Octagonal Jar with Jewish Symbols

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Octagonal Jar with Jewish Symbols

Place of OriginAncient Rome, Palestine, around Jerusalem

Dateabout 578-629

DimensionsH: 3 7/8 in. (9.9 cm); Rim Diam: 2 11/16 in. (6.8 cm); Body Diam: 4 in. (10.2 cm)

MediumGlass; mold blown, tooled

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1923.1362

Not on View

DescriptionTranslucent dark yellowish-brown. Medium thick glass. Blowing spirals. Fabric cannot be determined because of weathering. Neck and mouth free blown. Body blown into a mold with designs in low relief on the interior. Mold seams cannot be detected. Relief indistinct. Pontil mark ca. 1.8 cm in diameter. Funnel mouth, with hollow rim folded outward, upward, inward, and downward to narrowest point of opening. Horizontal shoulder. Octagonal body. Flat base. On the body, eight decorated rectangular panels with designs in sunken relief; each panel bordered by recessed dots. In the panels, from left to right: 1, Menorah with flames on a three-legged stand; 2, aedicula consisting of columns with thickened bases and capitals supporting a half round arch framing an indistinct figure (tree?); 3, stylized palm(?) tree; 4, stylized tree; 5, two concentric lozenges with a recessed dot in their centers and a recessed dot in each of the lower corners of the panel; 6, unidentified motif; 7, stylized amphora; 8, stylized tree with a recessed dot in each corner of the panel. Underside of base undecorated. CLASSIFICATION: Barag BB I 1.

Published ReferencesGoodenough, Erwin R., Jewish Symbols in the Greco-Roman Period, New York, 1953, I: The Archaeological Evidence from Palestine, figs. 170-171; III: Illustrations, figs. 414-419.

Barag, Dan P., "Glass Pilgrim Vessels from Jerusalem, Pts. I," Journal of Glass Studies, 12, 1970, p. 57 (BB I 1), 61, fig. 2.

Glass of the Caesars, 1987, p. 177, cited at no. 98.

Stern, E. Marianne, Roman Mold-blown Glass: The First through Sixth Centuries, Rome, "L'Erma" di Bretschneider, 1995, p. 257-258, no. 175.