Ceramic vessel shaped like a boar, 5.7 in. (14.5 cm) high
Proto-Elamite culture, south-western Iran,
ca. 3100–2900 B.C.
The body of the boar is hollow, with a small round rimmed opening atop the center of the back and a hole pierced through the snout. The vessel could have been filled through the larger hole in the back while the smaller hole in the snout was held closed with a thumb, allowing the liquid to flow out once the snout was uncovered.
Source: Met Museum
Miniature pot (under 2″ / 4.6 cm high)
Iran, possibly from Tepe Giyan, early 2nd millennium B.C. (Middle Bronze Age)
Source: Met Museum
Cylinder seals with interesting creatures (modern impressions)
Mitanni kingdom, modern Iran (possibly from Tepe Giyan), ca. 15th–14th century B.C.
Source: Met Museum (one) (two) (three)
Faience cylinder seals (modern impressions)
Mitanni kingdom, modern Iran (possibly from Tepe Giyan), ca. 15th–14th century B.C.
Source: Met Museum (one) (two) (three) (four)
Ivory furniture plaque: female sphinx with Hathor-style curls
Anatolia, probably from Acemhöyük, ca. 18th century B.C. (Middle Bronze Age–Old Assyrian Trading Colony period)
Hippopotamus ivory, 3 in x 2 ¼ in. (7.3 x 5.7 cm)
This figure belongs to a group of carved ivories, mostly furniture elements, probably found at the site of a palace at Acemhöyük in central Anatolia. Most of the ivories depict imagery borrowed and transformed from Egyptian sources, such as the sphinx represented by this plaque, a fantastic creature that combines a human head with a lion’s body, with or without wings. Although the bottom of the plaque is broken away, parts of the creature’s leonine hind leg and tail are still preserved. The sphinx has a hairstyle of long, curled locks similar to that worn by the Egyptian goddess Hathor. She wears a fillet across the forehead, above which three additional short curls rise. One lock is tucked behind a large ear. The eye, hollowed out to receive an inlay (now missing), and nose are prominent, and the mouth and chin are small. The overall gray color indicates that the object was exposed to considerable heat, perhaps during the destruction of the palace.
Source: Met Museum
The Goddess Nekhbet, from the Temple of Hatshepsut
Painted scale copy (tempera on paper) of the temple painting by Charles K. Wilkinson, 1920s.
Original from Deir al-Bahri, Thebes, Upper Egypt. Dated to the New Kingdom,
Dynasty 18, ca. 1479–1458 B.C. (joint reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III).
Nekhbet is depicted as a vulture, often hovering over an image of the pharaoh and clutching a shen symbol (representing eternal encircling protection) in her talons.
Source: Met Museum
Egypt, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, reign of Thutmose III, ca. 1479–1425 B.C.. Found at Thebes, Wadi Gabbanat el-Qurud,Tomb of the 3 Foreign Wives of Thutmose III.
This jar was probably imported from western Asia and may have been brought to Egypt by one of the foreign wives of Thutmose III as part of her dowry. The form, which has a button-shaped base now masked by gold leaf over plaster restoration, has a long history in Mesopotamia. Fragments of glassy faience vessels with a similar variegated pattern have been found at the site of Nuzi (modern Yorgan Tepe, Iraq), which flourished in the kingdom of Mitanni during the fifteenth and fourteenth centuries B.C. Glass making appears to have originated in Mesopotamia and been imported into Egypt early in Dynasty 18. Egyptian artisans had been making faience, a substance related to glass, for more than a thousand years and they quickly mastered the art of glassmaking as well.
Source: Met Museum
Early blown-glass vase
Egypt, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, ca. 1390–1353 B.C., reign of Amenhotep III. Found at the Palace of Amenhotep III, Malqata, Thebes, MMA excavations 1911-12.
Height: 10 cm (3 7/8 in)
This core-formed glass vase was assembled from fragments found at the palace of Amenhotep III at Malqata during the Museum’s excavations at the site. A large amount of waste glass as well as glass rods and other basic materials for making glass were also discovered, suggesting that glass was being manufactured nearby. By the reign of Amenhotep III, Egyptian artists had mastered the art of glass-making which had come to Egypt only a few generations earlier from the Near East where it was developed (see 26.7.1175).
Source: Met Museum
Anatolia, probably from an Acemhöyük palace, ca. 18th century BC (Middle Bronze Age–Old Assyrian Trading Colony)
Dimensions: 1.61 x 1.04 in. (4.09 x 2.64 cm)
This fragment belongs to a group of carved ivories, mostly furniture elements, probably found at the site of a palace at Acemhöyük in central Anatolia. Incised on the small flat piece of ivory is a delicate rendering of a griffin, a mythological creature that combines the body of a lion with the wings and head of a bird of prey. The small hooked beak and facial markings indicate that this griffin has the head of a falcon. Its slender leonine body is seated with front legs extended and wings fully extended, giving the impression that the creature is poised to spring into action. Griffins of this type, with a spiral curl hanging down the neck and extended wings, are characteristic of Aegean art in later periods, such as the famous Minoan wall painting from the palace at Knossos on Crete that shows griffins flanking the royal throne. This object is the earliest known rendering of this type of griffin, suggesting that the motif was adopted by Minoan artisans after contacts with Bronze Age Anatolia.
Source: Met Museum
Quartz Ibex, 2.3cm high (7/8″)
Egypt, New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, ca. 1390–1352 B.C., reign of Amenhotep III. Found at Thebes, Upper Egypt.
Source: Met Museum
