Openwork pin with a squatting female

This is a bronze pin with an openwork design on the head. The design features a stylized squatting woman controlling two horned animals. The woman’s face is obscured by corrosion, but it is clear that she has horns, marking her as a goddess. Two large curls to either side of her head may be hair or earrings. She also has pellet-shaped breasts. Her arms, which curl upward, each grasp the snout of a stylized horned animal. These animals has long, curved necks which join in the middle beneath the goddess, forming the groundline on which she squats. A strut connects the goddess to the bottom of the design, and two curved elements connect the animals’ heads to the goddess’; it is not clear if these are decorative or structural, or both.

This pin was excavated at Surkh Dum, a settlement site in Luristan in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran. It was part of a large hoard of objects buried beneath a doorjamb in a structure interpreted as a sanctuary; thus the objects were probably offerings made for a god. Openwork pins of this sort are frequently attributed to Luristan, but this is one of the few examples from an archaeological excavation.