Figure Vessel Excavated at the Southern Suburb of Chersonese

The 2021 excavations at the Southern Suburb of Tauric Chersonese uncovered the grave of a 3- or 4-year-old child. The grave goods contained a figure vessel showing human head. Its stylistic features allow the author to interpret the vessel as young satyr’s head. The figure vessels form a specific category of ceramic ware. The few finds of similar head-shaped vessels at the cemeteries of the Northern Black Sea cities and towns are well known from the late-nineteenth century on. The artefacts in question were of definitely cult nature and were used possibly both when worshipping in temples and as grave goods. They often occurred in the graves of children. Figure vessels were manufactured with special moulds in a few centres of the Asia Minor. The vessels in question also meet with analogies among bronze and glass wares. The conclusion is that the introduction of new finds of the types with their particular archaeological context into the scholarship will only decide the questions of their chronology, functional purpose, attribution, and reconstruction of ideologies associated with them.