Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Rhodes
Date5th century BCE
DimensionsH: 3 7/16 in. (8.8 cm); Rim Diam: 1 3/16 in. (3 cm); Diam: 15/16 in. (2.4 cm)
MediumCore-formed glass; applied rim-disk and handles; applied marvered and unmarvered threads.
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.343
Not on View
DescriptionSmall alabastron. Dark ground, possibly dark green (appearing black), with opaque white decoration. Broad horizontal rim-disk, unusually symmetrical and even on its upper- and undersides; vestigial cylindrical neck; rounded shoulder; straight-sided cylindrical body with slight upward taper; shallow convex bottom. Below the shoulder, two vertical dark green ring handles with knobbed tails. An unmarvered opaque white thread attached at the lower edge of the rim-disk; a second thread, unmarvered, is wound horizontally at the level of the ring handles; a third thread, marvered, is wound spirally in three horizontal rows around the middle of the body; below this, a fourth opaque white thread is wound horizontally once around the lower body.
Published ReferencesGrose, 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. 77, p. 137, repr. (col.) p. 97.
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
Mid-4th to early 3rd century BCE
Mid-4th through early third centuries BCE
Late 6th - 5th century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd centuries BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
Probably 6th Century BCE
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