Bracelet
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The terminals of this silver bracelet are decorated with stylized animal heads, possibly meant to be snakes. The heads are indicated with bulges, and the eyes by incised circles. The animals’ snouts are also incised. A row of parallel incised lines is behind each head. This bracelet 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 bracelet 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 bracelet, show that it continued to be occupied down into the second century B.C., long after the fall of the Achaemenid Empire. The bracelet was found in a room in the southern corner of the Takht. It was discovered along with a second, similar bracelet and a hoard of silver coins dating to early in the reign of Seleucus I (323-281 B.C.). That the bracelet was found with coins suggests that it was being used as money rather than jewelry, though these uses are not mutually exclusive. The hoard was probably hidden due to some crisis, and indeed the site appears to have been burned sometime in the early 2nd century B.C.
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.