Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Rhodes, Greece
DateLate 6th - 5th century BCE
DimensionsH: 4 1/2 in. (11.4 cm); Rim Diam: 1 in. (2.6 cm); Diam: 1 1/4 in. (3.2 cm)
MediumCore-formed glass; applied rim-disk and handles; applied marvered and unmarvered threads; distinct horizontal tooling mark at the junction of the neck and shoulder. Pronounced vertical indentations on the body caused by the tooling of the zigzags.
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.340
Not on View
DescriptionThis small glass bottle, known as an alabastron, was used to hold perfumes or oils. Made of dark blue glass, it is decorated with white and yellow glass threads in spiral and zigzag patterns. It has two small handles and a rounded rim.
Published ReferencesHayes, John W., Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1975, p. 9.
Grose, David F., Early Ancient Glass: Core-formed, Rod-Formed, and Cast Vessels and Objects from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Roman Empire, 1600 B.C. to A.D. 50, New York, Hudson Hills Press in association with the Toledo Museum of Art, 1989, cat. no. 78, pp. 137-138.
Late 6th through 5th century BCE
3rd century BCE
3rd through 2nd century BCE
Late 6th to early 5th century BCE
Late 6th through 5th century BCE
Early to mid-1st century CE
5th century BCE
Late 6th through 5th century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd century BCE
Late 6th through 5th century BCE
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