Object Description
An extremely well-preserved Amlash spouted bowl modelled in terracotta. The vessel features a flattened base, a deep hemispherical container, and six spiked protrusions to the rim, a characteristic of Amalsh pottery. A tubular-shaped spout extends from the bowl’s rim, echoing the spiked handle to the opposite end. This spouted bowl might have been executed as a religious or ceremonial pouring vessel, used for specific ritual occasions in the Iron Age Iran.
Numerous proto-urbanised cultures once flourished in the land of Iron Age Iran, producing a wide range of potteries of various shapes and distinctive geometric and zoomorphic decorations. Amlash culture was one such civilisations, known for its creative pottery executions. In addition to the rich zoomorphic ornamentations that appear on numerous Amlash potteries, geometric repertories and spiked applications were equally favoured by Amlash pottery artists. Terracotta vessels, such as this fine example, might have been inspired by paralleled metal wares, and were used in either in funeral libation contexts, ritual occasions and in everyday life.
Date: Circa 1st millennium BC