Please Help Identify This Beautiful Bronze Vessel!!!

[Rachel8519]

Hi All,

I'd really appreciate your help trying to find out the era and civilization this bronze jug may be from.

I don't know much about where it came from other than the person I recieved it from said that a distant relative of his brought it back from a dig close to the Giza pyramids. Unfortunatly we cannot verify this as the relative is deceased.

The jug is very heavy, about 2lbs for it's small size.

Height: 12cm
Length: 9cm

The item is NOT magnetic (I've heard that is a quick way to spot fakes).

There are no symbols or letters anywhere on it.

Any speculation on what this may have been used for or the time period it may have been made would be very helpful

Also, I'm looking into bringing it to a specialist to have it dated.....if anyone knows of someone in the Toronto area that may be of help, please PM me!

 

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[unclemac]

it seems rather crudely cast for a period piece... and i am not referring to patina or age wear. let's see the bottom.

 

[Sod Buster]

I have absolutely no experience with validating these types of things, but there are a couple of things about this piece that are bothersome to me. The photos seem to be good enough so I am hoping that someone with some real experience chimes in.

 

[relicsearcher]

Greek "siren" vessel. Body of a bird with head of a human. If it were to be Egyptian your more likely to see the reverse. Most of their bird gods had human bodies with bird heads. Just my opinion

 

[DCMatt]

Interesting piece. My first thought was "mermaid" and "oil lamp".

But based on relicsearcher's post, I looked more closely and the figurine does appear to be feathered.

So I did some more research. This piece appears to be something called an "askos" - a small flask with handle on top used in ancient times to hold precious liquids like oil or perfume. There are a number of examples of ancient siren askos pictured on the internet, though none look like yours. That is NOT to say that your piece is ancient. It is crudely made and, in my opinion, looks more like a tourist item than an ancient artifact. But what do I know...

I suggest you take some pics with a ruler next to the piece and send them to an expert on the subject.

DCMatt

 

[Rachel8519]

Thanks for the feedback guys! I had no idea where to start looking so learning what it's called has given me a good start I'm looking into having a specialist look at it and am going to see if I can have it dated.