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Sasanian Silverware Craft

Type Object Region Persia Time c. 400–651

Sasanian silverware, made with techniques such as hammering, engraving, and gilding, includes plates, bowls, ewers, and incense burners, often bearin…

Timeline

  1. c. 400–500Ctesiphon · MesopotamiaThe Sasanian court established silverware workshops, where artisans used hammering techniques to create reliefs of royal hunts and celebratory banquets on silver plate surfaces; the bases of vessels were often incised with the maker's signature and weight marks.
  2. c. 500–600Silk Road · West AsiaSilverware dispersed to Byzantium, Central Asia, and even China as diplomatic gifts and trade goods; Sasanian-style silver plates unearthed in various regions stand as material testimony to Eurasian material culture exchange.
  3. c. 600–651Iranian Plateau · Iranian PlateauAfter the fall of the Sasanian Empire, the silverware workshop tradition was absorbed by early Islamic metalwork; hunting motifs and circular compositions influenced the metalwork art of the Abbasid dynasty and later Iran.

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