Bowl with a radiating petal design

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Phrygians ruled in Central Anatolia, from about 800 to 700 B.C., from their capital at Gordion. King Midas, known in myth to have turned all he touched to gold, may have been the person buried in the great tumulus at Gordion. That tomb contained many drinking bowls made of brass (which in antiquity would have had a bright golden color) with a raised knob in the center allowing it to be held comfortably from underneath. This silver bowl, with a fine petal design with graceful stems radiating from a central raised knob, is a variation on many of the drinking bowls from the Gordion excavations. Thus, there is a possibility that this vessel was made by the Phrygians. But the Lydians, who ruled in western Anatolia from 685 to 547 B.C., admired objects of Phrygian manufacture, and this silver vessel may have in fact been made by the Lydians.

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