Anatolian Steatite Seal with Bird

A rectangular brick-shaped tablet, inscribed in cuneiform script across three vertical faces, with a single column to the fourth and a continuation of text across the top surface; the inscription a funerary curse relating to the tomb of Adad-šumu-lešir, warning against interference with the burial, reading in part: 'As for a stranger, or somebody who would approach that tomb, or would bring up a corpse out of it and bury his own within, or would touch the silver inside - Adad, Šamaš, or Nergal will fill his house and field with shortage, collapse, and murder. He will repay the property of that tomb sevenfold, dedicating it to Šuriha. For the offspring of Adad-šumu-lešir he shall be undone for taking out and bringing down objects in the tomb, and for burying another body within it. Month Kalmartu, third day, eponymy of Aššur-mušezib.' 333 grams, 14.3 cm



Acquired in 1996. Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent. Private collection, since the late 1990s. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12872-241667.

Funerary inscriptions of this type are extremely rare survivals, serving both as legal texts and spiritual safeguards, invoking the major deities Adad, Šamaš, and Nergal to enforce the curse.

Rectangular laid paper page mounted in a bifacial glazed wooden frame; obverse painted image of a nimbate figure with long hanks of hair advancing with arms raised, four lines of neat nasta'liq text below; reverse an advancing horse with long tail, text in two lines above and below. 720 grams, 32.5 x 22.6 cm



Private collection, UK.

Including arrowheads, pendants and an animal figure. 74 grams total, 2.7-14.5 cm



London, UK, art market, 1980s. Private collection, London, UK.