Ingot with Hittite hieroglyphs

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hittite scribes wrote both in cuneiform script (borrowed from Mesopotamia) and in hieroglyphs, a local development that continued after the end of the Hittite empire into the Neo-Hittite kingdoms. Unfortunately, the hieroglyphs on this silver ingot are not legible, so the writing cannot help us determine the ingot's function. It has been suggested that the ingot belonged to a silversmith, who might have used it to make or repair jewelry, sculpture, or drinking vessels or other ceremonial containers, such as the stag-headed cup (MMA 1989.281.10) . On the other hand, we know that in the earlier Assyrian Trading Colony period specific weights of Anatolian silver were traded for the goods imported from Assyria. Perhaps this ingot, or pieces from it, were weighed and used as currency in Hittite times, since coins as we know them were only invented in the mid-seventh 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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art