容器的牛头形喷口 - 美国大都会艺术博物馆展品查阅

品名（中）	容器的牛头形喷口
品名（英）	Bull head-shaped spout of vessel
入馆年号	1949年，49.134.2
策展部门	古代近东艺术（Ancient Near Eastern Art）
创作者
创作年份	公元前 2000 - 公元前 1750
创作地区
分类
尺寸	3 3/4 × 2 11/16 × 2 1/16 英寸 (9.6 × 6.9 × 5.2 厘米)
介绍（中）	这个物体是一个喷口，可能来自一个牛头形状的容器。公牛脸上的肌肉组织和鼻孔被精心建模，而前额和鼻子上的头发则用切割的十字线和卷发渲染。原来镶嵌的眼睛现在不见了，角也不见了。喷口由沥青制成，沥青是一种天然存在于近东的类似沥青的物质。它与磨碎的方解石和石英混合，形成一种坚硬的灰色物质，形状像粘土沥青器皿在古代近东的许多地方都有制造，尤其是在伊朗西南部的苏萨，古代伊兰王国的首都。从公元前三千年开始，埃兰人开发了一种特别复杂的沥青混合物配方，他们用它来制作一系列器皿，大多数器皿都装饰着动物的前肢和其他物品，这种做法一直持续到公元前一千年关于所描绘的动物是驯养的公牛还是野生野牛，还有一些问题。前者更有可能，因为野牛从未原产于近东，尽管这件物品的制作者可能希望描绘一些异国情调的东西。
介绍（英）	This object is a spout, probably from a vessel, in the shape of a bull’s head. The musculature and nostrils on the bull’s face are carefully modeled, while the hair on the forehead and snout are rendered with incised crosshatching and curlicues. The eyes, originally inlaid, are now missing, as are the horns. The spout is made of bitumen, an asphalt-like substance that occurs naturally in the Near East. Mixed with ground calcite and quartz it forms a hard, gray substance which can be shaped like clay. Bitumen vessels were made in many places in the ancient Near East, especially in Susa in southwestern Iran, the capital of the ancient Elamite kingdom. Beginning in the third millennium BCE the Elamites developed an especially sophisticated recipe for bitumen compound, which they used to make a range of vessels, most decorated with animal foreparts, as well as other objects, a practice which continued into the first millennium BCE. There is some question as to whether the animal depicted is a domesticated bull or a wild bison. The former is more likely, as bison were never native to the Near East, though it is possible the maker of this object wished to depict something exotic.