Details

COLEM:1988.4.50

Colchester Collections

The 'Warrior's Burial' Glass Bowl

This amber-coloured glass bowl was discovered in a grave known as the ‘Warrior’s Burial’ at Stanway, contained in a wooden box. It is one of the most interesting Roman glass vessels from Colchester, made by early Italian glassblowers, imported to Britain before the conquest. Although the Warrior’s Burial dates as early as AD 40-50, this glass bowl may have been made even earlier, in the late first century BC, before being imported to Colchester. A fruit bowl of this size is depicted in a painted fresco at the Villa of Oplontis, a site between Herculaneum and Pompeii destroyed in AD 79. When excavated, the Warrior’s Burial bowl was evidence that these painted bowls were based on real glass examples.Colchester Museums curate one of the best collections of Roman glass in the country, especially of the first century AD thanks to Boudica’s rebellion and destruction of the town. The Romans used glass to manufacture a huge range of objects, from bottles, bowls and bath flasks, to hairpins, gaming counters and even windowpanes. In the early period glass vessels were imported into Britain but, from the second half of the first century AD, glass was also made here. The development of glass blowing techniques meant that certain items could be produced cheaply and in large quantities. Glass is often thought to be rare from the Roman world, because it is so fragile, but the main reason for its rarity is because it was recycled throughout the Roman period.

Roman

diameter: 252.00 mm
height: 125.00 mm