Hellenistic medallion bowls in Sicily

This paper will be focusing on medallion bowls1, a ceramic product of the Hellenistic age that is well attested in Sicilian archaeological contexts. It is a type of drinking cup, that is black, red or brown painted, with a thinned or slightly enlarged rim, a large and not very deep body, and a slightly umbilicate bottom or a disc foot, on the interior of which a medallion was impressed with depictions of deities or flowers. Medallion bowls, produced and common in Sicily during the Hellenistic age, have been associated with a specific production in Campania, which had its main center in the town of Cales, where it was possible to identify workshops and reconstruct, from the studio of the exemplars found, an elaborate economic history enriched, moreover, by the names of some officinatores. However, Jean-Paul Morel has already discussed the general definition of vasi caleni which, over time, acquired a large meaning, including indiscriminately all black-painted vessels with relief decoration from Hellenistic Italy. Excavations concentrated at Finziade around a housing area, have found a considerable amount of medallion bowls and, due to the fact that they have been systematically investigated using the methods of modern archaeological research, represent a context of privileged investigation, which acquires a particular value considering that their production develops in a very restricted chronological period, from the end of the third century B. C. to the second half of the first century B. C. Precisely for this reason, it was decided to deepen the study of this ceramic production by studying its shape, iconography, and associations, in an attempt to better clarify the function of these artifacts.