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A Bronze ‘Pazuzu’ Statuette from Egypt

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2014

P. R. S. Moorey
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Extract

In 1892 the Rev. G. J. Chester presented to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, a freestanding figure in bronze of an Assyrian demon, which he said came from San el-Hagar, a small fishing village close to the mound of Tanis in the Egyptian Delta. Recently, when this figure was cleaned for the first time, a badly corroded inscription in Aramaic or Phoenician characters was revealed down the outside of each leg. Fortunately, it was still possible to make out some portions of the text. Although this does not provide direct evidence of the figure's identity, close similarity to a well-known inscribed figure of a demon in the Louvre, and the absence of any female characteristics which might denote the iconographically similar Lamashtu, indicate that this is the demon Pazuzu. See Plate VIII.

The figure is 10·8 centimetres high and represents the demon standing on a small rectangular base. Although the ears are human, the bulging eyes, wrinkled jowls, snout-like nose and protruding tongue give the face a leonine expression. A pair of goat's horns rising from the brow curve back to form part of a suspension loop on top of the head. The arms are raised on either side of the head with the ‘hands’ open, empty palms held forward. These are too worn to show certainly whether they were the animal paws usual on these figures. Though the double pair of wings is badly damaged, the feathers are carefully incised on both back and front of the surviving fragments. A pronounced ridge runs over each shoulder from the centre of the back to the chest, so that the wings appear to be strapped on to the body. The creature is ithyphallic, probably with a serpent's head at the end of the phallus. The thighs and legs, terminating in three talons, are rendered like those of a bird of prey. The demon has a scorpion's tail curled up to meet a short bar, which emerges from the lower part of its back, to form a second suspension loop.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , Spring 1965 , pp. 33 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1965

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References

1 Dawson, W. R., Who was who in Egyptology, 1951, p. 35Google Scholar.

2 Museum No. 1892.43. I am grateful to R. W. Hamilton, Keeper of the Ashmolean, for permission to publish this figure and for reading a draft of this paper.

3 Porter, B. and Moss, R. L. B., Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic texts …, IV, 1934, pp. 13 ff.Google Scholar

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5 MNB No. 467: Pottier, E., Catalogue des Antiquités Assyriennes, 1924, No. 146, pl. XXXI, leftGoogle Scholar.

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7 Standing figures: Louvre, see n. 5; Philadelphia—Museum Journal VIII (1917), p. 43, fig. 13Google Scholar, from Nippur: see also Peters, J. P., Nippur, II, 1897, p. 383Google Scholar under entry for fig. 19. Plaques: Babylon—BE 33683: Saggs, H. W. F., A.f.O. XIX (1959–1960), fig. 3Google Scholar; BM 86262—Wallis-Budge, E. A., Amulets and Super-stıtitions, 1930, p. 103, No. 11, pl. XII.7Google Scholar. Standing: B. Arch. VII (1944), p. 33, fig. 7Google Scholar.

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9 Originally Musée Guimet : MG 6986, now in the Louvre—P. Amiet, , Revue du Louvre, 1962, p. 187, fig. 6.Google Scholar

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11 H. W. F. Saggs, op. cit., p. 123.

12 BM 108979—No provenance. Wallis-Budge, E. A., Amulets and Superstitions, pl. XIV, p. 104Google Scholar.

13 It is not clear whether or not it had wings, though certain lines incised on the plaque, now very faint, may once have indicated them.

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Stone: Nimrud 484—I.L.N. 29th July, 1950, p. 181, figs. 5–6. Uruk—U.V.B. XVI, 1960, pl. 21a, b; p. 41-single body, two heads.

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21 There are two such heads in the Ashmolean collection: 1890.44, bought in Beirut by the Rev. G. J. Chester; 1951.33–ND 884 from the N.W. Palace at Nimrud: I.L.N. 29th July, 1950, fig. 4. Also a tiny head of stone: ND 1042—1952.97.

