Description:
deep yellow teardrop-shaped unguent bottle
Label Text:
Installed in Art Before 700 CE, Spring 2025 Label:
Roman Glass
Glassmakers working in the Roman Empire used different techniques to create the practical yet beautiful vessels in this case, exploiting the material’s physical properties to great effect. These skilled artisans produced vivid colors and iridescence, cut into the surface, and used molds to shape the vessels, creating the range of effects you see here.
By the first century CE, improvements in technology meant that glass objects had become affordable and therefore commonplace. These objects were largely utilitarian: some held unguents, some oils. The largest bottle was molded as a square for easy packing in a shipping crate. The colorless glass bowl is more decorative, with wheel-cut designs including the inscription “EVTVXI” (good luck), a phrase commonly used as a greeting in the Greek-speaking parts of the ancient Mediterranean.
[Displayed with 1967.2.A(f).K, 2006.23.1, 33.C.K, 31.C.K, 38.C.K, 39.C.K]
Tags:
ancient; archaeology Subjects:
archaeological objects; Civilization, Ancient; Glass Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=MH+41.C.K |
