AN ELAMITE SILVER BIRD APPLIQUE, CIRCA 1200 B.C.

拍品描述

AN ELAMITE SILVER APPLIQUÉ WITH BIRDS AND BEEHIVE FORMS, CIRCA 1200 B.C. Of tiered triangular composition, the silver plaque worked in repoussé and rising in four registers from a wide base to a narrow apex surmounted by a small integral suspension loop. The lowest register comprises four dome-topped forms set side by side, each girdled by horizontal bands of rope-twist ornament and vertically ribbed below; the second register repeats the motif in three larger units, the third in two, and the apex is flanked by a pair of confronted birds with prominent breasts, short tails and incised circular eyes, their bodies modelled in higher relief than the surrounding field. A further dome-topped form rises between the birds at the summit, immediately below the loop. The surface retains a soft grey patina with earthen accretions in the recesses, the silver darkened overall and the reverse presumably plain. The repeated dome-and-rope motif is most readily understood as a stylised rendering of woven conical hives or thatched shrines, a form widely current in the ancient Near East, while the confronted birds at the summit belong to a long Elamite and broader Iranian tradition in which avian figures stand as guardians or as auspicious presences flanking a sacred element. The pyramidal stacking of identical units, ascending toward a single crowning form, follows a compositional logic familiar from Elamite votive and architectural ornament, in which multiplication and hierarchy together signify abundance and sanctity. Whether the small domes are read as hives, granaries, or schematic shrines, the cumulative reading is one of plenty under divine protection, the birds above presiding over the stores beneath. Silver carried particular weight in Elamite material culture. Drawn from the mines of the Iranian plateau and circulated as both bullion and prestige medium across Susiana and the wider region, it was the metal of temple dedications, royal gifts and high-status personal ornament. An object of this scale worked in sheet silver, rather than in bronze or in a base alloy, indicates a commission of some standing, most plausibly votive in purpose and intended for attachment to a larger ground, whether a textile, a wooden support, or a cult image. The integral loop at the apex confirms that the piece was made to be suspended or sewn down rather than to stand independently. The Middle Elamite period, to which a date around 1200 B.C. assigns the piece, was the moment of greatest consolidation of Elamite religious art, the era of the great ziggurat at Chogha Zanbil and of the silver and bronze votive deposits associated with the sanctuaries of Susa and its hinterland. Sheet-metal appliqués of this kind belong to a wider repertoire of dedicatory ornament in which figural and architectural motifs were combined on a single ground, the whole functioning as a compressed image of the sanctuary and its blessings. This appliqué exemplifies the Middle Elamite preference for compact, frontal compositions in which architectural multiplication and figural sentinels are brought together as a single devotional emblem. Its survival in silver, and the clarity with which the rope-bound domes and confronted birds are preserved, place it within the small group of figural sheet-metal ornaments through which the votive culture of late second-millennium Elam can still be read. Height: 11cm

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