TEHRAN - A seemingly unremarkable clay fragment, housed for decades in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collections, has been identified as a landmark archaeological discovery. New research confirms the artifact is one of the oldest known depictions of a tiger, reshaping the history of the animal’s role in Iranian art and culture.

Published by Henry P. Colburn in the journal Anthropozoologica, the study focuses on a Chalcolithic-era figurine (c. 3500-3100 BCE) excavated in 1960 at Yarim Tepe, Iran. Crafted from a distinctive “Caspian Black-on-Red Ware” ceramic, the object portrays a striped feline that Colburn identifies as a tiger—pushing back the evidence for tiger imagery in Iran by over four millennia.

"For the Romans, the 'Hyrcanian tiger' symbolized exotic Eastern ferocity, yet we lacked proof that communities within Hyrcania itself—modern Golestan province—represented them this early," said Colburn. "This figurine reveals the deep, local origins of the tiger’s symbolic power."

The figurine, acquired by the Met in 1963, measures just over 8 cm and preserves the animal's chest, neck, and partial head. Carefully painted stripes curve along its body—a deliberate feature central to its identification.

Previously, tigers were thought to have entered Iranian iconography through foreign influence. They appear much later, during the Sasanian Empire (c. 224–651 CE), embellishing royal silverware in hunting scenes that displayed the king’s dominance over nature. Scholars long believed these images were imports from Central Asia, where tiger depictions have ancient roots.

“Lions dominated Iranian art because they inhabited the plateau; tigers did not,” explained Colburn. “Sasanian tigers were thus seen as artistic borrowings, not native motifs.”

The Yarim Tepe figurinе overturns this view. The Caspian tiger (Panthera tigris virgata), now extinct, once roamed the Hyrcanian forests where Yarim Tepe is located. The people there lived alongside these apex predators.

Dating the object was achieved through ceramic analysis. The “Caspian Black-on-Red Ware” style is well-documented across northeastern Iranian sites like Tureng Tepe and Tepe Hissar, providing a firm date around the fourth millennium BCE.

Though its original use remains unknown, Colburn suggests it may have served as a marker of regional identity—distinguishing northern communities who knew tigers from southern cultures who did not. Its handheld size might have allowed safe, intimate engagement with the predator’s image, possibly for instruction or storytelling. Even its medium—common pottery clay—may have evoked wonder by transforming everyday material into a powerful symbol.

“This object stands at the head of a long artistic lineage,” Colburn concluded. “It shows that a cultural relationship with the tiger existed in Iran millennia earlier than previously believed.”

The discovery gains further support from archaeological finds in neighboring regions. Fereidoun Biglari, an archaeologist at the National Museum of Iran, called the figurine “important indirect proof of the tiger’s presence during late prehistory.” He noted that recent excavations at Ilgynly-Depe in Southeastern Turkmenistan uncovered tiger bones from the same period, one bearing cut marks from skinning—the first concrete evidence of tiger hunting in the region during the Chalcolithic era.

“Together,” Biglari added, “the clay tiger from Iran and the physical remains from Turkmenistan show that humans and Caspian tigers have shared a complex history in this part of the world at least for over 5,000 years.”

AM