This vase now on exhibit in the British Museum was illicitly dug from Khafajah and sold on the antiquities market. Delougaz dated it to the very end of the Early Dynastic II period.
Reportedly discovered near the Sin Temple at Khafajah, this famous vase was purchased by the British Museum from a dealer in Baghdad. In contrast to the dark plum and red polychrome pottery of the Jemdet Nasr period, it was painted with bright red and black. Known as “Scarlet Ware,” vases of this type have been found in Iran and in the Diyala. The earliest examples at Tell Asmar came from Archaic Shrine I which Delougaz dated to the Jemdet Nasr period. The Scarlet Ware from these levels was thought to be a transitional form that evolved from the polychrome pottery of the Jemdet Nasr period. Many more Scarlet Ware vases were found in the Archaic Shrines II and III.1Delougaz 1952, 63-64 As you may recall, the Square Temple, beneath which the cache of Tell Asmar statues were found, overlies the Archaic Shrine. Thus the Scarlet Ware vases may slightly predate the Tell Asmar Statues. It is also possible that the Tell Asmar statues date to the period of the Archaic Shrine and that they were ritually buried during one of the renovations of the Square Temple. In which case the Tell Asmar statues and Scarlet Ware are roughly contemporary.
A cross section showing the strata of the Abu Temple at Tell Asmar. Scarlet Ware was found in the levels associated with the Archaic Shrine.
Undoubtedly the most impressive example of Scarlet Ware is a vase discovered at Khafajah. The vase was dug illicitly and thus its exact findspot is unknown. It is now on display in the British Museum.
The panels are divided into horizontal registers typical for Sumerian art. The exception is the panel containing the chariot scene, which occupies the full height of the vase. Many of the scenes show birds perched on the backs of animals (and even on the chariot)—a typically Elamite motif.
Men are shown playing a large harp shaped like a bull. Their triangular upper body is reminiscent of the Tell Asmar statues.
Men are shown beating what, according to Delougaz’s reconstruction, appears to be a large round drum. A man is seated next to them holding what may be another instrument. A boar stands to one side with two birds perched on its back. The significance of the animals shown here is unknown.
The top panel shows two individuals drinking beer through straws from a single pot. The lower panel shows a man striking a “master of beasts” pose, with a goat or gazelle grasped in each hand.
The most remarkable scene from the vase, it shows a man riding a chariot drawn by what appears to be four horses, or onagers (“wild” asses, we will come back to the question of their identity shortly). This is one of the earliest known depictions of a chariot, although it probably does not predate the Standard of Ur by any great length time if (we will look at the latter object shortly).2Delougaz thought this vase probably dates to the very end of the Early Dynastic II period. The chariot, in this instance, appears to be of the two-wheeled variety (the wheels are shown frontal rather than perspectival). The colt trailing behind the chariot team not only serves to fill the empty space but provides insight into how these animals were trained.
Delougaz, Pinhas , Seton Lloyd, Henri Frankfort, Thorkild Jacobsen.
Pre-Sargonid Temples of the Diyala Region. OIP 58 vols.
Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1942. Link
Delougaz, Pinhas.
Pottery from the Diyala Region. OIP Vol. LXIII vols.
Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1952.
Frankfort, H.
The Art and Architecture of the Ancient Orient.
Harmondsworth, Middlesex : Penguin Books, 1954.