.Indent Glass and Pottery. n 



plorer has opened over 8,000 of these tombs or sepulchres in 

 the rocks, mostly in Syria proper. The date of these is in 

 large part from the time of Christ back about 500 years, but 

 some of them earlier. From Christ's time back two or 

 three hundred years will cover a considerable large part of 

 the glass objects found so abundantly in them. Among 

 these are many varieties of glass bottles and pitchers, nursing 

 bottles, and very abundantly the ungentariums, or color bot- 

 tles, for use by the spirits of the women with whose bodies 

 they were buried. There was generally but one of these 

 with each, containing mostly the two colors of paint; the 

 black to color a circle around the eye and the red to color 

 the cheeks. In some cases, there were four divisions. In 

 two of them were two different shades of red, in the other 

 two a black and a white, but this was the exception not the 

 rule. Some of them had but one color. With them all 

 were bronze rods that were used to apply the color. Very 

 many of these old ungentariums have become so corroded 

 by time that they have been wholly or largely decomposed 

 and most of them have been, to a considerable extent, so 

 scaled away by the centuries that they have lain in the dust 

 of the tombs, that they are beautifully iridescent, while coat- 

 ing after coating of a thin film of pearly scales like different 

 layers of thin glaze have been formed and one after another 

 peeled off and, for those that are left perfect, a most beau- 

 tiful surface has been formed. (Specimens were shown). 



The most beautiful of the glass found in the Syrian 

 countries is that made by the Phoenicians who have been 

 credited, generally, with being the earliest glass makers; but 

 it is quite certain that the Babylonians made glassware at 

 a much earlier time so far as the samples show. But in both 

 nations the finest and most beautifully colored pieces were 

 made by mixtures of pulverized gem chips and pieces that 

 gave the fine color and in some cases the weight and hard- 

 ness. (Samples were shown). 



The ancient Greek art, like that of all other nations. 

 began with pottery. But the art of glass-making in Greece 

 proper was not known or practiced to the extent found in 

 Syria. Their pottery was mostly of common clay, and a 

 glaze with something like an asphaltic paint, which stood the 

 firing and made generally a black or brown, and sometimes 

 other colors. 



Their ornamentation or drawing and designing showed 



