Krater

Cult vessel, very large, with the iconographic motifs in the form of medallions or rectangular reliefs applied using the Pergamene and Aretine technique of the end of the 1^st century BC-1^st century AD. It is decorated with vine branches with leaves and bunches of grapes, arranged in two registers. The technique is particular to the stucco decoration of the Claude period. On the neck, two medallions with jellyfish heads, and on the handles the image of Cybele. The dominant central representation is that of Dionysus. Local production.

Dimensions: height 54.2 cm; circumference 131.5 cm; diameter of the mouth 40.5 cm; diameter of the foot 15.5 cm.

Discovery location: Tomis (Constanța, Constanța County), during archaeological excavations in the Christian Basilica, in a secondary pit with material from the 1st century AD.

Collection of the National Museum of History and Archaeology in Constanța; Inv. no. 36.350.

Dating: probable 2^nd–3^rd centuries AD.

Bibliography: Maria Alexandrescu Vianu, Sur les mystères dionysiaques à Tomis. Dacia N.S. 51, 2007, p. 221-226; V. Rusu-Bolindeț, F. O. Botiș (eds.), The Supply of Ceramic Goods in Dacia and Moesia: Imports and Local Development. Exhibition Catalogue, Mega Publishing House, Cluj-Napoca, 2018, p. 224, no. 614.