VESSEL

Fragment of Roman glass bath flask. This fragment represents the rim and the fragmentary remains of the neck of the flask with one complete handle. The rim is flat and circular in plan with a diameter of 37.34mm. The circular opening to the flask, which has a diameter of 14.32mm, is set off centre. Approximately one quarter of the circumference of the neck survives. Attached at one broken edge is the handle. The handle is formed from a separate trail of glass applied to the shoulder of the flask and trailed up the neck to the underside of the rim. It is then looped back to the shoulder with the return trail then returned back again towards the rim to lie against the loop just created. It is 18mm long. Originally the flask would have had a pair of handles, which are often referred to as ‘dolphin handles’. The fragment has a surviving length of 21.24mm and weighs 13.89g.

The fragment is greeny blue in colour, as are most examples of this type of vessel. There is damage around the pouring hole of the flask and the object is generally abraded and scuffed. Given the nature of glass, it is difficult to determine when damage occurred, however some edges are fairly ‘clean’ and unscratched suggesting damage was both ancient and perhaps more recent.

When complete the flask would have had the flat rim, a short cylindrical neck, two handles, a globular body and a concave base. Bath flasks were in use from the 1st to 3rd centuries. Individual examples are often found on domestic sites, but larger quantities are found within contexts relating to bathhouses. A similar example can be seen in Cool and Price 1995, Roman vessel glass from excavations in Colchester 1971-85, figure 9.9, number 1190.