From Museum Website "In Assyrian art the basket and cone almost always appear in the hands of supernatural creatures rather than humans, suggesting that these objects may have served a magical purpose. Assyrian texts refer to the basket and cone carried by the genies in many of these reliefs as a “bucket” and “purifier.” This terminology may indicate that in addition to serving to pollinate the sacred tree (as scholars have concluded), these objects had a cleansing effect as well."
|