Serçe Limani, Vol 2: The Glass of an Eleventh-Century Shipwreck

CHAPTER 23: Askoi

# C H A P T E R 23 Askoi George F. Bass Shaped something like preclassical and classical Greek terra cotta askoi, and sometimes called that in the glass literature, are several animal-shaped flasks that may have their beginnings in Roman times but continued in Islamic glass at least until the time of the Serçe Limanı shipwreck. Summer Kenesson , during her stay in Bodrum in 1993, correctly identified mold-blown AS 1 (Pl. 23) as a unique piece, but as sorting and mending continued over the years Sheila Matthews and Berta Lledó identified six additional flasks, none of them moldblown . AS 1. Askos. Inv. No. GW 1245. Figs. 23-1 and 23-2 (Sema Pulak). J2, M3, M5, N3, N3+N4, P5. H. (including neck) 0.104; l. 0.203; est. w. 0.11. Color shades from green at the mouth to yellow-green to amber at the bottom. Assembled fragments constitute narrow end, fragments joining this to most of body at what was probably its widest point, front of body, and complete neck and mouth. Mold-blown body with pattern of panels, lengthwise along body, filled with swirls and S-shaped patterns. AS 2. Askos. Inv. No. GW 929. Fig. 23-2 (Berta Lledó). N3+N4. Pres. diam. of spout 0.016. Yellow-green. Protuberance at one end. AS 3. Askos. Inv. No. GW 1559. Fig. 23-2 (Paola Pugsley). Unknown prov. Pres. h. 0.062; est. bottom width 0.1. Dark amber with purple swirls. Large pontil mark, diam. 0.022, probably formed by pressing a side of the blown gather onto the marver, thus forming a flat surface. AS 4. Askos. Inv. No. GW 1567. Fig. 23-2 (Paola Pugsley). Unknown prov. Pres. h. 0.062. Yellow-green. AS 5. Dark purple; pres. h. 0.02; est. bottom w. 0.025. Appears to be small version of AS 3. AS 6. Yellow-green; pres. h. 0.03; pres. bottom w. 0.025; similar to AS 3–5; wide toe area, pontil diam. 0.01. AS 7. Dark green; pres. h. 0.01; pres. bottom w. 0.018; very small part of vessel similar to AS 3–6; pontil diam. 0.007. AS 1, the best preserved and most ornate of this collection from Serçe Limanı, clearly derives its form from the birdshaped  or duck-shaped Syrian vessels with funnel-shaped mouths of perhaps the second century a.d. A third- or fourthcentury “Rhineland swan rhyton,” although quite elegant, is farther removed in shape. These, in turn, are related to simpler vessels, like a first- or second-century askos in Murano . The rounded protrusion on AS 2 is reminiscent of the “applied button-like tail” on a more contemporary, animalshaped bottle from tenth- or eleventh-century Iran or Iraq. A possible Syrian parallel for AS 3 was found at Hama. Another Fig. 23-2. Askoi. Scale 1:2 AS 1 AS 3 AS2 AS4 askoi 271 second-century Syrian (possibly Cypriot) example with a pronounced tail. 3. S. Abdul-Hak and A. Abdul-Hak, Catalogue illustré du Département des Antiquités Greco-Romaines au Musée de Damas, vol. 1, pp. 111–112, no. 6, with pl. L1a, also has a distinct tail. 4. Important Ancient and Islamic Glass, Sotheby Parke Bernet Catalog of December 13, 1979, no. 225, which referred me to F. Fremersdorf, Die Denkmaler des römischen Köln, vol. 6: Römisches geformtes Glas in Köln, p. 38, fig. 52, for a vessel of related form. 5. A. Dorigato, Il Museo vetrario di Murano, p. 12, for illustration of askos, with p. 10. 6. A. von Saldern, Glass 500 B.C. to A.D. 1900, p. 179, no. 183, citing C. J. Lamm, Mittelalterliche Gläser und Steinschnittarbeiten aus dem Nahen Osten, vol. 2, pls. 20ff. 7. P. J. Riis and V. Poulsen, Hama, fouilles et recherches de la Fondation Carlsberg 1931–1938, vol. 4, part 2: Les verreries et poteries médiévales, p. 36, fig. 47. 8. C. J. Lamm, Mittelalterliche Gläser, vol. 2, pl. 14 no.1. 9. F. Rademacher, Die deutschen Gläser des Mittelalters, p. 68, fig. 9. 10. Ibid., pl. 9a, b, with pp. 56–57, 143. possible Islamic parallel, from eighth-century Mesopotamia or Egypt, is also mold-blown, but it is too fragmentary to allow direct comparison with the Serçe Limanı example. Kenesson had compared the one...