In the first century BCE, there was no pizza, no AC and no modern medicine. But there was wine, a trading commodity at the time. And the elites, well, they wanted to look cool drinking it. Enter the stag rhyton. A drinking device used to make wine taste better.
This stag rhyton was created in what is now called Iran. This region had a particularly tumultuous history. So, let's rewind 300 years to the fourth century BCE and the Achaemenid Persian Empire. Then the Macedonian Empire. The Seleucid Empire later forced out by the Parthians.
The use of the rhyton was a continuation of an earlier Achaemenid Persian well-to-do practice adopted by the Seleucids, then the Parthians. These rhyta were a status symbol like the Gucci of antiquity. You can see this convergence of cultures in the design of the rhyton.
For example, notice these floral motifs. They're influenced by Seleucid art. It's lifelike, with hooves outstretched and hyper realistic veins in its snout. It's got an incised wave pattern on the lip and inlaid eyes. It's gilded with a punched Aramaic inscription and a hole here.
And that's where the wine pours out. What do you have that combines function and beauty in a cool way?