Horn with a Votive Inscription of Shutur-Nahhunte
Unknown · Neo-Elamite period, 7th century BC
A curved horn of alabaster, sixty four centimetres long, carries a cuneiform inscription in Elamite running along its surface. The text names King Shutur-Nahhunte, son of Humban-imena, king of Anzan and Susa, and records that he had rams of alabaster sculpted and dedicated them to the goddess Pinikir. The horn itself was almost certainly part of one of those rams.
The inscription places the piece in the Neo-Elamite period, around the seventh century BC, when Elam was squeezed between Assyria and the rising Persians but its kings still endowed temples at Susa. Pinikir was an ancient Elamite goddess, and a life-sized alabaster ram would have been a costly gift. The museum catalogues the object as a probable ex-voto, an offering made to fulfil a vow, which fits the wording of the text. The horn has been restored. It was excavated at Susa by the French mission and came to the Louvre through the division of finds with Iran.
Did You Know? The inscription on the horn tells us what the whole animal was: an alabaster ram given to a goddess by a king.
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