**Originally Listed At $400**

Ancient Near East, Holy Land, Tell Brak, Middle Uruk period, ca. 4th millennium BCE. A beautiful and highly-abstract idol of an abstract form, hand-carved from a mottled dark-grey stone with lighter inclusions. The figure is defined by a thick, rectangular body with indented shoulders as well as a pair of huge, staring eyes on top. Tell Brak was a major Mesopotamian city in northeastern Syria, located on a trade route between the Tigris River Valley north to Anatolia, the Euphrates, and the Mediterranean Sea. The most famous building excavated at this huge site was the Temple of the Eyes, where thousands of figures made of stone with incised eyes have been found. Archaeologists believe that these idols were placed there as offerings as wide eyes meant religious attentiveness and devotion to the gods in Mesopotamian art. Size: 1.375" W x 2.2" H (3.5 cm x 5.6 cm); 2.95" H (7.5 cm) on included custom stand.

Provenance: East Coast collection, New York Gallery, New York City, New York, USA, acquired before 2010

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#142843

Minor abrasions to obverse side, with thick calcifications across verso and peripheries, otherwise intact and very good. Light earthen deposits throughout.