Bronze kyathos (ladle)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Small bronze and terracotta vessels of this Sant'Anatolia type are common in Etruscan tombs from about 450 to about 250 B.C. Often deposited in groups of three to seven of slightly different sizes, they were likely used to ladle wine from larger vessels or perhaps to measure water when mixing it with wine. Falerii (Civita Castellana) has been suggested as the location for the workshop that produced these kyathoi as well as the beaked jugs in this case.

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art