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This bowl in a grey, slightly burnished fabric, is just over 5 inches across. The general style, rather like Achaemenid metal-work suggests a similar origin.

 

The very interesting thing about this piece is the fact that when I picked it up and turned it over.......

 

........something rattled inside!

 

A light sound, rather like whooshing  sand in a closed vessel.




 

So I had it X-rayed! 

 

What do you make of this?

Are these small lumps of clay which have over time been worn into small spheres?

 

Or was whatever there is inside, deliberately placed into a space between the floor of the bowl and the base?

 

Is it possibly a fertility rattle?

Ben W thought perhaps it is; the floral motif being associated with fertility.

 

Would be very interested to know what you think.