The Sant'Angelo Muxaro Patera is an ancient gold libation bowl that was discovered as part of a larger

hoard A hoard or "wealth deposit" is an archaeological term for a collection of valuable objects or artifacts, sometimes purposely buried in the ground, in which case it is sometimes also known as a cache. This would usually be with the intention of ...

in the seventeenth century near the hilltop town of Sant'Angelo Muxaro in Sicily, southern Italy. Since 1772, this rare and precious find has been part of the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

's Ancient Greek collection.

Provenance and history

The

patera In the material culture of classical antiquity, a ''patera'' () or ''phiale'' ( ) is a shallow ceramic or metal libation bowl. It often has a bulbous indentation ('' omphalos'', "belly button") in the center underside to facilitate holding it, ...

was found in a tomb with three other bowls (two plain and another with bulls) which have since been lost. It later came into the possession of the famous

diplomat A diplomat (from ; romanization, romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, nongovernmental institution to conduct diplomacy with one ...

and antiquary Sir William Hamilton, who sold it to the British Museum in 1772.British Museum Collection
/ref> Together the four bowls would have composed a prestigious treasure that probably belonged to a local monarch in

Sicily Sicily (Italian language, Italian and ), officially the Sicilian Region (), is an island in the central Mediterranean Sea, south of the Italian Peninsula in continental Europe and is one of the 20 regions of Italy, regions of Italy. With 4. ...

. It may perhaps have been a gift to a Sicilian king from the western Greeks, as they migrated from the Greek mainland to the fringes of their new empire.

Description

The Sant'Angelo Muxaro Patera is a shallow gold bowl decorated with six identical striding

bull A bull is an intact (i.e., not Castration, castrated) adult male of the species ''Bos taurus'' (cattle). More muscular and aggressive than the females of the same species (i.e. cows proper), bulls have long been an important symbol cattle in r ...

s in relief. The long-horned bulls have angular bodies with prominent ribs and large cloven hooves. The bowl would originally have had a

precious stone Precious may refer to: Music * Precious (group), a British female pop group Albums * ''Precious'' (Chanté Moore album), 1992 * ''Precious'' (Conrad Sewell album), 2023 * ''Precious'' (Cubic U album), 1998 * ''Precious'' (Ours album), 20 ...

inserted in the centre that has long since disappeared. To one side of the central medallion can be seen a dotted crescent moon. The decoration of the bowl mixes

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

and

Phoenicia Phoenicians were an Ancient Semitic-speaking peoples, ancient Semitic group of people who lived in the Phoenician city-states along a coastal strip in the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily modern Lebanon and the Syria, Syrian ...

n characteristics.

Provenance and history

Description

References

Further reading