# Handle in the Form of an Animal Head

- By: Japan
- Date: c. 1000–300 B.C.
- Medium: Earthenware
- Classification: Sculpture
- Dimensions: H.: 12 cm (5 in.)
- Culture: Japan
- Credit line: Purchased with Funds Provided by the Weston Foundation; President's Exhibition and Acquisition Fund
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/200699)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/0c6fdaa5-0a45-208f-8bf1-50f0cb9d83dd/full/!1286,1019/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Only a handful of animals are represented in Jômon art. This piece is in the shape of the head of an animal; it looks like a horse from one side and a sheep from the other. The walls of the indentations are carefully modeled, not simply pressed into the clay with a stick. Judging by the curved back surface, it seems likely that this head came off of a vessel and was perhaps a handle that sat on the rim (with the curved surface at the back forming part of the interior wall of a jar).

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0