SOURCENotes in the History of Art

Vol.IV Nos. 2/3 Winter/Spring 1985

MIRRORS IN THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST Pauline Albenda

REFLECTIONS OF THE SKY'S EYES Robert Steven Bianchi

GREEK MIRRORS __ Lenore O. Keene Congdon

THE ETRUSCAN MIRROR Nancy Thomson de Grummond

POSSIBLE ORIGINS OF THE CHINESE MIRROR Annette Juliano

MIRRORS ON THE FRINGE: SOME NOTES .

THE CONVEX MIRROR AS VANITAS SYMBOL

Karen S. Rubinson

Anthony F. Janson

PLUTARCH'S WIFE AS MIRROR IN A GERMANRENAISSANCE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT Robert Baldwin

A WOMAN'S PLACE: THE QUEEN IN LAS MENINAS Nanette Salomon

BEAUTY, TRUTH, AND THE ARTIST'S MIRROR:A DRYPOINT BY MARY CASSATT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. Nancy Mowll Mathews

REFLECTIONS ON THE MIRROR IN CEZANNE ..... ,. Sidney Geist

RENE MAGRITTE'S THE FALSE MIRROR:IMAGE VERSUS REALITY , . , . , , Gerrit L. Lansing

PANOFSKY AND HIS PEERS IN AWARBURGIAN PSYCHE GLASS .

Evidence for mirrors in the ancient Near East iswidely dispersed. Artifacts, representations inart, and texts furnish information on mirrors.All these sources originate from different geo-graphical areas and historical periods. Thepresent article considers Anatolia (modern Tur-key), Syro-Mesopotamia (modern Syria andIraq), the Levant (the eastern Mediterraneanarea), and Iran. The material may be assembledin broad chronological sequence, from the sixthmillennium B.C. to the beginning of the Hel-lenistic period in the late first millennium B.C.

What follows is a preliminary discussion andsurvey of the data rather than an in-depth art-historical or anthropological study. The patchynature of the material evidence does not allowus at present to trace the production and spreadof mirrors in western Asia across the millennia.Nonetheless, it is assumed that, once invented,mirrors of some kind were used by the generalpopulace, perhaps primarily by women. Moreelaborate mirrors, some of which are discussedbelow, were probably fashioned for prominentmembers of society.

The earliest known objects interpreted asmirrors come from the Neolithic settlement of<;atal Huyuk in southwest Anatolia. In additionto jewelry, baskets, and borte spoons, pins, andspatulae, a number of graves assumed to bewomen's from levels VI-IV (c. 6000-5900 B.C.)yielded circular objects made of highly polishedobsidian that fit into the hand; the finest ofthese was set into lime plaster. These objectsmeasure about 9 centimeters in diameter andare identified by the excavator as mirrors.!

After a gap of several millennia, evidence ofmirrors appears in Mesopotamia. Metal objects

described as mirrors were recovered at sites insouthern Mesopotamia in levels ranging in datefrom the Uruk period (late fourth millenniumB.C.) to the Early Dynastic period (early thirdmillennium B.C.). At Tello, in a level dated tothe late Uruk period (c. 3200 B.C.), tombs con-taining perfume jars, pins, and small copperdisks identified as mirrors were found;2 theedges of these disks are turned down to permita comfortable grip. Several copper mirrors ofvarying size and consisting of disks with shorthandles were found in Jamdat Nasr (c. 3000B.C.) tombs at Kish.3 The Kish tombs containednecklaces, mortars, and pestles, but no weapons-an indication that they were probably women'sburials. Plain copper mirrors dated to the sameperiod were discovered in private houses atKhafaje.4 And at Ur, two tombs dated to theEarly Dynastic period contained a thin-handledcopper disk-probably a mirror. The disks areround or oval, and the handles are long.s Onthe ziggurat terrace at Ur in a Dynastic I level(c. 2900 B.C.), a copper disk measuring 13.5centimeters that may be a mirror was found;the disk is made of very thin metal, with edgesturned over as if to secure it to a wooden back. 6

Also from Ur is a mirror belonging to a gravedated to the Sargonid period (c. 2300 B.C.).7

