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• 1 media/fragment of bowl with horse and rider.jpg 2022-06-15T12:09:33-07:00 Fragment of a Bowl with a Horse and Rider (MET 1984.181) 3 plain 2022-12-30T12:52:53-08:00 by Kira Houston '23, Clark University 
  
  This ceramic fragment was part of a bowl. Medieval craftspeople ornamented practical items like bowls, plates, and lamps with decorative images, just as we do today. This particular design features a hunter atop his horse. In the hunter’s right hand, where a piece of the bowl has broken off, he once supported a falcon. Knights and hunters from many cultures learned the art of falconry, training powerful birds of prey to assist them on the hunt.
   
  This particular bowl was produced at the seaport of Saint Symeon in the important crusader city of Antioch (modern-day Turkey). Artisans in and around Antioch created ceramics in this same style, producing what scholars now call “Port St. Symeon ware.” Makers decorated Port St. Symeon ceramics using incision to create line-drawings of people, animals, and decorative motifs. They then glazed the ceramics with blue, brown, or purple pigments, creating splashes of color. Port St. Symeon pottery, with its colorful figural imagery, was an unusual and distinct tradition within the territories most relevant to the crusades.
   
  Despite its association with the crusades, this pottery style does not represent an artistic tradition that was exclusive to crusaders. Instead, Port St. Symeon pottery appealed to many different groups, from Islamic rulers to western European crusading knights. It is even possible that the individual who purchased this bowl was himself a falconer.