VesselsIranian7th century BCE

Lid Decorated with Two Horse Heads

7th century BCE

Description

The top of this oblong lid is decorated with two opposing horse heads. The lid is flat and undecorated on the top, with a rim around the edge, straight and thin, and beveled in slightly from the top. It is concave on the underside with two holes under the area where the horse heads are, penetrating up to the top behind the horses’ necks. The horse heads are highly stylized and flat, with molded ears, cylindrical muzzles, and raised ridges down the back of the necks to represent manes. The holes through the neck would help attach the lid to a vessel. The lid fits on vessel 1969.177.14; the two pieces may have come to the museum together, with the lid subsequently being separated and mislabeled.

Classification

Vessels

Technique

Cast, lost-wax process

Medium

Bronze

Culture

Iranian

Period

Iron Age

Century

7th century BCE

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Department

Department of Ancient and Byzantine Art & Numismatics

Dimensions

2.6 x 2.6 x 2.3 cm (1 x 1 x 7/8 in.)

Provenance

Miss Elizabeth Gaskell Norton, Boston, MA and Miss Margaret Norton, Cambridge, MA (by 1920), gift; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1920. Note: The Misses Norton were daughters of Charles Elliot Norton (1827-1908).