Analyses of the Ingot GodF. Hummel and D. Ankner

Examination report

Bronze god Nergal 12th c. B.C. Find-spot: Enkomi (Cyprus) Museum: Nicosia (Cyprus). Inv. no. 1145 (Prof. Schaeffer) RGZM no. 73/1940

X-ray findings (R 75/289-297)

Overall X-ray images clearly showed that the figure was made from four parts.

1) The original statue was fully modelled in the round, the legs and feet being largely naturalistic and shaped unclothed.

2) The shield was made separately and encloses, capsule-like, the fist-shaped end of the arm on its lower side. The fist was not naturalistically worked before the shield was attached.

3) The ingot base and the formally primitive casing of the legs (reaching to the ankle at the front, to the thigh at the back) were applied together as an overlay on the already existing statue. The bronze of the original statue consists of a porous material, whereas the overlay is considerably more homogeneous.

According to the X-ray images and their evaluation, the statue (see 1) and the shield (see 2) were made as a single piece. Only at a later point in time was the ingot base with the leg casing (see 3) added as an overlay.

Chemical composition

Four small samples were taken from the statue: one sample each from the body (at hip level on the back), from the nape-bulge (at knee-cap level), from the shield and from the base. X-ray fluorescence analyses showed that all four samples are relatively pure bronze alloys, which are very similar to one another.

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Handwritten: initials