Vessel with a lid

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This beehive-shaped alabaster vessel is small and squat with a flat bottom and two pierced lug handles at the shoulder. Its lid has a pierced handle on top. This type of vessel was probably intended as a container that could be sealed by tying the handle on the lid to the lug handles on the vessel. Due to the weight of the stone and the skilled workmanship involved, it has been suggested that these vessels were made to hold a valuable commodity, perhaps a semi-solid ointment. They are found in southwestern Arabia in the last half of the first millennium 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