Handle

Unknown

ca. 6th century BCE · Ceramic · Ancient Near Eastern Art

This handle was once part of a pottery vessel. It is in the form of a duck’s head, with the neck and beak attached to the remains of the vessel’s rim. The duck has a round eye, which was originally inlaid. It is made of red clay and decorated with a dark red slip. The handle was excavated at Tepe Nush-i Jan, an Iron Age hilltop site about 60 km sound of Hamadan in western Iran. Nush-i Jan was occupied in the 7th and 6th centuries B.C., and its occupants are generally thought to be the Medes, an Iranian people known from Assyrian, Achaemenid and Biblical sources. Though the textual sources portray them as a powerful empire, archaeological evidence for the Medes has yet to sustain this impression. Rather, they seem to have lived in scattered fortified sites in western and central Iran, without any clear capital. Nush-i Jan, one of the best known of these sites, features two temples, a columned hall, and a fort. This handle was found near the Central Temple, a tower-like building located in the middle of the site. The precise context of the find is unclear, so it is impossible to say whether this vessel served a ritual or a practical purpose, or both.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 6th century BCE

Medium

Ceramic

Culture

Iran

Department

Ancient Near Eastern Art

Credit line

Purchase, H. Dunscombe Colt Gift, 1969