Miniature Glass Jugs


Miniature glass jugs “are usually made of various hues of blue glass with varying degrees of translucence, sometimes appearing nearly black. Like rod-formed vessels, the miniature jugs were not blown, but tooled by bead makers… Juglets are thought to have been amulets… The shape of the miniature jugs may have been meant to evoke a specific contents, for example holy water from one of the many pilgrim sites. If the hypothesis that miniature vessels were Christian amulets is correct, this might provide an explanation for their unusual distribution pattern from the Eastern Mediterranean to western Europe… Miniature jugs may have been sold as souvenirs or amulets. The custom of taking relics and souvenirs from holy places appears to have been well established by the sixth century… Type II occurs not only in Palestine, especially in Galilee, but also in Egypt, the western Mediterranean, and northwest Europe” (Stern 2001:361).


Bibliography (on Miniature Glass Jugs)

Stern, E. Marianne
2001 Roman, Byzantine, and Early Medieval Glass; 10 BCE-700 CE; Ernesto Wolf Collection. Hatje Cantz Publishers, Ostfildern-Ruit, Germany.






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