An especially uncommon diatretic glass goblet with scenes from a gladiator preventing wild beasts has been found in a Roman grave within the historic metropolis of Doclea, close to Podgorica, Montenegro. Additionally discovered within the grave have been gold jewellery and one other seven glass containers.
The grave dates to the 4th century and belonged to a girl of excessive social standing, as attested to by the distinctive richness of her grave items. Some skeletal stays have been preserved, principally from the decrease half of her physique, however preliminary examination of her bones has discovered that she was terribly tall for a girl of her time.
She was laid to relaxation with a pair of gold earrings adorned with inexperienced glass beads and a multi-strand gold necklace manufactured from loops of gold alternating with small jet beads. 4 spectacular spherical pearls are mounted on all sides of the necklace and every finish of the clasp. Different grave items embody balsamaria (small containers for unguents and cosmetics), cups, jugs, a pyxis (small field) with bone pins and small spatula-like applicators, and a set of bone items for a board sport.
Of the eight glass containers present in her grave, two are significantly noteworthy: a big, broad bowl manufactured from darkish iridescent glass that was the trademark of the glassworks of Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, modern-day Cologne, and the diatretic goblet.
Diatretic glass is a extremely decorative kind of reticulated glassware that includes deep reliefs, typically in an openwork web design, extra hardly ever with figural representations. The decorations are often geometric bands, filigree patterns and deep reduction inscriptions in Latin or Greek. Solely 10 full diatretic vases are identified, and plenty of, like this instance present in France, needed to be pieced again collectively from fragments.
The diatreta discovered within the grave is simply the second ever present in Montenegro (right here is the primary one), and it’s distinctive among the many only a few comparable vessels to have figural ornament depicting a venator, a sort of gladiator who hunted animals within the enviornment, attacked by massive felines, possible cheetahs. The goblet was made utilizing two totally different colours of glass, yellow and inexperienced, which makes it much more excellent an instance of the best high quality of glassmaking craftsmanship. It’s fragmented and would require an excessive amount of conservation to piece again collectively.