At Sialk, in Iran, each of two adult tombs,perhaps of females, from period IV (contempo-rary with the Jamdat Nasr period) contained aplain disk mirror made of copper. The disks,rr;easuring 12 and 16 centimeters in diameter,are convex, and their edges are angled to theconcave side. One of the mirrors has traces offabric adhering to it. 8

In the second millennium B.C., evidence for

mirrors comes from sites throughout westernAsia. At the Syrian site of Mari, one of severalfemale graves contained a handled or tangedbronze mirror.9 Several objects indicate thatthis is an Assyrian tomb of about the fourteenthto the thirteenth century B.C. A tomb at Byblos,situated along the Mediterranean coast in theLevant, yielded a small handled mirror in frag-mentary condition 1 0 A silver bowl found to-gether with the mirror has a double band ofrunning spirals embossed on its surface, adecoration associated with the Mycenaeanperiod (c. 1500-1450 B.C.).l1 It is appropriateto mention here the correspondence betweenTushratta, king of Mitanni (c. 1380 B.C.), andthe pharaoh of Egypt. Tushratta writes that hesent the pharaoh two silver mirrors with costlywooden handles shaped like female figures.12

From Boghazkby in central Anatolia, Hittiteritual texts dating from the latter part of thesecond millennium B.C. indicate that a mirrorpaired with a spindle symbolized womanhood;13these features often occur together iconograph-ically. From Ala~a Hliylik, in north-centralAnatolia, a fragmentary bas-relief of about thethirteenth century B.c. depicts a seated womanidentified as the goddess Kubaba;14 she raises acup in her right hand and holds a mirror in herleft. A gold vessel discovered at Hasanlu, innorthwestern Iran, is decorated with mytholog-ical scenes. One depicts a goddess riding on alion and holding a mace and a mirror in her leftand right hands, respectively. She is, if notKubaba, a related deity. The suggested date ofthe Hasanlu vessel ranges from the twelfth tothe ninth centuries B.C.15

In the first millennium B.C., the image 0 f aseated or standing female holding a mirrorseems to have gained some importance, especial-ly in north Syria. The motif occurs on manystone orthostats and carved stelae from sites inthis region, all apparently dating from the tenthto the seventh centuries B.C. The females havebeen identified as goddess, wife, and daughter.

An enthroned goddess holding a mirror in herraised right hand and either a spindle or pome-granate in her left hand appears on stelae fromMalatya and Carchemish.16 In the former in-stance the goddess is borne by a striding bull, inthe latter by a recumbent lion. The Malatyaexample has an inscription that identifies thegoddess as Kubaba.1 7 A small stone fragmentfrom Carchemish depicts an enthroned goddessgripping a mirror in her extended right hand.1sA now headless goddess standing in a frontalpose, clutching to her chest a spindle and dis-taff (?) in the right hand and a mirror in the left,appears on another stele from Carchemish (Fig.1). An inscription on the back of the semi-columnar stele identifies her as "Queen of Car-chemish, goddess of 100 (?) temples," probablyan epithet for Kubaba.19 A carved orthostat

Fig. 1 British Museum WA 125007. Basalt,166 X 77 X 47 cm. (Photo: courtesy of theTrustees of the British Museum)

Fig. 2 British Museum WA 125012. Basalt,108 X 48 X 20 cm. (Photo: courtesy of theTrustees of the British Museum)

from Zincirli illustrates the profile view of astanding goddess who holds a long-handled mir-ror in her left hand and has her right handclenched; and a stele from Biredjik, near Car-chemish, depicts a standing goddess holding amirror in her right hand and a spindle in her left(Fig. 2).20

Carved on a stone stele, possibly from Marash,is a seated woman of high rank who grips a mir-ror in her raised left hand.21 An upper-classwoman with a mirror occurs on another stonerelief from Marash, in which the woman ac-companies her husband, both of them sittingupon plain chairs and facing the viewer. 22 Stillanother carved stele from Marash depicts afamily scene that includes a father, mother, and

daughter.23 Here, it is the daughter who clutchesa mirror in her raised right hand and a spindle inher left; the mother embraces the daughter withher left arm and holds a spindle and distaff inher right hand. A fourth stele from Marash por-trays a seated woman who has a mirror in herright hand, a lyre in her left, and a baby on herlap.24 It may be noted that the stelae of mortalwomen have been identified as funerary monu-ments.25

