Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2014
In a previous number of Iraq, R. D. Barnett published an article, based on a communication given by him to the Rencontre Assyriologie in 1954, on the important discovery made at Ziwiye, a find that has posed so many definite questions and produced so few definite answers. Some drawings of hitherto unpublished material from this site in the possession of the Metropolitan Museum may perhaps be of interest, especially to those concerned with the problems posed by the bronze container in which the treasure was reputedly found. This receptacle was in the form of a coffin or bath of which one end was curved (Fig. 1). The other end was straight, one of its right-angled corners being now in the Metropolitan Museum (Fig. 2). This shape, common among the earthenware coffins at Aššur and at Ur, was recognised as being similar to two other metal ones unearthed by Sir Leonard Woolley at the latter site.
1 Iraq, Vol. XVIII, Pt. 1956, pp. 111–118 Google Scholar.
2 The container is definitely bronze and not copper. A qualitative analysis showed:
Copper major
Nickel 0.00X
Tin major (over 5%)
Iron 0.X low
Lead 0.0X low
Bismuth 0.00X
Antimony 0.00X
3 Luschan, von and Andrae, , Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli V, pl. 57Google Scholar.
4 I understand from Prof. Ghirshman that the other corner is in the Archaeological Museum, Teheran, and will be published by him in his forthcoming book, L'Iran et son art.
5 See, for example, Herzfeld, E., Iran in the Ancient East, Oxford University Press, 1941, fig. 308Google Scholar.
6 Ghirshman, R., Artibus Asiae, Vol. XIII, 1950, Fig. 2 on p. 182 Google Scholar.
7 Illustrated in Archaeology, Summer 1960, p. 128 Google Scholar; “Hasanlu and Early Iran,” by Robert H. Dyson, Jr., director of the expedition sent by the University of Pennsylvania and Metropolitan Museums.
8 Barnett, R. D., Iraq, Vol. XII, 1950, pl. 1Google Scholar.
9 Wilkinson, C. K., Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, 04 1952, p. 234 Google Scholar.
10 R. Ghirshman, op. cit., Fig. 23 on p. 197.
11 O. Weber, Die Kunst der Hethiter, pl. 5.