Stamp seal and modern impression: geometric pattern

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mesopotamian pendants of the Halaf period are usually of simple, mostly geometric forms. However, this stamp seal appears to represent a hedgehog, an animal that was native to northern Mesopotamia. The stamping surface is decorated with two superimposed grid patterns and a chevron pattern with a central line under the animal's head. Hedgehogs continued to be represented in Mesopotamia for millennia but the animal's symbolic or mythological significance is unknown.

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