Middle Eastern carved stone bowl & lid, with ibexes, cheetahs, 2000 BC-2500 BC. Height with a lid: 6.5 inches = 160 mm = 16 cm; Height of the bowl without lid; 52 mm = 5.2 cm; Diameter of the bowl; 115 mm = 11.5 cm; Diameter of the lid: 97 mm = 9.7 cm; Weight of the bowl: 12 oz. = 340 g; Weight of the lid: 14.5 oz. = 410 g; Weight of the lid and bowl: 1 lb. 10.5 oz. = 749 g; Condition: great for the age of 4500 years, repaired chip at the rim of the bowl 4.5 cm long. Mohs, hardness: 2.5-3.0 (average range for chlorite stones 2.0-3.0); Decorations on the bowl: Bowl: Two ibexes, cheetah, hybrid figure of cheetah with human head. Cover lower level: two ibexes and two cheetahs; Cover upper level: two ibexes and one cheetah; Top of the cover: three ibex heads; Middle Eastern iconography & cosmogony: The striking thing in the Middle Eastern iconography and cosmogony is the total absence of a reference to a concept of the divine. Hybrid figures mastering animals exist in the ancient Neolithic tradition, and are still evidenced at the turn of the 5th to the 4th millennium in Susiana, etc. This heroic image of man stems from a profoundly human urge to dominate and transcend. The “master of animals” has never been worshiped and cannot be considered as a god. Whereas, Mesopotamian glyptic art swarms with “deities” and characters engaged in cult-related hunting or war scenes, similar scenes are unknown at this culture. Whereas Mesopotamian, Sumerian, or Semitic cosmogony separates reality from a mysterious world inhabited by supernatural transcendent powers whose favor must be gained, Iranian cosmogony is sober and differently oriented. Two opposing principles arise from the Middle Eastern imagery: one is negative, with the scorpion and the snake, symbols of suffering and death; the other is positive, with the cheetah and the eagle engaged on the side of man against the reptile.