Introduction

Feasting played an instrumental role in society during the Middle Ages. It was used to celebrate religious occasions, welcome visiting dignitaries, and welcome the coronation of a king. In other words, many of the same reasons its performed today. Most notably for historians and archaeologists, the vessels used in the feasts were durable and survived long after the written records had disintegrated or been burned. Much of what we know about the Maya, for example, comes from their ceramic vessels. 

 

For the Maya, the feasting vessels often were used to serve a frothy cacao drink. They were large, painted vessels and featured pictures of nobles and hieroglyphic inscriptions with descriptions of the owner and the vessel’s use. The Maya celebrated feasts when entertaining other nobles and the ornate serving vessels were a way of showing their prestige. Some of them even contained false hieroglyphics as a way of imitating the more powerful individuals in society.  

 

The Byzantine and Iranian feasting vessels were similarly ornate. They were spectacularly decorated in a manner meant to distinguish them from ordinary serving implements. These vessels also displayed a great deal of imitation, with the Iranian vessels imitating Chinese vessels and the Byzantine treasures imitating religious ceremony implements. 

 

 

These feasting vessels were used as a means of conspicuous consumption, as they were the most ornate and they were only used when a lot of company was present. 

 

What is it that led these people to create these ornate serving vessels? Why were they often covered in depictions of nobles or influential people in society? Why was imitation such an integral part of their construction?