Alabastron (perfume flask)

This alabastron – the Greeks name for this type of flask – was a popular shape to contain perfume. Originally, this shape was produced from alabaster, as the name suggests.

Thanks to its thick walls, the flask 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.

Coloured glass vials of this kind are often found as grave goods in the graves of women. In general, intact glass finds can be assumed to have originated in graves, where it 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, but also objects pointing to female occupations, such as spindles.

Unfortunately, from illegal excavations only the most valuable grave goods, like this glass flask, tend to end up in the art market. 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.

Like exhibits Aryballos and Miniature Amphora this piece was core-formed. The sandcore technique 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.