Sherd

Unknown

ca. 5600–5000 BCE · Ceramic, paint · Ancient Near Eastern Art

Halaf potters far surpassed their predecessors and successors in the embellishment and delicacy of their designs and the fine quality of the pottery itself. The background is often, as here, a buff color with red and black decoration produced on the vessel from the same iron oxide pigment, technically a very advanced achievement. This fragment of a vessel with slightly flaring rim has the exterior painted with parts of two black-outlined metopes, one with a red rosette, the other with a red design outlined in black, on light buff ground. A red band decorates the interior rim.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 5600–5000 BCE

Medium

Ceramic, paint

Culture

Halaf

Department

Ancient Near Eastern Art

Credit line

Purchase, Colt Archaeological Institute Inc. Gift, 1988