Stucco window roundel from Ctesiphon

What you see

What you see

A wheel-shaped round window of stucco, recorded as "24 1/2 in., 80 lb. (62.2 cm)". It is decorated on only one side, with palmettes forming spokes that connect an inner and an outer ring of beads. This page has no photograph: the museum has a photograph of the window, which the record marks as public domain, and it is not included in this round. Source 1.

What the record says

The record dates the window "ca. 6th century CE", gives the period and the culture as "Sasanian", and in the geography field "Mesopotamia, Ctesiphon". According to the description, Ctesiphon lay on the east bank of the Tigris, 32 km south of modern Baghdad, and flourished for more than 800 years as the capital of the Parthians and the Sasanians. The six houses excavated at the mounds of el Ma'aridh follow, per the record, typical Sasanian design; Ma'aridh II is a large house whose excavated portion covers more than 1,800 square metres and represents an elite household, and its western rooms were decorated with pillars, a double horseshoe archway and stucco reliefs. When the window was excavated it was in pieces, "indicating that it fell from a height". Source 1.

What can be inferred

Two conclusions in the record are worded with different caution. Based on round windows found at contemporary monuments in Syria, the decorated side "may have faced outward": a suggestion. By contrast, the record states without qualification that the occurrence of such windows at Ctesiphon "provides evidence" of the exchange of artistic ideas between Mesopotamia and the eastern Mediterranean. The record does not say when the window was excavated: it mentions a German Oriental Society expedition in 1928-29 and a joint expedition of the Met and the Staatliche Museen, Berlin, for one season in 1931-32, but does not tie the window to either. Source 1.

Placement on the timeline

The record names the period, "Sasanian", and "6th century CE" lies entirely within the site's Sasanian period in Mesopotamia, 224-636/37 CE according to the Met's timeline; the window is therefore assigned to it by the period name in the source. The numeric date fields in the record's data both carry the value 6, which does not match the wording "6th century"; the site renders the wording as the years 501-600 for ordering only. Sources 1, 2.

Where it is now

Held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, record 32.150.1, "Rogers Fund, 1932". On 24 October 2026 the record page stated "Not on view". Source 1.