Bowl with a Handle in the Form of a Forepart of a Lion in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, August 2008

Bowl with a Handle in the Form of a Forepart of a Lion
Chlorite
Syria
8th century BC

Accession # 61.98

Lion bowls, as these vessels are usually called, seem originally to have been made in northern Syria in the 9th century BC. Liquid flowed into the bowl through the rear tube, which could be attached to a portable reservoir, perhaps for cultic ceremonies. In addition to Syria, examples have been recovered in central Anatolia, in northern Mesopotamia, at Hasanlu in northwestern Iran, and on the island of Samos in the Aegean Sea.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.