21st Nov, 2025 13:00
Fine Antiquities & Ancient Art
117
A CHARMING BRONZE ORNAMENT OF AN IBEX, 5TH-4TH CENTURY BC
Sold for €3,380
including Buyer's Premium
Published: T. Pang, Treasures of the Eurasian Steppes: Animal Art from 800 BC to 200 AD, New York, 1998, no. 94.
Southwest Inner Mongolia. Hollow cast, standing foursquare, the head lowered under the long curving antlers, the face with large, circular eyes and open mouth, a short, curled tail, and the antlers connected with a T-form joint.
Provenance: From a private collection in New York, acquired in the 1980s-1990s.
Condition: Good condition with minor wear, the right hindleg reattached, and casting irregularities. Fine patina with malachite and cuprite encrustations.
Weight: 101.9 g
Dimensions: Height 6.3 cm
Expert’s note: It is interesting to note that wild ibex, goats and other bovids appear in artifacts from a wide range of sites within Northern, Central and Western Asia over a long period of time spanning thousands of years. Goats are among the earliest animals domesticated by humans. The most recent genetic analysis confirms the archaeological evidence that the wild bezoar ibex of the Zagros Mountains is the likely original ancestor of probably all domestic goats today.
Neolithic farmers began to herd wild goats primarily for easy access to milk and meat, as well as to their dung, which was used as fuel, and their bones, hair, and sinew which were used for clothing, building, and tools. The earliest remnants of domesticated goats dating 10,000 years before the present are found in Ganj Dareh in Iran. Goat remains have been found at archaeological sites in Jericho, Choga Mami, Djeitun, and Cayonu, dating the domestication of goats in Northern and Western Asia at between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago.
Literature comparison:
Compare a related bronze finial of a gazelle, Northwest China and Southwestern Inner Mongolia, dated 5th-4th century BC, 6.7 cm tall, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 2002.201.49.
Published: T. Pang, Treasures of the Eurasian Steppes: Animal Art from 800 BC to 200 AD, New York, 1998, no. 94.
Southwest Inner Mongolia. Hollow cast, standing foursquare, the head lowered under the long curving antlers, the face with large, circular eyes and open mouth, a short, curled tail, and the antlers connected with a T-form joint.
Provenance: From a private collection in New York, acquired in the 1980s-1990s.
Condition: Good condition with minor wear, the right hindleg reattached, and casting irregularities. Fine patina with malachite and cuprite encrustations.
Weight: 101.9 g
Dimensions: Height 6.3 cm
Expert’s note: It is interesting to note that wild ibex, goats and other bovids appear in artifacts from a wide range of sites within Northern, Central and Western Asia over a long period of time spanning thousands of years. Goats are among the earliest animals domesticated by humans. The most recent genetic analysis confirms the archaeological evidence that the wild bezoar ibex of the Zagros Mountains is the likely original ancestor of probably all domestic goats today.
Neolithic farmers began to herd wild goats primarily for easy access to milk and meat, as well as to their dung, which was used as fuel, and their bones, hair, and sinew which were used for clothing, building, and tools. The earliest remnants of domesticated goats dating 10,000 years before the present are found in Ganj Dareh in Iran. Goat remains have been found at archaeological sites in Jericho, Choga Mami, Djeitun, and Cayonu, dating the domestication of goats in Northern and Western Asia at between 8,000 and 9,000 years ago.
Literature comparison:
Compare a related bronze finial of a gazelle, Northwest China and Southwestern Inner Mongolia, dated 5th-4th century BC, 6.7 cm tall, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 2002.201.49.
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