Cleveland Museum of Art

Bull Head Attachment

Date

c. 700–600 BCE

Medium

bronze

Culture

Urartian, northwest Iran, possibly Gusçi, Lake Urmia

Department

Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

The kingdom of Urartu was contemporary with the Assyrian civilization. The Urartians produced elaborate bronze objects and probably passed on many of their metalwork traditions to the Achaemenian Persians. This bull head was probably one of four placed at cardinal points around the rim of a huge Urartian bronze cauldron. Bulls were symbols of power and fertility in many ancient cultures. This bronze bull's head was made in the kingdom of Urartu, which was located in what is Iran today, and was likely attached to the rim of a giant cauldron or cooking pot.

The authoritative record is held by Cleveland Museum of Art. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.