864 - An ornate gold bowl featuring elements of Neo-Babylonian and Neo-Assyrian art; a ritual vessel from a royal court, first half of the 6th century B.C.

An ornate gold bowl featuring elements of Neo-Babylonian and Neo-Assyrian art; a ritual vessel from a royal court, first half of the 6th century B.C. A thick-walled, round bowl, 12.6 cm in diameter, whose dome-shaped, fully rounded wall—without a base—is slightly less curved in the lower, central section than in the steeper, outer sections below the rim. Height 5 cm. The rim is significantly thickened on the outside and features a sharp break; it is flat in the upper part and slightly indented toward the wall below. On the exterior wall, just below the rim, is a decorative field bounded at the top and bottom by two parallel incised lines running all the way around, featuring floral and animal motifs executed in repoussé and engraving techniques; a repeating pattern consisting of two identical sequences. One sequence consists of three closed flowers, with a five-petaled palmette placed in the space between each pair; from the bottom of each palmette emerge two stems curled outward, whose coils touch the closed flowers at the lower edge. A similar stem is located at the beginning and end of the floral elements in the sequence. However, it does not end in a palmette, but rather in a significantly smaller, half-open flower. Following the right-hand, half-open flower, a lion striding to the right with its tail curled upward is punched and engraved. The mane is depicted with cross-hatching in the opposite direction; the ears are close to the head, and the mouth is wide open. Further anatomical details, such as the eyes or prominent muscle groups, are rendered through punching. Inside the bowl, at the center, is a twelve-petaled rosette—also punched and engraved—whose petals radiate from the center of the bowl. The rounded ends of the leaves are further framed on the outside by parallel arcs. Below the rosette motif, four short stems arranged in a cross protrude, bearing half-open flowers at their tips, similar to those on the outer pattern repeat. The material thickness varies between 0.6 and 4.5 mm, though this is not visually noticeable. There are two vertical cracks along the rim of the bowl, spaced 6.5 cm apart (3.2 cm and 1.5 cm). A transverse crack extends from the larger one. Furthermore, there are various small “imperfections” on the surface, some of which are due to the manufacturing process and others to signs of use and minor damage: tiny spalls, cracks, fissures, and scratches, primarily on the exterior near the decorative band. The antique signs of wear can be easily distinguished from the modern scratches. In addition, there is a reddish patina on the vessel in patches and spots—a natural deposit or diffusion of iron from the soil into the gold surface—further evidence of the object’s authenticity. The manufacturing technique and material composition are unusual. Archaeometric analyses have suggested that the object was likely produced from a gold amalgam in a negative mold, particularly in light of the high mercury content in the alloy (over 10%), as well as 1% silver and a gold content of nearly 87%, by analogy with the use of negative molds for high-quality glass products from the same period. Gold amalgams have already been verified on objects from Eurasia; however, due to a lack of analyses of ancient Near Eastern gold objects, their prevalence has so far only been partially documented. From a cultural-historical perspective, the bowl is a late example of ancient Near Eastern metal bowls of Type 1E, according to the classification by P.H.G.H. Smith (1986), a type that has existed since the middle of the 2nd millennium B.C.E. However, an art-historical analysis of the ornamental elements in the context of contemporary works of art clearly points to a date in the first half of the 6th century BC, including ivory carvings from that era or the wall panels of the Processional Way and the throne room façade of the Royal Palace in the South Fortress of Babylon (both 6th century BC). The weight of 251.2 g corresponds quite precisely to half a “mine” (250 g). In fact, contemporary cuneiform texts mention this weight for gold vessels on several occasions. Due to its late dating, the bowl is the only known example to date from this late period—a time from which very few gold objects are known—and corresponds chronologically to roughly the final heyday of the Neo-Babylonian Empire. The unknown context of its discovery and its hybrid character—featuring ornamentation drawn from Neo-Assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, and North Syrian traditions—make its precise regional and historical attribution a matter of speculation. In any case, the bowl belongs in the context of a royal court, where lion hunting was a royal privilege and a recurring motif in the ruler’s self-representation, including on works of art both large and small. In the context