Bottle, prismatic rectangular bottle

This Roman glass bottle with a handle was found in Southwark and dates to 43-125 CE. The bottle would have been made by blowing glass into a mould, it has a blue-green appearance and the bottle would have been sealed with a wooden or cork stopper. The skilled glassmaker included their maker's stamp on the base, the letters 'C L C C'. It is believed that these four-sided bottles were used to ship food around the empire, but it could have been made and used locally, filled with foodstuffs such as olive oil. We do not know what this bottle contained, but scientific analyses of other similar bottles have found vegetable oil, probably olive oil.