Detail: Time: 2 pm

Luxurious gold and silver vessels played an important role in Persian court life during the Achaemenid period (550–330 bce). The elaborate and enigmatic rhyton combined a horn-shaped vessel with the foreparts of an animal or monster, through whose pierced mouth or chest liquid spouted.
Dr. Susanne Ebbinghaus, the George M.A. Hanfmann Curator of Ancient Art, Harvard University Museum, and Lecturer on the Classics, Harvard University, discusses the spread of this complex drinking vessel as well as other prestigious gift items among elites in the Persian empire and beyond, from the Mediterranean in the west and to Central Asia and China in the east.

Dr. Ebbinghaus speaks on Persepolis: Royal City of Ancient Persia at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, December 3.

For more information, visit www.doaks.org.