In contemporary neo-Assyrian art only oneimage of a female holding a mirror occurs. Afragmentary bronze plaque of unknown prove-nance, acquired by the Louvre, depicts tworoyal persons advancing to the right (Fig. 3).26The cuneiform inscription cut into the metalsurface identifies them as Naqia-Zakutu, queenmother, and Esarhaddon, king of Assyria (680-669 B.C.). Naqia grips a mirror in her left handand holds a plant (?) to her nose. The mirror isplain, except for a terminal decoration in reliefon the handle. The mirror finds its closest

Fig. 3 Musee du Louvre AO 20185. Bronze,33 X 31 X 1.5 em. (Photo: permission of theMusee du Louvre)

parallel in that shown on the stele from Biredjik(see Fig. 2). Of related interest, a letter addressedto the Assyrian king Sargon II (721-705 B.C.)reports on the quality of two newly madebronze mirrors.27

Turning to actual finds from the first millenni-um B.C.,western Asiatic mirrors are of two types-handled or tanged and socketed; and isolatedsocketed handles that may have belonged origi-nally to mirrors are also known. Mirrors generallyconsist of a metal disk with a handle of a dif-ferent material. A number of tombs in cemeteryB at Sialk contained bronze mirrors with longhandles probably dating to the eighth or seventhcentury B.C. Except for their dimensions, whichvary from 10.5 to 18 centimeters in diameter,the mirrors are similar. The flat disks are plainand have a projecting flat handle.28 All thetombs containing mirrors are described by theexcavator as female burials. One, number 52, isa multiple burial containing three skeletons,two of which have/anklets on both feet. Thetwo mirrors recovered here may belong to theseskeletons (female), while the dagger, socketedspear point, and horse bit may belong to thethird skeleton (male). A simple bronze diskwith a tang (partially missing) to be insertedinto a lost wooden handle was discovered atMarlik (tomb 10), a site in the Elburz Mountainsof Iran, southwest of the Caspian Sea.29 Thedisk measures 17 centimeters in diameter and issaid to be similar to those found at Sialk.

Dating to the eighth century B.C. or later is abronze mirror disk cast with a tang that was dis-covered in a private residence at the Assyriansite of Khorsabad in northern Iraq.3o The un-decorated surface of the disk measures about14 centimeters in diameter, and the tang, de-signed for insertion into a handle, is narrowexcept for a wide supporting neck. Severalbronze disks of the tanged type were among theitems recovered from looted graves at DeveHtiytik in north Syria.31 The finds have beendated to the fifth-fourth centuries B.C. A dis-

tinctive feature of the undecorated mirrorsfrom Deve Htiyuk, such as the one illustratedhere (Fig. 4), is the increased length of the plain,tapering tang. A fragmentary mirror made ofmetal, discovered at Til Barsip, also in northSyria, has a handle that has broken away fromthe base of the disk.32 The upper part of thehandle has two flaring sides, while the shaft ismade of six knobs. The mirror handle hasstylistic affinities with fan handles on the sixth-fifth-centuries-B.c. Achaemenid reliefs at Perse-polis.33 An intact tanged mirror with decoratedbone handle was discovered at 'Athlit, near thecoast of the Mediterranean Sea a short distancefrom modern Haifa, in a Phoenician grave ofthe Persian period.34 Another tanged mirror ofabout the same date was discovered in a tombat Gezer.35 The plain bronze mirror is about 17centime teres long, and the tang is long andnarrow. At the time of its discovery, a fewfragments of a coarse cloth case still adhered tothe disk of the mirror.

