Bowl
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
About one third of this ceramic bowl is preserved. The bowl is conical and sits on a ring base. It is made of a buff clay with a thick cream slip. The rim and base are decorated with black stripes, and a row of oval dots and a pendant tree motif are on the interior. The bowl was excavated at Tall-i Nokhodi, a prehistoric site in southwestern Iran occupied during the fourth and third millennia B.C. Excavations have been limited in scope, but the presence of ovens there suggest it was a small settlement. Metal finds from the site, including a cast bronze axe head, indicate a precious metalworking industry there, one which prefigures the magnificent and extensive bronzeworking of the neighboring Elamites in centuries to come. This bowl was excavated in 1962 by the British Institute of Persian Studies. However, the Met acquired it in 1978 as a result of its financial contributions to the Institute’s excavations at Tepe Nush-i Jan, another site in Iran. At the time the Iranian government allowed foreign excavators to keep a portion of the finds, and these excavators in turn would divide their share among the institutions that supported the work.
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.