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Details
LOT 0858
Luristan Decorated Pin Heads
13TH-6TH CENTURY B.C.
6 1/4 in. (81 grams total, 16 cm high including stand).
A pair of copper-alloy pin heads formed with tapering round-section stems and flat-section sub-oval heads, decorated in repoussé with geometric and stylised foliate motifs; accompanied by a custom-made display base. [No Reserve]
Provenance
UK private collection before 2000.
UK art market.
Property of a London gentleman.
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Neo-Babylonian Cuneiform Administrative Tablet from the Reign of Artaxerxes I, Achaemenid King of Persia
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The tablet records a promissory note of a typical kind to pay for barley. It concludes with the names of witnesses, town and date. The Aramaic script transcribes the cuneiform name of the debtor into Aramaic script, making it easier for scribes to identify who each tablet refers to. It dates to the Achaemenid period, to the reign of Artaxerxes I (465-424 B.C.). Such late administrative tablets are typically carelessly written, as is apparent on our example as some script has been rendered slanting sharply downwards.
