両耳付尖底壺

  • メソポタミア
  • 紀元前7世紀
  • ガラス
  • H-14.1

 コア技法で作られた耳付きの尖底壺。濃青色ガラスの本体に白色ガラスで装飾が施される。短い円筒形の頚部をもち、口縁部はやや外側に張り出す。胴部は細長い卵形で、尖った底部先端は本体と異なる青緑色ガラスで形成している。この部分には白色の文様が及んでいないので、全体に文様を施した後に溶着して器体と一体になるように成形したと思われる。肩部には、下端の延びた環状の耳が1対、施文後に貼り付けられている。先端部と同じ青緑色ガラスである。張り出した口縁部から底部まで白色ガラス紐が螺旋状に密に巻かれ、頚部にはジグザグ文が、胴部には羽状文が施される。頚部には施文時の溝はほとんど見られないが、胴部には溝を残して畝状の起伏を作り出している。この容器の片面は風化して全体が白っぽく変化しているが、反対側は原状を残している。しかし褐色の付着物があり、口縁部、耳部、胴下半部には緑色の緑青が付着している。土中にあった時の状態を反映しているのかもしれない。欠損はなく完器である。西アジアでは、前16世紀に北メソポタミアで始まったコア技法によるガラス容器製作が、前13世紀末から前12世紀初めになると一時中断されるが、前8世紀後半にメソポタミアで再開されてイランにも広がり、前7世紀まで続いた。この前1千年紀初頭のコアガラス容器は、波状の文様が施された西洋梨形壺、円筒形壺、球形小壺などが主であり、環状の耳をもつのが特徴の1つである。本作品によく似た例がイラクのアッシュールやウルなどから出土している(註)。

註:A. Leo. Oppenheim, Robert H. Brill, Dan Barag, and Axel von Saldern, Glass and Glassmaking in Ancient Mesopotamia, The Corning Museum of Glass Monographs, Vol.III, Corning, New York, 1970 (reprinted 1988), pp. 155, 157, figs. 43, 50.

Catalogue Entry

This small constricted base jar with handles was made by core-forming. The dark blue glass body is then decorated with white glass. The short cylindrical neck has a slightly outward splayed mouth rim. The body is a long egg shape, and the tip of the pointed base is formed from a turquoise glass that differs from that of the main body. This section does not have any white patterning, and it is thought that this base was attached to the vessel body after it had been fully decorated. The shoulders have a pair of circular handles with extended lower sections which were attached after the body was decorated. These are made from the same turquoise glass as that of the tip. There is a dense patterning of white glass thread spirals that run from the flaring mouth to the base, and the neck area has a zigzag pattern while the body is decorated with a feather pattern. There are almost no grooves left on the neck from when this decorative pattern was applied, while grooves remain on the body and create a ribbed pattern. One side of this vessel was weathered overall to a whitish color, while the other side remains in its original state. However there are dark brown adhesions and there is also greenish colored corrosion adhering to the mouth area, handles and lower section of the torso. These adhesions may reflect its centuries buried in the earth. There are no breaks and the jar is intact. The core technique was begun in the 16th century BC in northern Mesopotamia and glass was made from this technique in western Asia with a hiatus occurring around the end of the 13th century to the beginning of the 12th century BC. This glass technique was redeveloped in the latter half of the 8th century BC in Mesopotamia where it then spread to Iran and was continued through the 7th century BC. These core-formed glass vessels created at the beginning of the 1st millennium BC were primarily pear-shaped jars, cylindrical jars and spherical jars decorated with wave patterns. Circular handles were one of their characteristic forms. Works closely resembling this Miho example have been excavated at Ashur and Ur in Iraq1).

1)?\?\?\A. Leo. Oppenheim, Robert H. Brill, Dan Barag, and Axel von Saldern, Glass and Glassmaking in Ancient Mesopotamia, The Corning Museum of Glass Monographs, Vol. III, Corning, New York, 1970 (reprinted 1988), pp. 155, 157, figs. 43, 50.