"From this point on we must go back to the coast and to Phoenicia. There was formerly a twon called Crocodilon, and there still is a river of that name…Then comes Cape Carmel…Next are Getta, Geba, and the river Pacida or Belus…Close to this river is Ptolemais…Next Tyre, once an island separated from the mainland by a very deep sea-channel 700 yards wide, but now joined to it by the works constructed by Alexander when besieging the place…but the entire renown of Tyre now consists in a shell-fish and a purple dye!…Next are Zarephath and the city of birds (Ornithon oppidum), and Sidon, the mother-city of Thebes in Boetia where glass is made. (Pliny, Natural History V.75-76)". Culture: Eastern Mediterranean. Date: 1st Century A.D. Material: Blue glass. Condition: Intact, with heavy weathering and silvery iridescence. Provenance: American private collection, Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Measurements: 2.7 inches high (7 cms). A very nice example of the "vessel type" of hexagonal flasks. This piece depicts on each of the six panels the image of a vessel framed within an architectural structure resembling an aedicula. The aedicula's arches are filled with egg-shaped objects, while below the ground line encircling the entire flask, there is a continuous garland with clusters of fruit in each swag. The vessels enshrined with each aedicula include a spouted jug (oinochoe), a footed vessel with two handles )probably an amphora), a two handles cup (kantharos), and a cylindrical vessel with bulging extremeties (a krater). On the bottom of the flask there is a concentric circle motif.It has been suggested that those type of flasks may have served as ritual vessels related to the cult of the Sidonian Goddess Ashtarte. Cf: Toledo, 1995, pp. 115-117, also Wolfe 2001, no. 45, p. 115, also Corning 2001, no. 506, pp. 36-37, also Hermitage nos 134-136, pp. 278-279. A very rare type. Our vast inventory of ancient art includes one of the finest and most comprehensive ancient glass collections ever assembled; it includes nearly every variety of pre-Roman, Roman, and Eastern Mediterranean ancient glass. If you have any specific inquiries, please let us know.

Antiquities
Ancient Near East