Object Image
This sherd is made of a red clay, with brown and black painted decoration. It is typical of Namazga III ceramics from Turkmenistan, dating to ca. 3100-2700 B.C. It was excavated in 1937 at a prehistoric site in the vicinity of Nishapur in northeastern Iran. While Nishapur itself was founded by the Sasanian king Shapur I (reigned ca. A.D. 241-272), this sherd shows that human habitation there goes back to the prehistoric period. Furthermore, the prehistoric pottery from Nishapur has close affinities with ceramic materials from Central Asia rather than with contemporary sites in Iran, meaning that in this period its inhabitants were likely culturally linked to their neighbors to the east. At the ...
c. 3100-2700 B.C.
Ceramic, paint
6.8 x 0.5cm
38.40.349
Image and text © Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2019

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The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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