Made by a Sogdian artisan, the shape of this cup was borrowed from the metalwork of neighboring Turks and was likely intended for a Turkic patron. It features a thumb rest with two wrestlers grappling, and its bulbous body narrows at the neck—elements typically associated with steppe peoples; Fig. 1. Wrestling, or kurash, was a sport widely practiced across Eurasia, and it is depicted in wall paintings at Panjikent ; Fig. 2. Sogdians also used cups of this shape, since they appear in Panjikent wall paintings. The cup portrays mountain goats (ibexes) within each of the four large roundels. They are standing on rocks with scarves tied around their necks, one of them sporting a bell. In Iranian hunting practices, the goat with a bell served as the herd leader, while those with ribbons around their necks were used for luring game to the king’s hunting grounds. To Iranian peoples, the ibex also symbolized the god of victory, Verethragna. With habitats spanning the high terrains of central and northern Asia (including the regions corresponding to modern-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and south-central Russia), these animals would also have been familiar to the peoples of the steppe.