Bowl

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This bowl has a flat base, a low carinated shoulder, and a flaring rim. It is made of a buff clay, slightly burnished, with a pale cream slip. The clay is well-levigated and free of inclusions. The interior of the bowl is decorated, sometimes carelessly, with red paint. The interior of the shoulder features seven triangles, and in the center of the bowl is an image of a stylized bird with a long neck and legs, possibly a stork. This type of pottery is generally known as ‘Ardabil Style’ after its supposed origin in northwestern Iran. Examples of it have been found at Yanik Tepe near Lake Urmia and at Coni in Azerbaijan, and these provide a general date range of ca. 400-100 B.C. for the Ardabil Style. This shape of bowl is widely attested in the Achaemenid Empire, though it was also used in earlier and later periods, as a drinking vessel.

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