A limestone amulet with a Lamashtu demon, Babylonian, Neo-Babylonian period, ca. 7th to 6th century BCE. The Metropolitan Museum's own title names the figure as Lamashtu, and the object's tagged imagery, dogs, pigs and snakes, matches the demon's standard apotropaic iconography. Held today by the Metropolitan Museum of Art under accession 86.11.2, Ancient West Asian Art department, Purchase, 1886.
Facts
Subject Matter
Devotional FunctionAmulets carrying Lamashtu's own image, rather than a protective deity's, were used in Mesopotamian apotropaic practice on the logic of controlling the threat by naming and depicting it directly: worn on the body or placed near a pregnant woman or an infant's bed, they were paired with incantations invoking the demon Pazuzu, understood in the same tradition as her rival and the one power capable of driving her off before she could harm mother or child. 1 Physical Form
MediumBabylonian limestone amulet, Neo-Babylonian period, Metropolitan Museum of Art 86.11.2 1 Classification
Object TypeAmulet or Small Carved Object 1 Medium (class) Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Source Amulet with a Lamashtu Demon, accession 86.11.2 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Depicts
The Metropolitan Museum's own title, "Amulet with a Lamashtu demon," names the subject outright, and the object's tagged imagery matches Lamashtu's standard apotropaic iconography.
Source Amulet with a Lamashtu Demon, accession 86.11.2 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Originated In
Source Amulet with a Lamashtu Demon, accession 86.11.2 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Sources
1. Amulet with a Lamashtu Demon, accession 86.11.2 (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Metropolitan Museum of Art- accession 86.11.2
catalogue record, medium/object-type description
A limestone amulet with a Lamashtu demon, Babylonian, Neo-Babylonian period, ca.
Originated In: Babylonia, Collection record: culture, country and region fields
Babylonian | | Mesopotamia
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