• latw-53-10
    Ivory Stag, front (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • latw-53-20
    Ivory Stag, in fingers (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • latw-53-30
    Ivory Stag, reverse (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)
  • latw-53-40
    Ivory Stag, drawing (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College)

Ivory head of deer

The Lydians and their World (2010) Cat. 53
Date
Ca. 640-625 BC, Lydian
Museum
Manisa, Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, 8059
Museum Inventory No.
8059
Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
BI94.003
Material
Ivory
Object Type
Bone and Ivory
Site
Sardis
Sector
MMS/N
Trench
MMS/N 94.2
B-Grid Coordinates
E145.4 / S026.5 *96.35
Description
Ivory, broken at bottom and left top. The front surface shows parts of a deer, to left: head, upper neck, posterior antler, and the upper part of its rump. The eye is defined by an incised circle and dot, and has an incised duct; the end of the nose and mouth are indicated by incised lines. The posterior part of the antler has an upward-curving terminal and two upward-curving branches, at least one of which terminates in a small disk with central perforated dot; each branch with a slender sub-branch that terminates in a central perforated dot. Spaces partly framed by antler terminal, and branches contain oval forms that have two or three perforated dots. The anterior part of the antler is missing. The back surface has a flat central part, with narrow, vertical grooves defining the sides and a small, deep semi-conical hollow extending upward from the broken bottom edge. Preserved length 0.05 m, thickness 0.01 m.
Comments
Recovered in 1994 from fill between two cobbled road surfaces at Sardis (at excavation sector MMS/N); both road surfaces antedate construction of lower city defenses ca. 600 BC. No. 53 may have been part of a bridle ornament. The form of the antlers branches is unlike that of “nomadic animal style” antlers.
See Also
Greenewalt, “Horsemanship”; Dusinberre, “Ivories”; Greenewalt, “Introduction”.
Bibliography
Greenewalt and Rautman 1998, 493-494.
Author
CHG

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