Threshold pavement slab with a carpet design

Threshold pavement slab with a carpet design

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This doorsill is one of multiple examples designed to mimic a carpet that were used in doorways within the later Assyrian palaces. In a sense, they are a solution to the everyday practical problem of carpet wear in a heavily used space (e.g., a doorway), but a solution so signally expensive and labor-intensive that it does not make sense to see their use as a practical measure in reality. Like all Assyrian reliefs, their quarrying, transport, and carving involved difficult and time-consuming work. They would also have been painted, and where real carpet would eventually need replacing, these panels would presumably have needed to be repainted regularly. The Assyrian palaces were filled with fine carpets and hangings, but none survive. With fluctuating moisture levels and often very high salinity, the Mesopotamian soil is not well suited to the preservation of organic materials. Unlike in Egypt, where very stable dry conditions have allowed significant quantities of textiles to survive, the recovery of textile fragments in Mesopotamian archaeology is rare. Representations of textiles in other media help to compensate for this loss, particularly when, as here, the designs and patterns that would have been used in real carpets are depicted in detail.

Ancient Near Eastern Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Threshold pavement slab with a carpet designThreshold pavement slab with a carpet designThreshold pavement slab with a carpet designThreshold pavement slab with a carpet designThreshold pavement slab with a carpet design

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.