Head of pin
Not on view
This is the head of a bronze pin in the form of an ibex in the round. The ibex stands with its feet together on a small plinth, perhaps in imitation of a mountain peak. It has tall, curved horns emerging from the top of its head.
This pinhead was excavated at Surkh Dum, a settlement site in Luristan in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran. It was found in a structure interpreted as a sanctuary and was thus probably an offering to a god. Such pins were probably used to fasten clothing and as objects of adornment in their own right.
The ibex is a distinctly Iranian motif, as they are native to the Zagros Mountains of western Iran, but did not live, for example, on the plains of Mesopotamia. Thus they are a marker of the unique, mountain identity of the people living in western Iran during the Iron Age.
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