[MUSIC].

So, this is green.

What's going on here?
What are these things?
>> They are bronzes.
So this is, which why they are green.
And we have this very nice collection
here, of mostly of artifacts from Iran.
Except, only for these two things, which
I brought to show the longitude of
mankind's dealing with metals.
So this is an Egyptian stele, which is a
vessel that they would be putting a wire
through and wearing around the neck.
And this dates to 16th century BCE.
>> Like a necklace, or was it a amulet,
or?
>> Yeah, it's more like an amulet than
a necklace, and probably, you would have some
stuff in it with you when you're dead.
God forbid.
But [LAUGH].
>> Thank you.
Alright, alright.
>> No problem, and then this is a belt
buckle from South Anatolia and this is
12th century BCE.
So then you have all this, and of course
we have metal things.
My belt buckle right now is a metal as
well, so metal has a very long history.
>> Mm-hm.
>> But, there is a period in the Near
East at the end of the 13th century
BCE towards until mid 7th century BCE,
around 500, 600 years.
There is a blossoming of metalworking, in
what is now Iran in the southwest.
>> Give me those dates again.
It's 13th century, 13, yeah 13
hundred BCE to 650 BCE.
>> Thank you.
>> So this is an area we call Luristan.
It's in the Zagros Mountains, very rich
in metal ores, and you'd get this very
lavish use of metal artifacts in
cemeteries.
And all of these we believe came from
cemeteries.
And this was a private collection that
was donated to the Haffenreffer Museum.
>> So, largely grave goods.
>> Largely grave goods.
>> Mortuary contexts.
>> Yes.
>> Great.
>> And, what I really like about this
collection is it tells you a great
variety of things, and it had a great
variety of uses.
So we have a lot of amulets in the shape
of animals.
>> And here's a good example, and these
are really.
>> Cute.
>> very yes.
Cute.
And we have smaller ones [CROSSTALK].
>> Am I holding it right?
>> Yeah, you are totally holding it
right.
And they would be again, worn around the
neck for apotropaic, namely protective
purposes.
>> Okay.
>> And the owner of the collection
before we acquired it liked these
materials so much that he went to the
pain of restoring the small bit over
there, so we can see the difference in
material.
>> Ow, yeah.
>> And yeah, exactly.
And we have a lot of examples of those,
and one of my personal favorites is this
so called animal monster, and you have
this from a lot of museums.
Most of these materials are today in
Ashmoleon or Lore.
They have enormous collections of
Luristan bronzes.
>> And if you want to look at that,
this is a very cute snake tailed.
>> An animal monster.
>> An animal monster, and the great
part about it is the detail of the
texture that they were able to give.
>> Mm-hm.
>> Because they are working with metal.
>> Light, you're right.
>> So it has all these like, small
points, dots on it, which was able.
>> It doesn't look very fierce to me.
Are you sure it's a monster?
>> It's, it's the typology made in the
other museums.
>> Ahh.
>> It's called the animal monster.
>> Fair enough.
>> And then we have an actual unique
example that doesn't come out, come
around a lot.
This is another amulet, and this is
actually a priest.
What we identify as a priest, in terms of
the headdress as you can see here.
>> I have them right side up, no?
Which is Ha.
>> He is kneeling and he has his hands
clasped on his chest.
>> Oh.
>> And he has a very elaborate
headdress.
>> So, he's looking this way.
>> Yes.
>>
>> So, he's looking at you directly
right now, and he has these.
>> Right.
>> Wing-like things.
>> sure enough.
>> So it's again.
[CROSSTALK].
>> An amulet, it's again has the
piercing, it would be worn around the
neck.
>> Such a pain, I have to wear these
gloves.
because you sort of, sorry...
>> Oh I know, it's, it's, for the artifacts.
And then we have some vessels.
So this is a very nice vessel, which is
actually out of sheet metal.
They were hammering these into this
shape.
Because if you look at the actual thin.
>> You can see the stria, and the
dense.
>> You can just see how they would
hammer these things.
So this was put into the shape and, this
is what we call repouss.
So, they had these guys are in higher
relief, which you can see in the
background.
They are lower, so they are hammered out.
And then you see the incisions around the
rim for further decoration.
