Bricks with a Palmette Motif in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2008

Bricks with a Palmette Motif
Glazed ceramic
Southwestern Iran, excavated at Susa
Achaemenid period, 5th-4th century BC

Accession # 48.98.20 a-c

This fragment was once part of the extensive polychrome wall decoration of the palace complex at Susa (built ca. 521-360 BC), the ancient city revived in the Achaemenid period. Glazed bricks and tiles with colorful motifs had been widely used at Babylon, the conquered royal city in Mesopotamia, and could have served as a model for the Achaemenids at Susa.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.