LOT 0230

Sumerian Limestone Bull Head Protome

3RD MILLENNIUM B.C.

5 3/4 in. (1.24 kg total, 14.5 cm high including stand).

With large eyes, the pupils inlaid in black chlorite, bone insert for the sclerae, three arching grooved brows, the wide muzzle with a horizontal incision between the nostrils, closed mouth; sockets to the sides of the head to accept separately made horns and ears; the edge of the neck contoured for attachment; mounted on a custom-made display stand.

Private European collection, 1985.
with Christie’s, New York, 3 June 2009, no.35.
Private collection, Europe.

Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12358-226703.

Cf. Woolley, L., Medio Oriente, Milano, 1961, for a comparison with a famous gold bull’s head from the Ur’s lyre; Settgast, J., Von Troja bis Amarna, The Norbert Schimmel Collection, Mainz, 1978, no.120, for a club head with similar bull heads; Kramer, S.N., I Sumeri, alle radici della storia, Milano, 1979; see also a copper-alloy head in the British Museum, from Ubaid (Museum Number 118015) in Spicket, A., La statuaire du Proche-Orient Ancien, Leiden, 1981, p.137; Van Dijk-Coombes, R. M., ‘Mesopotamian Gods and the Bull’ in Sociedades Precapitalistas, 8(1), December 2018, pp.1-15.

In Sumerian mythology, the bull was associated with the storm and rain god Hadad (Iškur), and is widely represented on artworks (Woolley, 1961, pp.46, 52; Kramer, 1979, figs.17, 18, 22). The round inlaid eyes are typical of Sumerian art of Early Dynastic Period, as well as the three eyebrows.