Twelve-sided bowl
about 1200
Object PlaceRayy, Iran
Medium/TechniqueFritware (stonepaste), white slip with lustre painted under transparent glaze
DimensionsHeight x diameter: 9.7 × 15.2 cm (3 13/16 × 6 in.)
Credit LineUniversity Museum—M. F. A. Persian Expedition
Accession number39.467
On View
Not on viewClassificationsCeramics
Collections
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)
late 13th–early 14th century
13th century
17th–18th century
late 19th–early 20th century
late 18th–19th century
13th century
16th–17th century