Wheeled ram-headed vessel with loop for attaching cord
Mesopotamian, second half of the 3rd millennium B.C.
terracotta
Brooklyn Museum
Source: brooklynmuseum.org
Tetradrachm of Kingdom of Syria with head of deified Alexander the Great (obverse) and Nike with trophy and Greek inscription (reverse), struck under Seleukos I Nikator
Greek, Early Hellenistic Period, c. 305–295 B.C.
silver
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Source: mfa.org
#coin#ancient coin#numismatics#Hellenistic#tetradrachm#Syria#Ancient Syria#Ancient Near East#Ancient Near Eastern#Hellenistic Period#Early Hellenistic Period#Seleucid#Seleucid Empire#Greek#Ancient Greece#Seleucus I Nicator#Seleukos I Nikator#Alexander the Great#silver#MFA Boston#Nike#trophy#mythology
Silver drachm with bust of Mithridates II wearing a Hellenistic-style diadem (obverse) and archer sitting on a throne with the legend “Arsaces, great king, god manifest” (reverse)
Parthian, from Iran, c. 124-87 B.C.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Source: metmuseum.org
Source: didoofcarthage
Detail from gypsum-alabaster relief of a foreign groom in a tributary procession
From the palace at Khorsabad (originally Dur-Sharrukin), Mesopotamia
Neo-Assyrian, c. 751-705 B.C.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Source: metmuseum.org
Old gods are terrible to look at when
They weep, all bloated like spoiled fish.
One wonders if they ever understand
That they have caused their grief.
Herbert Mason, from Gilgamesh: A Verse Narrative
Source: didoofcarthage
Ewer decorated with female figures. Iran, Sasanian Period, 7th-6th centuries A.D. Silver and gilt. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery.
From the Sackler:
Among the silver vessels made in Iran during the sixth and seventh centuries were pear-shaped vases and pouring vessels, or ewers, closely related in form and elaborate gilded decoration. The examples displayed here share the theme of females holding symbolic objects. The figures were modeled in part after Roman personifications of the Seasons and Months, and representations of female attendants in the cult of Dionysos, the Greek god of wine and ecstatic experience.
Source: asia.si.edu
Silver plaque fragments
Northwest Iran, Iron Age I-II, c. 1200-900 B.C.E.
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Source: asia.si.edu
Breastplate fragment from Northern Iran
Iron Age III, 800-500 B.C.E.
gold
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Source: asia.si.edu
Silver and gilt plate and bowl with image of hunting king. Iran, Sasanian Period, 4th to 5th century A.D. Freer Gallery of Art. x x
From the Freer:
One of the earliest and most enduring of the royal images created during the Sasanian period (ca. 224–651) shows the king on horseback hunting select quarry: boar, lion, antelope (or gazelle). This image, often embellished with gilding, was depicted on the interior of silver plates, about thirty of which have been found in Iran and neighboring countries. Produced in imperial workshops, these plates were given as official gifts from the king to high-ranking individuals within or beyond the empire's frontiers. In the early centuries of Sasanian rule, silver production was controlled by a royal monopoly and could be minted into coins or fashioned into objects only on the king's authority.
Source: didoofcarthage
Gold necklace pendants and beads from Mesopotamia (perhaps Dilbat)
Old Babylonian Period, c. 18th-17th century B.C.
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Source: metmuseum.org
Funerary relief from Syria, probably Palmyra. 2nd-3rd century A.D. Limestone. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
From the Met:
This sculpture in high relief shows full-length figures of a man, his son, and two daughters. It is a gravestone depicting a banquet scene that probably sealed the opening of a family burial niche in Palmyra. The man is reclining on a richly decorated couch, holding a palm spray or cluster of dates in his right hand and a cup in his left. The two daughters wear veils, necklaces, and earrings. The son wears a necklace and holds grapes in his right hand and a bird in his left. It bears a Palmyrene Aramaic inscription giving the names of each of the deceased and five generations of their paternal ancestors.
Source: metmuseum.org
Temple of the Sun at Baalbek by Félix Bonfils. French, c. 1870. Albumen silver print. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Source: metmuseum.org
“Excavation of Persepolis (Iran): Tachara Palace (Palace of Darius), Central Facade of Western Stairway: View of Relief Picturing Gift-Bearing Delegates Led by a Median Usher”
1923-1928
glass negative from the Ernst Herzfeld Papers
Freer and Sackler Archives
Source: siris-archives.si.edu
“Excavation of Persepolis (Iran): Gate of All Lands, Trilingual Cuneiform Inscription, XPa, Inscribed on North Jamb of Western Doorway”
1923-1928
glass negative from the Ernst Herzfeld Papers
Freer and Sackler Galleries
Source: siris-archives.si.edu
“Excavation of Persepolis (Iran): Gate of All Lands, Colossal Sculpture Depicting a Bull: View before Excavation, Looking North-East”
1923-1928
glass negative from the Ernst Herzfeld Papers
Freer and Sackler Galleries
Source: siris-archives.si.edu
Source: didoofcarthage
#archaeology#Persepolis#Ancient Iran#palace#throne room#Hundred Column Hall#column#capital#architecture#ruins#excavation#photo#photograph#photography#historical photography#Persia#Persian#Achaemenid#Achaemenid Empire#Ancient Near East#Ancient Near Eastern#Ernst Herzfeld#glass negative#Freer and Sackler Galleries