HANDLEBAR WEIGHT The body engraved on one side with two eagles, wings outstretched. On the other side, two intertwined snakes, an eagle and a male figure. E. Porada thought that the scenes with snakes and eagles indicated the struggle between them, and she refers to the story of the Eagle and the Serpent, included in the Mesopotamian "Epic of Etana" (Porada, 1965, p. 42). But in Bactria and Margiana, eagles and snakes personified benevolent forces. Chlorite. 19.2x23.6x3 cm Bactria, 3rd millennium BC A Bactrian chlorite "hand bag weight" with sculpted scenes. On one side, two eagles with widespreaded wings. On the other side, two entwisted dragon-snakes, an eagle a male figure. E. Porada believed that scenes with snakes and eagles indicate the struggle between them, and she refers to the story of the Eagle and Snake, inserted in the Mesopotamian "Epic of Etana" (Porada, 1965, p. 42). But in Bactria and Margiana both the eagles and the snakes personified benevolent forces. 3rd Millennium B.C.E. Provenance Rassla Foundation, Zurich Publication Ligabue Magazine 63, 2013, pp. 1- 38, fig. 25