Tell Halaf Terracotta Fertility Figure

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 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.

Composed of mainly oblate beads; restrung. 13.17 grams, 42 cm



From the London, UK, art market 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.

Cylinder with standing male figure with a pair of animals to each side, restrung pair of red stone beads, old handwritten label '1647'; accompanied by a copy of an old scholarly note, typed and signed by W.G. Lambert, late Professor of Assyriology, University of Birmingham, 1970-1993, which states: 'Cylinder Seal of Cream Fossil Shell, 37 x 22 mm. In the centre stands a divine hero, nude, and gripping the neck of a horned animal on either side, each of which is being attacked by a lion with erect tail. For a terminal there stands a tall tree. This is an early Akkadian seal from Mesopotamia or West Iran, c. 2300 B.C. The symbolism comes from temple herds, which were liable to be attacked by lions at this time. They believed that certain gods and divine heroes could rescue their animals from such attacks, and by showing such scene on their seals they hoped to achieve the result be sympathetic magic.'; accompanied by a museum-quality impression. 37.6 grams, 37 mm



Armand Trampitsch, Glyptique Archéologie, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 13-14 May 1992, no.23 [Part]. Accompanied by a copy of a scholarly note, typed and signed by Professor Wilfrid George Lambert in 1992. 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.