Royal or divine figure with high conical headdress, 18th century b.c.; Middle Bronze Age
Syria or Levant
Bronze
Technical Glossary
Syria or Levant
Bronze
H. 7 in. (17.9 cm)
Gift of Sheldon and Barbara Breitbart, 1985 (1985.262.2)
The close relationship between the divine patriarch El and his earthly counterpart, the Syrian king, may be expressed in this male figure wearing a wrapped mantle with thickly rolled borders and a version of the Egyptian white crown. As the eternal king, he may wear the Mesopotamian horns of divinity or the Egyptian white crown. As a mortal ruler, this figure may appear in the presence of such deities as the weather god and the Syrian goddess with the square miter. Examples appear on the cylinder seals rolled on tablets at the city of Alalakh, an important center in northwestern Syria.
