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Pitcher
Object Place: Rayy, Iran
Medium/Technique
Unglazed ceramic (earthenware)
Dimensions
Height x diameter: 12.2 × 6.5 cm (4 13/16 × 2 9/16 in.)
Credit Line
University Museum—M. F. A. Persian Expedition
Accession Number35.799
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsAsia, Islamic Art
ClassificationsCeramics
Located near Tehran, the capital of Iran, the city of Rayy was inhabited nearly continuously from the third millennium B.C.E. From the seventh through the sixteenth centuries, Rayy was an important political, scholarly, and artistic center of the early and medieval Islamic empires that ruled in the region. The city's strategic location also made it a nexus for trade. While the medieval city is no longer extant, Rayy's material culture illustrates the city's position as an economic, scientific, and literary cross-roads.
DescriptionSmall ring base, convex body, corrugated neck and ornamented grooves on neck and shoulder, pinched loop, gray-brown buff clay, part of rim missed, body restored.
Provenance1934, excavated at Rayy (Cheshmeh Ali Tepe, in present-day Iran), by the University Museum-M.F.A. Persian Expedition; 1935, assigned to the MFA as part of the division of excavated objects. (Accession Date: June 6, 1935)