YOU ARE HERE>>>REAL or FAKE>Fake Sumerian plaques

 

Someone drew my attention to this and asked me what it is.

 



It is a not very well done  copy of a well known perforated Sumerian plaque one of several in the Louvre Museum.



The seller clearly knows absolutely nothing about ancient artefacts so may believe it is genuinely ancient.

You can see it here

 

The faker has added pseuo cuneiform in the field. This is quite common: fakers adding details to make things more 'interesting'.

 

 



Perforated Sumerian votive plaques have been found at many sites in Mesopotamia and more rarely in Syria and Iran.

Some 120 examples are known, of which about 50 come from religious buildings. These plaques are usually rectangular in form, perforated in the middle, usually with a square hole,  and decorated  with scenes carved in relief or incised. They are most commonly of limestone or gypsum. Such as these would have been hung on the wall of a shrine through its central hole though there is some evidence that such as this were part of a door-locking system for important buildings. The plaque was embedded in the doorjamb and a peg, inserted into the central perforation, was used to hold a hook or cord that secured the door and was covered with clay impressed by a seal.



When I looked at this seller on eBay I found several others; one for sale at £9,999.99 !

 

Someone, a maker of fakes,  has been visiting the Louvre Museum website!

 



This is the perforated  plaque for King Ur-Nanshe King of Lagash which you can see here.


And another eBay seller offers this. Look familiar?

 




It is of course from the  same plaque for Ur-Nanshe, but reversed.

 

And below is the top left fragment from the reverse (the so called historical) side of the Stele of Vultures also known as the  Victory stele of Eannatum 



The historical side is divided into four horizontal registers. The upper register shows Eannatum, the ensi or ruler of Lagash (his name appears inscribed around his head), leading a phalanx of soldiers into battle, with their defeated enemies trampled below their feet. Flying above them are the vultures after which the stele is named, with the severed heads of the enemies of Lagash in their beaks.

 

The maker of this forgery has forgotten to put the helmets on the soldiers' heads and additionally has the king looking back rather than forwards.






>>>>.And another version, ever less well copied.

 

 



But to attract the buyers this one has some fake cuneiform on it.

 



Another one, a composite of several>>>>