Bulla
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
This bulla (a lump of clay used in an administrative context) bears the impression of a stamp seal. It is difficult to make out the image on the seal, but it seems to show an animal of some kind. This bulla 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 bulla was found in a room near the eastern corner of 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. Presumably it was once attached to a document of some kind – a clay tablet or papyrus or parchment document. Alternatively, it may have been used as a token, indicating the bearer was authorized by a superior to do some particular action. Without more bullae, or indeed any documents, it is impossible to do more than speculate. Nevertheless, the presence of bullae at Pasargadae suggest the existence of a bureaucracy there. Indeed, the Takht may have served as a storehouse or treasury during the 5th and 4th centuries B.C.; Elamite tablets from Persepolis refer to a treasury there during the reign of Darius, and according to the Greek historian Arrian (3.18.10), Alexander the Great captured a treasury at Pasargadae. This bulla thus may be a remnant of the management of that treasury.
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.