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Old Assyrian Trading Colony
Not on view
Around 1900 B.C., traders from the northern Mesopotamian city of Ashur established karums, or "merchants' colonies," at a number of central Anatolian cities, among them the site of Acemhöyük. Assyrian merchants lived in a restricted area of these cities, trading textiles and tin from the southeast for silver but operating under the rule of local kings. Acemhöyük is a large mound located south of Ankara near the Turkish town of Aksaray on the Konya Plain. It lay on a route linking Anatolia and the East and seems to have been an important center for the copper trade and industry. In 1965 a Turkish archaeological expedition found sealed bullae, inscribed clay tablets, ivories, and other objects outside the karum of Acemhöyük in two burned palaces on the highest part of the mound.
A group of ivories given to the Museum in the 1930s is thought to have come from Acemhöyük because of close similarities in style and subject to those known to have been found there. Ranging in color from white to gray-blue and a pinkish orange, they have been warped and discolored by fire and soil conditions. They were carved to represent the fantastic composite creatures important in the mythology of the ancient Near East. This small female sphinx is a form borrowed from the Egyptians. Her large almond-shaped eyes and spiral locks ultimately derive from the Egyptian goddess Hathor. As with the later ivories from Nimrud, this sphinx, one of four in the Museum, was carved as furniture decoration.
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7021. Furniture support: female sphinx with Hathor-style curls, Part 1
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7071. Furniture support: female sphinx with Hathor-style curls, Part 2
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Artwork Details
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Title: Furniture support: female sphinx with Hathor-style curls
Period: Middle Bronze Age–Old Assyrian Trading Colony
Date: ca. 18th century BCE
Geography: Anatolia, probably from Acemhöyük
Culture: Old Assyrian Trading Colony
Medium: Ivory (Hippopotamus), gold foil
Dimensions: 5 3/16 × 1 5/8 × 1 7/8 in. (13.2 × 4.2 × 4.8 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of George D. Pratt, 1932
Accession Number: 32.161.46
Learn more about this artwork
Timeline of Art History
Chronology
Anatolia and the Caucasus, 2000-1000 B.C.
Museum Publications
One Met. Many Worlds.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 1, Egypt and the Ancient Near East
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Spanish)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Russian)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Portuguese)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Korean)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Japanese)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Italian)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (German)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (French)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Chinese)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide (Arabic)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Guide
Guide to The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Art of the Ancient Near East: A Resource for Educators
Related Artworks
- All Related Artworks
- Ancient Near Eastern Art
- Bone
- Furniture
- Gold
- Ivory
- Metal
- Sculpture
- From Anatolia
- From Asia
- From Turkey
- From 2000–1000 B.C.
Vessel terminating in the forepart of a stag
ca. 14th–13th century BCE
Furniture support: female sphinx with Hathor-style curls
ca. 18th century BCE
Furniture support: female sphinx with Hathor-style curls
ca. 18th century BCE
Furniture element
ca. 18th century BCE
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Ancient Near Eastern Art at The Met
Includes more than 7,000 works ranging in date from the eighth millennium B.C. through the centuries just beyond the time of the Arab conquests of the seventh century A.D.
