URATIAN BELT FRAGMENT
WESTERN ASIA, IRON AGE, C. 7TH CENTURY B.C.
African & Oceanic Art, Natural History and Ancient Art
Auction: 30 July 2025 from 14:00 BST
Description
engraved bronze, with perforations along the border for attachment to a leather backing, decorated with images of worshippers shown with their arms raised
Dimensions
9cm long
Provenance
From a private collection, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, formed prior to 1969 and thence by descent
Footnote
“This is but one of hundreds of Urartian belts known to exist, all decorated with a variety of scenes—hunts, animals, deities, etc. Here, in panels divided by patterns, lions and bulls are hunted by otherworldly winged creatures. Joining fragments of this belt exist in two other museums. The pieces were dispersed almost a century ago, when a Russian scholar claimed the belt along with other Urartian material derived from a site at Gushi on the northwestern shore of Lake Urmia in northwest Iran. The belt may have been made in the seventh century B.C.”
The Metropolitan Museum, 2025