Wheeled Ram-Headed Vessel
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Object Label
Although both queens and goddesses were often represented in the Ptolemaic Period with elaborate headdresses consisting of a vulture surmounted by cow's horns and a sun disk, the smaller of these two females is clearly labeled as the goddess Isis by a hieroglyph above the orb of the sun. The identity of the woman on the larger fragment is uncertain. Both works feature the style characteristic of Ptolemaic art: fleshy cheeks and especially the bullet-shaped breast and luxuriant belly and thighs on the smaller piece. Although the latter work may have been a sculptor's trial piece, as suggested by the grid pattern on the rectangle at the upper right, the hole at the top indicates that it may have been reused as a temple offering.
Caption
Mesopotamian. Wheeled Ram-Headed Vessel, second half 3rd millenium B.C.E.. Terracotta, 9 x 4 x 9 in. (22.9 x 10.2 x 22.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchased with funds given by Shelby White, 87.77. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 87.77_threequarter_right_PS2.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Gallery
Not on view
Culture
Title
Wheeled Ram-Headed Vessel
Date
second half 3rd millenium B.C.E.
Period
Early Dynastic III Period, or later
Geography
Possible place made: Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq, Turkey, & Syria)
Medium
Terracotta
Classification
Dimensions
9 x 4 x 9 in. (22.9 x 10.2 x 22.9 cm)
Credit Line
Purchased with funds given by Shelby White
Accession Number
87.77
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
Frequent Art Questions
How old is this? Has this actual piece been restored?
This is from the late 3rd millenium BCE or over 4000 years ago. The wooden axels have been restored, but the terracotta is original! Animal shaped vessels were popular in numerous ancient cultures for various purposes. This ram-cart shape was used by Sumerian people when the 3rd Dynasty ruler from Ur in Lower Mesopotamia. It likely had a funerary or ritual purpose.How was this used?
This vessel from ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) would have held some form of liquid, either wine or water and used for a ritual purpose. You'd pour the liquid from the top of the head and once the vessel filled up, the over flow would pour out of the snout.
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