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24 Woolley, C. L., Ur Excavations, IX, 1962, p. 118, U.16118Google Scholar; this is so schematic that the identification with Pazuzu is uncertain. Grave ascribed to Persian period; also contains a Neo-Babylonian stamp seal: U.16117.

25 BE 33683: Saggs, H. W. F., A.f.O. XIX (1959–1960), fig. 3Google Scholar; BM 86262: E. A. Wallis-Budge, Amulets and Superstitions, pl. XII.7.

26 Reiner, E., J.N.E.S. XIX (1960), pp. 148 ff.Google Scholar for apotropaic amulets and their use.

27 See n. 16.

28 M. E. L. Mallowan, Nimrud and its Remains (forthcoming), p.; see also J. Lewy; M.V.A.G. XXIX/2 (1924), p. 14Google Scholar.

29 See n. 16.

30 Meissner, B., M.A.O.G. VIII (1934), pp. 14 ff.Google Scholar

31 See n. 21.

32 Layard, A. H., Nineveh and Babylon, 1853, p. 181, fig. lower leftGoogle Scholar; Dangin, F. Th., R.A. XVIII (1921), p. 192 n. 2Google Scholar. Also in stone from Nineveh—Layard, A. H., Monuments, I, pl. 95.3, 4Google Scholar.

33 Andrae, W., Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli, V, 1943, p. 31, fig. 24, S.1151Google Scholar; fig. 25 S.3690.

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36 Koldewey, R., Das Wieder Erstehende Babylon, 1913, fig. 221, pp. 275 ff.Google Scholar; a similar head from Kish is also of this date—Langdon, S.Art and Archaeology, XXIV (1927), p. 108, fig. 13Google Scholar.

37 Woolley, C. L., Carchemish, II, 1921, p. 127, fig. 43Google Scholar; for date see Wiseman, D. J., Chronicles of Chaldaean Kings, 1956, p. 25Google Scholar.

38 Weidner, E., A.f.O. XVI (1952–1953), p. 73, No. 6Google Scholar.

39 Barnett, R. D., J.H.S. LXVIII (1949), p. 10Google Scholar.

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41 Amiet, P., Revue du Louvre, 1962, pp. 186–7Google Scholar: AO 21.111, fig. 5.

42 Sept Mille Ans d'Art en Iran, Exhibition Catalogue, Paris, 1961, No. 424, pl. XXXI.2Google Scholar.

43 Ashmolean 1922.6. Impression published in Danthine, H., Le Palmier-Dattier et les Arbres Sacrés, 1937, pl. 198.1145Google Scholar.

44 Lloyd, S., A.S. IV (1954), p. 104, fig. 2Google Scholar; about ·055 high; ·050 wide.

45 Terrace, E. L. B., Bulletin of the Boston Museum of Fine Art, LXII (1964), p. 56, fig. 11, 64.522Google Scholar; those from Sinjirli are similarly pierced, see note 33.

46 The iconography of Lamashtu is clear from a number of plaques: Contenau, G., Everyday Life in Babylon and Assyria, 1954, pl. XXIVGoogle Scholar; Andrae, W., Ausgrabungen in Sendschirli, V, 1943, pl. 9cGoogle Scholar.

47 See n. 6.

48 See n. 16.

49 Sept Mille Ans de l'Art en l'Iran, 1961, No. 381, pl. XXXI.

50 Ghirshman, R., Village Perse-Achémenide, 1954, pl. XLVIII.GS 2194, 2025Google Scholar.

51 Dangin, F. Th., R.A. XVIII (1921), pp. 184–5Google Scholar.

52 More information is required on the context of the ‘Achaemenian’ head of this demon from Nippur: J.N.E.S. XI (1952), pl. XVII, fig. 4bGoogle Scholar.

53 Frankfort, H., Cylinder Seals, p. 174ff, pl. XXVIIIcGoogle Scholar.

54 In the British Museum: E.55349 (Woolley, C. L., J.R.A.S. 1926, pl. XIII.24Google Scholar), there is a bronze statuette of a standing demon remarkably like Pazuzu, but apparently without wings. It was acquired from a dealer who carried on his business at Luxor. I am grateful to T. C. Mitchell for information on the source of this figure.

