Item description
- Object: A gold figure of a recumbent lion
- Origin: Ancient Bactria
- Date: ca. mid 1st millennium BC
- Dimensions: 42.5 mm long
- Weight: 12.4 g
The lion is shown in a recumbent position, with well-delineated facial details and mane, on a rectangular plinth. The gold lion is said to be from Bactria, an ancient region that lay between the Amu Darya river, and the Hindu Kush mountains, covering area that includes parts of modern Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The style of the lion and its rather formal, frontal posture is reminiscent of Assyrian art and it lacks any of the Hellenised influence of the later centuries BC. On this basis a date of around the middle of the first millennium BC seems most likely.
The figure was worked in the round in thin sheet gold, the lion in one piece, the underside of the plinth in another. The form and features of the lion were seemingly worked freehand, the main contours from the back, the details from the front. The detailing was carried out with a variety of small punches including a triangular one used to form the mane and to texture the sides of the body, as shown here. The undersigned has seen similar use of triangular punches in ancient goldwork, including forming a lion’s mane, but seemingly not on objects dating to before about the mid-first millennium BC.
The lion is made in thin sheet gold of a pale colour, indicating a significant silver presence in the alloy. This composition explains the reddish surface discoloration and also the areas of cracking, an effect termed stress corrosion cracking and which is due to the corrosion and diffusion of other metals within the gold over long periods of time. This internal corrosion has made some of the gold quite brittle, explaining the area of damage to the back of the plinth, as shown here. Such embrittlement is a very strong indication of great age and very difficult to replicate artificially on such an object since the embrittlement must have developed after the form of the lion had been worked and the base of the plinth soldered to the upper part.
In summary the form of the lion, its mode of manufacture, surface texture and embrittlement are consistent with an ancient date. The style and mode of manufacture support a date of around the mid-first millennium BC.