- Museum number
- 123053
- Description
-
Silver bowl; fragmentary, just over half of vessel preserved; decorated in repoussée and engraved figures and motifs; in the centre is a rosette medallion surrounded by an engraved zig-zag band composed of parallel lines surrounded by three concentric registers of figures: inner one composed of line of couchant sphinxes wearing uraeous and disk; central register has figures in Assyrian dress picking from an elaborate palmette or stylised sacred tree flanked by Egyptian religious figures (Harpocrates, Isis, Re-Harakhte, Nephthys, scarab etc); outer scene shows the siege of a city with files of military figures wearing 'hoplite', Egyptian and Urartian gear with fragmentary chariot entering from right side.
- Production date
- 750BC-600BC
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 19.50 centimetres
-
Height: 5 centimetres
-
Weight: 241 grammes
- Curator's comments
- Said to have been found with the bronze shield boss ME 1971,1213.1 (BM 135591). Cesnola's account of the discovery (1877, 270-281) is suspect because - apart from the general unreliability that attaches to all of his published writings - among the objects he claimed were found in this tomb is a group of Cypriot Late Bronze Age items that were almost certainly not found in the same deposit as the Cypro-Archaic and Cypro-Classical material that was said to have accompanied the bowl and the shield boss. It is even possible that the shield and the bowl, though broadly contemporary, were not actually found together, such was Cesnola's tendency to conflate discoveries made in a number of places with a single, often fictitious findspot, the most egregious example of which is the so-called Curium Treasure which was pure invention (Masson 1984).
On the other hand, an account by George Colonna-Ceccaldi - probably based on his contacts with Cesnola but not, as Barnett thought (1977, 159ff), because he supervised the excavations - provides a shorter and more convincing list of items from this tomb which puts the bowl and the shield, but also an iron sword and some bronze axes, in the same deposit. If correct, then it would be reasonable to assume that the bowl and shield-boss were part of an aristocratic warrior burial.
For a full discussion of the designs, manufacturing and context of the bowl, see Barnett 1977, Markoe 1985, esp. 172-4, Hermary 1986, but also Myres 1933 for an interesitng older account published just after the item reappeared from Ruskin's collection.
Additional Bibliography:
Barnett R.D. 1977, 'The Amathus shiled-boss rediscovered and the Amathus reconsidered', RDAC, 157-70.
Cesnola, L. p. di 1877, Cyprus. Its ancient cities, tombs and temples (London: John Murray).
- Location
- On display (G57/dc12)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2020 20 Feb-25 Oct, CaixaForum Zaragoza, An Age of Luxury
2019-2020 18 Sep-12 Jan, CaixaForum Madrid, An Age of Luxury
2019 4 Apr-11 Aug, CaixaForum Barcelona, An Age of Luxury
2018 9 May-3 Sep, Hong Kong History Museum, An Age of Luxury
2012-2013 31 Oct-17 Feb, Brussels, Cinquantenaire Museum, 'Ancient Cyprus: Cultures in dialogue'
2008 17 Mar-17 Aug, Basel, Antikenmuseum, 'Homer'
2007-2008 6 Oct-20 Apr, Paris, L'Institut du Monde Arabe, 'Phoenicians and the Mediterranean'.
- Condition
- Fragmentary.
- Acquisition date
- 1931
- Acquisition notes
- Purchased by Ralph A Brown at the sale of the John Ruskin collection at Coniston in 1931 and offered to the Museum for £5 5s, being the costs he had incurred. This was apparently paid to him by Sidney Smith (q.v.) who is recorded as the donor.
- Department
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- 123053
- Registration number
- 1931,0819.1