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Roman grave with diatretic glass goblet found in Montenegro
An extremely rare diatretic glass goblet with scenes from a gladiator fighting wild beasts has been discovered in a Roman grave in the ancient city of Doclea, near Podgorica, Montenegro. Also found in the grave were gold jewelry and another seven glass containers.
The grave dates to the 4th century and belonged to a woman of high social status, as attested to by the exceptional richness of her grave goods. Some skeletal remains were preserved, mostly from the lower half of her body, but preliminary examination of her bones has found that she was extraordinarily tall for a woman of her time.
She was laid to rest with a pair of gold earrings adorned with green glass beads and a multi-strand gold necklace made of loops of gold alternating with small jet beads. Four spectacular spherical pearls are mounted on each side of the necklace and each end of the clasp. Other grave goods include balsamaria (small containers for unguents and cosmetics), cups, jugs, a pyxis (small box) with bone pins and small spatula-like applicators, and a set of bone pieces for a board game.
Of the eight glass containers found in her grave, two are particularly noteworthy: a large, broad bowl made of dark 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 highly ornamental type of reticulated glassware featuring deep reliefs, often in an openwork net design, more rarely with figural representations. The decorations are usually geometric bands, filigree patterns and deep relief inscriptions in Latin or Greek. Only 10 complete diatretic vases are known, and many, like this example found in France, had to be pieced back together from fragments.
The diatreta found in the grave is only the second one ever found in Montenegro (here is the first one), and it is unique among the very few comparable vessels to have figural decoration depicting a venator, a type of gladiator who hunted animals in the arena, attacked by large felines, likely cheetahs. The goblet was made using two different colors of glass, yellow and green, which makes it even more outstanding an example of the highest quality of glassmaking craftsmanship. It is fragmented and will require a great deal of conservation to piece back together.
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