The cup in Bilar
The deep cup with thin walls on a stand is made of hard highly siliceousfaience by pressing in matrix-molds. The colour of faience is soft and ivory in its hue; in some parts the cup is coloured with random vertical cobalt leaks. The cup is richly decorated. The upper part is decorated by 14 festoons with relieves on them that are 14 unrepeatable women's faces in high head-dresses with double birds figures on them. The lower ornamental be1t consists of the garland of relief palmettes. Dotty through drillings are made all over the profile of all the relieves. The surface of the cup is covered with transparent lead glaze bluish in its colour so that the openwork apertures remain transparent in the ray of light. The proportions of the cup precisely follow the rule of the "golden section": diameter of the stand is 7 cm, height of the cup is 10 cm, diameter of the collar (outside festoon) is 14 cm. The particularity of faience, its chemical structure determined by the spectral analysis,proportions of the vessel, characteristics of its decoration, its technology"stylistics and semantics of images have made it possible, based on dated analogues, to state the origin of the find from Bilar - Iran or Mesopotamia, the time of manufacture - XI century, function - a wedding, charm. Valiulina S.I.
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The cup was found in Bilar at XXIII excavation