Rhyton in the shape of a shoe

This ceramic ritual ware reproduces the shape of contemporary shoes with an enlarged sole ending in an upturned beak-like point. The shoe’s upper edge is lined with a dent, which breaks longitudinally in the outlined seam in the front. The brownish body covers the red engobe, which is black on the sole. This rhyton comes from the archaeological survey work of Bedřich Hrozný (1879–1952) in Kültepe near Kayseri, central Turkey, in 1925. Hrozný is known in particular for having solved the mystery of the Hittite language in 1915, which he classified as an Indo-European language. The National Gallery in Prague houses some of the findings from his expeditions in Syria and Turkey.