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Glass vases in the shape of birds

Σύμμεικτα

• Αντωνάρας, Αναστάσιος

Glass vases in the shape of birds are a type of unguentarium that was quite common in Thessaloniki in the 1st c. AD. Forty examples have been found to date, which may be divided into three sub-groups, contemporary with each other: ones with a small beak, ones with a long beak, and ones in which the head and beak are unformed and rendered schematically by a curve in the tubular neck.The content may be divided on the basis of the colour into three groups: blue, red and pink. Chemical analysis has revealed that the blue powder is to be identified with Egyptian blue, the red with haematite, that is red ochre, and the pink powder has been identified with the organic dye madder, to consolidate which aluminium mordant was used.The unusually large number of vases outsideSwitzerland and North Italy, which is regarded as the place in which they were manufactured, combined with the large number of small globular unguentaria that accompanied them, which are the product of the same workshops, is associated with the well-developed commercial relations between Thessaloniki and the Italian peninsula and the presence there as early as the time of Augustus of a significant number of Italian migrants, mainly merchants, organised in a guild with common commercial interests. The existence in Thessaloniki of so- large a number of products from North Italian workshops is to be attributed to the commercial activities of these Italian negotiatores, or to the desire of their womenfolk to continue to adorn themselves in the manner and with the products of their native land.

• History and Archaeology

• Αρχαιολογία

νεκροταφεία, Θεσσαλονίκη

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