Ornament with heads of roaring lions, possibly the terminal of a sword or dagger hilt

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This unique limestone object formed part of a handle or hilt. The circular piercing that runs from end to end might have held the blade of a sword or dagger, or another object such as the military standards sometimes seen in Assyrian art. Many Assyrian sculptures depict swords whose hilts bear a striking resemblance to this object, with a round pommel and roaring lion heads (here two half-heads: the upper jaw of one lion forms the lower jaw of the other) where the blade would have been inserted. In this case the heads are well carved in a classic Assyrian style. The handle originally featured considerable decoration in other materials, now largely lost. A small surviving element of decoration shows that the middle sections, separated by ridges, were once filled with mosaic tesserae in white, red, and green, together with gold foil, that formed guilloche patterns. The lion heads still retain lapis lazuli ‘warts’ above the eyes, and lapis lazuli survives at the rim of one eye. The lions’ eyes themselves would certainly have been inlaid.

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