Ziwiye gold treasure
The gold treasure of Ziwiye (also Ziwije , Kurdish: Zêwiye) was discovered in 1950 in Iran near Saqqez , southeast of Hasanlu by a shepherd boy supposedly in a grave near the walls of the castle. The material comes from the art trade, there is no information on the exact origin. Most of the finds are now in the archaeological museum in Tehran . There are 341 pieces, 103 of ivory, 71 of silver and 43 of gold. The treasure contains purely Assyrian, Urartian and Syrian items as well as those in which Urartean, Syrian and Assyrian (international mixed style) as well as Urartian and Scythian styles are mixed.
O. Muscarella has pointed out that due to the unexplained circumstances of the find, neither the location itself nor the association of the finds is certain. Therefore, he advises against all far-reaching conclusions.
Dating
André Godard suggested dating to the 9th century. Today the second half of the 7th century BC is more likely to be. Assumed BC, but there are undoubtedly pieces that are older. Stylistically, a number of pieces can be placed in the Hasanlu III A period .
Finds
The tub
The finds were allegedly in a bathtub-like coffin made of bronze, which is only preserved in fragments. C. Burney dates it to 730, so it may be an old piece. The upper edge shows a train of tribute bearers in the Assyrian style. Their clothes identify them as mountain dwellers. They carry drinking horns, wineskins, vessels and a city model. Wine is known as a product of manna, but the iconography of its inhabitants is unknown. There is also a representation of a goat standing on a rosette.
Comparable finds are known from Ur and Zincirli ( Sam'al ). The two tubs from Ur come from layers of the Neo-Babylonian and Persian periods and contained women's burials. The Zincirli tub, on the other hand, was actually used for personal hygiene.
ivory
Most of the ivory panels were probably originally furniture parts. Such inlaid furniture is known from Assyrian reliefs and from the royal tombs of Salamis . The plates come from Assyrian and Urartian workshops that date back to the time of Tiglath-Pileser III. (747–727 BC) are to be dated. Other ivory plates probably originate from Hasanlu's workshops. Some of the ivory plates show signs of burn, so they are either spoils of war or they come from the citadel of Ziwiye.
Gold and silver bowls
The gold bowls are stylistically assigned to Assyrian, North Syrian, Urartian-Scythian and Mannean workshops. A gold-plated silver plate shows a hare, a cat-like predator and the head of a bird of prey. It is mostly interpreted as a purely Scythian work.
Rhytha
Rhytha, or drinking horns made of gold, show the heads of wild sheep and gazelles as protomes (decoration of the tips). Large areas of the body of the vessel remain unornamented and the style already indicates the Achaemenid imperial style. A number of comparable rhythms made of silver from Northern Iran come from the art trade.
Pectoral
A golden breast ornament (pectoral) is usually dated to the 7th century. It shows a procession of winged hybrids, winged bulls, winged genii with bull's feet, griffins with human legs and winged rams, to a central tree of life crowned by palmettes and showing Assyrian and Urartian influence; M. van Loon speaks of a Syro-Uratean style. However, pectorals are found particularly on Urartian depictions of kings or gods.
Jewellery
Golden bracelets with lion figures presumably also come from Urartu. The finds also include torques, chains, gold belts with square ornamented plates and six eyelets and earrings. A gold diadem was decorated with rosettes.
weapons
The treasure also contains weapons made of bronze and iron (two iron swords, arrow and lance tips), here it is mostly assumed that these originally came from the fortress itself. Golden chords and elaborately designed golden attachments for sword handles, on the other hand, come more from the hoard of a ruler. One of the chords is decorated with a representation of a panther.
Horse harness
In addition to the usual brazen bridle bars, the treasure also contained silver dishes.
Comparable finds
Stylistically closely related to the Ziwije finds are the additions to the royal tombs of Salamis on Cyprus . Such an international mixed style can also be found in Hasanlu and Marlik Tepe . There are also similarities to Rhytha from the nearby Kaflant ( Hamadan district ), which is identified with the Mannean capital Izirtu .
interpretation
- The treasure was interpreted by Tadeusz Sulimirski as the grave goods of a Scythian prince, which contained not only local work but also looted property.
- André Godard and Winfried Orthmann would like to interpret it as the treasure of a Mannean prince, which also contained heirlooms from an earlier period.
- R. Girshman assumed the existence of a royal Scythian workshop where oriental artisans worked to the taste of their new masters. Scythian motifs, roller animals, lying deer and goats were combined with Urartean border patterns.
