2021Slovak Applied Arts - Roman Glass from Zohor - Set

In Roman times the so-called Amber Road, a long and important trading route that started in Roman Aquileia, stretched across the Záhorie region. It crossed barbarian territory near the confluence of the Morava and the Danube. It then followed the line of the Morava, heading north to the Baltic Sea, where large deposits of amber could be found along the coast – a highly valued material for the manufacture of jewellery. To protect Roman traders on their way through the Barbaricum, Romans made efforts to win favour with the local Germanic elites, in particular, through the giving of various gifts. It is then only logical that the graves of barbarian aristocracy were discovered in Zohor and Vysoká pri Morave. The finds included luxurious Roman goods – mainly table services with bronze, silver and glass bowls. The Zohor graves were discovered by accident during work to extract gravel in a local gravel pit. Thus, only incomplete collections of items from the graves have been preserved. The first grave, containing two bronze pans, was discovered in 1949 during gravel removal. It was only seven years later, in 1956, that the second grave was discovered. Archaeologists only managed to preserve a single large bronze bowl.