Lot 33B
Ancient Near East, Tell Brak, modern day Syria, Middle Uruk Period, ca. 3700 to 3500 BCE. A petite yet striking figure, hand carved and string cut from a thin, flat plank of white alabaster with large ovoid eyes, a conical headdress detailed with a wavy pattern, and what may represent folded arms over the torso. Idols like this example were used for dedication to an all seeing god who watched over the populations of early Mesopotamia. Custom stand. Size: 1" W x 1.75" H (2.5 cm x 4.4 cm); 2.625" H (6.7 cm) on included custom stand.
Tell Brak was a major Mesopotamian city in northeastern Syria, located on a trade route between the Tigris river valley north to Anatolia, the Euphrates, and the Mediterranean Sea. Eye idols were named in the 1930s by the British archaeologist Max Mallowan when he was excavating at the mound called Tel Brak and found hundreds of small anthropomorphic items of similar form to this one - some kind of simplified body topped by large discs for eyes and no other discernible facial features. He named the place where he found them the Temple of the Eyes. Archaeologists believe that these were placed there as offerings. Wide eyes meant attentiveness to the gods in Mesopotamian art. Similar examples may be found in fine museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Louvre.
Compare examples in "Early Mesopotamia and Iran" by M.E.L. Mallowan, pages 46 to 50.
Provenance: private New York, USA collection; ex private German collection, acquired before 2000
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#128303
- Condition: Tiny chip to lower left corner (elbow) and tip of headdress.
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