Lobed omphalos bowl

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This bronze bowl has a carinated, or ridged, shoulder and a turned-out rim. In the center of the bowl is a raised boss, usually referred to by the Greek term omphalos, surrounded by eleven lobes. The vessel was made by raising and sinking a single sheet of metal, and then adding chased details, a method that was employed for most Achaemenid metalware. The form is this bowl is known as the ‘Achaemenid bowl’ because it is depicted in the reliefs on the Apadana at Persepolis, the capital of the Achaemenid Persian Empire. In those reliefs the bowl is carried by delegations from across the empire. This has led scholars to suggest that the Achaemenid bowl was a marker of imperial unity, rather than being associated with any one region of the empire. Indeed, Achaemenid bowls have been found across the empire – in Persian itself, Lydia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and even in Gandhara in the east – made of a variety of materials, including gold, silver, bronze, glass and ceramic. They were used as drinking vessels, though the size of this bowl would have made it challenging to drink from.

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