Situla

Situla, from the Latin for bucket or pail, is the term in archaeology and art history for a variety of elaborate bucket-shaped vessels from the Iron Age to the Middle Ages, usually with a handle at the top. All types may be highly decorated, most characterisically with reliefs in bands or friezes running round the vessel.

Decorated Iron Age situlas in bronze are a distinctive feature of Etruscan art in burials, from which the style spread north to some cultures in northern Italy, Slovenia, and adjacent areas, where terms such as Situla culture and "situla art" may be used.

Situla is also the name for types of bucket-shaped Ancient Greek vases, some very finely painted. More utilitarian pottery situlae are also found, and some in silver or other materials, such as two Late Antique glass ones in St Mark's, Venice. Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern shapes tend to have a pointed bottom, so that they must rest on a stand or on their side. The practical wider shape is a European invention, first seen in the European Bronze Age.

Kappa Aquarii

Kappa Aquarii (κ Aqr, κ Aquarii) is the Bayer designation for a double star in the equatorial constellation of Aquarius. It has the traditional name Situla, a Latin word meaning "bucket" or "water jar". This system is visible to the naked eye, but it is faint at an apparent magnitude of 5.03. Based upon parallax measurements made during the Hipparcos mission, the distance to Kappa Aquarii is around 214 light-years (66 parsecs).

This is most probably a wide binary star system. The brighter component is a giant star with a stellar classification of K2 III. It has exhausted the supply of hydrogen at its core and has expanded to 13 times the radius of the Sun. Kappa Aquarii is radiating 60 times the Sun's luminosity from its outer envelope at an effective temperature of 4,581 K, giving it the orange-hued glow of a K-type star.

The fainter companion star is located at an angular separation of 98.3 arcseconds and has an apparent magnitude of 8.8.

In culture

In Chinese, 虛梁 (Xū Liáng), meaning Temple, refers to an asterism consisting of κ Aquarii, 44 Aquarii, 51 Aquarii and HD 216718. Consequently, κ Aquarii itself is known as 虛梁三 (Xū Liáng sān, English: the Third Star of Temple.). From this Chinese name, the name Heu Leang was appeared, meaning "the empty bridge".

Situla (disambiguation)

Situla is the Latin for bucket or pail, and is used in archaeology and art history for a variety of historic objects with this shape.

Situla can also mean: