The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Curators' Choices: 2 of 27

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Mastiff, Kassite period, mid-2nd millennium B.C., Mesopotamia. Purchase, The Charles Engelhard Foundation Gift, 1989 (1989.233)

Such large-scale sculptures may have been placed as guardians at temple entrances. The dog, in particular, was associated with Gula, the deity of the city of Isin and the goddess of healing.

Location: Back of the first gallery immediately up the small staircase at the north entrance to the galleries for Ancient Near Eastern Art, second floor

Photograph Credits