Openwork pin with a squatting female

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is a bronze pin with an openwork design on the head. The design features a stylized squatting woman controlling two horned animals. The woman’s face is obscured by corrosion, but it is clear that she has horns, marking her as a goddess. Two large curls to either side of her head may be hair or earrings. She also has pellet-shaped breasts. Her arms, which curl upward, each grasp the snout of a stylized horned animal. These animals has long, curved necks which join in the middle beneath the goddess, forming the groundline on which she squats. A strut connects the goddess to the bottom of the design, and two curved elements connect the animals’ heads to the goddess’; it is not clear if these are decorative or structural, or both. This pin was excavated at Surkh Dum, a settlement site in Luristan in the Zagros Mountains of western Iran. It was part of a large hoard of objects buried beneath a doorjamb in a structure interpreted as a sanctuary; thus the objects were probably offerings made for a god. Openwork pins of this sort are frequently attributed to Luristan, but this is one of the few examples from an archaeological excavation.

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