- Title: Stone bowl
- Date Created: -2600/-2400
- Physical Dimensions: Height: 10.90-11.20cm; Diameter: 17.80cm (rim, exterior); Diameter: 17.00cm (rim, interior); Volume: 2100.00ml
- External Link: British Museum collection online
- Technique: carved; plaited
- Subject: mammal; arachnid; reptile; bird
- Registration number: 1936,1217.2
- Production place: Made in Iran, East
- Place: Excavated/Findspot Khafajeh
- Period/culture: Bronze Age
- Material: chlorite
- Copyright: Photo: © Trustees of the British Museum
- Acquisition: Purchased from de Sousa Barbosa, Luiz. With contribution from Art Fund
Source of information: https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/stone-bowl/-AFn9_QiFZ-JHA
The Stone Bowl shares some similar characteristics with the Pasupati seal. Pasupati seal’s central figure is a male figure, the king of the beasts, and this form of animal worship can be seen on the Stone Bowl as well.
The male figure on the bowl is located at the center and is surrounded by animals such as cattle and snakes. This is one of the similarities between the patterns on the bowl and the Pasupati seal.
Carving patterns on stone is an ancient and delicate technique, I’m impressed by the details of the animals and the man’s gestures.
I just read that a Pasupathi seal is a 3-faced deity wearing a buffalo-horned head dressed and seated cross-legged on a throne surrounded by a rhinoceros, buffalo, tiger, elephant, and two deer at his feet. Also, the seal shows that maybe the people of the Indus Valley Civilization assumed Lord Shiva.