Drinking Vessel in the Form of a Ram's Head in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, July 2010

Title: Drinking vessel in the form of a ram's head

Period: Neo-Assyrian

Date: 7th century B.C.

Geography: Mesopotamia, Nimrud (ancient Kalhu)

Medium: Ceramic

Dimensions: 3 in. (7.62 cm)

Classification: Ceramics-Vessel

Credit Line: Rogers Fund, 1957

Accession Number: 57.27.20

On View

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_Art/collection_database/ancien...

and

Drinking Vessel in the Form of a Ram’s Head
Ceramic
Mesopotamia, excavated at Nimrud (ancient Kalhu), Burnt Palace
Neo-Assyrian period, 7th century BC

Accession Number: 57.27.20

Animal-headed vessels have a long history in the ancient Near East, beginning in the Neolithic period in Anatolia. Texts of the second millennium BC describe these objects (called bibru in Akkadian) as valuable commodities that either belonged to the gods or were exchanged as gifts among kings. Such vessels, some with handles, from the second and first millennia BC have been excavated at sites in Anatolia, Iran, Mesopotamia, Syria, and the Aegean region.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label