Object Details
Description
Wheelmade globular jar with round bottom. A sharp carination marking the shoulder slopes to a wide mouth with everted rim. The surface is covered with a beige slip, with brown paint decoration arranged in concentric zones. A solida brown band encircles both inner and outer rim. Four concentric brown bands encircle the jar just below the neck, forming the upper border of a concentric band decorated with two water birds painted in silhouette and outline face. Arranged opposite one another, the birds alternate with two chevrons consisting of four painted bands, also arranged one opposite the other. Solid bands and a wavy brown band form the next "register," below which is another open concentric zone decorated with a "flame" or "tooth" motif (five spaced at roughly equal intervals). Below this zone, at the maximum diameter of the pot, is a solid band that forms the lower limit of the painted decoration.
Label
Earthenware decorated with geometric and figural painted designs in contrasting colors had a long history in northern and western Iran, appearing before 6000 B.C.E. in the earliest era of pottery-making. Favored decorative schemes consisted of designs painted in black on a red surface, or in red or brown on a pale, buff surface. In the most successful products of the painted styles, the artisan achieved an almost perfect correspondence between shape and decoration. Here, for example, concentric zones of decoration encircle the body, carrying the eye around the vessel and emphasizing its volume.
Several features link this pot closely with examples excavated from the cemetery at Tepe Giyan in western Iran: the globular, carinated shape; the beige slip decorated with brown paint; the arrangement of the decoration in concentric zones; and the repertory of individual motifs (water birds, chevrons, "flame" or "tooth" pattern). The intact condition of the pot also indicates a burial context. Comparisons with examples recovered from the burials at Tepe Giyan, together with information from the settlement excavated at Godin Tepe, suggest a place of manufacture near Tepe Giyan in western Iran and a date of circa 2000 B.C.E.
Provenance
?-2005
Mr. and Mrs. Osborne (1914-2004) and Gratia Hauge (d. 2000) [1]
From 2005
The National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, by gift of Osborne and Gratia Hauge, and Victor and Takako Hauge [2]
Notes:
[1] The Hauge family began collecting Asian paintings, sculpture, and ceramics in the late 1940s and would amass a large collection in the post-World War II years.
[2] Ownership of collected objects sometimes changed between members of the Hauge families. See Deed of Gift, dated October 16, 2005, copy in object file. From 2005-2023 the work was part of the National Museum of Asian Art’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection and on March 21, 2023, the work was internally transferred to the National Museum of Asian Art Collection.
Collection
National Museum of Asian Art Collection
Exhibition History
Shaping Clay in Ancient Iran (September 8, 2018 to November 24, 2020)
Asian Traditions in Clay: The Hauge Gifts (October 29, 2000 to April 22, 2001)
Previous custodian or owner
Mr. and Mrs. Osborne and Gratia Hauge
Credit Line
Gift of Osborne and Gratia Hauge
Date
ca. 2400-1400 BCE
Accession Number
S1998.21
Restrictions & Rights
Usage conditions apply
Type
Vessel
Medium
Earthenware with paint
Dimensions
H x W x D: 23.4 x 21.7 x 21.7 cm (9 3/16 x 8 9/16 x 8 9/16 in)
Origin
Iran
Related Online Resources
Google Arts & Culture
See more items in
National Museum of Asian Art
Data Source
National Museum of Asian Art
Topic
ceramic
Late Bronze Age (ca. 1600 - 1200 BCE)
Iran
earthenware
Ancient Near Eastern Art
Hauge collection
Link to Original Record
Record ID
fsg_S1998.21