ibex-bushel

  • Bushel with ibex motifs
  • Susa, modern day Iran
  • 4,200-3,500 BCE
  • painted terra cotta

Bushel with Ibex Motif

  • stylized synthesis of environment
  • depict a flock of aquatic birds and hunting dogs
  • comes from a second burial site
    • many similar bushels found
      • serve a funerary purpose
    • the foot of the Susa acropolis
    • Susa was an agricultural village that became a leading community

Formal Qualities

  • thin and delicate
  • schematic design
  • frieze of long-necked birds
  • elongation of the dogs
    • suggeset speed or movement
  • ground lines create image fields, the concept of enclosed space
  • meandering patterns in large panels
    • may symbolize the patterns of land
  • stylized goat with large horns
    • may contain a clan symbol