Belt fragment

Unknown

ca. 7th century BCE · Bronze · Ancient Near Eastern Art

This is but one of hundreds of Urartian belts known to exist, all decorated with a variety of scenes—hunts, animals, deities, etc. Here, in panels divided by patterns, lions and bulls are hunted by otherworldly winged creatures. Joining fragments of this belt exist in two other museums. The pieces were dispersed almost a century ago, when a Russian scholar claimed the belt along with other Urartian material derived from a site at Gushi on the northwestern shore of Lake Urmia in northwest Iran. The belt may have been made in the seventh century B.C.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 7th century BCE

Medium

Bronze

Culture

Urartian

Department

Ancient Near Eastern Art

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1952