Head of a wild ram

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This gold ram’s head sculpture is in the round. It has curved horns with incised decorations, pointed ears, chased details on its face, and a shaggy beard. Given the small size of the head it is difficult to say much about how it was made. It was most likely hammered from a single sheet of gold, with many details added later by chasing. The line of the neck is not completely straight, suggesting that it may have once been part of a larger figure. Goats, specifically wild mountain goats, were an important aspect of ancient Persian iconography. Unlike Mesopotamia, which is flat, Iran has many mountains, and mountain goats, with their distinctive curved horns, became important markers of Iranian identity, even before the region came to be known as ‘Iran.’

Ancient Near Eastern Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's Department of Ancient Near Eastern Art cares for approximately 7,000 works ranging in date from the eighth millennium B.C. through the centuries just beyond the emergence of Islam in the seventh century A.D. Objects in the collection were created by people in the area that today comprises Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Syria, the Eastern Mediterranean coast, Yemen, and Central Asia. From the art of some of the world's first cities to that of great empires, the department's holdings illustrate the beauty and craftsmanship as well as the profound interconnections, cultural and religious diversity, and lasting legacies that characterize the ancient art of this vast region.

Metropolitan Museum of Art