Decorative inlay with female flute player wearing a cylinder seal pendant on her wrist. Sumerian, Nippur, ca. 2600-2500 BC [Early Dynastic IIIa]. Shell with incised decoration. Loaned to the Morgan Library & Museum from the Metropolitan Museum of Art [3000×4000] [OC]

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/325451

[display description, Morgan Library & Museum loan](https://i.ibb.co/5g5Q0K34/20221223-180441-ed.jpg)

[WOMEN OF PROMINENCE

47 Inlay with female figure playing flute and wearing cylinder seal

Mesopotamia, Sumerian, Nippur (modern Nuffar), Inanna Temple, level VIIB

Early Dynastic Illa period (2600-2450 BC)

Shell

Once part of a larger scene, this decorative inlay in the shape of a woman performing music was cut from a piece of shell. Incised lines on its surface reveal her face, wide-eyed with a prominent brow, and her hair, in an elaborate coiffure with distinguishable curls and interlaced ribbons. She wears a beaded necklace and a bracelet from which dangles a cylinder seal. Her long, delicate fingers clasp a flute, which she appears to play with ease. The two incised lines extending down from her neck hint at the fabric that drapes her arm.

THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK, ROGERS FUND, 1962; EXCAVATED 1960/61; 62.70.46]