Tiger (?) figurine

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This fragmentary figurine is missing its forelegs, hindquarters and parts of its face. Yet the shape of its head and ears and the dark vertical stripes on its reddish-orange body suggest the appearance of a tiger. The figurine was excavated at Yarim Tepe in northeastern Iran, six miles south of the modern town of Gonbad-e Kavus. Yarim Tepe was a small settlement, inhabited from the Neolithic to the Parthian period, with many interruptions. This figurine likely dates to the Chalcolithic period, since pottery with similar fabric and coloring excavated at the site belongs to this period as well. Tigers are little known in the ancient world. They are mentioned in Mesopotamian, Hittite and Greek literature only in passing, and no representations of them are known except for this one. This part of Iran was, however, home to the Caspian tiger, which went extinct in the late twentieth century A.D. Thus this figurine may be the earliest known image of a tiger.

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