2 Jericho Plates from Central Asia

[druzhina345]

I was surprised to see a plate with the Jericho story from Semireçye in Central Asia found at Verkhne-Nildino was cast from the same mould as the plate with the Jericho story from Semireçye in Central Asia found at Anikovskoe. The gilding is different and there are major differences in the later engraving, particularly of the armour. See a side-by-side comparison of the Anikova and Nildin plates.


The Anikova plate is missing an axe that is present on the Nildin casting.


mirror site
Jericho Plates found at Verkhne-Nildino and Anikovskoe, from Semireçye in Central Asia, 9th-10th century.


Druzhina345
Plates with figures from Persia and Central Asia

[Common Soldier]

Very interesting. Do we know why the plates were made? It it was in the link, I must have missed seeing it, my apologies.

PS - I don't think the plates depict the Battle of Jericho. The trumpeters are on the inside, not the outside, and there doesn't seem to be an obvious wall they are trying to knock down. The attackers are besieging what looks to be a fortress, rather than a city.

[Common Soldier]

Thanks. The 2 were clearly made.frome the same molds, or rather, used the "punch" that informed the impression in the sand that was used for casting the bronze, since I don't think permanent "molds" were being used at that time; sand casting used a carved punch that could be used to created multiple molds..

It is interesting that that multiple castings were made off the same image. The picture obviously had some significance. While the trumpets might have given the plates their name, it doesn't quite.match the biblical.story of Jericho, and I don't think the story of Jericho was very common among Muslims. And given that there were not that many Jews or Christians in central Asia, the story the plates depict probably represent some other historical event or legend. Do we know what it might be?
.