Two Ancient Silver Vessels

During the ages man has invented and used many forms of vessels to drink out of and many others to fill them with. Some have been simple, some elaborate, some practical, and others more for show than for use. Of these numerous forms one that has proved to be extremely popular at certain periods ends in an animal's head. Its use was widespread and was not peculiar to any one race or area, and the animal elected to fill the decorative role has not always been the same. Sometimes the head was human, but the heads of horses, lions, bulls, deer, rams, and camels were also used, to say nothing of mythological creatures. During the past few years two striking vessels of this type have been added to the collections of antiquities of western Asia in the United States: one now in the University Museum in Philadelphia and the other in the Metropolitan Museum. Both are of silver and are in the form of rams' heads. They came from Persian Kurdistan in the northwest of Persia, a region that was once inhabited by the Minni, as the people were called by Jeremiah, who mentions them in the invocation against Babylon. "Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz .... Prepare against her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion." The land of the Minni, or Manneans, was very awkwardly placed politically; it had on its borders Assyria and Urartu (Armenia), two very powerful neighbors antagonistic to each other, both of whom used it as a puppet kingdom. Furthermore, the Medes were to the East, a nation that eventually swallowed it up, and the Ashchenaz (Scythians), who had swept over so much of western Asia, did not leave it untouched. These influences are quite clearly reflected in the art of the country, although they have only been recognized during the past decade. Interest was concentrated on Mannean art