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Tomb-Groups of Glass of Roman Date from Syria and Palestine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

D. B. Harden
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Extract

Though much Roman glass from Palestine and Syria exists in museums and collections, there are very few instances in which we know anything about the circumstances of its finding, and in still fewer instances are groups from the same tomb still preserved together. In recent years some tomb-groups of the early and later Roman period have been published in the Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities in Palestine, and I myself was recently enabled, through the kindness of Mr. Henri Seyrig, to publish two groups of the later 1st century A.D. from Yahmur, near Bairut. These are the only published examples known to me from this area, and it therefore seems worth while to add two other probable groups to the list, one from Tyre and the other from Galilee. Both are late Roman, probably 4th century A.D.

This group was given to the Ashmolean Museum by the late Mr. C. D. E. Fortnum in 1888. It consists now of eight glasses (A.M., Fortnum collection, G. 22–29). In a MS. catalogue prepared by Mr. Fortnum himself nine pieces are mentioned, but one, described as a “cup, semi-globular of pale green glass of similar character to no. 23 [see below] but smaller” is now missing and I do not believe it ever reached the Museum. Fortnum adds in his catalogue: “The above nine pieces were found, presumably together, in the neighbourhood of Tyre, where I bought them.” He therefore believed them to be a group, and since, with one exception [see G. 29 below], they look thoroughly homogeneous both in ware and in date we may well accept them as such.

Type
Research Article
Information
IRAQ , Volume 11 , Issue 2 , Autumn 1949 , pp. 151 - 159
Copyright
Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1949

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References

page 151 note 1 1st cent. B.C.–1st cent. A.D.: Q.D.A.P., IV, 168 ff. (Wa'r abu eṣ Ṣafa): id. XII, 58 ff. (Amman).

Early 3rd cent. A.D.: id. IV, 72 ff. (Y.M.C.A., Jerusalem).

Early 3rd-mid 4th cent. A.D.: id. VIII, 64 ff. (Sebastya).

4th cent. A.D.: id. I, 53 f. (Nazareth): id. II, 182 f. (Askalon): id. III, 9 f. (Tarshīhā—glass not illustrated) and 81 ff. (Al Bassa): id. IV, 175 ff. (Bait Fajjār): id. VI, 54 ff. (‘Ain Yabrud) and 153 ff. (St. Stephen's Gate, Jerusalem).

4th–5th cent. A.D.: id. I, 3 ff. (Karm al Shaikh); id. VIII, 45 ff. (Al Jish).

page 151 note 2 Syria, XXIV (1944–1945), 81 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 152 note 1 For explanation of this term see Harden, , Roman Glass from Karanis (Univ. of Michigan, Humanistic Series XLI; Ann Arbor, 1936), p. 18Google Scholar; other technical terms used in this article are explained ibid. pp. 6–20.

page 153 note 1 i.e. flaked with a pair of nippers.

page 155 note 1 Special attention may be drawn (1) to the rich tomb-groups of glass found by the University of Pennsylvania expedition at Baisan, one of which is published (without description) in P.E.F.Q., 1932, p. 148, fig. 10. It is dated by the excavators to the 4th cent, A.D., a date which is confirmed by the glass shapes it contains, especially the double unguent-bottle; and (2) to the excavations of the Jewish Palestine Exploration Society at Shaikh Ibrik (Beth She‘arim) from 1936–40, which uncovered numerous tombs containing glasses (Q.D.A.P., VI, 222: VII, 51 & 62; VIII, 178: IX, 212, 217: X, 196 f.; XI, 120 and references ad locc. to other publications not available to me at present for consultation).

page 155 note 2 Cp. Q.D.A.P., IV, 73, fig. 2 a with ibid., pl. lxxx, 1 & 2; similar longevity of certain unguent-bottle types is known elsewhere.

page 155 note 3 op cit., p. 72.

page 155 note 4 id. VIII, 68, fig. 2 a, b.

page 155 note 5 ibid., fig. 2 d.

page 155 note 6 ibid., pl. xxxii, 2 h.

page 155 note 7 ibid.,, fig. 2 c.

page 155 note 8 Syria, XXIV, 83, pl. vi, and references to many other examples ad loc.

page 156 note 1 The important Al Bassa tomb is dated c. A.D. 396 by its coins.

page 156 note 2 It is worth noting that Karm al Shaikh, though it yielded none of these, produced 5 examples of the parallel type of single unguent-bottle with two handles and base ring (Q.D.A.P., I, pls. vii, viii, x), of a type which is not, strangely enough, found in any of the other tombs we are discussing. Similarly another common 4th century type of unguent-bottle—the pipette-shaped—only occurs in the Tarshīhā tomb (id. III, 14—2 examples).

page 156 note 3 As at Bait Fajjar, Q.D.A.P., IV, pl. lxxxv, 6, and ‘Ain Yabrud, id. VI, pl. v.

page 156 note 4 As at St. Stephen's Gate, id. VI, pl. xlii and Al Jish, id. VIII, pl. xxxiii.

page 156 note 5 id. IV, pl. lxxxv, 1, 4. Similar glasses, but without handles, occurred in the Baisan tomb, P.E.F.Q. 1932, p. 148, fig. 10.

page 156 note 6 Q.D.A.P., IV, 81 ff., fig. 21. The other cone, fig. 22, is far more pointed than any western cones.

page 156 note 7 ibid., fig. 17.

page 156 note 8 Cp. Haberey, W. in Bonner Jahrbücher, CXLVII (1942), 253Google Scholar, pls. xxx, xxxii, etc. (Mayen cemetery, late 4th century A.D.).

page 156 note 9 cp. F. Rademacher, ibid., 296 ff., pls. l–liii.

page 156 note 10 Karanis, p. 69, note 2.

page 156 note 11 Haberey, op. cit., p. 268, fig. 8 b.

page 156 note 12 e.g. Kisa, figs. 262–5: Niessen Cat., Nos. 339–40. pls. xxviii, xxx.

page 158 note 1 As frequently on bowls of this type (including Louvre MND 1182), cp. Kisa, p. 654.

page 158 note 2 Karanis, p. 69, note 2: Dain, A., Inscript. grecques du Mus. du Louvre, textes inédits, p. 191 f.Google Scholar, no. 225. The cup MND 1182, H. 0·04 m. D. 0·122 m., was acquired in 1920 with a large series of glasses coming from Kerch or neighbourhood. I am much indebted to M. J. Charbonneaux for supplying these details and a photograph.

page 158 note 3 Karanis, p. 68.

page 158 note 4 Fremersdorf, F. in Berichte der röm.-germ. Kommission, XXVII (1937), 37, pl. ivGoogle Scholar.

page 158 note 5 e.g. on the inscribed glasses listed by Kisa p. 959, no. 221 (from Boulogne), 223 (from Cologne), 224 (from Weiden).

page 158 note 6 Cp. Karanis, Nos. 133–4, pl. xii: 223, pl. xiv; 430 ff, pl. xvi: 739 ff., pl. xix.

page 158 note 7 B.M. 81.6.25.1, formerly in the Disch collection: Dalton, O. M., Cat. Early Christian Antiqs., p. 131, No. 653Google Scholar; Kisa, p. 767, and p. 960, no. 240.

page 158 note 8 Kisa, p. 608, fig. 220, and p. 960, no. 241.

page 158 note 9 Thorpe, W. A. in Trans. Soc. Glass Technology, XXII (1938), 33 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 159 note 1 On this distinction see W. A. Thorpe, op. cit. and id. in Journal of Royal Society of Arts, XCVI, No. 4772, pp. 473 ff.