Top for standard

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In the early first millennium B.C., inhabitants of the mountainous region of western Iran known as Luristan manufactured an astonishing variety of bronze objects, including weapons, standards, jewelry, horse ornaments, and vessels, most of which have been recovered from cemeteries. The nature of the society and economy that produced these bronzes is not known with certainty but seems to have been predominantly nomadic. This standard top would have been joined to a pole or other support. It is not certain how such a standard would have been used, but it may be significant that this type of object has been found only in graves. The object depicts a scene of long-standing significance in ancient Near Eastern art, that of the "master of animals." The man holds in each hand the throat of a demonic creature, while human and bird heads appear below.

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