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The Sun God Shamash

Copper

Circa 1700-1600 B.C.

From Syria; exact provenance unknown

Purchased with funds given by Shelby White, the Ella C. Woodward Memorial Fund, and the Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 1995.27

 

Shamash, a Near Eastern sun god, is shown seated. His helmet is decorated in relief with horns and topped by a sun disk, which may have been copied fromrepresentations of Egyptian solar deities. Shamash's fine features and full, pointed beard are typically Syrian; his eyes were once inaid. His arms are bent forward, with the hands partially preserved. He wars a mantle with a thick border over a kilt with a fringed hem.

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Uploaded on December 28, 2012
Taken on December 28, 2012