ClassificationsAncient Near Eastern Art
Vase
Possible OriginKuwait, Asia
Possible OriginIraq, Asia
CultureSumerian
PeriodEarly Dynastic Period
Date2900-2350 BCE
MediumMarble
Credit LineGift in memory of Helene J. Kantor
Dimensions5 1/8 x 7 11/16 in. (13 x 19.6 cm)
Object number2008.051.001
Label TextHigh quality, workable stone was a rare commodity in Mesopotamia, therefore the majority of the stones used to manufacture vessels, cylinder seals, and weights had to be imported. Stone vessels were valued and highly prized and often used as dedications to temples or deposited as grave offerings. This vessel with its triangular lugs, carved of the mineral calcite, known as "Egyptian alabaster", is of a form imitated in pottery in late Predynastic Egypt. The carved cross-hatching around the rim, however, is a purely Near Eastern motif.Exhibition HistoryMCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, October 6, 2001 - February 12, 2018
Published ReferencesChristie's London, Fine Antiquities (November 25, 1997), 45, lot 179.
Terms
ProvenanceWith Christie's London, Sale 7814, November 25, 1997, lot 179. Ex private collection, United States.
Status
Not on viewCollections
- Ancient Egyptian, Nubian, and Near Eastern Art
early 1st Century CE
3rd Millennium BCE
late 6th Century BCE
1800-1600 BCE
1800-1600 BCE
1800-1600 BCE
2950-2730 BCE
2950-2590 BCE
5500-4000 BCE
ca. 6th-7th Century CE
