Spouted vessel, possibly Egypt or western Asia, ca. 800/1099. Blown glass, height 6 cm, maximum width 9.9 cm; rim diameter 4.5 cm. Collection of the Corning Museum of Glass, Corning, NY, 63.1.5
The slightly arcing shapes of these small tubes of green glass, excavated at Essouk-Tadmekka, Mali, suggest they were likely part of small spouted bottles. Made in Egypt or western Asia, such bottles were used throughout the medieval Mediterranean as containers for perfume or rose water. Material remnants of the long-distance trade of luxury glassware, fragments of glass vessels, such as this example from the Corning Museum, have also been found at other medieval sites north and south of the Sahara Desert.