ANATOLIA, CIRCA 2300 B.C.

The Hattians were an indigenous nonliterate people of central Anatolia, who had only limited contact with the urban cultures of Mesopotamia to the south. They produced spectacular metal objects, including vessels, jewelry and weapons. Another typical Hattian creation was the standard with finials in the form of a stag or bull, sometimes multiples, usually fashioned of bronze, occasionally embellished with gold or electrum. For a bull standard in silver in similar style, now in the British Museum, see no. 67 in Collon, Ancient Near Eastern Art; for bronze examples compare one in Jerusalem, no. 67 in Merhav, ed., Treasures of the Bible Lands, and no. 7 in Kozloff, Animals in Ancient Art from the Leo Mildenberg Collection.