amulet

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Object Type
Museum number: 117941
Description: Light blue glazed composition Pazuzu amulet; moulded; press moulded; bored through ears for suspension; smooth flat reverse with lightly incised representation of two figures facing right. One is a representation of a Smiting God, the other of a Lion-Demon, both shown in a smiting position with one raised arm and wearing a scabbard at the waist although both hands are shown empty. Pazuzu is shown with a leonine face with goat's horns rising from the eyebrows and a carefully delineated stringy throat. The glaze is weathered but originally coloured with copper oxides.
Cultures/periods
Production date: 800BC-500BC
Production place: Made in: Mesopotamia
Materials
Technique: mould-made; glazed
Dimensions: Height: 4 centimetres; Weight: 17 grammes; Width: 3.50 centimetres; Depth: 1.80 centimetres
Curator's comments: Incorrectly described as green glazed clay in Heesel's study of these Pazuzu representations; likewise, the statement that this object is a duplicate of one in the Vorderasiatische Museum in Berlin (inv. nr. VA 3931) is incorrect according to Rowe (2009).
Bibliographic references: Green A R 1986a / The lion-demon in the art of Mesopotamia and neighbouring regions (no.148, p.230, pl.39); Heesel 2002a / Pazuzu. Archaologische und philologische Studien zu einem altorientalischen Damon (cat.153, pp. 166, 241); Rowe 2009a / Ceramic stamp-seal amulets in the shape of the head of Pazuzu (cat. 4, pp.154-55, fig. 4)
Location: On display (G55/dc9)
Subjects
Associated names
Acquisition name
Acquisition date: 1926
Department: Middle East
BM/Big number: 117941
Registration number: 1926,0410.6

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