Vessel in the Form of a Boot in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, June 2010

Boot-shaped vessel

Near Eastern, Iranian, Iron Age, 10th–9th century B.C.

Place of Origin: Northwestern Iran

Medium or Technique: Pottery with orange slip

Classification: Vessels

Accession Number: 1980.8

From Northwest Iran, Caspian coastal region. Shoes or boots with upturned toes were a feature of dress in Anatolia and Northwest Iran since remote antiquity. They are common both in Hittite art and in that of Iron Age Iran. Vessels like this one, buried with the dead, may -- like a magical shoe or carpet -- have been thought to facilitate the journey of the dead in the afterlife.

Text from: www.mfa.org/collections/object/boot-shaped-vessel-164833