Belt fragment of animals, 7th century b.c.
Northwestern Iran, possibly Gushi
Bronze
Technical Glossary
Northwestern Iran, possibly Gushi
Bronze
3.54 x 12.87 in. (8.99 x 32.69 cm)
Rogers Fund, 1952 (52.123)
This is but one of hundreds of Urartian belts known to exist, all decorated with a variety of scenes—hunts, animals, deities, etc. Here, in panels divided by patterns, lions and bulls are hunted by otherworldly winged creatures. Joining fragments of this belt exist in two other museums. The pieces were dispersed almost a century ago, when a Russian scholar claimed the belt along with other Urartian material derived from a site at Gushi on the northwestern shore of Lake Urmia in northwest Iran. The belt may have been made in the seventh century B.C.
