Ancient Near Eastern Art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v ...
Ancient Near Eastern Art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v ...
Ancient Near Eastern Art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v ...
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menting their manifold beliefs, interpretations,<br />
and fears. <strong>Ancient</strong> <strong>Near</strong> <strong>Eastern</strong><br />
art and textual material eloquently reveal<br />
how over the millennia these people resolved<br />
their need to relate to and placate<br />
the ever-present spirits and deities that<br />
manifested themselves in nature and in<br />
daily life.<br />
<strong>The</strong> gold necklace (fig. 19) is a good<br />
example <strong>of</strong> how decorative and spiritual<br />
functions were <strong>of</strong>ten combined. It is composed<br />
<strong>of</strong> double and triple strands <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>The</strong> peoples <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Near</strong> Ea st, hollow beads with seven pendants, each<br />
like those <strong>of</strong> other cultures, were in the form <strong>of</strong> a deity or a symbol <strong>of</strong> a<br />
preoccupied with the world ( <strong>of</strong> deity. Although apparently complete, the<br />
eternally mysteriouspiritual I and reconstruction <strong>of</strong> the more than two hundemonic<br />
forces. <strong>The</strong>ir artisti ic dred pieces is modern, so the original<br />
impulses were largely expre, ssed position <strong>of</strong> each element is not absolutely<br />
in conceptualizing and doci J- certain. <strong>The</strong> two horned females in long<br />
flounced dresses most probably represent<br />
Lama, a protective goddess; the<br />
central disk with rays emanating from a<br />
boss represents Shamash, the sun god;<br />
the crescent, the moon god, Sin; and the<br />
forked lightning symbol, probably Adad,<br />
the storm god. <strong>The</strong> two disks with granulated<br />
rosettes may be purely decorative.<br />
While no other elaborate example exists<br />
in complete form, wall reliefs depict<br />
Assyrian kings <strong>of</strong> the first millennium B.C.<br />
wearing necklaces like this one with pendant<br />
divine symbols, indicating that they<br />
were to be worn by royalty. <strong>The</strong> necklace<br />
was most probably apotropaic-that is, it<br />
protected the royal wearer from harm.<br />
Similar individual elements excavated at<br />
Larsa in Mesopotamia lead us to assume<br />
that this necklace was made in the early<br />
19<br />
20