Inlay: banquet scene with a seated figure holding a palm frond

Inlay: banquet scene with a seated figure holding a palm frond

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This plaque is cut from a piece of pearly shell in the shape of a seated figure facing to the left, missing the head, feet and right arm. The figure’s gender cannot be determined by any surviving features or by the garment. The body is fully covered except for the left hand, which holds a branch-like object, either a palm frond, date spathe, or an implement such as a whip or fly whisk. A decorative border marked by two incised lines runs from the lap to the hem. The plaque was probably set in bitumen (a tar-like substance used as an adhesive) with pieces of shell and stone to create a composition in contrasting colors, a characteristic technique of the late Early Dynastic period exemplified by the well-known Standard of Ur, now in the British Museum. Nippur, the great holy city of southern Mesopotamia, was the home of the chief deity Enlil and housed temples to Enlil and many other gods. Excavations in the temple of the goddess Inanna have revealed that the sanctuary was first built in the Early Dynastic I period and continually rebuilt on the same site until the Parthian period, some three thousand years later. Hundreds of objects were discovered in the temple: statues, stone bowls and plaques, inlays, furniture attachments, and other fragmentary items, found either in hoards or scattered throughout the building.

Ancient Near Eastern Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Inlay: banquet scene with a seated figure holding a palm frondInlay: banquet scene with a seated figure holding a palm frondInlay: banquet scene with a seated figure holding a palm frondInlay: banquet scene with a seated figure holding a palm frondInlay: banquet scene with a seated figure holding a palm frond

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.