Another Roman bottle to add to my collection. This is the photo I took when I removed it from the box. Talk about covered in dirt. Whew, it took hours to soak most of it off. After a careful but long soaking, in which I change the water to maintain the same temperature, it now looks like this. Still has some mud and dirt but that’s fine with me. Sometimes that ancient dirt keeps the bottle from splitting or cracking. It a lightly bluish-green color. About 5” high.
Yeah, I'm pretty sure they hadn't invented deodorant back then! Not only were they dirty Romans, but they were likely stinky Romans also.
They did indeed have baths but not daily - probably more like weekly - which when you think about it was even more oft than most people up to recent times. The Roman bath seems to have been a bit of a social affair inasmuch as a cleansing experience.
Congratulations. You magically morphed a terracotta bottle into a glass one. Neat trick! I'm always amazed that something as fragile as glassware can survive the onslaught of time unscathed. Easy for coins, jewelry, and such, but a bottle? A kylix? A kantharos? And just the thought of cleaning ancient glassware myself makes me nervous. I'd be so embarrassed if something went wrong...
That is really interesting. I had no idea that glass production and blowing technology existed in Ancient Rome. Learn something new everyday!
You must be extremely careful as you can easily destroy the glass bottle. No hard scrubbing, no scrapping, etc. Soak to remove the dirt but not in cold or hot water. Most of these bottles are found in tombs and the Romans were very good at making glass.
People probably smelled better then, given regular bathing, than, say, at Versailles at the court of Louis XIV. What with all the defecation and urination in corners and corridors.
I love it! Do you have any idea as to the time period it is from? We know that had bottles of perfume during the time of Christ.
No exact time frame but around that time works for me. This is my 4th bottle and I have one more on the way.
