
Terracotta strainer jug
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Jug with handle and spout. A similar vessel, dated to the early Flavianic period (A.D. 69–79), was found during excavations in the House of Dionysus at Paphos. The production center of Cypriot Sigillata has not yet been identified, but it is likely to have been on the island itself rather than in southern Asia Minor or elsewhere. The industry flourished from the early 1st through the mid-2nd century A.D.
Greek and Roman Art
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than thirty thousand works ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312. It includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. The geographic regions represented are Greece and Italy, but not as delimited by modern political frontiers: Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea, and Cyprus became increasingly Hellenized. For Roman art, the geographical limits coincide with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The department also exhibits the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples, notably the Etruscans.