Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)
Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)
Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Syro-Palestinian region
Date2nd through mid-1st century BCE
DimensionsH: 5 5/8 in. (14.3 cm); Rim Diam: 1 5/16 in. (3.3 cm); Diam: 1 15/16 in. (4.9 cm)
Mediumglass
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.187
Not on View
DescriptionThis amphoriskos features a blue ground streaked with opaque red and decorated with opaque white thread. The moderately broad rim-disk slopes inward and is accompanied by a rather tall cylindrical neck. The shoulder is gently angled, leading to an elongated ovoid body that tapers to a convex pointed bottom. At the base, a short, bulbous knob in colorless glass with a slight greenish tinge terminates in an out-turned, rounded end.
Two vertical strap handles, also of colorless glass with a greenish tint, rise from the shoulder to just below the rim-disk. A marvered opaque white thread begins on the upperside and edge of the rim-disk, winds spirally in nearly horizontal lines around the neck and shoulder, and is then tooled into a feather pattern from below the shoulder to the lower body. The thread continues in horizontal lines to just above the base-knob.
Manufactured using the core-forming technique, the amphoriskos also includes applied rim-disk, handles, base-knob, and applied marvered threads.
Published ReferencesHayes, John W., Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1975, p. 14.
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, Hudson Hills Press in Association with the Toledo Museum of Art, New York, 1989, cat. no. 168, p. 169, repr. (col.) p. 107, drawing, p. 407.
3rd century BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
Probably first half of fifth century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd centuries BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
2nd-1st century BCE
3rd century BCE
5th through early 4th centuries BCE
Late sixth to fifth centuries BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
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