Appliqué depicting the Sun God Usil

A bronze appliqué in low relief represents the solar deity Usil, the equivalent of Helios/Sol in Greek and Roman religion. On this figure, the radiate crown behind his head and spreading wings identify the god. Usil wears a diadem, necklace, and a mantle over his shoulders, which falls to either side in pleated folds. Nude from the groin up, he has disproportionately long arms and large hands. At the top of the thighs the figure merges into a broad plate decorated with undulating lines indicating the waves from which the sun god emerges and sinks at daybreak and dusk. A projecting lug is hollow behind to accommodate a wood or metal structure, to which the relief was attached by three pairs of rivets. The rare examples of Usil appliqués are associated with burials, which often held grave offerings of funerary carts and chariots. Driven in ceremonial processions, elaborate wood vehicles were covered with sheet bronze repoussé and fitted with cast animal-head protomes. Figural reliefs such as this are interpreted as decorative attachments on the sideboards, used to cover structural elements of the vehicle.