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Core-formed glass oinochoe. (©Archaeological Exploration of Sardis/President and Fellows of Harvard College) -
Core-formed glass oinochoe
The Lydians and their World
(2010)
Cat. 196
- Date
- Second half of the fifth century BC, Late Lydian (Persian)
- Museum
- Manisa, Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum, 9056
- Museum Inventory No.
- 9056
- Sardis or Museum Inv. No.
- G03.001
- Material
- Glass
- Object Type
- Glass
- Site
- Sardis
- Sector
- Nec
- Trench
- Tomb 03.1
- Locus
- Tomb 03.1 Locus 1
- B-Grid Coordinates
- W540 / S995
- Description
- Oinochoe of core-formed and trail-decorated translucent dark-blue glass. Flat disc foot, partially missing, shows trail decoration in light blue. Ovoid body, short neck, rounded rim pinched into trefoil mouth with applied trail of light-blue glass on lip. Lower part of high-swung handle preserved. Opaque yellow trail at shoulder; opaque yellow and light blue trail at center, dragged alternately up and down. Below, three more light blue trails. Height 0.0868 m, diameter 0.0521 m.
- Comments
- From an undisturbed chamber tomb in the extramural cemetery of Sardis (see Baughan, “Lydian Burial Customs”). Core-forming is one of the earlier techniques of manufacturing glass vessels. In this technique, softened glass is built up or wound around a solid core; after the glass hardens, the core is broken up and removed. The zig-zag patterns were made by trailing threads of colored glass around the vessel, and then, while the glass was still soft, using a metal tool on the surface to draw the colored trails into a pattern. The vessel was then rolled along a flat surface (marvered) to smooth the surface. The shapes and decorations are quite standardized, belonging to “Mediterranean Group I.”
- See Also
- Baughan, “Lydian Burial Customs”.
- Bibliography
- Greenewalt 2005, 82-3; forthcoming study by Susanne Ebbinghaus.
- Author
- NDC