Impasto Cup with Spool-Shaped Handles

Cup made of coarse, unrefined clay and shaped by hand, known as impasto pottery. The handles are spool-shaped with a perforation, serving both practical and decorative purposes.

The cup comes from the grave goods of a Neolithic burial (3500–3000 BC), discovered in 1899 at the site of Carìa, in the territory of Girifalco (CZ), during investigations carried out by Marquis Armando Lucifero. On that occasion, a second tomb was also brought to light; both burials were characterized by stone cists formed by large limestone slabs enclosing the interments.

The funerary assemblage included two impasto vessels—a cup and an olla, both with spool-shaped handles—together with a flint blade and a perforated stone disc. Cups of this type were often used for drinking or for performing ritual actions, especially when included in a funerary context. The associated presence of an olla, a flint blade, and a perforated disc suggests a set of objects intended to accompany the deceased with tools linked to everyday life, possibly imbued with symbolic or ritual significance.