Ancient Near East, Tel Brak, modern day Syria, Late Uruk Period, ca. 3300 to 3000 BCE. Hand-carved using drills and string cutting from a speckled grey-black hard stone, this is one of the most famous types of artifact from early Mesopotamia. It has a bell-shaped body surmounted by two perforated circles, forming "eyes" and a series of incised rings between the eyes and lower part of the body. Eye idols were named in the 1930s by the British archaeologist Max Mallowan when he was excavating at the mound called Tel Brak and found hundreds of small anthropomorphic items of similar form to this one - some kind of simplified body topped by large discs for eyes and no other discernible facial features. He named the place where he found them the Temple of the Eyes. Size: 2" W x 2.95" H (5.1 cm x 7.5 cm)

Items like these have been found other places in the ancient Near East rather than the Temple of the Eyes, and more recently, French archaeologist Catherine Breniquet has speculated that examples like this one - characterized as a Type 3 - could have also been used for separating wool while spinning. Other scholars have suggested they might be lids for narrow jars or parts of a firedog. What do you think this mysterious object might have been? See a very similar example made of alabaster in the Louvre (AO 30002).

Provenance: private Orange County, California, USA collection acquired before 2000

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#126289

Intact, with very light surface scratching. Tiny amounts of encrustation in the lower profile areas.