What contained a gold appliqué with a sheep's head and a bird's head?
The helmet was discovered by looters in August 1936, in the modern-day city of Homs. Known as Emesa at the start of the first century AD, the city was at the eastern edge of the Roman Empire, and ruled by the Emesene dynasty, a client kingdom of the Romans. Nearly 2,000 years later, the looters—digging near the former site of a monument to Sampsiceramus—found a complex of rich tombs, and removed the grave goods. Their looting was uncovered because small golden plaques, adorning the burial shroud of the body in tomb 11, flaked off when disturbed. The next morning, children noticed these gold flakes mixed in with the earth and brought them to a bazaar, where it came to the attention of the police; it ultimately led to the arrest of the looters, and the confiscation of the grave objects. The objects, including the helmet, were then secured for the state collection by Emir Djaafar Abd el-Kader, curator of the National Museum of Damascus—even as merchants, eager to capitalise on the stories, hawked modern forgeries and unrelated ancient objects said to come from the tombs of Emesa.The prompt intervention of el-Kader, who investigated the finds and interrogated the looters, allowed the finds to be recovered and well-understood. He also led further excavations, as did the French archaeologists Daniel Schlumberger and Henri Seyrig. The tomb in which the helmet was found—labelled tomb number 1, of the 22 in the complex—was a pitted grave with two chambers, one upper and one lower. The lower chamber, constituting the proper tomb, had soil for a floor and rock for walls; it measured 2.2 by 1.25 m (7 ft 3 in by 4 ft 1 in), and was 1.72 m (5 ft 8 in) high. Between five and seven eroded basalt beams were placed over the opening connecting the lower chamber with the upper, which was then backfilled to surface level.Tomb 1 included a rich assortment of objects. As well as the helmet, it contained a gold funerary mask; a gold and turquoise bracelet; an ornate gold ring with a royal bust in relief; a gold ring with carnelian intaglio; a gold appliqué with a sheep's head and a bird's head; a star-shaped fibula; a gold hook; a small tongue of gold; a spearhead decorated with gold; a silver vase; and a triangle of glass. The looters may have been incorrect in also attributing 19 gold plaques to the tomb, as these were seemingly identical to those from tomb 11. Decorations from the sarcophagus included fragmentary silver rings; 22 gold leaves in repoussé; six masks of Medusa; four rectangles adorned with a lion; four Victories; and eight busts of Apollo. According to Mohammed Moghrabi, who looted tomb 1, the helmet was found next to the skull.
Tomb 1