Jug
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
This large pitcher has a biconical body with a flat base and a high neck. The two conical halves of the pitcher form a sharp ridge where the meet at the middle of the body. A thick handle connects the rim to the body; opposite it a pointed spout rises from the pitcher’s shoulder. The spout is attached to the rim by a small bridge, and both the bridge and the handle have raised lumps, perhaps in imitation of metal rivers, where they join the rim. Five incised lines decorate the upper part of the body. The pitcher is made of burnished grey clay. It was made on a potter’s wheel in two pieces, with the spout and handle added later. This pitcher closely resembles examples excavated at Hasanlu a large settlement site in northwestern Iran, and this pitcher probably comes from this same region. During the Iron Age Hasanlu was one of the largest and most powerful towns in Iran, and probably controlled much of the Ushnu-Solduz valley until its destruction ca. 800 B.C. by the Urartians. Like many in western Iran in this period, the people of Hasanlu made ceramic pitchers like this one with globular bodies and long spouts. It is not clear what this pitcher was used for. Presumably it was used to pour a liquid containing dregs, such as wine, since the round body and spout would prevent the dregs from ending up in the cup. Some of the earliest evidence for winemaking in Iran, dating back to the sixth millennium B.C., comes from the nearby site of Hajji Firuz Tepe. Also, similar pitchers of have been found in graves at Hasanlu along with cups, further suggesting that they parts of drinking sets.
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.