Four handled storage jar with rope-pattern design

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Turquoise glazed earthenware storage jars of this type are an ancient form in the Gulf region. Technical studies have now established that this jar type was produced at and around Basra, the early medieval port city serving Baghdad. Undoubtedly they were not confined to Basra. Their purpose was storage of valued commodities in transit, not as commodities in their own right. Thus they circulated widely, and have been recorded archaeologically from numerous sites in the Gulf, coastal East Africa, the west coast of India, Sri Lanka, as well as littoral zones throughout Southeast Asia and southern China. Such ceramics are richly encoded objects that allow us to study and understand the global interconnectivity of the late first millennium in ways that is not otherwise possible.

Asian Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Met's collection of Asian art—more than 35,000 objects, ranging in date from the third millennium B.C. to the twenty-first century—is one of the largest and most comprehensive in the world. Each of the many civilizations of Asia is represented by outstanding works, providing an unrivaled experience of the artistic traditions of nearly half the world.

Metropolitan Museum of Art