- Museum number
- 132114
- Description
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Large baggy alabastron of horizontal banded, translucent white and yellow-brown calcite: drilled interior; polished exterior; pair of handles on the shoulder; rounded base; small circular hole drilled off-centre through the base; vertical panel incised on the shoulder containing Egyptian hieroglyphs, with a cartouche at the top; three lines of lightly scratched cuneiform inscription above, on the top of the shoulder and immediately below the short neck; traces of white infilling in the inscriptions; restored from fragments, with two large areas of modern infill on the body and rim also partly made up.
- Production date
- 485BC-465BC
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 12.50 - 12.80 centimetres (rim, exterior)
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Diameter: 4 centimetres (approximate resting dimension of the base)
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Diameter: 17.50 centimetres (maximum, approximate)
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Diameter: 0.70 centimetres (of hole through the base)
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Diameter: 5.90 centimetres (rim, interior)
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Diameter: 12.80 centimetres (rim)
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Height: 1.20 centimetres (of cuneiform inscriptions)
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Height: 6.30 centimetres (of panel containing the hieroglyphs)
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Height: 28.50 centimetres
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Height: 28.80 centimetres
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Length: 7.50 centimetres (of cuneiform inscriptions)
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Width: 1.70 centimetres (of panel containing the hieroglyphs)
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Volume: 3500 millilitres (approximate filled capacity)
- $Inscriptions
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- Inscription subject
royal
- Curator's comments
- Described as follows in the 1884 'Guide to the Exhibition Galleries of the British Museum, Bloomsbury: "On Case T is placed an alabaster jar, found on the site of the Mausoleum, at Halikarnassos, near a great stone which probably closed the entrance to the sepulchral chamber. The jar is inscribed "Xerxes, the Great King," in the Persian, Median, Assyrian, and Egyptian languages". Previously mistakenly labelled as "Darius, Great King" in 1975 Iranian Room, hence followed in G49/IRAN and initially in G52/IRAN.
- Location
- On display (G35/dc3)
- Exhibition history
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2023 4 May - 13 Aug, London, BM, G35, Luxury and Power: Persia to Greece
2022-2023 13 Oct-19 Feb, London, BM,G30, Hieroglyphs: Unlocking Ancient Egypt
2022 6 Apr - 8 Aug, Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum, The Classical World in Context: Persia
2013 22 Mar-3 Nov, Lokschuppen Rosenheim, Alexander the Great
2006 7 Mar-11 Jun, Barcelona, Fundacion La Caixa, 'L'imperi Oblidat'
2005-2006 Sept-Jan, BM, 'Forgotten Empire'
2004- Sep/Oct-, BM, G15/3, 'Greece and Lycia' case display
1999 BM, 'Cracking Codes'
1995-2004 17 Nov-22 Sept, BM, G52/IRAN/8, from official opening
1994 16 Jun-23 Dec, BM, G49/IRAN/8
1975-1990 Jul-end, BM, Iranian Room [IR] case 11/38
1971 BM, 'Royal Persia: a commemoration of Cyrus the Great and his successors on the occasion of the 2500th anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire'
Iranian Room [IR]
1958 - Persian Landing [PL], from.
1931 Jan-May BM, 'Persian Art', Oriental section of Prints & Drawings gallery (referred to in 'BMQ' vol. V/4, 1931, p.126).
1884 - Second Bronze Room, case T.
- Condition
- Restored from fragments, with two large areas of modern infill on the body and rim also partly made up; traces of modern white infilling of the inscription.
- Acquisition date
- 1857
- Department
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- 132114
- Registration number
- 1857,1220.1
- Additional IDs
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Miscellaneous number: 416 (paper label attached to base, now removed)
