20 - Anthropomorphic vase. Hittite culture, c. 1000 B.C.

Anthropomorphic vase. Hittite culture, c. 1000 B.C. Measurements: 7 cm tall; 8 cm with base. Provenance: Family bequest from Ramon Martí Alsina and Ricard Martí Aguiló. Archaeological collection assembled beginning in the 1950s by successive generations of the family through acquisitions at European galleries and auction houses. This piece previously belonged to the Alemana private collection, acquired between 1970 and 1990, and later to the Oss private collection. Cylindrical flask with anthropomorphic decoration. It features a fluted molding at the base, and the anthropomorphic decoration rises in relief, with a stylized silhouette on both the body and the head. Between the 16th and 15th centuries B.C., the Hittites constituted one of the three most important states in the Near East, having in fact already shared hegemony over the Eastern world with Egypt as early as the 13th century. Theirs was a highly original civilization that reached its zenith during the imperial period, when monumental sculpture and architecture flourished. Furthermore, they produced the finest military architecture in the East, including cyclopean walls of great technical complexity.