It is not a Gucci purse, but what about the Rolex and the oval thinghy being held up ? Anyone knows ?

29 minutes ago, Externet said:

It is not a Gucci purse, but what about the Rolex and the oval thinghy being held up ? Anyone knows ?

With a thing like this some context is helpful. What is this and where from? I feel sure some archaeologists will have come up with some ideas. But we have no chance of looking that up unless we know what pictures these are.

In the absence of such information I would assume the "rolex" is some kind of decorative bangle. No idea about the oval object. Possibly a representation of some fruit or seed?

I recognize it. Sometimes it gets confused with Horus, but it's Mesopotamian. In Mesopotamian art, protective sages known as Apkallu are depicted with the body of a man, wings, and often the head of an eagle. These figures are almost always shown holding a small bucket (or banduddu) in one hand and a pinecone-like object in the other, which were used in purification rituals.

Of course, the object being held is an American football. 😜

Heh. The early Frisbee was oddly shaped, flew in weird directions, and tended to get stuck on top of the ziggurats.

On 10/15/2026 at 11:54 PM, TheVat said:

and a pinecone-like object

Male flower of the date palm, I believe.

This looks Assyrian to me...

Assyrian is Mesopotamian, so @TheVat was right, I think. I'm just trying to zero in closer if possible.

And it seems the apkallu (old sages from the past) was the right interpretation too. The 'purse' is actually a bucket, and the pine-cone thing is of unclear nature:

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/322486

Cedars from Lebanon play a prominent role in Mesopotamian culture since time immemorial, so...

Maybe the grenade-looking thing is a cedar's pine cone? I don't know.

Edited October 19Oct 19 by joigus
subtantial addition

17 hours ago, sethoflagos said:

Male flower of the date palm, I believe.

Yes, that might well be the answer.

It's very likely a botanical, IMO. Either a cone from a coniferous tree or a male date palm. Here are demonstrably realistic AI-generated depictions of 1) A cedar's cone, 2) A Middle-Eastern pine cone, and 3) the spathe of a male date palm:

1)

2)

3)

56 minutes ago, joigus said:

3) the spathe of a male date palm:

I found something about this at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK).

Symbolism of fertility and rule 

In the institute's ‘Black Hall’, there is a cast of an Assyrian relief. The original is from the Palace of Nimrud (Kalhu) in present-day Iraq, and is a testament to the art of the Neo-Assyrians. The scene depicts the artificial pollination of a date palm, a motif that appears several times in Assyrian iconography. It combines mythical and practical elements. 

The relief depicts a winged figure known as an Apkallu. The Apkallu, or Abgal in Sumerian, were guardian spirits or 'Seven Sages' sent by the gods to share wisdom, culture, and protection with humans.  The figure carries a basket of pollen in one hand and a cone-shaped object in the other, interpreted as the date palm's male inflorescence. Using this, the figure transfers the pollen to the flowers of a female palm tree. This technique of targeted manual pollination has been practised since ancient times. It is still used today in oasis regions, as date palms grown in open fields are not sufficiently pollinated by wind or insects. Thus, the relief documents a highly developed agricultural practice and a close connection between cult ritual, knowledge transfer and agricultural innovation.

The pollination scene has strong symbolic significance. In Mesopotamia, the date palm was considered a sacred tree representing fertility, prosperity, and renewal. Having the act performed by either a divine being or the king himself linked the depiction to the idea of legitimate rule based on ensuring fertility and order. The relief illustrates the close interconnection of agricultural knowledge, religious symbolism and political power in ancient times.

Images are results from "hand bag hieroglyphs" image search.

Picture number 1, seems both are left hands. Picture number 4, same; both left hands. Heads are different. Both hands holding the ovalish thing in images 1 and 4 seem exact copies, like carved from a template 😯 I cannot superimpose both to confirm, but found interesting if they are 'templated'.

The hands holding the bucket in the cracked and not cracked stone (images 1 and 3) also seem identical templates 😲

Any skilled compfuser magician that can compare them ?

The 'rolex' do seem different...

Edited October 20Oct 20 by Externet
Added comparison...

14 hours ago, sethoflagos said:

I found something about this at the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK).

Yes, this checks with my link, and could very well be what was going on.

15 hours ago, Externet said:

The 'rolex' do seem different...

The 'rolex' could be symbols of divinity, according to,

The figure wears a horned cap, indicating divinity, and jewelry: visible are a large pendant earring, a collar consisting of two bands of beads and spacers, armlets with animal-head terminals, and bracelets, one artificially reversed so that the large central rosette symbols, associated with divinity and perhaps particularly with the goddess Ishtar, are visible on both.

From,

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/322486

I'm not surprised that the images seem to be templates to a certain extent, as well as to the fact that they seem to sacrifice realism to symbolism. All these practices were imbued with a practical nature, somewhere between conveying information and art for its own sake. This is just conjecture on my part, of course.

Edited Tuesday at 03:53 PM5 days by joigus
addition

18 hours ago, Externet said:

The 'rolex' do seem different...

As @TheVat mentioned they are depictions of apkallu and they often have these rosette bracelets. In some older papers about the Nimrud tombs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queens%27_tombs_at_Nimrud) rossettes were associated with royalty and divinity and were also found at items associated with the king and in there was also a relief with an apkallu with inscriptions just beneath a rosette mentioning protective spirits or something to that effect and there was also speculations regarding a possible connection to the goddess Ishtar, as a variation to the more common eight-pointed star.