bronze duck weight
Mesopotamian, 3rd Millennium B.C.,
Length: 2 inches.

This charming object is in fact a weight in for the form of a sleeping duck with its head bent over its body resting on its back. The type is known from a number of examples ranging in size from quite small to enormous, one in the Beyond Babylon exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2009, is over two feet in length, in a grey indurated limestone.  I have seen examples in hematite, agate, and many other stones.  This example is quite beautiful and the plasticity of the bronze allowing for a fully articulated neck, which the stone examples do not have.