Ivory handles have been recovered from sitesin Mesopotamia. A handle with an Assyrian

Fig. 4 British Museum WA 108763. Bronze, h.19.2 cm. (Photo: courtesy of the Trustees ofthe British Museum)

decoration was excavated in the late nineteenthcentury at Borsippa (Fig. 5);36 it is narrow andin the shape of a column, and its upper portionwidens into a palmette motif incised on each ofthe two flattened sides.37 At the top is a smallcavity for the insertion of a tanged mirror. Otherivory handles in fragmentary condition werediscovered at the Assyrian site of Nimrud. Thesecarved handles depict a single nude female posedfrontally or two or four figures standing backto back; their heads are surmounted by foliatecapitals.38 These handles may have been usedfor fans or fly whisks rather than for mirrors.The Nimrud ivory handles are thought to becontemporary with a bronze mirror found inNubia in the tomb of the pharaoh Shabako(c. 716-701 B.C.); the handie of the Nubianmirror is of gilded silver and is in the form of apalm capital around the base of which projectfour female deities.39 A mirror allegedly pur-chased from local inhabitants at the village ofKhurvin, about fifty miles west of Teheran, iscomposed of two parts: a plain disk, and ahandle in the shape of a nude female frontallyposed and with upturned arms.40 The female iscompact and lanky, and suggests a provincialstyle. A similar bronze mirror in the Louvre(Fig. 6), also unexcavated and without a securedate, has been improperly attributed to Luristanin western Iran.41

In contrast to the figural subjects carved onthe ivory handles from Nimrud, the mirrorhandles depicted on the stone orthostats andstelae from north Syria are either plain or havefoliate designs. The foliate designs on two ofthe stelae from Marash are nearly identical andconsist of a pair of volutes, one above the other.An elaborate version of this foliate motif occurson the fragmentary relief from Carchemish;there, the fronds spring from a central dia-mond.42

A silver mirror from a sixth-centurY-B.C. graveexcavated at Gordion, in central Anatolia, mayrepresent an intermediary between the tanged

Fig. 5 British Museum WA 119499. Ivory, h.12 em. (Photo: courtesy of the Trustees of theBritish Museum)

Fig. 6 Musee du Louvre AO 20181. Bronze, h.27 em. (Photo: permission of the Musee duLouvre)

and socketed types.43 A leaf-shaped piece ofcarved ivory serves to conceal the joint wherethe now-missing handle was fastened to the diskwith rivets (?). The socketed mirror type is bestrepresented by an intact bronze mirror dis-covered in western Anatolia in a tomb excavatedat Sardis.44 The mirror, about the late sixth cen-tury B.C., is 35.5 centimenters long. It is com-posed of three parts: a biconvex disk, a metalpiece or clamp which is secured to the disk bythree rivets, and a columnar rod which isslipped into a cavity at the base of the clamp.Along the edges on both sides of the disk are in-cised geometric designs, and the clamp hassculptured decoration in the form of horses'heads placed back to back. In the British Museumis a bronze mirror with clamp riveted to thedisk and no handle (Fig. 7). An incised animalfrieze decorates the border on each side of thedisk. Two addorsed calves' heads are sculpturedin the round on the lower part of the clamp,and a palmette is incised on the upper part; acavity on the underside of the clamp was usedfor the insertion of a handle. Although themirror was originally published as an Urartianwork of the seventh-sixth century B.C., 45 thisidentification has been questioned, and it hasbeen demonstrated that the mirror is of a typesimilar to the one from Sardis.46

An earlier version of the socketed mirror typemay be on an eighth-centurY-B.c. orthostat re-lief from Zincirli.47 In the field above the seatedfigure of the local ruler Barrekub is an emblem-atic object resembling a mirror. The disk is over-laid at the bottom with a large crescent, belowwhich is a rectangular supporting neck. The ex-tremely narrow handle suggests that it is setinto a cavity located on the underside of thesupporting neck.

Summation: Ancient Near Eastern objectsidentified as mirrors can be traced to the end ofthe seventh millennium B.C. The earliest knownmirrors (if correctly identified) consist of plainpolished obsidian disks and, in much later times,

Fig. 7 British Museum WA 132221. Bronzewith traces of gilding, h. 18 em. (Photo: courtesyof the Trustees of the British Museum)

of copper. The plain disk evolved into the han-dled mirror, which, in turn, developed into thetanged mirror. The last type of mirror probablyresulted from the need for a separate handle inorder to hold the larger and heavier bronze disk.The socketed mirror reflects a new develop-ment in manufacture, perhaps due in part tothe growing scarcity of ivory in the late firstmillennium B.C. and to the desire to produce aless cumbersome and a sturdier handle. Excava-tion reports indicate that the metal disk of thetanged mirror is always plain, while the handlemay be decorated. But decorated features mayoccur on the disk, clamp, and handle of thesocketed mirror. Mirrors in what are assumed tobe the graves of women, their appearance inlarger iconographic contexts, and descriptionsin ritual texts support the contention thatancient mirrors were a special attribute of high-ranking females: goddesses, royalty, and upper-class women.

