Beaker

Unknown

ca. 3000–2250 BCE · Ceramic · Ancient Near Eastern Art

This ceramic beaker has a flat base, gently sloping sides and a straight rim. It is made of gray clay and has been burnished. It was excavated at Yarim Tepe in northeastern Iran, six miles south of the modern town of Gonbad-e Kavus. Yarim Tepe was a small settlement, inhabited from the Neolithic to the Parthian period, with many interruptions. This beaker probably dates to the Bronze Age, when this region served as an important link between the emerging cities of Mesopotamia and Afghanistan, one of the few sources of both tin and lapis lazuli in the ancient Near East.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 3000–2250 BCE

Medium

Ceramic

Culture

Iran

Department

Ancient Near Eastern Art

Credit line

Purchase, H. Dunscombe Colt Gift, 1963