A carved chlorite jar of elegant tapering form widening to a flat base and flared rim, carved in relief with three friezes of birds with hooked beaks, each flying with wings outstretched, with recesses for additional decorative inlays (some absent); larger recesses in the field for duck inlays (two remaining).

PROVENANCE:
Private collection, London, UK; formerly with Christie's, South Kensington, 13 May 2003, lot 12; from an important family collection formed 1970s-1980s

FOOTNOTES:
Vessels made from steatite or chlorite have frequently been found at early to mid-third millennium BC sites in Mesopotamia, Iran, and along the southern shore of the Persian Gulf. On the island of Sarut, in the Gulf, sites have been discovered where large quantities of the raw material, unfinished and completed vessels, which would indicate that this was the centre of manufacture and from where they would eventually be disseminated through international trade.

Motifs on these vessels vary from scenes of animals, mythological creatures and deities, to representations of textiles and wool - important commodities to the emerging Empires at the time. Important animals, apart from sheep and goats, were bulls who were associated with important deities associated with rain and fertility. The nature of the representations would suggest that these vessels were used in religious ceremonies.