amulet

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Object Type
Museum number: 91873
Description: Glazed composition amulet representing the head of the demon Pazuzu; made in a press-mould with smoothed flat back with cut representation of a goat-fish in profile facing left. The representation of Pazuzu has a leonine snout, open mouth with clenched teeth, sharp incisors, goat's horns rising from the brows and a stringy throat. The goat-fish is shown as beardless witha long ear and long curving ibex-like horn; the forelegs are bent and the lower part of the body is that of a fish with a bifurcated tail. The glazed surface is weathered.
Cultures/periods: Neo-Assyrian (?); Late Babylonian (?)
Production date: 7thC BC-5thC BC (circa)
Production place: Made in: Mesopotamia
Excavator/field collector
Findspot: Excavated/Findspot: Kouyunjik
Materials
Technique: mould-made; glazed
Dimensions: Height: 4.50 centimetres; Thickness: 2.20 centimetres; Width: 3.60 centimetres
Curator's comments: Described in error by Rowe (2009) as a stamp seal. Glazed composition is not a very suitable material for making practical seals and the object must simply have functioned as an amulet. The apparently incomplete perforation would not have prevented it being worn as it was probably simply clasped with metal wire.
Bibliographic references: Bezold 1896a / Catalogue of the cuneiform tablets in the Kouyunjik Collection of the British Museum; Budge 1922a / A guide to the Babylonian and Assyrian antiquities. (p.194); van Buren E D 1931a / Foundation figurines and offerings (1117); Rowe 2009a / Ceramic stamp-seal amulets in the shape of the head of Pazuzu (cat.5, pp.155-56, figs 5-6)
Location: On display (G55/dc9)
Exhibition history: Exhibited: 2012 Jan-Apr, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Fantastic Creatures 2011 Jun-Sept, South Korea, Ulsan Museum, Fantastic Creatures
Subjects: mythical figure/creature; devil/demon
Associated names
Acquisition date: 1879
Department: Middle East
BM/Big number: 91873
Registration number: Rm-II.445

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