Hi all, here is some background info on Jiroft - which may have been Aratta - I found interesting...
Jiroft was discovered by accident in 2000 - so it's pretty new to the archaeological world.
www.saudiaramcoworld.com...
Quote from the article (2004):
**According to texts dating from around 2100 BC, Aratta was a gaily decorated capital with a citadel whose battlements were fashioned of green lapis
lazuli and its lofty towers of bright red brick. Aratta’s artistic production was so highly regarded that about 2500 BC the Sumerian king Enmerkar
sent a message to the ruler of Aratta requesting that artisans and architects be dispatched to his capital, Uruk, to build a temple to honor Inanna,
the goddess of fertility and war. Enmerkar addressed his letter to Inanna: “Oh sister mine, make Aratta, for Uruk’s sake, skillfully work gold and
silver for me! (Make them cut for me) translucent lapis lazuli in blocks, (Make them prepare for me) electrum and translucent lapis!” prayed the
Sumerian ruler.
“When one imagines that Uruk was the heart of the Sumerian civilization and that its king is asking another ruler about 2000 kilometers (1200 mi)
distant to send his artisans, one realizes that the quality of their work must have been extraordinary,” says Madjidzadeh. “The craftsmen must
have been known all over. Today there is no doubt in my mind that Jiroft was Aratta.” A handful of colleagues agrees, including the French
epigrapher François Vallat, who compares Jiroft to the Elamite kingdom of southwestern Iran.
So far, however, there is no proof, and others are less sure.** (That Jiroft IS Aratta.)
Now considering these artisans so well trained and experienced - achieving symmetry should be a lesser task.
You can do it with an inkblot for example and than work after this pattern to produce very nice and accurate items - which by the way MAY be purely
decorative.
There are some pics on that site too - not so symmetrical but much better resolution.
There are obviously similarities in stile and pattern that tie very well in with the surrounding cultures in time and place.
If you want to have another look on the 2nd item in the OP just google Jiroft bracelet.
You will find that the 2 pics of the OP on that particular site are the only ones existing in the whole wide world - even no other formats are
available.
The bracelet (221 × 104 px, 7KB) + the so called "Jiroft Adorn 737" (221 × 268 px, 13KB) are presented on a very plain reddish-brown background
with no structure at all (not like velvet for example).
These circumstances all seem to be very fishy - at least to me - to the OP not at all...
If I wanted to really try to prove them fakes, I could have done some mirroring in Photoshop myself, but I think given the above background it
wouldn't be worth the effort.
So yes - I would go with Kant on that this symmetry IS "well beyond freaky".
But I would say this based on other thoughts.
A