Iran, Luristan / 800–600 BCE
Votive Pin with Decorated Disc
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Votive Pin with Decorated Disc as metalwork (Iran, Luristan · 800–600 BCE).
Luristan votive pins were sometimes found pushed into the walls of religious sanctuaries.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this metalwork as silver, repoussé and incised.
The museum's collection notes: A complex mythological scene unfolds on the decorative disc of this silver pin. On the top register, two bearded figures carrying palm fronds and a bird extend a frond to a seated lion-headed man. Below, two figures holding fronds approach a man riding a bull. Two animal-headed beings flank the registers and perhaps hold banners in their hands. A pattern of stylized lotus buds and blossoms decorates the disk’s rim. The scene may represent a Mesopotamian or Iranian myth. The pin was made with the repoussé technique by hammering designs into the back.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtVotive Pin with Decorated DiscOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.