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Silver bowl with a 4-armed goddess seated on a lion.
Khwarezm, 658AD.



Object type: bowl
Description: Silver bowl; raised from a circular piece of sheet metal with embossed design in the centre enclosed within a simple decorated roundel and depicting a four-armed crowned goddess seated on a recumbent lion with two upper arms holding a solar disc and lunar crescent aloft, the lower right holding a sceptre and the lower left holding a shallow hemispherical bowl; slightly thickened interior lip; Khorezmian inscription engraved around the exterior rim; missing a hollow cylindrical foot ring for which the attachment marks remain on the underside of the bowl.
Date: 658
Production place: Made in: Khwarazm, Uzbekistan
Materials: silver
Technique: embossed
Dimensions
   Diameter: 12.4 centimetres
   Height: 4.6 centimetres
   Thickness: 0.1 centimetres (at the rim)
   Diameter: 8 centimetres (foot ring, exterior)
   Weight: 127.5 grammes (previously weighed in error as 128.2 g)
   Volume: 340 centimetres
Inscriptions: Inscription Language: Khorezmian. Inscription Comment: Dated to year 700 of Khorezmian era = AD 658

Curator's comments
Pendant jewel worn by the central figure compared by Lerner to Khorezmian or Sogdian pebble jewel pendant found in the tomb of Shi Suoyan in Guyuan (p. 261, cat. 87 in Annette L. Juliano & Judith A. Lerner et al., 'Monks and Merchants: Silk Road Treasures from Northwest China. Gansu and Ningxia, 4th-7th Century', New York: Harry N. Abrams, with the Asia Society, 2001).

Registration number: 1877,0820.1
Additional IDs
   124089 (WAA big number)
   1975,0516.1 (secondary registration in OA)
   OT 203

Source: British museum 1877,0820.1

Back to the smaller image of this Silver bowl with a 4-armed goddess seated on a lion. Khwarezm, 658AD. British museum 1877,0820.1