Roman Glass Unguentaria | Jerusalem | 1st Century CE | Time of Jesus

This is an authentic Roman glass unguentarium, hand-blown in Jerusalem during the 1st century CE, the era of the Second Temple and the life of Jesus of Nazareth.

 With its teardrop body and narrow neck, this small flask was used to store precious perfumed oils, myrrh, nard, and aromatic ointments central to both Roman daily life and Jewish burial rites.

 The iridescent patina of blues, silvers, and golds developed over centuries buried in the earth, no two unguentaria weather identically, making this a unique object shaped as much by time as by the hands that made it.

Height: 7.5 cm (2.95 inches)

The 1st century CE in Jerusalem was a world of extraordinary tension and transformation. Under Roman occupation, the city was a crossroads of Greek, Jewish, and Roman culture, and the Second Temple still stood atop Mount Moriah. Objects like this one appear in the Gospel accounts themselves: small flasks of costly ointment carried by women to anoint the dead, purchased in the markets of a city on the edge of history.

Free-blown Roman glass, produced using techniques that spread across the empire following the invention of glassblowing in the Syro-Palestinian region during the 1st century BCE. The thick silver-iridescent patina was formed by centuries of mineral interaction with surrounding soil. The surface exhibits authentic weathering and encrustation consistent with genuine archaeological glass. Rim and body are intact.