Mosaic glass plate, 27 BC–100 AD (early Roman Empire), or ca. 200 BC
Decolourized, blue, yellow, violet and opaque white mosaic glass, fused
(H x Ø)2,4 × 13,9 cm
Place of originMiddle East (probably Alexandria), or Italy
About the workThe plate is very similar to the earliest examples of the mosaic glass technique. The individual glass components from which it was fused together match a plate that was discovered alongside other items of luxury glassware in Canosa di Puglia in southern Italy and that dates back to around 200 BC. It could therefore date from the period when southern Italy was not yet influenced by Rome, but by Hellenistic Greek culture. Or it could have been created about 200 years later, when the Romans expressed their appreciation of Greek culture by imitating it.
AccessionGift of Helmut Hentrich, 1966
Inventory numberP 1966-30
