Poppy-Headed Pin

This pin is more elaborate than 162.1972, and the finial may represent an incipient poppy seedpod. Three incised lines encircle the lower part of the ovoid head, which is topped by a cap shaped as a small flower. The transition from the pin head to the shaft is marked by three raised bands that consist of four ribs each. A small loop added between the first and the second band may have served a similar function as the holes pierced through pins such as 1992.256.120. The shaft rapidly tapers to a point. This group of pins acquired in Luristan is inspired by plant motifs (162.1972, 163.1972, 165.1972, and 166.1972). Three pin heads are more or less explicitly in the shape of poppy seedpods, while the fourth looks like a bud. The shafts of two of the pins are decorated with raised bands encircled by incised lines that similarly occur on many Luristan bronze objects. A large number of such floral pins were excavated in the building complex at Surkh Dum, which is generally interpreted as a sanctuary. This suggests that these pins were used in Luristan during Iron Age II and early Iron Age III (the ninth to eighth centuries BCE) (1). NOTES: 1. See E. F. Schmidt, M. N. van Loon, and H. H. Curvers, The Holmes Expedition to Luristan (Chicago, 1989) 268-69 and 301-306 (27D.12-14), pls. 168-70. Compare also P. R. S. Moorey, Catalogue of the Ancient Persian Bronzes in the Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, 1971) 188-89, nos. 297-300, pl. 48. Susanne Ebbinghaus