The ‘token’ (the term is chosen solely because of its shape, with no reference to its ancient use, which is currently unknown) is carved from a small lapis lazuli pebble of a beautiful azure blue, veined with grey in places.
This vessel, the size of which makes it one of the largest examples currently known, attracts the eye of the modern viewer with its formal and decorative simplicity. It belongs to a group of well-attested ceramics in the so-called Chalcolithic period (the period that precedes the widespread use of metals, particularly copper and, later, bronze), on the sites of modern-day northern Iran.
This object, whose shape recalls a chalice, was carved from a monolith of calcite (alabaster) that is similar in color and appearance to the stone commonly used by Egyptian sculptors for luxury tableware in the late 4th millennium B.C. already.
