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LOT 0223
Middle Assyrian Brick-Shaped Tablet with Funerary Inscription for Adad-Shumu-lesir’s Tomb
1363-912 B.C.
5 5/8 in. (333 grams, 14.3 cm).
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.”
Acquired in the 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.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
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.
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AUCTIONS:
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LOT 0223
Middle Assyrian Brick-Shaped Tablet with Funerary Inscription for Adad-Shumu-lesir’s Tomb
Estimate £6,000 - 8,000€6,960 - 9,280 (for guidance only)$8,100 - 10,800 (for guidance only)
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Neo-Babylonian Red Stone Cylinder Seal
900-600 B.C. or laterSold for (Inc. bp): £1,235
Frieze in three registers: two crouching gryphons facing each other on a hatched base; below, advancing ox; court scene with a profile figure seated on a dais holding a vessel and facing two advancing figures in robes with open front, one leg exposed; sapling scene-divider; supplied with a museum-quality impression. 3.41 grams, 19 mm
From the 'S' collection, acquired 1970-1990s. The collection was seen and studied by W.G. Lambert, late Professor of Assyriology at the University of Birmingham, 1970-1993. This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato. -
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Mesopotamian Stone Reclining Ram Amulet
Uruk, 4th millennium B.C.Estimate: £500 - 700 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £125
Stylised ram body in profile, head raised and turned, reverse with six engraved dots, pierced vertically for suspension. 19.6 grams, 46 mm
From a Mayfair, London, UK, gallery, 1990s. From a private UK collection. This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato. -
Early Parthian Stone Cylinder Seal
Late 1st millennium B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £585
With frieze depicting galloping horseman and fleeing stag, with a second horse confronting the first, repaired; supplied with a museum-quality impression. 8.75 grams, 24 mm
From the collection of the late S., London, UK, 1970-2000. Examined by Professor Wilfrid George Lambert FBA (1926-2011), historian, archaeologist, and specialist in Assyriology and Near Eastern archaeology, in the 1990s. This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
