ICOBASE

Object identity: IC190710-32

Museum identity: unknown

Registration number: Unknown

Location: Unknown

Excavation site: Kuntillet ‘ajrud, Arabic name meaning: ‘the solitary hill of the wells’ Northern Sinai

Medium: Pithos

Inscription: “I bless you by YHWH of Samariaand by his Asherah”

Period: 8^th century BC

IC190710:32

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Click on this link for article by ZE’EV MESHEL

Object identity: IC190710-14

Museum identity: British museum: PRN: WCO29478; Reg. No. N.1635

Excavated by: Sir Austen Henry Layard

Excavation site: South East Palace, Nimrud.

(Part of N.1633-1636 [BM124603-124606])

Measurements: Length: 80 millimetres; width: millimetres; weight: 69.1 grammes

Medium: Lambis shell clapper with copper alloy additional implements

IC190710:14

Object identity: IC190710-15

Museum identity: British museum: PRN: WCO29477; Reg. No. N.1633

Excavated by: Sir Austen Henry Layard

Excavation site: Kuyunjik (Niniveh) first half of the nineteenth century.

(Part of N.1634-1636 [BM124604-124606])

Medium: Clappers made of lambis shell and copper.

Measurements: Length: 85 millimetres; width: 65 millimetres; weight: 57.1 grammes

IC190710:15

Object identity: IC200710-2

Museum identity: British museum: BM ME116868; PRN:WCO2447; Reg.No.: 1924,0920.129. Additional ID: U.1452 (excavation number)

Location: British Museum

Measurements: Diameter: 80 millimetres; thickness: 43 millimetres; weight: 143 grammes

Medium: Baked clay

Culture: Sumerian, pre-Sumerian

Period: Fourth millennium BC

Excavation site: Found in the diqdiqqah at Ur

Acquisition date: 1924

Excavated by: Sir Leonard Woolley

Acquisition notes: Objects allotted to the British Museum from the joint expedition of 1923-1924

Bibliography: R.J., Dumbrill (2008), The Idiophones of the Ancient Near East in the Collections of the British Museum.

IC200710:2

Object identity: IC190710-26

Museum identity: Aleppo museum: M.1022

Location: Aleppo museum.

Object type: Statuette

Medium: Terracotta

Description: A naked man is playing a long necked lute. Two strings and some frets can be seen on the neck of the instrument.

Excavation site : Tell Hariri, the ancient Mari, Syria

Period: about 1800 BC

Measurements: height : 12 cm ; width :  3,7 cm

Excavated by: André Parrot

Condition: Good, but the head is missing.

Bibliography:  BADRE, Leila Les Figures anthropomorphes en terre cuite à l’âge du bronze en Syrie, Paris, Geuthner, 1980, n°42, pl. XXVIII. PARROT, André, «  Le Palais : Documents et monuments », in Mission Archéologique de Mari II/3, 1959, Tome LXX de la Bibliothèque archéologique et historique de l’Institut de France, pl. XXIX.

IC190710:26

Object identity: IC190710-27

Museum identity: Damascus museum: M.2067

Location: Damascus museum

Object type: Statuette

Medium: Terracotta

Description: A naked man playing a long necked lute.

Excavation site : Tell Hariri, the ancient Mari, Syria

Period: about 1800 BC

Measurements: height : 9,6cm ; width :  2,3 cm

Excavated by: André Parrot

Condition: Fair, but the head and the low part of the legs are missing.

Bibliography:  BADRE, Leila Les Figures anthropomorphes en terre cuite à l’âge du bronze en Syrie, Paris, Geuthner, 1980, n°43, pl. XXVIII.

IC190710:27

Object identity: IC190710-23

Museum identity: Musée du Louvre, Paris: AO.17568

Location: The Louvre Museum

Object types: Statuette

Medium: Gypsum

Description: Two characters  hold two similar objects that are identified as small portative bowed harps. The position of their right hand with a hole drilled in each, suggests the usage of a plectrum. Galpin (1937) had assumed that these were horns and more recently Ziegler thought of them as clappers. (See Bibliography)

Excavation site : Tell Hariri, the ancient Mari, Syria

Period: about 2500 BC

Measurements: height : 22,7cm; width : 14,2 cm

Acquired in: Not known

Acquired from: Not known

Excavated by: André Parrot

Condition: Fair

Bibliography: WILLIAMSON, Muriel, « Les harpes sculptées du temple d’Ishtar à Mari », in Syria, Revue d’Art et d’Archéologie orientale n°46, Paris, Librairie Orientaliste Paul Geuthner, 1969, pp. 209-224. Parrot, André, « Les Temples d’Ishtarat et de Nini-Zaza », in Mission Archéologique de Mari III/ MAM III, 1967, Tome LXXXVI de la Bibliothèque archéologique et historique de l’Institut de France, n°8, p.104, figure 66. Ziegler, Nele « Les Musiciens et la musique d’après les archives de Mari », (= NABU 10, supplément au n°3 de septembre 2007) = Florilegium Marianum IX, Paris, Société pour l’Etude du Proche-Orient Ancien, 2007, p.264. Marcetteau, Myriam, Vie musicale à Mari, 2008, thèse dedoctorat en cours de publication.

