page_title: Trialeti Chalice
hierarchical_section_title: Trialeti Chalice
caption_attribution_description: English: Trialeti silver cup, with thanks to the Georgian National Museum for allowing photography
context_page_description: The Trialeti Chalice is a silver cup from Trialeti, Georgia.
  It was discovered during an archaeological expedition in the 1930s, it was one of the objects from the Trialeti culture that were excavated from Kurgan barrows in Trialeti, and has been dated to the 18th-17th centuries BCE.
  The outside of the cup is decorated with two processional friezes, the lower depicts nine deer, stags and hinds walking clockwise around the cup.
  The upper frieze has twenty two masked men bearing cups processing in the opposite direction to the deer. They are heading towards a seated man with a raised cup. Between him and the procession are a couple of animals and two other objects, and behind him is a tree. There are various speculations as to the meaning and cultural influences of the friezes. The Encyclopaedia Iranica considers the animals to be depicted in the Hittite tradition, and the tree to be the Tree of Life. Others interpret an Egyptian influence, describing the men as wearing masks similar to those of the priests of the Egyptian god Osiris.
  The cup is now in the collection of the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi.
context_section_description: The Trialeti Chalice is a silver cup from Trialeti, Georgia.
  It was discovered during an archaeological expedition in the 1930s, it was one of the objects from the Trialeti culture that were excavated from Kurgan barrows in Trialeti, and has been dated to the 18th-17th centuries BCE.
  The outside of the cup is decorated with two processional friezes,  the lower depicts nine deer, stags and hinds walking clockwise around the cup.
  The upper frieze has twenty two masked men bearing cups processing in the opposite direction to the deer. They are heading towards a seated man with a raised cup. Between him and the procession are a couple of animals and two other objects, and behind him is a tree. There are various speculations as to the meaning and cultural influences of the friezes. The Encyclopaedia Iranica considers the animals to be depicted in the Hittite tradition, and the tree to be the Tree of Life. Others interpret an Egyptian influence, describing the men as wearing masks similar to those of the priests of the Egyptian god Osiris.
  The cup is now in the collection of the Georgian National Museum in Tbilisi.
caption: The back of the procession
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot SX1 IS", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Microsoft Windows Photo Viewer 6.1.7600.16385", "Image DateTime": "2014:06:18 17:28:01", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "2362", "Image Padding": "[]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "7612", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3320", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/8", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "320", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2014:06:18 15:15:33", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2014:06:18 15:15:33", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "3", "EXIF ApertureValue": "139/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "139/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "26001/1000", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2160", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3840", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "3840", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2160", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "7450", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "3840000/241", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "2160000/181", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF Padding": "[]", "EXIF OffsetSchema": "4206"}