Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Tile with Deer
North African (Carthage, Tunisia)
Not on view
Relief-molded terracotta tiles are specific to Tunisia, where they served as ceiling and wall decoration in Christian basilicas in the Vandal (5th century) and Byzantine periods (6th–7th century). More than five thousand examples have been found across ninety archaeological sites in Tunisia. Square or rectangular in shape, architectural decorations like this one were standardized in terms of their dimensions and limited decorative repertoire, which consisted of lions, deer, and vegetal and geometric motifs. It is likely that these tiles incorporated styles and techniques borrowed from Amazigh (Berber) visual culture.
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