The vast majority of papers (26) in the current volume stem from the international conference Sandanski and Its Territory during Prehistory, Antiquity and Middle Ages: Current Trends in Archaeological Research, organized by the American Research Center in Sofia, in collaboration with the Archaeological Museum in Sandanski, and held on September 17-20, 2015 in the town of Sandanski. Thus the publication of this unusual example, which is presented here for the first time, refines our understanding of the life and afterlife of these enigmatic vessels.
Although the use of craters as receptacles of cremated human remains is uncommon, the personal name of certain Bithus, son of Teres, scratched with a sharp instrument on the rim of the vessel, testifies to such a practice.
Based on the Dionysiac imagery the function of these vessels is frequently defined as cult, emerging as votive dedications, burial gifts or even urns, as attested by examples dating to the 2nd and 3rd c. Romula, Apulum, Porolissum, Potaissa, Soporu de Câmpie, Durostorum, Tomis) and only a few in Bulgaria (Philippopolis, Pavlikeni, Butovo, Hotnitsa, Pernik, Dolna Banya, Dolna Kremena), Serbia (Kosmaj ) and Greece (Philippi, Rhamnous, Isthmia, Corinth), are often related to the cult of Dionysus because his iconography in association with them is ubiquitous. These craters, of which there are 49 examples in Romania (e.g. Observations are made on its fabric, morphology, function and iconography. no.1666, but reportedly originating from the region near the village of Banya, Karlovo district, in south central Bulgaria), best identified as a crater, with an appliquéd Dionysiac scene. This article brings new data to the subject of “appliqué” wares from inland Thrace by discussing a fragment of a large vessel (now in the Archaeological Museum in Sandanski, inv.
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