Object Image

Figure fragment

During the Sasanian era many elite houses were richly decorated with stucco reliefs and other decoration. This small clay fragment of a female figure may have been used as a household decoration. Purchased by the Ctesiphon Expedition and attributed to the house at Ma’aridh I, this ceramic example finds parallels with the stucco reliefs of dancers and musicians excavated at the Ma’aridh houses.

The city of Ctesiphon was located on the east bank of the Tigris River, 20 miles (32 km) south of modern Baghdad in Iraq. It flourished for more than 800 years as the capital of the Parthians and the Sasanians, the last two dynasties to rule the ancient Near East before the Islamic conquest in the sevent...

c. 2nd century B.C.-3rd century A.D.
Ceramic
5.7 x 3.8cm
32.150.470
Image and text © Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Permanent collection