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

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  Facing right

 

Length: 14.500 cm

EA 55193

Room 61: Tomb-chapel Nebamun

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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.