Beads

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Three different types of beads have been strung together in this necklace: long tubular stone beads, smaller circular spacers, and cowrie shells. It is not known how the beads were originally worn in antiquity, since any string or other material that would have held them together has long since disintegrated. Beads were worn as jewelry and sewn to clothing as early as the Neolithic period in the ancient Near East.

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