Earthenware Horn Cups with Horse Head Decoration

This pottery was excavated from Tomb No. 7 in the Bokcheon-dong Cemetery in Dongnae-gu, Busan, where a total of ten tombs of the cemetery were explored by the Seokdang Museum of Dong-A university from 1969 until 1972. The horn-shared cup is a cylindrical pottery container that is shaped like a bull’s horn and primarily used for holding and pouring liquids. One end of the drinking horn-shared cup is a horse’s head with two legs attached to its cylindrical body, allowing it to be placed stably on a surface. After being shaped with good clay, the entire surface was trimmed with a carving knife, and below the rim section there are traces of finishing done by damp fingers. In so doing, the horsehead section expresses a certain level of realism and appears lifelike. It is presumed that the origin is the rhyton found in ancient Greece and Persia and also the cup is similar to the horn-shared cup of the Sasanian Empire located in present-day Iran.

Conservation story
Conservation scientists diagnosed the horn cup in detail by pre-conservation photos, ultraviolet, X-ray, and X-ray tomography. First, fruiting in two places on the mouth and cracks in two places from the mouth to the bottom were confirmed. Second, traces of past repairs with organic adhesives were found through ultraviolet imaging, and traces of iron corrosive material adhering to the bottom of the horn glass and the traces of stickers being removed and attached were also found. Third, the crack state and manufacturing method were clearly visible by X-ray imaging and X-ray tomography. The horn cup was made by dividing the horse head and the body, then pressing the body inside the horse head and attaching it, and the neck of the horse head was stretched toward the face. In addition, the two legs are added so that they touch the floor in parallel.