1st millennium AD. A carved limestone rosette within a rectangular frame with roundels to the border; possibly Gandharan workmanship. 11.5 kg, 26cm (10"). Property of an Austrian collector; acquired in the 1970s. Rosettes appear at an early period in Uruk associated with posts sacred to the goddess Inana. Later, faience rosettes are found in large numbers at Assyrian sites and were used as decorative wall elements in houses and palaces, but with the largest concentration found in the temple of Ishtar in the city of Ashur, which suggests that it was one of the symbols of the goddess. Single rosettes ate often seen as a decoration on wrist-straps worn by both human and divine figures in Neo-Assyrian monumental art.[No Reserve]

Fine condition, edges chipped.