Even after nearly 2,000 years, the colors on this painted glass goblet are still brilliant. Donning an aureole-type headdress, the woman on the glass is harvesting dates. Another female figure and two male figures of lesser social standing— judging by their dress—are also depicted reaping the sweet bounty as the scene extends around the goblet. The 5-inch-tall goblet was found in the ruins of a palatial building in ancient Kapisa (modern-day Bagram, Afghanistan), a city that was, by the first century A.D., a summer capital of the Kushan people, whose empire had its roots in China. Chemical analyses of […]
