Proto Elamite Relief Bowl

Culture: Iran

Period: 3000-2700 B.C.

Material: Steatite

Dimensions: 12.5 cm in diameter

Price: Sold

Ref: 6171

Provenance: Collection of the politician Spyros Vasiliou Markezinis (1909-2000), Greece before 1963. On 25 November 1963 gifted to the family J. Glynn, England. Thence Dick Meijer Antiquiteiten, Amsterdam, sold on 28 March 2012 to Archea Ancient Art, Amsterdam. Accompanied by an excerpt of the Art Loss Register dated 15 October 2012, as well as the original certificate of Dick Meijer Antiquiteiten, Amsterdam.

Condition: The cup is professionally reassembled from two halves.

Description: Extremely rare and finely worked, thin-walled bowl of pink-banded steatite, depicting on the outside an elaborately crafted animal relief. In the centre two double-headed snakes, three times entangled and facing each other on both sides. The eyes of the snakes once probably had inlays of a different material. At the bottom of the bowl a circular coil formed by the bodies of the snakes, on which the bowl stands. In between on one side seated bulls facing to the right, on the other side a ram and a sheep striding to the left. Probably a cult bowl for medical rites. Mounted.