Jar

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A green-blue glaze covers the jar’s exterior and its interior is coated with bitumen. Two concentric bands encircle the neck. Ceramics glazed in green, blue-green, and yellow were produced in Mesopotamia and southwest Iran during the Sasanian period. The dating of Sasanian pottery is complicated due to the lack of examples from controlled excavations at Sasanian sites, however, in contrast to ceramics produced during the Islamic period, glazes cover Sasanian vessels uniformly and additional designs are not defined through the use of differently colored glazes.

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