Urkesh Ceramic Analysis
Shapes by horizon: Mittani / Royal Sanctuary

Cups and Goblets

Marilyn Kelly-Buccellati – June 2013, September 2016, June 2023

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Brief Overview

The definition of what is a cup is the same for all units and all time periods in the UGR. See here for further details. The excavated Mittani period ceramics are much more numerous than the corpus we have excavated for either the Khabur or the Middle Assyrian periods. Many of the contexts are associated with the Plaza situated in front of the temple terrace BT.

Drinking vessels have changed from their long history of using conical cups to now use footed goblets as the standard shape for drinking although cylindrical vessels and the relatively minor number of conical cups in the corpus were probably also used for drinking. Footed goblets are often painted with the design beginning under the rim and continuing down to decorate the upper half of the body. The conical cups from this period could be decorated with parallel stripes in varying thickness but they could also depict birds arranged in rows as well as geometric designs.

Some of the smaller shapes categorized under pots may also have been employed for drinking.

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Conical Cups

cc.-801
cc.-802
cc.-803
cc.-805

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Other Cups

co.-901

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Footed Goblets

cgf-801
cgf-802
cgf-803

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