© Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University

ClassificationsAncient Near Eastern Art

Bowl

AAT Object Form/FunctionBowl (Vessel)

Place CreatedSaudi Arabia, Arabian Peninsula, Asia

PeriodBronze Age

Date3rd Millennium BCE

MediumBasalt

Credit LineGift of Ann Boon Rhea

Dimensions2 1/2 x 6 5/16 in. (6.3 x 16 cm)

Object number1988.016

Label TextCarved stone vessels made from chlorite have been found all over the Near East from sites as far to the north as Palmyra in the Syrian Desert, to the east at Mohenjo Daro in India's Indus River valley, and to the south at Umm al-Nar in Arabia. Produced and extensively traded during the third millennium B.C., these vessels were carved in a distinctive "intercultural style" with geometric and floral motifs, and architectural and animal scenes with attacking felines, bulls, and entwined serpents. More examples of "intercultural style" vessels have been uncovered at Tarut Island in Arabia than anywhere else in the Near East. Such large numbers of vessel finds implies that Tarut Island was a possible production or distribution center for the vessels; or it may have been one of the first stops and a major customer on a trade route running between the southern Iranian plateau, the main source area for chlorite, and Mesopotamia. These vessels were considered luxury products. Though they appear in royal cemeteries and in palace and temple settings in Mesopotamia, their primary use on Tarut Island may have been funerary, since the majority were discovered in stone-lined cist tombs.
Exhibition HistoryEmory University Museum of Art and Archaeology, 1984- ca. 1988
MCCM Permanent Collection Galleries, May 11, 1993 - Spring 2001
MCCM Permanent Collection Reinstallation, September 2001 - February 12, 2018
Michael C. Carlos Museum Morgens West Foundation Galleries of Ancient Near Eastern Art, November 10, 2018 - Present

ProvenanceSaid to have been found during construction of causeway to connect Tarut with Arabian Peninsula, 1962. Ex coll. Ann Boon Rhea, United States, prior to 1972.

Status

On view

Collections