Ornament or button for harness

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This small shell piece was found in a well in the Northwest Palace of Ashurnasirpal II at Nimrud, together with other similar shell ornaments, several of which are also in the Metropolitan Museum’s collection (54.117.16, .17). They were probably thrown into the well when the palace was sacked, in 614 B.C. and then again two years later. They can be identified as horse trappings, and were probably part of a leather harness which disintegrated in the well sludge. Horses in the reliefs of the palace of Sargon II at Dur Sharrukin (modern Khorsabad) are represented with double-fan shaped ornaments on their bridles, as in a relief in the Metropolitan Museum (33.16.1) showing a groom with two horses. Because of the close parallel with the reliefs from the palace at Dur Sharrukin, the equestrian harness elements from this well probably date to the time of Sargon in the late eighth century B.C. At this time, the Northwest Palace was primarily used for storage rather than as a royal residence.

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