Bowl

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The usual pottery found in Ubaid graves at the southern Mesopotamian site of Eridu consisted of an upright jar, a dish or a plate like this one, and a cup lying inside the dish. They were placed in the corner of mud-brick coffins near the right foot of an outstretched body. Although the paint designs on Ubaid pottery do vary, this plate conforms to a general type consisting of two concentric rings close to or at the rim. Three equally spaced blocks of solid paint between the rings further accentuate the circumference of the plate. Each block has diagonal parallel lines on either side. This plate was excavated in the Ubaid Cemetery at Eridu (Grave 142).

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