IC190710:23

Object identity: IC190710-28

Museum identity: The british museum: 1898,1013.139

Location: The British Museum

Object type: cylinder seal

Medium: serpentine

Period: 2400BC-2200BC, Akkadian

Description: Greenish black serpentine cylinder seal; a god with his left hand raised, beneath a crescent moon, sits facing the seated water-god who has his right hand raised. Both are bearded, wear flounched robes and identical horned head-dress and sit on identical thrones. The water-god is identified by double streams flowing from a vessel he holds and by three fish which leap before him. Between the two figures are a small lute-player, who is bearded and wears a fringed robe and sits on a camp-stool facing the first god, and the two-faced attendant of the water-god who wears a striped skirt and raises his left hand. Terminal, a large pot between two gods and level with their heads.

Measurements: height: 2.8 centimetres; diameter: 1.6 centimetres

Acquired in: 1898

Acquired from: either N Davourgicas , or Dagalgikos (Acquisition source’s name is given as Mr N. Davourgicas in register but according to register the Ass Nos. book gives source’s name as Dagalgikos.)

Curatorial notes: This a typical example of a long necked lute with tuning pegs, unlike BM 89096 where the strings were tuned by means of hanging tassels.

BM 28806

Object identity: IC190710-29

Museum identity: British museum: 1888,0512, Bu.770

Location: The British Museum

Object type: cylinder seal

Medium: diorite

Period: 2400BC-2200BC, Akkadian

Description: Black serpentine cylinder seal; a bearded god wearing a striped skirt and holding a mace in his right hand, prods the captive bird-man in the back with a dart. The bird-man has his hands clasped or tied in front of him and preceded by the two-faced attendant god who wears a striped skirt, holds a dagger (?) and raises his left hand. He stands before the seated water-god who is bearded, wears a flounched robe and has triple streams of water flowing from each shoulder and fish leaping up before him. Behind him stands a bearded attendant god with hands clasped, who wears a striped skirt. Terminal, two short lines of inscription, two horizontal lines, a kneeling, bearded figure playing a lute-like instrument.

Inscriptions: UR.UR / nar =  Ur.Ur, singer.

Measurement: height: 3.8 centimetres; diameter: 2.4 centimetres

Comments
The lute-player should perhaps be indentied as the owner of the seal. It is extremely rare that such an indentification can be made -even tentatively.

Curatorial notes: Long necked lutes were of two types which mainly were distinguished from their tuning devices. In this case, the lute was tuned with hanging tassels which are clearly seen hanging from the top of the neck of the instrument. It is difficult to say if the instrument was fretted. However, the strings would have been divided in the sexagesimal manner, each measuring 60 fingers, that is about 96 centimetres long. Threr frets would have been located, at 50/60th of the length, then 40/60th; 30/60th and 15/60th giving the following tuning, should the basic string be tuned to c: C:Eflat;G;C and C to the octave above. The system would have spanned 2 octaves. Number 60 was that of the highest god of the pantheon, Anu; 50 was for Enlil; 40 for Ea; 30 for Sin and 15 for Ishtar.

Acquisition date: 1888

Acquired from: Sir Ernest A T Wallis Budge

Acquisition notes
Acquired by the British Museum as a result of Budge’s second mission to Egypt and Mesopotamia in 1887-1888; the mission was intended to investigate the “leakage” of tablets from sites supposedly guarded on behalf of the British Museum. Further notes on acquisition and bibliographic references relating to acquisition in catalogue introduction pp.xv-xvii.

Bibliography: Collon D 1982a 199; Leichty E et al 1988a p.167; Rimmer J 1969a p.22; Collon D 1995a p.226; Rimmer J 1969a p.23; Rimmer J 1969a p.45; Rimmer J 1969a p.94; Collon D 1995a pl.194a; Rimmer J 1969a pl.IVc

Collon D 1982a pl.XXIX; Dumbrill, R.J., The archaeomusicology of the Ancient Near East, London 2005, p. 322-3

BM 89096

Click on this link for the British Museum Database entry for this object