Royal or divine figure with high conical headdress

Royal or divine figure with high conical headdress

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The close relationship between the divine patriarch El and his earthly counterpart, the Syrian king, may be expressed in this male figure wearing a wrapped mantle with thickly rolled borders and a version of the Egyptian white crown. As the eternal king, he may wear the Mesopotamian horns of divinity or the Egyptian white crown. As a mortal ruler, this figure may appear in the presence of such deities as the weather god and the Syrian goddess with the square miter. Examples appear on the cylinder seals rolled on tablets at the city of Alalakh, an important center in northwestern Syria.

Ancient Near Eastern Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Royal or divine figure with high conical headdressRoyal or divine figure with high conical headdressRoyal or divine figure with high conical headdressRoyal or divine figure with high conical headdressRoyal or divine figure with high conical headdress

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.