Fragment of a Carved and Painted Dado Panel
This fragment of a carved panel was excavated in 1939 in a room at Vineyard Tepe in Nishapur, as was also 40.170.672. The few letters left of the inscription may be read as "[al-s](a)mawat wa[‘l-ard]," as in the Qur’anic verse (24:35) describing God as the Light of the Heavens and the Earth, which recurs in inscriptions on 11th and 12th-century architecture. Traces of pigment in the epigraphic band suggest that the letters would have stood against a blue background, creating a striking effect in its original setting. The mason who carved the stone employed a flat chisel. This technique substantially differs from stone-working in the central Islamic lands and medieval and Islamic Europe, where toothed tools (chisels, hammers, etc.) were also used.
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