Square Glass Vessels from the Collection of the State Historical Museum

This article presents a small collection of mould-blown square vessels, residing in the State Historical Museum, Moscow. Regrettably, most of them have come from unknown contexts. All but one of the regarded jugs have a Charlesworth-2 type rim (one of variant 2a, the others of variant 2b), which is considered a characteristic feature of Eastern Mediterranean origin. The only specimen with a ‘western-type’ rim (Charlesworth-1b) differs from the other ones in the glass colour (olive). Four jugs have base moldings of types widespread both in the Eastern Mediterranean and in western provinces of the Roman Empire. The peak of use of square jugs falls on the period between c. 70 and 120/130 AD. The jugs under consideration are most likely from the same time. Square jars are represented in the collection with the only specimen. Similar vessels are known both in the West and in the East, but the Greek inscription on our vessels speaks in favour of its Eastern Mediterranean origin. The context from which it comes is dated to the mid-third century AD at the latest. Finally, known to us analogies to two square bottles with funnel-shaped necks originate from Turkey and Syria and are dated to the fourth and fifth century, though the conditions of their discovery are unknown. Chemical composition of glass of seven vessels has been studied with SEM-EDS technique. Most samples belong to the group of Roman blue-green glass of the Syrian-Palestinian origin, with MnO content up to 0,5%. The glass of two vessels, decolourized with manganese, have a composition closer to Jalame glass. The first one is a jar. The second is a bottle with funnel-shaped neck made of mixed Mn-Sb glass.