Description:
Rhyton (drinking horn) with goat head terminal. A thick-walled coarsely built vessel that flares outward slightly at the plain rim. The terminal narrows and curves forward ending in a simplified goat's head with a flat round muzzle pierced for pouring. The small circular eyes are deeply incised; shallow impressed lines on the sides of the head provide further articulation. Flat smooth horns arch from the back of the animal's head to the vessel, and small applied arcs at the base of the horns indicate ears.
Label Text:
Installed in Art Before 700 CE, Spring 2025 Label Text:
Pastoralism in Iran and Central Asia
The migrations of pastoralist peoples facilitated some of the earliest exchanges of culture and material across the Eurasian continent. Nomadic herders interacted with local farming populations to form Bronze Age societies across the Mediterranean, Near East, Iran, Central Asia, India, and China. In this case, images of wild and domesticated animals, ornaments associated with horseback-riding, and the animal-head drinking cup all point to the interconnectedness of humans and animals in herder and farmer cultures in Central Asia and Iran. In the case to the right of this one, you will see chariots and horses represented on Han Chinese artworks and these tell a similar story of cultural interaction and appropriation. These objects collectively speak to how important the interplay between nomadic and settled peoples was to patterns of contact and exchange in early Eurasia.
– Richard Lim, Professor of History, Smith College
[Displayed with 1931.2.A(c).I, 1931.1.A(c).I, 2012.40.11, 1973.4.1-.9.A(c).I, and 2021.5.11]
Tags:
ancient; archaeology; pottery; vessels; containers Subjects:
Pottery; archaeological objects; Civilization, Ancient; Containers Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=MH+2012.40.12 |
