Gold Goblet with Personifications in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2008

Gold Goblet with Personifications of Cyprus, Rome, Constantinople, and Alexandria
Avar or Byzantine, found in Vrap, eastern Albania
Made 700s
Inscribed in Greek: Constantinople, City of Cyprus, City of Rome, City of Alexandria

Accession # 17.190.1710

This goblet is decorated with female personifications of four major ecclesiastical centers in the Byzantine world. The awkwardly written identifications suggest that this goblet was an Avar attempt to imitate a Byzantine chalice.

Text from the Metropolitan Museum of Art label.