A South Italian Daunian Kyathos. The pottery vessel has a high loop handle and a flat, slightly concave base, with added decoration in umber and brick red, the tondo decorated with a rectangular motif. The underside of the base is decorated in black like the spokes of a wheel.
 
Daunian: Circa 550-450 BC.
 
Complete and intact, the decoration just a little faded in places; with a few light earthy accretions.
Diameter 15.6 cms (6.1 ins).
Height 10 cms (4 ins).
 
Provenance: Ex K. collection UK, purchased from Coincraft (opposite the British Museum), London, 1990's.
 
For a similar Daunian kyathos vessel, see Met Museum https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/255149.
 
It is thought that such vessels were wine ladles used in feasts and banquets, similar to Greek pottery styles, but archaeological research has detected opium alkaloids in a series of these vessels, suggesting they were used for religious trances, healing rituals, or pain relief.
 
The Daunians were a tribe inhabiting northern Apulia (in southern Italy) in classical antiquity.The Daunians were famed for their beautiful geometric pottery, which was decorated in both polychrome and bichrome palettes.