Jar with Four Ibex (c. 2800–2500 BCE): Art, History and Details

Jar with Four Ibex (c. 2800–2500 BCE) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Large numbers of ceramic vessels decorated with black slip have been found among the sophisticated urban settlements of South Asia's protohistoric Indus Valley civilization. The walls of this jar are so thin that it must have been created on a potter's wheel.The four male ibex have two curving horns of exaggerated length, and three hairs under the chin.

Object facts

• Title: Jar with Four Ibex
• Date: c. 2800–2500 BCE
• Culture: Pakistan, probably Quetta, Indus Valley Civilization
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: ceramic with black slip
• Dimensions: Overall: 12.2 x 23 cm (4 13/16 x 9 1/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art - Pakistan
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2001.1

A detail from the museum

The long-horned ibex is at home in the Himalaya mountains, the source of the Indus River.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Recent Acquisitions Press Release,” April 4, 2001, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Czuma, Stanislaw. “Two Vessels from Ancient India,” The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine (December 2001): 6-7
• “Art of Asia Acquired by North American Museums, 2000-2001.” Archives of Asian Art, vol. 53, 2002, pp. 111–125.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.