Bull's Head from the Top of a Column in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, February 2008

Bull's Head from the Top of a Column
Limestone
Southwestern Iran, excavated at Istakhr, near Persepolis
Achaemenid period, 5th century BC

Accession # 47.100.83

The ceilings of porticoes and halls of major buildings at Persepolis were sustained by slender, fluted columns, 60 feet high, topped by a variety of monumental capitals, carefully carved in stone. The sculptures consisted of addorsed foreparts of such creatures as bulls, griffins, lions, and human-headed bulls, forming a support for the wooden beams they held. This type of architectural decoration appears to be an Achaemenid creation.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.