Egyptian Near Eastern

This tiny Greek cosmetic bottle (unguentarium) was likely made in Egypt or Palestine using the core-forming technique. First, a core was molded into the basic shape using sand, dung, and clay. Then, this core was dipped into molten glass and rolled on a flat surface to smooth and slowly cool the surface, a process called marvering. Next, threads or yellow and ligher blue glass were trailed onto this vessel, marvered on, and pulled to create the zigzag decoration. The bottle was allowed to cool, and finally, the core was scraped away.