Bowl, yellowish glass, with “pinched” decoration

The circular “omphalos” (navel) decoration that embellishes this bowl was a favorite in the early period in the Iranian region, and it was used on many different types of glass objects.

Rather than using the time-consuming process in which the decoration was achieved through cutting, it was more economical to blow the piece in a mold that had this decoration or, as here, to punch the piece while it was still hot and soft with tongs that had the circular pattern.

This latter technique could only be used on pieces whose opening was large enough to accommodate the tongs.