Babylonian Sun Shield Earrings

Description

The opulent design of our earrings is based on a detail from an elaborate necklace created in Mesopotamia between the seventeenth and sixteenth centuries B.C. The original necklace, now in the Museum’s collection, is composed of a double row of gold beads from which seven pendants featuring deities are suspended. Our earrings are adapted from a pendant showing a disc with rays emanating from the central boss, which represents the sun god, Shamash.

18K gold overlay. Matte finish. Clip. 7/8'' diam.

Art History

Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, was the heart of the ancient Near East. As early as the seventh millennium B.C., these two rivers were major routes of travel and communication as well as sources of irrigation. It was in this region during the fourth millennium B.C. that urban civilization first evolved. For the next five thousand years, southern Mesopotamia sustained successive thriving cultures. The capital cities of the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, Seleucids, and Parthians all lay in this fertile agricultural region.