A MESOPOTAMIAN GREEN STONE DUCK WEIGHT CIRCA LATE 2ND-EARLY 1ST MILLENNIUM B.C.

拍品描述

A MESOPOTAMIAN GREEN STONE DUCK WEIGHT, CIRCA LATE 2ND-EARLY 1ST MILLENNIUM B.C. Of compact zoomorphic form, carved as a resting duck with the head turned back and laid along the body, the beak tucked against the plumage in the canonical pose of the type. The stone is worked to a smooth, rounded volume with no incised detail beyond the ridge separating the head and neck from the folded wing, the sculptor relying on the swelling and tapering of the mass itself to convey the bird. The underside is flattened to allow the weight to rest stably on a balance pan. The surface retains a warm polish, mottled in olive, ochre and brown, with earthen encrustation and iron-stained inclusions across the flanks and base. The duck-weight is among the most enduring standardised forms in the ancient Near East, in use from the third millennium through the Neo-Babylonian period. The tucked-head pose was not a naturalistic choice but a practical one, producing a stable, compact object with no projecting parts liable to chip and thereby alter the mass. Weights of this form were used with equal-arm balances in commercial, fiscal and temple transactions, calibrated against the mina and shekel systems that underpinned Mesopotamian economic life. Larger examples were often inscribed with the name of a ruler or the standard to which they conformed; smaller unmarked pieces such as the present example served in daily commercial use. The choice of a dense, hardstone material was itself dictated by function. A weight had to be durable, resistant to abrasion, and stable in mass over long use. Green and banded stones, including varieties of serpentine, chert and haematite, were preferred across Mesopotamia and Elam for their density and their resistance to chipping, and were often selected for their attractive colouration when destined for higher-status or temple use. The polish visible here is consistent with prolonged handling as well as original finishing, the stone having acquired the soft lustre characteristic of weights that remained in circulation across generations. This piece exemplifies the sculptural economy of the Mesopotamian duck-weight tradition, in which a functional object of exacting metrological purpose is reduced to a single unbroken volume of stone. The form's persistence across two millennia, and its diffusion from southern Mesopotamia into Elam, the Levant and the Gulf, reflects both the standardisation of Near Eastern commerce and the quiet aesthetic authority of the type. Dimensions: Length: 4.5cm

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