Footed cup

This cup—adorned with long-horned goats, ibexes, and simple geometric patterns—is one of the oldest objects in the museum’s collection. It is an example of the sophisticated (and often large) pottery made in central and southwestern Iran during the fourth millennium BCE. The animals, rendered in economically artful brushstrokes, are stylized with simplified bodies and exaggerated horns. Yet they are also realistic—the ibex’s horns are articulated and the goat’s “goatee” defined.

The concentric rings visible on this cup’s body indicate that it was made using a potter’s wheel. There are differing opinions about when and where the potter’s wheel was invented. But, as this example shows, Persian potters were using this mechanical device approximately six thousand years ago.