I would like to thank Oscar White Muscarellafor suggestions and references.

1. James Mellaart, "Excavations at <;;atal Hiiyiik,1962," Anatolian Studies 13 (1963):99, pI. xxxb; id.,"Excavations at Gatal Hiiyiik, 1963," AnatolianStudies 14 (1964):94-95; id., Early Civilizations ofthe Near East (London: 1965), pp. 84-86, pI. 54.Mellaart identifies male burials as those accompaniedby weapons such as flint daggers and obsidian andstone knife blades. In the absence of scientific analysisof human skeletal remains, archkeologists have oftenrelied upon the types of objects deposited with thedeceased to determine that individual's sex. Thepresent article follows the excavator's conclusionwhenever the sex of the tomb's occupant is stated inthe text. Nonetheless, this issue requires further study.

2. H. de Genouillac, Fouilles de Telloh, I: Epoquespresargoniques (paris: 1934), p. 48, pI. 9:3a.

3. Louis C. Watelin and S. Langdon, Excavations atKish, IV: 1925-1930 (Paris: 1934), pp. 28-29, pI.19: 1.

4. P. Delougaz, H. D. Hill, and S. Lloyd, PrivateHouses and Graves in the Diyala Region, Oriental In-stitute Publications 88 (Chicago: 1967), pp.11-12, 30.

5. Leonard Woolley, Ur Excavations, II: The RoyalCemetery (Philadelphia: 1934), pp.164, 310, pI. 230:U11453, U 11484.

6. Id., Ur Excavations, IV: The Early Periods (Phila-delphia: 1956), p. 187. See inventory number U 17840.

7. Ibid., p. 507 (grave 1396).8. R. Ghirshman, Fouilles de Sialk: Pres de Kashan

1933, 1934, 1937, vol. 1, Serie Archeologique, tomeIV (1938), pp. 59-60, 64, 84, 125, fig. 9, pI. 29:3.Note that the well-known Early Bronze Age terra-cottaand stone "frying pans" from the Aegean as well assimilar metal examples from Alaya Hiiyiik andHoroztepe in north central Anatolia have been inter-preted by several scholars as mirrors. Recently, thisview has been challenged, and it seems best at presentto leave them out of a discussion of third-millennium-B.C. mirrors: John E. Coleman, " 'Frying Pans' of theEarly Bronze Age Aegean," American Journal ofArchaeology 89, no. 2 (1985):202 f., 218 for discus-sion and relevant bibliography.

9. Andre Parrot, "Les Fouilles de Mari: Troisiemecampagne (hiver 1935-36)," Syria 18 (1937): 82-84,pI. 15: 3.

10. Charles Virolleaud, "Decouverte a Byblos d'unhypogee de la douzieme dynastie egyptienne," Syria3 (1922):284-285, fig. 5.

11. Edward Pottier, "Observations sur quelquesobjets trouves dans Ie sarcophage de Byblos," Syria 3(1922): 298-300. A gold cup from Knossos is decoratedwith a similar design. See Reynold Higgins, Minoanand Mycenaean Art (New York: 1967), p. 147,fig. 181.

12. J. A. Knudtzon, Die EI-Amarna-Tafeln, Vorder-asiatische Bibliothek 2 (1915), no. 25, col. II, 58-61.

13. Albert Goetze in Ancient Near Eastern TextsRelating to the Old Testament, ed. James B. Pritchard,2d ed. (princeton: 1955), pp. 349, 354.

