The silver bowl which is illustrated in Plate I was acquired by the Ashmolean Museum in 1964. It was said to have been formerly in the possession of a dealer in Teheran, who bought it in Hamadan. The story is too stereotyped to have much archaeological significance. Nevertheless it may be true; for there is nothing surprising, as we shall see, in a vessel of this form and character being found in the ancient capital of the Medes.

The bowl was described as “Achaemenian”; and so, at first sight, it might seem to be. But closer inspection reveals some particulars of form and decoration which are not quite characteristic of attested Achaemenian works, but suggest a different history. Since no real reliance can be placed on the only statements of provenance which we have, it is from form and decoration alone that the origins of the bowl may be inferred.

The bowl is somewhat abruptly articulated into a shallow container, almost flat below, and a broad flaring rim which springs from a sharply incurved shoulder (Fig. I, a). Of the total depth of about 34 mm. the container accounts for a little more than half, with a capacity of about seven fluid ounces, or one third of a pint. The bowl was thus designed to hold about as much liquid as could easily be drained at a draught. A residue would always have been trapped by the shoulder.