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Image Not Available for Beads made from precious stones
Beads made from precious stones
Image Not Available for Beads made from precious stones

Beads made from precious stones

Object PlaceRayy, Iran
Medium/TechniquePrecious stone (non-specific)
Credit LineUniversity Museum—M. F. A. Persian Expedition
Accession number39.414
On View
Not on view
ClassificationsJewelry / Adornment
Description
Located near Tehran, the capital of Iran, the city of Rayy was inhabited nearly continuously from the third millennium B.C.E. From the seventh through the sixteenth centuries, Rayy was an important political, scholarly, and artistic center of the early and medieval Islamic empires that ruled in the region. The city's strategic location also made it a nexus for trade. While the medieval city is no longer extant, Rayy's material culture illustrates the city's position as an economic, scientific, and literary cross-roads. 
Provenance1936, excavated at Rayy (Chal Turkhan, in present-day Iran), by the University Museum-M.F.A. Persian Expedition; 1939, assigned to the MFA as part of the division of excavated objects. (Accession Date: January 12, 1939)