Scabbard chape
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
This is a chape – the endpiece of a scabbard for a short sword. It is decorated on either side with a relief of a stylized horned animal, perhaps a goat or bull, whose body is curled up such that its hindleg is front of its face. Its back, in the shape of a dome, forms the very end of the scabbard, which, together with the creature’s rump and curved horns, create a triangular composition. The chape is made of a cooper alloy and would have originally been attached to the rest of the scabbard with two rivets which still survive, even though the scabbard itself evidently does not. There are many chapes decorated with rolled animal motifs of this sort, made of metal or ivory. They are associated with the Achaemenid Persian Empire because many of the scabbards depicted in the reliefs at Persepolis feature very similar imagery. These rolled animals also appear prominently in Scythian art. Like the Persians, the Scythians were an Iranian-speaking people originating in Central Asia, and this shared imagery indicates both their common origin and close contacts. Indeed, the Persians counted several different groups of Scythians (called ‘Saka’ in Old Persian), including the ‘Scythians beyond the sea,’ the ‘haoma-drinking Scythians’ and the ‘Scythians with pointed hats,’ among their subjects
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.