tour 3 of 11
Fish
Glass bottle
This glass bottle is in the shape of a tilapia
fish, found in the Nile. After they learned to mould glass, the
Egyptians made containers like this to keep make-up or precious
oils in. The yellow and white pattern of scales was made by taking
a blue glass fish and trailing strands of yellow and white glass
across it.
However, this
bottle might also have had a special meaning. The tilapia fish
protects its babies from danger by taking them into its mouth; when
all is safe, the little fish come out of the tilapia's
mouth and swim again. So for the ancient Egyptians this fish bottle
could have meant being born again.