Glass bottle in the form of a fish

From el-Amarna, Egypt
18th Dynasty, around 1390-1336 BC

The tilapia: symbolic of rebirth

This is the most complete and spectacular example of several surviving fish-shaped glass vessels made around this period. It was found under the floor in a house at Tell el-Amarna, where it may have been buried by its owner.

Glass vessels seem to have been primarily functional rather than ritual objects; their main use was as containers for cosmetics or precious oils. However, in this case the fish design might hint at some further meaning.

The fish represented is a Nile tilapia fish which hatches and shelters her young in her mouth. The emergence of the live offspring from the tilapia's mouth led to the fish being used as a symbol of rebirth and regeneration, frequently worn as an amulet.

Glass vessels from the New Kingdom (1550-1070 BC) are highly colourful objects, and glass was often used as a more versatile and less expensive substitute for semiprecious stones.

This fish was made by trailing molten glass over a core made of a clay mixture. Next, coloured rods of glass were wrapped around the body and dragged with a tool to create a fish-scale pattern. The body was then smoothed, the eyes and fins added and the core scraped out.

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E.R. Russmann, Eternal Egypt: masterworks of (University of California Press, 2001)

J.D. Cooney, Catalogue of Egyptian antiqu-3 (London, The British Museum Press, 1976)

S. Quirke and A.J. Spencer, The British Museum book of anc (London, The British Museum Press, 1992)