A rhyton is a vessel shaped like a horn or a truncated cone, typically with a small opening at the bottom end. The lower end is often shaped like the protome (it is the form of the head and upper torso) of a mythical creature. Moreover, the body is often decorated and could have a handle. The rhytons were mainly made from colored metals, ceramics, horn, bone, or glass. They were intended for drinking, ritual libations and similar uses and have been known since the Bronze Age. Many rhytons are examples of toreutics including those associated with ancient Iranian tradition. Ceramic red and black-figure rhytons with short bodies ending in animal heads were common in ancient Greek art. Glass items of various types and purposes became widespread in the ancient areas of the Northern Black Sea region in the first centuries AD.

A unique find for the Volga-Don interfluve region is a ritual vessel for libations to the gods, made in the shape of a large horn. It was discovered in the burial of a Sarmatian priestess in 1988 near the Nagavskaya village in the Kotelnikovsky District. The rhyton was made using glassblowing techniques from transparent colorless glass and its outer surface is decorated with relief ornamentation of zigzag, spiral and horizontal threads of turquoise-colored glass. Glass rhytons are rare finds, not only in Sarmatian graves but also in ancient cities of the Northern Black Sea region. Its method of ornamentation is similar to the so-called Serpentine style, which originated in the East and was especially popular in the 2nd — 3rd centuries AD.