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The Gold Jewellery from Nimrud

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

J. E. Curtis  and
K. R. Maxwell-Hyslop
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Extract

At present, all the metalwork excavated at Nimrud by the British School of Archaeology in Iraq between 1949 and 1963 is being catalogued with a view to publication. As the amount of gold jewellery is relatively small, and because as a group it seems to form an easily separable entity, it has been decided to isolate it from the main corpus of metal objects and publish it independently. The authors are grateful to Professor Sir Max Mallowan for permission to publish this material, to Dr. Isa Salman, Director General of Antiquities and to Dr. Fawzi Rashid, Director of the Iraq Museum for permission to examine the gold jewellery now in Baghdad and for their unfailing help, when the work was undertaken in the Iraq Museum.

It must be stressed that this article is confined exclusively to gold jewellery. Apart from pieces of gold-leaf used in overlaying ivory, which were found in some quantity, a few other pieces of goldwork were excavated, which cannot be recognised as jewellery and will appear in the main corpus of metal objects. Considering the extent of the excavations at Nimrud, it is immediately surprising that so few examples of gold jewellery were found: the only reasonable explanations for this paucity would seem to be firstly that Kalhu was very thoroughly ransacked in the years marking the end of the Neo-Assyrian empire, and secondly, that the communities settled on the mound after 612 B.C. were not sufficiently prosperous to have much enjoyed articles such as gold jewellery.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , Autumn 1971 , pp. 101 - 112
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1971

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References

1 In the following catalogue, the excavation number of the object is placed first, immediately followed by any museum number it may have. The type of the object is then given, and its present location. ‘Baghdad’ refers to the Iraq Museum, and ‘London’ to the Institute of Archaeology. After a description of the piece, its provenance is noted with reference to any relevant analogies. Diagrammatic drawings (Figs. 1–7) are by J. E. Curtis.

2 Mallowan, M. E. L., Nimrud and its Remains I, 324 n.12Google Scholar; p. 91.

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4 Parker, B., in Iraq 16 (1954), 37 (ND 2307)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Mallowan, M. E. L., Nimrud and its Remains, I, 114fGoogle Scholar, Iraq, (1950), 178Google Scholar. ILN. 07 29th. 1950, 180, Fig. 12Google Scholar; Twenty-five years in Mesopotamia, 55.

6 Rimmer, J., Ancient Musical Instruments of Western Asia in the British Museum, 33ffGoogle Scholar.

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9 Ibid I, 328, n. 21. V. Place, Ninive et l'Assyrie, II, 257, III, pl. 76, no. 5Google Scholar. Andrae, W., Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli, V, taf. 38, e, pp.73, 159Google Scholar (silver setting), taf. 45, n, pp. 101, 166 (gold setting). Dunand, M., Fouilles de Byblos, I, pl. CXXXVI, no. 1171Google Scholar. See also Eisen, G., Ancient Oriental Cylinders and other seals… Collection of Mrs. W. H. Moore (OIP 47), 57, no. 21, Pl. XIII, no. 12Google Scholar, and Delaporte, L., Catalogue des Cylindres Orientaux du Musée du Louvre, I, pl. 57, K.16 p.87Google Scholar.

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11 K. R. Maxwcll-Hyslop. op cit., 225f. The Tell Fara carrings are in the Institute of Archaeology, (University of London) collections. See also a gold example from Fara Tomb 506.

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13 Place, V., Ninive et l'Assyrie, III, pl. 76, nos 6–7Google Scholar, K. R. Maxwell-Hyslop, op. cit, pl. 163, Ziweye; pl. 154, Altintepe.

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16 K. R. Maxwell-Hyslop, op. cit., pls. 154, 163, pp. 200, 207ff.

17 This figure is for solid unalloyed gold at 25°C. Cf. Caley, Earle R., Analysis of Ancient Metals (Pergamon Press, 1964), 37Google Scholar.

18 K. R. Maxwell-Hyslop, op. cit., 227, pl. 208.

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21 Dalton, O. M.. The Treasure of the Oxus, pl. XV, especially no. 89Google Scholar.