Bitumen material was utilised by Ancient Susian civilisation since the prehistoric period, marking it a distinctive character of Susian artefacts. The bitumen compound was first employed by the ancestral inhabitants of Susa as a imitation of exotic black stones, with a strong aesthetic impact on styling stone into various shapes of delicate, votive vases decorated with figural and zoomorphic ornaments. On this vase, each figure’s clearly carved silhouette and muscular details meet the typical representations of bull-men and roaring beasts in the conventional Akkadian practices. On traditional Mesopotamian cylinder seals, images depicting a bull-man or a nude hero confronting rampant, roaring beats are considered to embrace a profound cultural significance, representing the presence and worship of the deified, Akkadian mythological hero, Gilgamesh, about whom legendary literature was first written in Akkadian during the late 2nd millennium BC. Given the strong visual resemblances, presented by the figural expression and the vase’s shape, between this vase and those Early Dynastic Mesopotamian votive vessels, this cup might have been manufactured in Susa, during the chronological range of circa 2900-2350, within which cultural exchange between Mesopotamia and Iran reached its peak.
