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Two Headed Idol (Anatolia, around 2000 BC)
This touching idol was found in Kültepe in central Anatolia, the enormous peninsular that is now the Asian part of Turkey. At the close of the early Bronze Age, around 2000 BC, Anatolia became incredibly wealthy thanks to its strategic location between Asia and Europe. The majority of the population lived in fortified settlements. Large Assyrian trading caravans made up of hundreds of the donkeys loaded with textiles and tin crossed the area. They paid tax to local princes in exchange for protection and the right to establish trading posts (karums).
Kültepe is famous as the site where the oldest Anatolian writings were found. The contracts, bills and stock lists on these clay tablets were written in an Assyrian dialect. The two headed idol dated back to the beginning of the prosperous period. It is very similar to the later, copper statuettes of the Hittites, who captured central Anatolia in the 19th-century BC.
Reproduced to look like an old original. Made from resin with a metal stand. Ancient text details appear on both sides.
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