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IRANIAN ART 

A GOBLET FROM SUSA

Goblet from Susa I
    Susa: archaic necropolis
    Around 4000 BCE
    Terracotta
    H 0.285 m; L 0.160 m
    Sb 3174

The painted vases left in the tombs of the first Susians illustrate, on the eve of its extinction, the highest point in the neolithic tradition of the mountain people who came down to the plain. The forms are simple and harmonious and the decoration boldly stylized. At the top is a frieze showing wader birds elongated vertically; below, racing dogs elongated horizontally while below them is a large ibex, geometrical in design, whose vast horns describe an almost perfect oval. This stylization is misleadingly reminiscent of pictographic sign language; it has, in fact, a purely decorative function, as its diversity from one vase to another indicates. Along with these vases, the dead were given access to other objects, such as copper axes, imported from central Iran.

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