An Ancient Zebu Vessel Offers a Fascinating Window into the Past

This spouted vessel in the form of a zebu bull¹ is the first of its kind in our collection. It belongs to a group of pottery and ceramic objects labelled as “Amlash” after the market town on the Caspian coast they were allegedly smuggled through. Similar objects exist in collections around the world, though very few come from controlled excavations.

In the 1930s, Amlash objects flooded the international art market in response to a booming craze for these curious and appealing ceramics. Eventually, this haemorrhaging of material culture led to public outrage. This, combined with a growing national sentiment, sparked the Iranian government to initiate a systematic reconnaissance in 1961 with the aim of stopping the looting and determining the archeological provenance of these treasures. That same year, the elite burial ground of Marlik was officially excavated. Datable between 1200 and 800 BCE, the site yielded over 25,000 items, making it the largest assemblage in an Early Iron Age site ever discovered in western Asia. This substantial unearthing gave rise to a second wave of Marlik relics tumbling onto the market and finding their way into the hands of foreign collectors and museums. The zoomorphic shape of our spouted ceramic would have made it a candidate for translocation, and it likely came to Montreal between the 1930s and the 1960s.

Based on X-ray radiography conducted by the British Museum on this type of vessel, we can deduce that the cylindrical body of the Museum’s receptacle was hand-built from fine clay using a combination of slab and coil techniques and that the horns, hump, legs and spout were attached later. The even colour indicates that the firing in the kiln was highly controlled, confirming the technological advancement of the period.² The surface was intentionally burnished to attain a polished sheen. This, coupled with the particular choice of clay colours, suggests the potters’ desire to mimic bronze vessels.³ Indeed, these ceramic spouted forms could be “knock offs” of metal prototypes, reflecting a well-documented practice of competitive emulation by those who could not afford the metal version.

Several aspects of zebu vessels indicate they were used for ceremonial or ritual purposes. First and foremost is the fact they were found placed in large numbers in rows in elite burials at Marlik. Secondly, the majority of them are burnished and incised with simple geometric designs. This consistency in form among the extant examples suggests a prescribed mode of production following specific stylistic conventions, which is usually associated with ritual paraphernalia. The bull form is also significant – as in the rest of Asia, this animal was likely a major symbol of sustenance and fertility. It is unknown what these vessels once held, if anything, but one possible function could be ritual libation.