Size

5cm(H) / 2"(H)

Item Type

Glass

Region

North Africa

Condition

Excellent

Full Description

Roman Glass Bottles

1st millennium AD

Among the most beautiful objects that remain from the Roman Empire are those made from glass. These vessels held the secrets of the herbs, perfumes and spices that were famous throughout the Empire. Their survival, which often seems little short of miraculous, is largely due to the custom of including them as funerary offerings and were therefore protected by the tombs for the period since their deposit.

Roman glass was generally blown and made from silica sand and lime. Pliny the Elder writing in the 1st Century AD describes in his Historia Naturalis: "Once a ship belonging to some traders in natural soda put into a beach at the mouth of the River Belus on the Phoenician and they scattered along the shore to prepare a meal. There were no stones supporting their cooking pots so they placed lumps of soda from their consignment under the pots. When these became hot they fused with the sand on the beach and a stream of unknown transparent liquid flowed forth, this being the origin of glass".

We offer small glass jars and bottles which are in perfect condition and date from the 1st millennium AD.

Price is per bottle.