Glass needle

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent light blue, with opaque white trail. Solid rod, circular in cross section, tapering at one end to point, the other worked into two prongs to form the eye of the needle and then joined and drawn up to a point. The head of the needle is decorated with an opaque trail, applied at point and wound spirally down, ending just below the eye. Intact, except for tip of the head of the needle; most of surfaces covered with thin whitish weathering. Although examples have been found in Roman contexts at sites spread across the entire Empire, their precise purpose remains unclear. They may have served as hairpins or, possibly, cosmetic applicators. They are unlikely to have been used as real needles.

Greek and Roman Art

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Museum's collection of Greek and Roman art comprises more than thirty thousand works ranging in date from the Neolithic period (ca. 4500 B.C.) to the time of the Roman emperor Constantine's conversion to Christianity in A.D. 312. It includes the art of many cultures and is among the most comprehensive in North America. The geographic regions represented are Greece and Italy, but not as delimited by modern political frontiers: Greek colonies were established around the Mediterranean basin and on the shores of the Black Sea, and Cyprus became increasingly Hellenized. For Roman art, the geographical limits coincide with the expansion of the Roman Empire. The department also exhibits the art of prehistoric Greece (Helladic, Cycladic, and Minoan) and pre-Roman art of Italic peoples, notably the Etruscans.

Metropolitan Museum of Art