Collection record · Objects & craft
Woman and Water Buffalo Rhyton
The collection record classifies this work as metalwork. It is dated 500–700. Recorded culture or place: Sasanian, Iran, 600s or Turk Shahi dynasty, Kabul, Afghanistan, 500s.
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A closer look at the details.
- Museum title
- Woman and Water Buffalo Rhyton
- Date
- 500–700
- Culture / origin
- Sasanian, Iran, 600s or Turk Shahi dynasty, Kabul, Afghanistan, 500s
- Materials and technique
- silver, with mercury gilding and glass inlays
- Dimensions
- Overall: 19.1 cm (7 1/2 in.)
- Artist / maker
- Not specified by the museum
- Museum
- The Cleveland Museum of Art
- Accession number
- 1964.96
FROM THE MUSEUM
In the museum’s words
The following description is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art’s original English record.
Recalling both Greek and Iranian traditions of head vases and rhyta (drinking horns), this unusual silver vessel combines the heads of a woman and a water buffalo. A filling hole on top and a pouring or drinking spout in front make clear its function. An inscription in Middle Persian on its back records its weight: probably 50 staters and three drachmae (close to its current weight of just over 700 grams, or about 1-1/2 pounds). The woman’s flat brow, straight nose, and widely set, heavy-lidded eyes—along with the sectarian mark in gold on her forehead—relate to art of the Indus River Valley and Hindu Kush regions of today’s Pakistan and Afghanistan. While we do not know for sure, numerous scholars have suggested that she may depict the Indian warrior goddess Durga, slayer of the buffalo demon.
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Text and image sources
The Cleveland Museum of Art · Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund · CC0
The summary is based on public collection data. Refer to the museum’s latest record for the title, date and attribution.
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