Vessel
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
This bowl has a globular body, a ring base, a carinated shoulder and a flaring rim. It is made of a pinkish buff clay using a potter’s wheel. It was excavated at Pasargadae in southwestern Iran, about 90 km northeast of Shiraz. Pasargadae was the first capital of the Achaemenid Persian Empire, founded by Cyrus the Great c. 546 B.C. The bowl was found at the Tall-i Takht, a massive artificial platform presumably built as the site of a royal palace but converted into a fortified compound after Darius established a new capital at Persepolis around 520. However, the coin hoards and other finds from the Takht, including this bowl, show that it continued to be occupied down into the second century B.C., long after the fall of the Achaemenid Empire. The bowl was found in a room in the southern corner of the Takht. The distinctive shape of this bowl is closely associated with the Achaemenid Empire, as it is depicted in the reliefs of the Apadana – the main audience hall at Persepolis. Yet, as this bowl attests, it persisted into the periods of Seleucid and Parthian rule in Iran. It was probably used as a drinking vessel for wine, and the survival of this vessel shape after the fall of the Achaemenid Empire is likely due to it having become an integral part of Persian table settings.
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.