7
Discussion and Conclusion:
The significance and application of these double spiral style objects is not easy to determine. It is while
they could be classified as personal ornaments which characteristics has made them appropriated for gifts
exchange or tribute which are now mainly recovered from contexts such as elite burials, temples and
palace treasuries.
The artistic representations of these objects too represent a ceremonial or religious function for them in
the ancient world. A female terracotta seated figurine from Altyn-depe in western Central Asia, belonging
to the Namazga V (ca. 3
rd
millennium BC), has two tresses in front form a double opposing spiral form
resembling the pendants of this type (Tosi & Lamberg-Karlovsky: 2003:357, fig. cat. 250a). The abstract
iconography of a female figure incised on a slab is recalling the double spiral pendants. This slab which
was found under an altar dedicated to the goddess Ninhursanga, one of whose functions was to preside
over child birth, dating to about 2300 BC might have been used in the cults (Tosi & Lamberg-Karlovsky:
2003: 352, fig. cat. 246). Similar schematic representations of the female form are found only on stone
figurines from the Levant, the Aegean area, and western Anatolia (Marqueron, 2003: 163, cat. 106). On a
cylinder-seal from Syria, made of arsenical copper for a burial in Anatolia, a quadruple spiral has been
depicted before a deity, which has been interpreted as the symbol of flowing water and possibly
associated with
the goddess Nanshe, daughter of god Enki (Arzu, 2003: 243- 244).
The appearance of double/quadruple-spiral motifs in association to female deities as well as female
iconography in the Middles East, is representative of their ritual significance for the women. As moreover
their artistic representation, the recovered double/quadruple-spiral objects are generally coming from
graves attributed to female. The double/quadruple-spiral bead from Royal Cemetery at Ur is from queen
Paupi (Woolley, 1934, 574). The double/quadruple-spiral style beads and pendants from Marlik are
attributed to the women graves by Negahban, although the skeletons are so badly preserved that their
sex could not be determined and so the graves with much jewelry and a few weapons are taken to be for
women and the ones with more weapons and a few jewelry as men’s (Negahban, 1996: 14- 20).
Interestingly no double/quadruple-spiral style bead or pendant have been recovered from the graves
which contained double-spiral end belts.
Among all the spiral-end/part objects the spiral-end belts were most probably northwestern Iranian
objects (Figure 1). Despite Moorey who attributes these belts, based on their iconographical features, to
Luristan traditions, the existing data from archaeological excavations in Marlik, Khurvin and Bisutun
demonstrate a geographical distribution in the southwestern Caspian Sea and its nearby regions in Iran
for them. In these objects, the repoussé dots/blobs have been arranged in geometric order or rosette
forms. Moreover the waistbands of the naked male figurines from Marlik have been decorated by a set
of “repoussé” blobs/dots. Negahban believes the belts depicted on the waist of some of the naked male
figurines found in Marlik tombs, also represents a set of blobs/dots on their whole surface, although their
ends are not represented. On the other hand, Negahban believes, the depicted males and females on
some vessels from Marlik also are wearing belts with the same decorations (Negahban 1995: 97).
Regarding these data the belts with parallel decorations which Moorey attributed them to Luristan
(Moorey 1971: 243) more probably might have been produced and imported from a region at the
southwestern or western Caspian Sea, such as Marlik.
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8
In the case of the Spiral-end belts it must be mentioned that the iconographical and decorating techniqes
on them could provide a key to their attribution to a geographical region or a cultural group.
In general despite the simplicity of the decorations on these belts, the existing examples could be classified
in three different groups:
Spiral end belts without decorations.
Spiral end belts with decorations in “dotted techniques: repoussé bosses/ studs”
Spiral end belts decorated in “linear technique”,
Most of these rather simple belts had been
recovered from Marlik, Bisutun and Hasanlu warrior's tombs,
or in tombs which contained other objects of arms and armors.
Apparently using dots or blobs, or "
repoussé bosses", in decorating metal objects was a specific
characteristic of the period. This technique, not only used on belts but also could be seen on other objects
of personal ornaments or jewelry. Objects with this decorations found not only in Marlik (Negahban 1964:
Pls. 54, 55) but also from Hasanlu (Rubinson 2012b: fig. 27.02), Amlash (Culican 1964: Pl. VIII. b, Pl. IX.)
and in western Iran and even more widely in southern Caucasus (Rubinson 2012a: 110) and in Urartian
sites
4
dating to 1000-800 B.C. (Iron Age II period).
Based on archaeological findings the early examples of these belts have been produced
in a region at the
southern borders of the Caspian Sea in centers such as Marlik. While the belts with unknown province
which had been attributed by Moorey to Luristan may, chronologically, are the next examples of these
belts.
Even though Muscarella believes the three decorated belts in Ashmolean Museum with spiral ends are
forgeries regarding their decorations. Or even in some cases, as the belt with incised gazelles, the belt is
ancient while the decoration is done in modern times. He just considered the plain examples as the
ancient belts and the decorated ones as the modern forgeries
5
(Muscarella, 2000: 92). It is while among
the spiral-end belts which are recovered from archaeological excavations from Marlik (Negahban 1995:
97-98, figs. 86, 89; 1996: Pl. Pl. XVI, 185), or Bisutun (Kleiss, 1989: fig. 6), the belts are decorated by panels
of repousee dots or blobs or rosettes. In the case of the two belts in Ashmolean Museum with male
repousee figures it must be noted that although the gesture is not known in Luristan, they recall the
Khurvin naked bronze figurine wearing a belt, with the same gesture, the hands raised on his sides. On
the other hand the surface of these belts is covered with small repoussé dots or blobs as the belts from
Marlik or Bisutun. The decorating technique on these belts may be the predecessor of the technique used
in decorating the belt in the Louvre Museum. The various scene have been depicted on this belt in dotted
technique (Figure 7). The belt is said to be from Amlash (Figure 1) in the Gilan province, a region located
in the southern Caspian Sea. While Amiet attributes the origin of the scene and the technique to Caucasian
cultures (Amiet 1968: 257, figs. 4-6).
The last example of belts in this group in Iran had been recovered from Hasanlu IV (Iron Age II (1050- 800
B.C.)) warrior's tombs. This belt is totally different from other belts in Hasanlu which are decorated by
repoussé blobs/bosses. This belt had been placed in the objects of local style at Hasanlu because of its
4
. On some Urartian belts there are
“
repoussé
”
blobs composing rosettes or the surface is filled by blobs see for (Tasyurek, O.,
A., T., 1975,
The Urartian Belts in the Adana Museum, Ankara).
5
. such statements require much more detailed studies.
280