NARRATOR: We’re looking at the small glass object with a spout, which looks like a pack animal, with a large bundle on its back. It’s displayed with another small jar object, also with a spout. These might have held perfume, or other precious liquids. Curator Stefan Heidemann notes that they were made in a rather straightforward way:

STEFAN HEIDEMANN: You have a little glass jar which is blown, and then the figure is constructed with glass blobs and glass trails, just around it. And these are two early examples of Islamic glassmaking standing in the tradition of Byzantine and Roman glassmaking. The one figure… looks quite weird. It is difficult to discern what does it mean. It is an animal with almost two heads and even four heads are protruding from the glass cage. It is somehow a caravan, put together in one single piece. Both pieces are extraordinary in that they are preserved in such a good state. But you see that both are archeological objects, by the disfiguring of the color of the surface. Originally you must imagine this as a greenish and bluish transparent glass.

NARRATOR: Over time, glassmaking became one of the most innovative of all the Islamic arts. To hear about how Islamic glassmaking developed, press PLAY.