Unique Roman glass dish found at London grave site
Archaeologists have unearthed a Roman glass bowl, thought to be a unique find in the Western Roman Empire, at an ancient cemetery beyond the walls of the old city of London.
The “millefiori” dish (a thousand flowers), believed to date from around the 2nd to 3rd century A.D., is a mosaic of hundreds of indented blue petals with white bordering.
“For it to have survived intact is amazing. In fact, it is unprecedented in the western Roman world,” said Jenny Hall, curator of the Roman collection at the Museum of London.
Pretty neat, but too bad excavating it caused it to deteriorate.
randy | 30-Apr-09 at 4:27 am | Permalink
Will one of you pros out there tell me why t hey allowed the bowl to dry out and deteriorate?
acagle | 30-Apr-09 at 1:41 pm | Permalink
I wondered that. I imagine it depends on whether anyone had seen anything like that before so they would have known what would happen. Then again, on one of those “Let’s watch archaeologists open a tomb for the first time!” shows, a coffin was opened and the cameras recorded the mummy literally turning to dust within seconds after being exposed to air. That just should not happen.