Bottle / Unguentarium, Al Mazrouah

This jar is made from blown glass and has a globular body. It likely contained perfumed oil. Jars such as this were used to store fatty or resinous, flavoured substances, employed in the past to soften and perfume the skin. They could also contain a variety of ointments for medicinal purposes. The term ‘unguentarium’ refers to this use of a container for ointment in Latin.

This jar was found inside a rectangular tomb (1.5 x 3.4 meters), placed with the remains of a camel skeleton and two fragments of common pottery. The tomb’s chamber was covered with three large flat slabs, and the structure was oriented north/ south.

In the Gulf, this type of small glass jar appeared between the 1st century CE and the beginning of the Sassanid period (3rd-5th centuries CE). Close parallels have been found throughout the Gulf region within the same funerary context.