Plaque in the form of a tree

Plaque in the form of a tree

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This delicate plaque is finely incised with the image of a stylized tree. The trunk is made up of hatched sections connected by volutes, topped by a fan-shaped group of nine branches, each ending in an element that resembles a bunch of fruit or a pinecone. The plaque is broken in several areas, but a fragment of an additional branch is preserved extending from the right side. Stylized trees similar to this one, widely known today as "sacred trees," are represented frequently on the monumental stone reliefs that decorated the walls of the palace of Ashurnasirpal II at Nimrud, also in the Metropolitan Museum’s collection (see, for example, 32.143.3.). This small object was probably used as a decorative inlay for a piece of furniture or luxury object. Images of flourishing plant life seem to have evoked concepts of abundance and fruitfulness connected with the agricultural cycle, although we do not know whether the Assyrian "sacred tree" had other specific significance.

Ancient Near Eastern Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.