements: copper, tin, zinc
Other Elements: lead, iron, silver, arsenic

XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Mixed Copper Alloy
Alloying Elements: copper, tin, zinc
Other Elements: lead, iron, silver, antimony, arsenic

K. Eremin, January 2014

Chemical Composition: SEM-WDS data from sample, Mixed Copper Alloy:
Cu, 87.4; Sn, 9.1; Pb, nd; Zn, 2.6; Fe, 0.40; Ni, nd; Ag, nd; Sb, 0.11; As, 0.31; Co, nd
Comments: Copper (zinc) sulfide inclusions.

R. Newman, June 2015

Technical Observations: There large areas of preserved bright metal on the surface. Areas of green have a nodular texture and are convincing as the product of long-term burial. Where the green has been disrupted, underlying red is present. Some edges are completely mineralized, with red penetrating through the sheet. Most of the surface is perfectly preserved, but some areas have significant corrosion. Sections of the edges and corners have broken off and are lost.

The very thin sheet was formed by hammering. The decorations were made by punching at 90 degrees to the surface with two or more elongated punches. A round punch was used to make the c. 20 circles of dots around the field. The holes at the corners for mounting the object were made with a pointed tool working from the front.


Henry Lie (submitted 2012)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Mrs. Beatrice Kelekian in memory of her husband, Charles Dikran Kelekian

Accession Year

1984

Object Number

1984.666

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Descriptions

Description

This thin sheet bears an incised scene of two very angular figures in profile facing each other. The figures wear mantles decorated with stippled circles and bands of short lines. The lower skirts of the figures are decorated only with vertical columns of short horizontal lines. The figures have large eyes, large curving eyebrows, prominent triangular noses, and rounded chins (no mouths or ears). The figure on the left holds up a long object with short lines on the sides, like a feather; its other arm is lower and reaching out. The figure on the right holds up a standard with a cylindrical shape on the top, filled with short lines in columns; its lower arm also reaches out from the waist. The arms are disproportionately short and placed low on the bodies. The torsos are somewhat triangular, expanding down from the necks. The figure on the right has pointed shoes preserved.

On the top is a row of crow steps above a narrow band with short, angled marks on either side (almost a rope or chevron pattern). The field around the figures has irregular raised bosses with impressed stippled borders.

Publication History

• Susanne Ebbinghaus, ed., Ancient Bronzes through a Modern Lens: Introductory Essays on the Study of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes, Harvard Art Museum and Yale University Press (Cambridge, MA, 2014), p. 81

Subjects and Contexts

• Ancient Bronzes

Verification Level