Plaque with horned animal
Not on view
This bronze plaque has an image of a horned recumbent animal, possibly an ibex. The image is surrounded by a border of raised dots. The plaque was hammered from a single sheet of bronze. It has no attachment holes, making it unclear what purpose it served. Possibly it was made as a votive.
This plaque was excavated at Surkh Dum, a settlement site in Luristan in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran. It was found in a structure interpreted as a sanctuary and was thus probably an offering to a god.
The ibex is a distinctly Iranian motif, as they are native to the Zagros Mountains of western Iran, but did not live, for example, on the plains of Mesopotamia. Thus they are a marker of the unique, mountain identity of the people living in western Iran during the Iron Age.
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