>> So what, a drinking vessel most
likely?
>> A drinking vessel is most likely,
yes, but again, since we have these from
graves we do not know if these were
actually ever used in real life.
>> And if we got lucky, we could do
residue analysis.
>> Yes, exactly.
>> But not from things, you know.
>> Yeah.
>> If you, if you retrieve that from
archaeological excavations.
>> You can tell an awful lot more.
>> Yeah, exactly.
And here we have another examples of,
example of sheet metal.
So, this is a bracelet.
And, what they would do is, you have to
imagine this as a sheet of metal.
>> Mm-hm.
>> On which you put the decorations.
And then once you're done with the
decoration, you just curl it to make it
into this shape.
And then it becomes very nice.
[CROSSTALK].
>> They incised this decoration?
>> Yeah it is all incised, and it's
very elaborate
>> It's beautiful.
>> It has pelmets and very other geo,
geometrical shapes.
>> Gorgeous.
>> So, what do you think this might be?
Just play around with it, shake it.
>> It's a trap for a bee.
>> Makes a sound, right?
[SOUND] Exactly.
So that is the actual role of the pallet,
because you have to imagine this on a
wooden pole.
>> Uh-huh.
>> And it would be fastened onto a
chariot, and when the chariot has four of
these things, and it's going at full
speed, it would be making a lot of scary
noises.
>> I, okay, [LAUGH] I Scary or nice.
>> I
>> Depending on where you.
>> I I was ex.
>> Are standing.
[LAUGH]
>> I was excavating in Armenia once,
and we were digging up a burial tumulus.
And we came down, we found little bells.
And I'm afraid we couldn't resist.
And you, we rang, we rang them.
And it's like, first time anyone had
heard those bells ringing, in.
>> Yeah.
>> Two and a half thousand years.
>> Exactly.
And another fun object is this, which was
a big mystery for me to figure out,
because it just stands like this.
I mean, you might have hung it on your
wall.
You might have used it for things.
But it took me.
>> It's ritual.
>> [LAUGH] Yes, this is what we tend to
say.
>> If you don't know it is, it's gotta
be something ritual.
No?
 >> But exactly not, because
>> No?
>> I came across an example from
Ashmolean Museum where they have the
Lorestan horse on display, and the sits
on the cheek of the horse for the
trappings.
>> Oh.
>> So, but, if you do not see it.
>> like, like?
>> Yeah exactly, like there's two of
them to hold the trappings.
>> Hm.
>> But if you do not see it like that,
it's very hard to imagine it.
And lastly, I want to show you this.
And you will find a bit surprising,
because it's heavy.
>> Oh, my God.
>> we think this is a passel, and it
has a lead core.
Which gives, it's, the weight.
>> yeah, this is.
>> And then its sheeted with bronze over
it.
And, it would be for cosmetics or spices,
but also, it is very, eroded, so
hopefully they did not use it a lot when
the lead was exposed, for spices.
>> That would not be good, yeah.
>> That would not be very, yeah.
>> The lead poisoning at the end of the
Roman empire, and that's beautiful, the
little.
Is that a goat, ram?
>> It's it's, oh, identified as a ram
but it's looks a lot like a hound as well
to me.
[LAUGH] But probably ram is a better
idea, because we have all the rams.
>> Rams slash dog.
>> like this.
>> Yeah, many ram,
>> Other examples, there's an ibex.
>> Ibex.
>> So rams and ibex, ibexes are very
common in the corpus.
>> So we.
>> If, if we knew exactly where these
were found, and, what else could we say
about them?
[CROSSTALK]
>> We could have said a lot more about
them.
I mean, if, we find this vessel in a
grave, we are not sure about when it is
used.
But if you find it in the context of a
kitchen.
 >> Mm-hm.
>> You can make the claim that maybe it
was used more for food preparation and
food consumption.
>> Mm-hm.
>> Or, if you find this in a garden,
you can come up with another whole
different kinds of ideas.
So the context really.
>> Context, yeah.
>> Makes these things what they are,
and how you are to interpret them.
But without them, we can only go so far,
and talk about what this might be.
>> And its a guess.
>> Exactly.
>> The importance of context.
>> [LAUGH] Thanks Mge, that was
wonderful.
>> Thank you.