Hexagonal glass jug of the Jerusalem type

What you see

What you see

A small glass jug, 15.7 cm high, with a six-sided body. The medium is recorded as "moulded glass", and the museum's description says that the relief designs of vessels of this kind were produced by blowing molten glass into a mould. The description concerns the type as a whole and does not say which symbols this jug itself bears. Source 1.

What the record says

The record dates the jug 500-650 and assigns it to Byzantine culture. The geography fields are empty: no place of manufacture and no findspot. According to the museum's description, such vessels were made for Jews and Christians, possibly as tokens for pilgrims visiting the holy sites in Jerusalem or for use in burial rites; they appear to have been mass-produced in a single workshop, since the vessels of the two religions closely resemble each other in shape and style and differ only in their symbols. The Jewish vessels depict the menorah, shofar, incense shovel and lulav; the Christian ones are decorated with several types of crosses. Source 1.

A type, not a place

"Jerusalem type" classifies shape and decoration; it does not state that the jug was made or found in Jerusalem. The sentence that the vessel "was perhaps taken to Syria as a memento of a visit to the Holy Land" is likewise the museum's suggestion, not a record of its route. Because the record names no place, the site lists the jug in the region "The Mediterranean, place not stated" and shows it by its source date only, with no assignment to any region's period. Source 1.

A comparison of technique

The same region on the site holds the Roman glass jug blown in a four-part mould in the first half of the 1st century CE. Both jugs were shaped in a mould, about five centuries apart, and neither record gives a place of manufacture. The comparison is between techniques the records document, not a claim of a link between the vessels.

Where it is now

Held by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, record 17.120.246, from the Fletcher collection (bequest, 1917). On 24 October 2026 the record stated "On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 300". The museum has an openly licensed (CC0) photograph of the jug; it is not included here yet. Source 1.