Highly valued as aids to personal grooming, mirrors were at first made of bronze. To have an idea of what they looked like, people gazed at their reflection in the polished surface of this metal. The mirrors shown here were made with silvered glass, that is, a sheet of glass the inner face of which was coated with a layer of tin or some other metal, which was then polished thoroughly.
Provenance: Ḥimṣ (?).
Substances: gypsum and glass.
Dimensions: 13 x 13 x .9 cm, and 12 x 11 x 1.5 cm.
Era: Roman.
Text: Michel Fortin (translated from French by Jane Macaulay).
Photo: Jacques Lessard.
Collection of the National Museum of Damascus.
Michel Fortin, Syria, Land of Civilization. Les Éditions de l'Homme, Musée de la Civilisation de Québec 1999.
Bašīr Zuhdī. Annales Archéologiques Arabes Syriennes (1970, p. 9-27).
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