A RARE MESOPOTAMIAN BLACK STONE JAR, with concave sides tapering to a disc-shaped base, three square lugs below the rim pierced for suspension with incised lines running around the lugs, below the rim and above the foot, the whole body carved with decorative recesses for inlay (now missing), the arched recesses in 'scale'-like pattern, the base ornamented with an eight-petalled rosette recessed for inlay, Jemdet Nasr Period, circa 3000 B.C. | Christie's

Lot 158

158

A RARE MESOPOTAMIAN BLACK STONE JAR, with concave sides tapering to a disc-shaped base, three square lugs below the rim pierced for suspension with incised lines running around the lugs, below the rim and above the foot, the whole body carved with decorative recesses for inlay (now missing), the arched recesses in 'scale'-like pattern, the base ornamented with an eight-petalled rosette recessed for inlay, Jemdet Nasr Period, circa 3000 B.C.

Details

A RARE MESOPOTAMIAN BLACK STONE JAR, with concave sides tapering to a disc-shaped base, three square lugs below the rim pierced for suspension with incised lines running around the lugs, below the rim and above the foot, the whole body carved with decorative recesses for inlay (now missing), the arched recesses in 'scale'-like pattern, the base ornamented with an eight-petalled rosette recessed for inlay, Jemdet Nasr Period, circa 3000 B.C.
4in. (10cm.) high

Lot Essay

Cf., M. E. L. Mallowan, Early Mesopotamia and Iran, London, 1965, pl. 58 for a stone bowl from the Sin Temple IV at Khafajah with inlaid mother-of-pearl and coloured stone, now in the Iraq Museu, Baghdad

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