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Lot 145

A Neolithic shell spirit mask amulet

Antiquities
6 July 2021, 15:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £10,837.50 inc. premium

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A Neolithic shell spirit mask amulet
Israel, Pre-Pottery Neolithic B, circa 8000-6000 B.C.
Shield-shaped, with drilled circular eyeholes, 6.3cm high

Footnotes

Provenance:
Formerly private collection, Israel.
Exported from Israel under licence in 2020.

This amulet brings to mind the Neolithic limestone masks discovered in the Judean desert, which comprise one of the earliest group of sculptures to survive from the region. These life-sized masks, and this amulet, are clearly fashioned to resemble human faces. The small scale of this piece, and the weight of the larger, limestone examples, suggest that these objects were not meant to be worn, but served a ritualistic purpose. It has been suggested that they were meant to invoke the spirits of deceased ancestors; if so, they mark one of the earliest attempts by the newly-evolving non-nomadic societies of the 7th Millennium B.C. to connect with the spiritual world.

For more on the limestone masks discovered in the hills and deserts near Jerusalem, see the catalogue from the Israel Museum exhibition of 2014, which displayed a group of these masks together for the first time (D. Hershman, Face to Face: The Oldest Masks in the World, 2014). Two examples remain in the Israel Museum, acc. nos. 82.2.71 and 1984-407.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

An Anatolian marble idol
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