Bowl

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Using only stone and sand to shape and polish objects, Neolithic stoneworking reached extraordinary levels of sophistication. Artisans carved the stone so that natural veins in the rock followed the shape of the finished product. The largest excavated assemblage of Neolithic stone vessels comes from the site of Bouqras, on the Euphrates River.

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art