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Erich Lessing

Two parts copper and one part tin—thus the ancients developed that alloy of amazing beauty and durability which gave its name to the Bronze Age (3150‒1200 B.C.E.). This 5.5-inch-high gilt bronze statue depicts the god El, the supreme god of the Canaanite pantheon. Cast in the 14th or 13th century B.C.E., the figurine was discovered in the ruins of ancient Ugarit, modern Ras Shamra on Syria’s Mediterranean coast.