A Comparative Study on the Form and Function of Ritual and Symbolic Containers of Iran with an Emphasis on Rhytons

Different historical and prehistoric periods have always involved the evolution of man-made artifacts. In this regard, the creation of artifacts by men has been linked to vari-ous requirements reflecting the effects of history, beliefs as well as material and imma-terial acts toward the subject of creation. Each object, based on the form and function associated with it, goes through a process in the formation of its form and content. In the present research, the ritual and symbolic containers and ewers in the collection of found artifacts, created in the historical period and used in religious ceremonies are studied. In this study, the typology of forms, functions and religious content of the ewers belonging to the Iranian plateau are compared to similar samples, and the visual and semantic indices of rhytons are validated against the common characteristics of ritual containers. Rhytons are a kind of ritual-ceremonial containers that were first known and made in the Asian Minor regions during the Neolithic Age. The formation of the contain-ers and the lack of the knowledge about the materials required has caused the use of mud for their creation during the late 5th millennium BC. With the advent of the potter's wheel, a richer and more distinct form of clay rhytons has emerged. Its metal and stone samples show the strength and value of the formation of rhytons for specific uses in the court and at the sultans. The present research tries to study the sample ritual, which have different yet similar forms and functions, find the commonalities in the formal and functional processing, and examine the effective components causing the similarities or differences in the form and function of the ritual containers by analyzing the typology of the rhyton samples in several historical periods. However, it was by no means con-fined to that region. Similar in form to, and perhaps originating from, the drinking horn, it has been widespread over Eurasia since prehistoric times. The research method in this study is descriptive-analytical and the sample includes library documents and field research. The results of the research show that the ritual and mythical origins as well as nature are in some way effective in the form processing and using conditions of the containers and ewers and the beliefs are effective in the function processing and use of the ritual objects and rhytons. The present article tries to study the rhyton sam-ples remained from various historical periods. The evidence of these samples is from the Neolithic, Medes, Achaemenid, and Sassanid periods. It also tries to find the form differences in accordance with the functions and criteria specified in the design of the ritual containers and analyze the typology of the rhytons in terms of artistic-industrialist ideas of the time through comparative study. The research questions in line with these purposes include: 1. What are the features of the form and function of the rhytons? 2. Which components are the base for the formation of the form and function of the rhy-tons? The research method in this research is descriptive-analytic and the samples are extracted from library documents and field research.