Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)
Unguent Bottle (Amphoriskos)
Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly from Syro-Palestinian region
Date2nd-1st century BCE
DimensionsH: 6 1/8 in. (15.6 cm); Rim Diam: 1 3/16 in. (3 cm); Diam: 2 3/16 in. (5.6 cm)
Mediumglass
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.126
Not on View
DescriptionThis amphoriskos is made of core-formed glass with a dark yellowish-green ground (appearing opaque black), with opaque yellow and opaque turquoise-blue decoration. It has a moderately broad, uneven, inward-sloping rim-disk; a very tall cylindrical neck; wide obtuse-angled shoulder; and an ovoid body with a convex pointed bottom. A short, bulbous base-knob in natural yellowish-green glass finishes the vessel. Two strap handles of the same natural glass extend from the shoulder to just above the rim-disk. A marvered opaque yellow thread is applied at the rim-disk edge and wound spirally in almost horizontal lines around the neck and over the shoulder, then tooled into a close-set festoon pattern on the body, and again wound horizontally to the base-knob. A marvered opaque turquoise-blue thread, added on the neck, mingles with the yellow and ends in a horizontal line above the base-knob.
Published ReferencesHayes, John W., Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1975, p. 15.
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. 172, p. 171, repr. (col.) p. 107, drawing, p. 408.
2nd-1st century BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
5th century BCE
5th century BCE
2nd-1st century BCE
Probably first half of fifth century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
Late sixth to fifth centuries BCE
Late sixth through fifth centuries BCE
5th century BCE
6th-5th century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
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