55 Montet, P., Tanis, 1942, pp. 30 ffGoogle Scholar, and for a general account of subsequent work on the site. A find of some interest in connection with the earlier links between Tanis and Assyria is the inscribed bead from the mummy of Psusennes I: Lewy, J.. ‘The Middle Assyrian Votive Bead found at Tanis’, Ignace Goldziher Memorial volume, I, 1948, pp. 314 ffGoogle Scholar. At the same site the btacelet of Seshonq I included an Akkadian cylinder seal: Mission Montet: L.a Nécropole royale Tanis, II, 1951, pp. 46–8, fig. 13Google Scholar; the absolute date given here is too high.

56 There is clear evidence for a Phoenician community at the neighbouring site of Tahpanhes or Daphnae: Aimé-Giron, N., Annales du Service, XL (1940), pp. 433 ff., pl. XL, XLIIGoogle Scholar.

57 Pritchard, J. B., A.N.E.T., pp. 25 ffGoogle Scholar; see also Tait, G. A. D., J.E.A., XLIX (1963), pp. 135–6Google Scholar on Phoenician relations with Egypt in the early ist millennium B.C.

58 Kees, H, Ancient Egypt, 1961, p. 205Google Scholar.

59 Boardman, J., The Greeks Overseas, 1964, pp. 127 ffGoogle Scholar; particularly p. 138.

60 AO.2744–Aimé-Giron, N., B.I.F.A.O. XXIII (1924), pp. 1 ffGoogle Scholar. pl. I.

61 For this name in Egypt see Aimé-Giron, N., Annales du Service XL (1940), p. 437Google Scholar: Also R. D. Barnett: BMQ, XXVII (1963–4), p. 85, pl. XLIa. I am grateful to A. R. Millard for this reference.

62 Aimé-Giron, N., B.I.F.A.O. XXIII (1924), p. 4Google Scholar.

63 In Phoenicia itself, despite extensive iconographical borrowing, the number of Egyptian deities absorbed into the Phoenician pantheon was small—R. D. Barnett; A Catalogue of the Nimrud Ivories in the British Museum, p. 138.

64 Tanis had played a particularly important role in this connection during the Ramesside period. Though never directly assimilated into Egyptian religious iconography, even Pazuzu might have appealed to an Egyptian familiar with winged ithyphallic deities with grimacing faces: Roeder, G., Ägyptische Bronze figuren, p. 91, section 134dGoogle Scholar. Such, of course, was Bes, who was also an apotropaic deity invoked during pregnancy—Sigerist, H. E., A History of Medicine, I, 1951, pp. 241 ff.Google Scholar with references.

65 Černý, J., Egyptian Religion, 1952, p. 134Google Scholar.

66 A remarkable example of cultural and religious syncretism in this area in the 7th century B.C. is the magical text from Arslan Tash—Albright, W. F., B.A.S.O.R. 76 (1939), pp. 5 ffGoogle Scholar; Totczyner, H. A., J.N.E.S. VI (1947), pp. 18 ff.Google Scholar; Gaster, T. H., J.N.E.S. VI (1947), pp. 186 ffGoogle Scholar.

67 Harris, Z. S., A Grammar of the Phoenician Language, 1936, p. 127Google Scholar.

68 Ibid.

69 Cooke, G. A., North Semitic Inscriptions, 1903, p. 62Google Scholar; cf. Chabot, J. B., Répertoire d'Epigraphie sémitique, III, 1916, pp. 24–26, no. 1213Google Scholar.

70 Albright, W. F., B.A.S.O.R. 76 (1939), p. 7Google Scholar.

71 Corpus Inscriplionum Semiticarum II (i) 146 ii 11Google Scholar; Cowley, A., Aramaic Papyri, 1923, no. 40.2Google Scholar.

72 Spiegelberg, W. in Orientalische Studien Th. Nöldeke gewidmet, 1906, p. 1103Google Scholar.