Situla, from the Latin word for bucket or pail, is the term in archaeology and art history for a variety of elaborate bucket-shaped vessels from the Bronze Age to the Middle Ages, usually with a handle at the top. All types may be highly decorated, most characteristically with reliefs in bands or friezes running round the vessel.
Etruscan situla, 600–550 BC, tomb 68 at the Certosa necropolis
Urnfield culture, bronze situla with bird-headed sun ship motif, Hungary, c. 1000 BC.
Bronze situla from Hallstatt, 800-750 BC
Etruscan with geometric ornament, 700-550 BC
A bucket is typically a watertight, vertical cylinder or truncated cone or square, with an open top and a flat bottom, attached to a semicircular carrying handle called the bail.
Water well buckets
An Edo period Japanese bucket used to hold water for fire fighting
Roman bronze situla from Germany, 2nd–3rd century
German 19th century leather firebuckets; the most common material used for buckets, alongside wood, before the invention of many modern materials was leather