Stylites were ascetics who lived on platforms atop columns. This movement had practitioners into the nineteenth century, from Mosul in today’s northern Iraq to Gaul in France. Syria was home to large numbers of stylites, including the first stylite, Symeon Stylites the Elder (ca. 389–459).Depicted on the four sides of this jug are a stylite on a column, a ladder, a censer, and five dots; a lattice pattern; a bird; and a cross flanked by rows of four dots. Such vessels may have been used to collect oil or water sanctified through contact with stylite relics.
