What an exciting opportunity! Any museum would do well to add this to their display inventory as one of the finest examples of carved stone vessels available anywhere. This stone bowl dates to approximately 2000 BC. To find a stone vessel in this condition after 4000+ years is VERY exciting.
This piece is from the region of Mesopotamia.
The bowl measures 51 mm tall and 128 mm in diameter.
A crisply-carved bowl made from green chlorite, a material used very extensively during the Ur III period throughout ancient Iraq, Iran and Turkey. Though the fabric of this stone is harder than serpentine and steatite on Moh's Scale, this material is resilient, though it was used mostly as a votive type.
An excellent example in pristine condition.
This piece is most likely classified as Sumerian, though Mesopotamian, or, West-Asian for it's origin is a more conservative classification of it's origin.
From an old Belgian collection.
Provenance provided to purchaser.
