pendant

This pendant decorated with an eight-pointed star is an early example of glass formed by casting. The glass was melted and pressed into an open one-piece mold, as is indicated by mold marks, folds on the underside of the glass, and overflow at the outer edge of the pendant. Disk-shaped pendants, either plain or decorated with a star, have been found at a number of sites, mainly in northern Mesopotamia. Similar pendants have been excavated throughout the eastern Mediterranean, from the Syro-Palestinian coast to Mycenaean Greece. The eight-pointed star motif is linked with the goddess Ishtar in Western Asiatic mythology. Ishtar is often associated with Astarte, the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of love and war, who had a star within a circle as her symbol. The presence of a threadhole in the pendants suggests that they were probably worn about the neck as amulets.