Terracotta mortarium fragment

Terracotta mortarium fragment

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mortaria were used for mixing and grinding foodstuff that could then be poured out of the spout in one side of the broad, flanged rim. This fragment retains part of the spout and the stamp on the rim that identifies the maker as (G. Atisius) GRATV(s), whose workshop was at Augusta Tricastinorum (modern Aoste) in the Rhone valley. This type of mortarium is found in Eastern Gaul, the Rhineland, and occasionally Southern Britain.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.