box
- Museum number
- 118582
- Description
-
Rectangular double compartmented box with matching lid; carved from a single piece of dark grey shale; perforated along each side in order to secure the lid, with an additional circular hole through the centre of the lid.
- Production date
- 2000BC-1750BC
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 0.80 centimetres (perforations)
-
Height: 6.60 centimetres (box)
-
Length: 19.60 centimetres
-
Width: 12.70 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Lidded compartmented stone boxes have been excavated in late third millennium BC graves at Shahdad in eastern Iran, where locally made pottery versions are also attested. More elaborate circular chlorite boxes, also originally lidded, were also made in that region and occasionally exported in antiquity to Mesopotamia. It is not clear whether the holes on this example are original or whether they relate to a secondary use.
- Location
- On display (G56/dc24)
- Acquisition date
- 1927
- Department
- Middle East
- BM/Big number
- 118582
- Registration number
- 1927,0527.55
- Additional IDs
-
Excavation/small finds number: U.6786 (excavation number)