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| Assyrian Eagle Headed Spirit
 New York Metropolitan Museum of Art, 865 B.C.
The eagle-headed winged protective spirit shown here is known as an "Apkallu" spirit. The eagle-headed being touches traditions and beliefs that go back thousands of years in Mesopotamia, when similar images of terracota would be buried under doorways or set up at the entrances of palaces and temples. Their supposed magical strength would frighten away evil-wishing demons. In this representation, the eagle-headed being carries a bucket and a cone used to sprinkle, presumably, water from the bucket for purification. Across the body runs the so called "standard inscription" of King Ashurnasirpal which records some of the King's titles and achievements and is repeated on many of his stone reliefs.
Size: 18"H (45 cm)
Item Type: wall plaque
Material: bonded stone
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Customers Also Viewed  Original in the collection of the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 1250 B.C.
This Leaping Stags in a Landscape Relief is taken from a cylinder seal or roller stamp dating back to the Middle Assyrian period (ca. 13th century) from Mesopotamia. The relief is the impression one sees when the original cylinder seal is rolled across clay. Cylinder seals were engraved with visual stories about mythology, historical events and scenes from everyday life. Sometimes they were used to notarize documents. The cylinder seal was made of a hard material such as limestone, glass or ceramics. Later seals also included hieroglyphs.
Size: 9"w x 2.5"H (23 x 6cm)
Item Type: wall plaque
Material: bonded stone $50.00 |  This zodiac plaque represents the celebration of the Jewish lunar calendar. The Hebraic script for the months (center ring) is transliterated into phonetic English (outer ring).
Size: 5.5 X 5.5 X 1
Item Type: wall plaque
Material: bonded stone $70.00 |  Louvre Museum, Paris. 2000 B.C.
So common in the Mesopotamian area were the clay figurines of Ishtar/Inanna/Ashtart in her characteristic breast-offering pose, that this has come to be known among archaeologists as "The Ishtar Pose". She was addressed as "Mother of the Fruitful Breast", Queen of Heaven, Light of the World, Creator of People, Mother of Deities, River of Life, Etc. The breast-offering pose suggested her function as the Goddess of all nourishment and fertility. Ishtar, also known as Innana in Sumeria is, above all, a lunar Goddess who gives life as the waxing moon and then withdraws it as the waning moon. The light and dark dimensions to her power, her dying and resurrected son-lover Tammuz, who annually descends to the underworld and rises again from it-all suggest a lunar mythology which revolves around the connection made between the light and dark lunar phases and rhythmic alteration of the Earth's fertility.
Size: 11.5"H (29cm)
Item Type: statue
Material: bonded stone Price: $80.00 Sale Price: $75.00 |
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