Plaque with a striding sphinx

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

On this finely carved shell plaque, a striding sphinx is represented above a plain border. Sphinxes are mythological animals with a lion’s body and the head of a human, or sometimes another type of animal such as a ram, and can be depicted with or without wings. This sphinx has wings and the head of a beardless human, whose hair is shown as a mass of curly locks covering the back of the neck, recalling figures from the monumental stone reliefs that decorated Assyrian palaces. Details such as the individual wing feathers and the textured fur on the legs and belly are incised. The plaque’s original purpose is unknown, but like many pieces of carved shell or ivory from the Assyrian royal buildings at Nimrud it may have been used as a decoration for furniture or luxury objects.

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