14. Helmuth T. Bossert, Altanatolien (Berlin: 1942),pI. 516; Dominique Beyer, "Le Sceau-Cylindre deShahurunuwa, roi de Karkemish," La Syrie au BronzeRecent, Memoire 15 (paris: Edition Recherche sur lescivilisations, 1982), p. 78. On the textual evidence forthe diffusion of this goddess, see W. F. Albright, "TheAnatolian Goddess Kubaba," Archiv fiir Orient-forschung 5 (1929): 229-231.

15. For the earlier date, see Edith Porada, The Artof Ancient Iran: Pre-Islamic Cultures (New York:1965), pp. 96-98, pI. 24; for the later date, see OscarWhite Muscarella, "Hasanlu in the Ninth Century B.C.and Its Relations with Other Cultural Centers of theNear East," American Journal of Archaeology 75,no. 3 (1971):255; id., The Catalogue of Ivories fromHasanlu, Iran, University Museum Monograph 40(Philadelphia: 1980), p. 165.

16. Maurice Vieyra, Hittite Art 2300-750 B.C.(London: 1955), p. 75, pI. 65. C. Leonard Woolley,Carchemish: Report on the Excavations at Djerablison Behalf of the British Museum, II: The TownDefences (London: 1921), pp. ix, 160, pI. Bl.9a. Th~chronology of the Hittite style of the Malatya reliefsis still disputed. For example, see Ekrem Akurgal, TheArt of Greece: Its Origins in the Mediterranean andNear East (New York: 1966), pp. 94-97.

17. J. D. Hawkins, "Kubaba at Karkemis and Else-where," Anatolian Studies 31 (1981):169, figs. 2-3.The name of the male deity on the left of the scene isKarhuhas.

18. C. Leonard Woolley, Carchemish, III: The Ex-cavations in the Inner Town (London: 1952), pp.174,240, pI. B64b.

19. Ibid., p. 245, pI. B62a; id., Carchemish, I: Intro-ductory (London: 1914), pp. 5-8. A seated womanusing the distaff and spindle is pictured on a stele fromMarash; see Bossert, p. 71, pI. 814.

20. Felix von Luschan, Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli,vol. 3, Mitteilungen aus den Orientalischen Sammlungen13 (1902), fig. 41; Vieyra, p. 23, pI. 59.

21. Bossert, p. 74, pI. 869.

22. Ekrem Akurgal and Max Hirmer, The Art of theHittites (London: 1962), pI. 139; Akurgal, p. 127, pIs.26-27.

23. Akurgal, p. 129, pI. 28.24. Bossert, p. 71, pI. 810. For the mirror as an

attribute of women in Anatolia, see supra and n. 13.25. Akurgal, pp. 127-132.26. Andre Parrot and Jean Nougayrol, "Asarhaddon

et Naqi'a sur un bronze du Louvre (AO 20.185),"Syria 33 (1956):147-160, pI. 6.

27. Robert H. Pfeiffer, State Letters of Assyria(New Haven: 1935), no. 146. For further references tothe word niimaru, see Akkadisches Handworterbuchand Chicago Assyrian Dictionary.

28. R. Ghirshman, Fouilles de Sialk: Pres de Kashan1933, 1934, 1937, vol. 2, Serie Archeologique, tome V(1939), p. 59. See tombs 7 (s. 580), 21 (s. 621), 38(s. 856),52 (s. 712, s. 727), 53 (s. 953c), 61 (s. 900),66 (s. 935a, b), 123 (s. 988b), pIs. 29:8,52,59,65,68,69,70,73,79.

29. Ezat O. Negahban, A Preliminary Report onMarlik Excavation (Iran: 1964), pp. 33, 57, fig. 126.The date of tomb 10 is still unclear. That at least onefirst-millennium-B.C. (eighth-seventh century) tombexisted at Marlik is demonstrated by Oscar WhiteMuscarella, "Fibulae and Chronology, Marlik andAssur," Journal of Field Archaeology 11, no. 4 (1984):415-417.

