Ancient Near Eastern Art: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v ...

second millennium B.C., and as Assyrian
examples attest, necklaces with apotropaic
features had a long history in
the region.
The bronze helmet (fig. 20) with four
raised figures prominently positioned on
its front had apotropaic value in addition
to its immediate practical function. Each
of the figures was sculpted from a bitumen
core overlaid with silver and gold
and then fastened to a bronze plate riveted
to the helmet. In the central position
is a bearded male deity, identified as a
mountain-water god by the scales on a
conical background and the water flowing
from the vessel he holds. He is flanked
by two identical goddesses and protected
from above by a giant raptor. The
goddesses hold their hands open in rever-
ence before their breasts. They, too, are
placed against backgrounds with scales,
which suggests that they may be mountain
deities associated with the male god,
who is probably dominant since his crown
has multiple pairs of horns while theirs
have only single pairs. Because of the
style and deportment of the figures
depicted, and the special technique of
manufacture, the helmet may be attributed
to the Elamites of the fourteenth
century B.C. That our helmet was worn by
a person of rank is suggested by the
precious material used and the complexity
of the construction. Its symbolic and
spiritually protective value is implied by
the presence of the deities in such a prominent
and charged position.
The Neo-Assyrian cylinder seal (fig.
18) depicts a religious scene commonly
found on these ubiquitous objects. A
human worshiper is in reverence before
the storm god Adad, who stands on a
bull, the animal usually associated with
him. A bull-man, one of many mixedcreature
spirits depicted by ancient Near
Easterners, appears in attendance behind
Adad, and various symbols of other
deities-the standards of Marduk and
Nabu, the seven dots representing the
Pleiades, and the winged sun disk-are
distributed unobtrusively throughouthe
scene, which interestingly mixes the
anthropomorphic forms of the gods and
their symbols. While the owner probably
used this device to seal documents and
cargo, he no doubt also carried it as his
personal talisman and sign of piety. O.W.M.
21