Bearded warrior holding a spear
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
This small baked clay figurine takes the form of a male figure with long hair and beard that fall in waves, indicated by horizontal ridges. He wears a domed hat or helmet, differentiated from his hair by its smooth surface. The figure stares straight ahead with large, wide-open eyes beneath arched eyebrows. A prominent nose and small, closed mouth can also be seen, although the level of detail in the features is minimal. He holds both hands to his chest with fists closed, and pressed against his chest is a spear tip incised into the figurine after it had been removed from the mold. The figure apparently holds the weapon’s shaft in his hands, although because of damage over time, details such as the shaft and the lower body of the figure can no longer be seen; the shiny areas are modern restorations in wax. The figurine was made by pressing clay into a mold, a common method of manufacturing plaques and figurines in Mesopotamia since at least the Ur III period (ca. 2100-2000 B.C.). A thousand years later, during the Neo-Assyrian period, practitioners of magic had developed techniques for protecting interior spaces of buildings by means of a ritual that involved depositing an assemblage of figurines beneath the room’s floor. This figure was found buried under the floor in a room in a palace building at the Assyrian royal city of Nimrud, suggesting that it was intended for this function.
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.