Rare Roman glass bowl found 1,700 years after it's buried next to merchant in East London

Daily Mail ^ | Apr. 29, 2009 | Unknown

[decimon]

This beautiful translucent dish belonged to a wealthy East Londoner living in Roman Britain 1,700 years ago.

The rare 'millefiori' bowl - meaning 'one thousand flowers' was unearthed by archaeologists in London and is thought to be the first find of its kind in the western Roman empire. Researchers believe it will give fresh insight into life in Roman Britain.

The dish is made up of hundreds of translucent blue indented glass petals, bordered with white embedded in a bright red glass background.

[decimon]

East Enders ping.

[Thane_Banquo]

Beautiful.

[beaversmom]

Cool.

[tet68]

Miliflore is made by bundleing colored glass rods together
and fusing them, then slices are made across the bundle resulting in small buttons with a pattern, in this bowl the
small squares were then fused together. A tricky process
even with modern equipment.

African trade beads were made this way.
Very colorful and attractive.

[a fool in paradise]

dead people have all the cool stuff.

[BenLurkin]

It is indeed beautiful but how does it last intact this long with no chips or cracks?

[the_devils_advocate_666]

It is indeed beautiful but how does it last intact this long with no chips or cracks?

They just don't make 'em like they use to.

[rubeng]

Bubble wrap

[decimon]

It is indeed beautiful but how does it last intact this long with no chips or cracks?

The owner thought he could take it with him. It was in his grave.

[lainie]

So the merchant must have been buried with it I guess? How could he have known he really was preserving it. That’s very cool.

[BenLurkin]

Understood. But even grave goods usually take a beating over time.

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Graverobbing / grave desecration comment in 3, 2, 1... Thanks decimon. Beautiful dish! A little too beautiful, I'm a tiny bit suspicious. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[mewzilla]

That is exquisite.

[Bubba Ho-Tep]

It is indeed beautiful but how does it last intact this long with no chips or cracks?

It didn't. The article says that they had to piece it together. "Piecing together and conserving such a complete artefact offered a rare and thrilling challenge."

[pgkdan]

LOL!

[MissDairyGoodnessVT]

bump for l8r

[MaxMax]

Now I'm hungry for a bowl of cereal.

[wayne_b24]

or chips-n-salsa?

[afraidfortherepublic]

Breathtaking. I want one.