- It may be an arbitrary compilation of various finds by the art dealers who wanted to increase their value by specifying a fixed provenance.
- R. Girschmann also interpreted the treasure as the dowry of Assurhaddon's daughter, who married the Scythian king Bartatua (a marriage of which it is not certain whether it actually took place). This is countered by chronological considerations, as the copper tub is more likely to be around 600.
- Barnett interprets the treasure as the property of the Assyrian governor of Mannai.
Some components of the treasure, especially the rhytha (drinking horns) and the gold bowls, are seen as a preliminary stage of Achaemenid imperial art (E. Herzfeld, A. Godard).
The settlement of Ziwiye
The Ziwije area probably belonged to the Mannaean Empire in the 7th century . The ancient name is probably Zibia, which, according to Assyrian sources, was near Izirtu , the Mannean capital.
Digs
The mannean castle of Ziwije is only partially excavated. In 1964 a brief dig was carried out by VE Crawford and RH Dyson Jr. The castle has three construction phases and is similar to Median systems at the same time . The adobe walls are up to 7.5 m thick. A palace inside the fortress, with pillared porches as in Hasanlu, can only be assumed. The majority of ceramics, "brown buff ware", corresponds to the early Median goods. But there were also glazed Assyrian shards. The excavators placed the complex in the Iron Age III according to Cuyler-Young, with clear connections to the so-called southern group and especially the finds from Zendan-i Sulaiman . This would put the castle in the second half of the 7th century. Today the area is completely ransacked by treasure huts.
literature
- Theodore Cuyler Young, Jr .: The Iranian migration into the Zagros. In: Iran. Vol. 5, 1967, ISSN 0578-6967 , pp. 11-34, JSTOR 4299585 .
- Robert H. Dyson, Jr .: Archaeological Scrap. Glimpses of History at Ziwiye. In: Expedition. Vol. 5, No. 3, 1963, ISSN 0014-4738 , pp. 32-37, ( online ).
- Roman Ghirshman : Perse. Proto-Iraniens, Mèdes, Achéménides (= L'Univers des formes. 5, ISSN 0566-1064 ). Gallimard, Paris 1963.
- Roman Ghirshman: Speaking of you trésor de Ziwiyé. In: Journal of Near Eastern Studies Vol. 32, No. 4, 1973, pp. 445-452, JSTOR 543235 .
- Roman Ghirshman: Tombe princiére de Ziwiyè et le début de l'art animalier scythe. Brill, Leiden 1979.
- André Godard : Le trésor de Ziwiyè. (Kurdistan). Enschedé, Haarlem 1950.
- Hans-Jörg Kellner : Pectorals from Urartu. In: Belleten. Vol. 41, 1977, ISSN 0041-4255 , pp. 481-493.
- Vladimir Lukonin: Art of Ancient Iran. EA Seemann, Leipzig 1986, ISBN 3-363-00015-4 .
- Oscar White Muscarella : "Ziwiye" and Ziwiye: The Forgery of a Provenience. In: Journal of Field Archeology. Vol. 4, No. 2, 1977, ISSN 0093-4690 , pp. 197-219, JSTOR 529647 .
- Winfried Orthmann : The old Orient (= Propylaea art history. Vol. 18). Reprint in full. Propylaea, Frankfurt am Main et al. 1985.
- Edith Porada : The Art of Ancient Iran. Pre-Islamic Cultures. Crown Publishers, New York NY 1965, chapter 10.
- Maurits Nanning van Loon: Urartian Art. Its distinctive traits in the light and new excavations (= Uitgaven van het Nederlands Historisch-Archeologische Instituut te Istanbul. 20, ISSN 0926-9568 ). Nederlands Historisch-Archeologische Instituut te Istanbul, Istanbul 1966.
- Charles K. Wilkinson: More Details on Ziwiye. In: Max EL Mallowan , Donald J. Wiseman (eds.): Ur in retrospect. In memory of Sir C. Leonard Woolley (= Iraq. 22, ISSN 0021-0889 ). British School of Archeology in Iraq, London 1960, pp. 213-220, JSTOR 4199688 .
Web links
- (English)
- (Picture of the pectoral)
- The Treasure of Ziwiye (English) ( Memento of 2 November 2005 at the Internet Archive )
Individual evidence
- ^ Barnett 1956: 16