Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Unguent Bottle (Alabastron)
Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, possibly Italy or Cyprus
Datemid 4th-early 3rd century BCE
Dimensions4 7/8 × 11/16 × 1 1/8 in. (12.4 × 1.7 × 2.8 cm)
Mediumglass
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineMuseum Purhase
Object number
1916.54
Not on View
DescriptionThis unguent bottle is core-formed (alabastron); applied lugs; applied marvered thread. The vessel has a dark blue ground with opaque white and opaque yellow decoration. It features a moderately broad, horizontal rim-disk; a rather tall cylindrical neck; a distinct, almost right-angled shoulder with a tooled constriction on the neck; and a straight-sided cylindrical body with a convex bottom. Below the shoulder are two small dark blue lugs, one with a depression facing outward. An opaque white and an opaque yellow thread, both marvered, begin on the neck and are wound spirally—initially in nearly horizontal lines—then tooled into an irregular zigzag pattern to the basal angle, where both threads continue in horizontal lines to the bottom.
Published ReferencesHayes, John W., Roman and Pre-Roman Glass in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 1975, p. 12.
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. 138, p. 158.
4th-3rd century BCE
4th-3rd century BCE
4th-3rd century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd century BCE
Mid-4th through early 3rd century BCE
4th-early 3rd century BCE
2nd through mid-1st century BCE
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