Sunday 22 December 2019

EBay Cunies and Paps from Bavaria [UPDATED]


Just finishing on eBay soon, 'Nice interesting old cuneiform terrekota tablet with writting about 90x50 mm from old german Collection please see pictures'. Seller 'canece(601 points),item location: Bavaria, Germany Ships to: Worldwide. Sold for GBP 51.00 [ Approximately US $66.55] 14 bids,  Dec 22, 2019 , 7:09PM (Pacific time). The same seller also has a (hollow) 'terracotta foundation cone' [Nice interesting old cuneiform terrekota tablet with writting high about 85 mmGBP 26.00  11 bids ] and a 'Nice interesting old terrekota fertility female idol high about 180 mm' (sold for GBP 21.00 Approximately US $27.40 - 7 bids ). Probably all three buyers are congratulating themselves now that they got a real genuine piece of the past for their collection at such a 'reasonable price'.

The foundation cone should not be hollow, and excavated examples have different proportions, the  inscription rarely goes to the end and I cannot see any that have inscriptions that terminate with an asterix... I am intrigued that although this is not a Gudea of Lagash cone (discussed earlier by me), the 'inscription' looks as if it might be inspired by this view of one... The rather generously-proportioned 'idol' looks rather unconvincing to me. It is perhaps trying to be an Indus valley (or 'Syro-Hittite') one, but does not quite make it as a pastiche.  I do not read cuneiform, although the signs of the tablet are rather deeply impressed, it looks fairly convincing to my lay eye. But what puts me on guard is that the fabric and surface deterioration looks exactly like that of the 'cone'. Since I do not think that cone is a genuine antiquity, that rather makes me think 'caveat emptor'.

Just as those auctions were ending the seller put up a 'Nice interesting old papyrus with coptic writting about 140x100 mm' [from old german Collection please see pictures]. It is supposed to be a single leaf from a codex, with a piece of decoration and a coloured initial heading the text on the recto . Well, I am looking at the pictures and the grainy writing material looks more like banana-leaf to me, and the script is wobbly. The margins are unmatched on the verso and recto, and the 'stitching' is not very convincing as the effect of real bookbinding. The fore-edge of the sheet is worn and frayed, but the corners not. I can't read the text, but I am not convinced by this at all. [UPDATE Roberta Mazza can read this stuff and describes it as 'non-sense cheap papyrus fake on sale again', so I feel vindicated in saying its another 'buy the book first before the antiquity' case here too. Caveat emptor].

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