30. G. Loud and B. Altman, Khorsabad: The Citadeland the Town, Oriental Institute Publications 40(Chicago: 1938), pp. 68, 99, pI. 62. It is not recordedin which level of occupation of vestibule 66 the mirrorwas found-the eighth century or the post-Sargonid. Inone of two bronze coffins excavated at Ur, now re-dated to the late Assyrian period (late eighth-earlyseventh century B.C.), the grave goods included ahandled bronze mirror. See John Curtis, "Late AssyrianBronze Coffins," Anatolian Studies 32 (1983):85-86,pI. 27:c.

31. P. R. S. Moorey, "Iranian Troops at Deve Hiiyiikin Syria in the Fifth Century B.C.," Levant 7 (1975):108-117; id., Cemeteries of the First Millennium B.C.at Deve Hiiyiik, near Carchemish, Salvaged by T. E.Lawrence and C. L. Woolley in 1913, BAR Interna-tional Series 87 (1980), p. 94, fig. 15:385-388.

32. F. Thureau Dangin and M. Dunand, Til Barsib(Paris: 1936), p. 80, fig. 23.

33. Roman Ghirshman, The Arts of Ancient Iran:From Its Origins to the Time of Alexander the Great,trans. Stuart Gilbert and James Emmons (New York:1964), pIs. 233, 254.

34. For a good illustration, see James B. Pritchard,The Anciel1;tNear East in Pictures, 2d ed. with Supple-

ment (princeton: 1969), p. 258, pI. 71; Josette Elayi,"Studies in Phoenician Geography during the PersianPeriod," Journal of Near Eastern Studies 41 (1982): 101.

35. R. A. Stewart Macalister, The Excavation atGezer 1902-1905 and 1907-1909" vol. 1 (London:1912),pp. 293-294, figs. 154-155.

36. Richard D. Barnett, A Catalogue of the NimrudIvories with Other Examples of Ancient Near EasternIvories in the British Museum (London: 1957), p. 227,pI. 73:U 17.

37. Similar palmettes appear on Assyrian thresholdslabs; see Pauline Albenda, "Assyrian Carpets in Stone,"Journal of the Ancient Near Eastern Society ofColumoia University 10 (1978):7.

38. M. E. 1. Mallowan, Nimrud and Its Remains,vol. 1 (London: 1966), pp. 210-211, figs. 146-147,pI. 3.

39. W. Stevenson Smith, The Art and Architectureof Ancient Egypt (Baltimore: 1965), pp. 144-145, pI.179 (A).

40. The mirror is in the Maleki collection. See 1.Vanden Berghe, La Necropole de Khurvin, Uitgavenvan het Nederlands Historisch-Archeologisch Instituutte Istl\nbul, 17 (1964), no. 351, pp. 1,3,36,70, pI.42. See also E. De Waele, Bronzes du Luristan etd'Amlash (Louvain-La-Neuve: 1982), no. 350.

41. Ghirshman, Arts of Ancient Iran, p. 23, pI. 23.Note that bronze mirrors are reported from the ex-cavations at Surkh Dum in Luristan but remain un-published: E. Schmidt, "The Second Holmes Expedi-tion to Luristan," Bulletin of American Institute ofIranian Art and Archaeology 5, no. 3 (1938):208.

42. See above, n. 18. A similar decoration occurs onan ivory handle from Nimrud; see Mallowan, I, fig. 85.The fully developed version of the foliate motif is adate palm tree, best exemplified by the one depictedon a basalt relief from Sakyagozii; see Akurgal andHirmer, p. 13, pI. 134.

43. Rodney S. Young, "Gordion, 1950," UniversityMuseum of the University of Pennsylvania Bulletin 16(1951): 17, fig.!.

44. Andrew Oliver, Jr., "A Bronze Mirror fromSardis," in Studies Presented to George M. A. Hanfmann, ed. O. G. Mitten, J. Pedley, and J. Scott (Cam-bridge: 1971), pp. 113-120, pIs. 29-30.

45. R. D. Barnett, "A Review of Acquisitions 1955-1962 of Western Asiatic Antiquities (1)," British Mu-seum Quarterly 26 (1963):96, pI. 42.

46. Oliver, pp. 3-4. See also R. A. Stucky, "Acha-menidische Holzer und Elfenbeiner ... ," Antike Kunst28, no. 1 (1985):17.

47. Akurgal and Hirmer, pI. 131.