Image Details

Louvre Museum

Long-necked birds, slender running dogs and ibexes with curving horns grace this spectacular beaker from the Elamite city of Susa, east of southern Mesopotamia. Dating around 4000 B.C., the beaker was found in a cemetery in Susa’s acropolis along with such other burial goods as copper axes. A little over 11 inches high, this beaker, now in the Louvre Museum, was probably too fragile actually to be used as a drinking vessel. It was likely created as a decorative object, perhaps specifically as a funerary offering.