Sumerian Pins and Buttons
Description: THE MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS FROM UR AND ANCIENT MESOPOTAMIAN MUSIC. The nearly half million cuneiform tablets excavated from ancient Near Eastern sites provide us with ample evidence for the uses of music in ancient Sumer - Babylonia - and Assyria. This lyre was found at the Great Death Pit at the Royal Cemetery, Ur. The silver cow's head decorating the front has inlaid eyes of shell and lapis lazuli. The edges of the sound box have a narrow border of shell and lapis lazuli inlay. From Ur, southern Mesopotamia, Iraq. Early dynastic period, circa 2500 BCE. The British Museum, London.
Description: A powerful Ibex goat, a creature revered in ancient mythologies as a symbol of agility and divine connection. This design is inspired by ancient Sumerian and Mesopotamian art, depicting the goat with a sun symbol, representing its connection to the heavens and its status as a sacred animal. It's a primal, artifact-like piece for lovers of deep history and powerful symbolism.
Description: The ancient sources give some clues as to who lived in the Mesopotamian marshland and what the landscape looked like in the first millennium. Two terms are used in the written sources to refer to the marshland in southern Babylonia: agammu “marsh, swamp” and appāru “reed marsh, canebrake”. The Sealand was inhabited by Chaldeans and Aramaeans. Šūzubu (Mušēzib-Marduk), the Chaldean leader of Bīt-Dakkūri, is referred to in Sennacherib’s inscriptions as “a Chaldean who lives among the marshes (agammu)” and Bīt-Jakīn is described as the land “which is in the marshes (agammu) and canebrakes (appāru)”. Concerning Bēl-iqīša, the leader of the mighty Aramaean tribe of Gambūlu, Esarhaddon says that his residence “is located twelve leagues distance...
Description: Gilgamesh is a legendary king of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk and the demigod protagonist of The Epic of Gilgamesh. Often celebrated as the oldest surviving great work of literature, the epic follows his adventures with his companion, Enkidu, and his ultimately futile quest for immortality.
Description: Bronze statuette of Pazuzu, circa 8th century BC, Louvre. Pazuzu is the demon of the southwest wind known for bringing famine during dry seasons, and locusts during rainy seasons. Pazuzu was invoked in apotropaic amulets, which combat the powers of his rival, the malicious goddess Lamashtu, who was believed to cause harm to mother and child during childbirth. Although Pazuzu is, himself, considered to be an evil spirit, he drives and frightens away other evil spirits, therefore protecting humans against plagues and misfortunes. In the 1971 novel The Exorcist and the film based on the novel, Pazuzu is supposedly the evil spirit that possesses the young girl Regan MacNeil. William S. Burroughs invokes Pazuzu in a dedication of a novel.
