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Sherd

Period:
Halaf
Date:
ca. 5600–5000 B.C.
Geography:
Syria, Tell Brak
Culture:
Halaf
Medium:
Ceramic, paint
Dimensions:
1.56 x 2.05 in. (3.96 x 5.21 cm)
Classification:
Ceramics-Vessels
Credit Line:
Purchase, Colt Archaeological Institute Inc. Gift, 1988
Accession Number:
1988.323.6
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 402
Halaf potters far surpassed their predecessors and successors in the embellishment and delicacy of their designs and the fine quality of the pottery itself. The background is often, as here, a buff color with red and black decoration produced on the vessel from the same iron oxide pigment, technically a very advanced achievement. This fragment of a vessel with slightly flaring rim has the exterior painted with parts of two black-outlined metopes, one with a red rosette, the other with a red design outlined in black, on light buff ground. A red band decorates the interior rim.
1976-1988, excavated by David and Joan Oates, on behalf of the Institute of Archaeology, University of London; acquired by the Museum in 1988, as a result of its financial contribution to the excavations.
Annual Report of the Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 119 (Jul. 1,1988 - Jun. 30, 1989), p. 16.

Timelines
The Eastern Mediterranean, 8000-2000 B.C.

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