Plaque fragments with a bearded male dignitary carrying a young goat

Plaque fragments with a bearded male dignitary carrying a young goat

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Excavations at Hasanlu in Iran yielded a large number of carved ivory fragments which probably decorated wooden furniture or were used as small precious objects such as boxes. The citadel at Hasanlu was attacked and destroyed around 800 B.C., most likely by military forces of the powerful state of Urartu, centered in present-day Armenia, eastern Turkey, and northwestern Iran. In the fire that destroyed the citadel, many objects were crushed and shattered. The blackened appearance of most of the Hasanlu ivories is due to their exposure to high temperatures at the time of the citadel’s destruction. Carved in a style that resembles Assyrian stone relief carving, this panel shows a bearded male figure. He holds a small goat in one hand, and a staff or mace in the other. Along the top of the plaque runs a tasseled fringe, below which a dowel hole is visible on the left side, probably used to affix the plaque to a wooden frame as part of a piece of furniture. The plaque may have been a royal gift from the Assyrian king to the local ruler at Hasanlu, perhaps in support of an alliance against their mutual enemy, Urartu.

Ancient Near Eastern Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plaque fragments with a bearded male dignitary carrying a young goatPlaque fragments with a bearded male dignitary carrying a young goatPlaque fragments with a bearded male dignitary carrying a young goatPlaque fragments with a bearded male dignitary carrying a young goatPlaque fragments with a bearded male dignitary carrying a young goat

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.