Aryballos (spherical perfume bottle)
Probably made in Rhodes, late 6th century BC.
Dark blue glass with yellow and light blue thread trails
Sandcore technique
H 5,9 cm
Antikenmuseum und Sammlung Ludwig Basel, 1970.307
This spherical perfume bottle – a so called aryballos – was most likely made on Rhodes. Thanks to its thick walls, the bottle is very robust. It could not stand on its own, but was hung by a cord or a fine chain, passed through the small handles on the side, and attached to a belt.
Such colourful glass vials are often found as grave goods in the graves of women, but sometimes also of men. In general, intact glass finds can be assumed to have originated in graves, where they were largely protected from damage. Depending on their wealth, the deceased were given more or fewer things to take with them into the afterlife. Certain objects give an indication of the sex of the deceased, for example women were often given perfume bottles, jewellery or mirrors, men sometimes weapons.
Unfortunately, often only the most valuable grave goods, like this aryballos with no indication of origin, end up in the art market from illegal excavations. By tearing apart the assemblage of finds from a site, important information for dating the graves, but also about the social position of the deceased and their access to imported goods is lost to scholarship.
The sandcore technique used in the exhibited piece was known since the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. First, a core of clay, sand and organic material is formed around a metal rod; then molten glass is tightly wound or gathered around the core to create the shape of the vessel. In one or more further steps, fine glass threads of different colours are trailed over the base layer. These threads were often drawn or dragged with a pointed object on the re-melted surface, to create feather, arcade or zigzag patterns. Due to the rapid solidification of the molten glass, the sandcasting technique requires very fast work; therefore, the object must be regularly lightly melted during the manufacturing process. Finally, metal rod and core material are removed from the finished vial after cooling.
Workshops for Mediterranean core-formed vessels were located on Rhodes, Cyprus, and on the coasts of Asia Minor and Syro-Palestinia. This miniature amphora may have been produced on Rhodes.