This month we had a week-long visit from archaeo-metallurgists from the Deutches Bergbau-Museum, the University of Franfurt am Main, and the University of Toulouse, Le Mirail. They brought with them some impressive equipment for spot analysis of many metal objects from Ur and will do more in-depth studies of the results back in their home [...]
Statuette of a goat standing upright against the branches of a flowering plant. The goat has been identified as a markhor (Capra falconeri), a wild species native to the mountains of Central and South Asia, by its large corkscrew-shaped horns. The statuette is a quintessential example of early Mesopotamian (Sumerian) composite art, with its rich [...]
One of five large gold plaques or breast-plates found on a long-departed Panamanian chief, the one pictured above might be the most impressive. It is entirely intact (unlike this one, which seems to have had a bite taken out of it…), and the fine details of the creature’s tails and claws are impressive. The teeth, [...]
This gold panther head decorated a wooden rhyton or drinking vessel that was part of the Maikop Treasure. The Maikop Treasure consists of more than 300 objects ranging in date from the Bronze Age through the Medieval period, currently held in four institutions—the Staatliche Museen, the Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte in Berlin, the Penn [...]
This string of 30 gold cowrie shell-shaped beads, one gold pomegranate shaped bead with granulation, and two large barrel-shaped beads, one gold and one chalcedony. Cast gold pendant shows the goddess Sekhmet standing with her hands at her sides. Often shown with the head of a lioness, the goddess Sekhmet was a very powerful deity. [...]
