Glass strigil (scraper)

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Translucent blue green. Handle in the form of a long hollow cylinder, expanding slightly downwards; the curved blade or scrapper section has been tooled flat with a deep indent running down its length on the upper side, ending in a rounded tip. Top of handle broken and missing; pinprick and small elongated bubbles; dulling, pitting, and iridescent weathering, with some soil encrustation and thicker weathering on interior. A small number of glass strigils are known, including a group found in a tomb in Cologne, Germany. They were not practical scrapers for use at the baths but were symbolic gifts for the dead, who, it was believed, could use them in the afterlife.

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