Plural form of alabastron; small bottles or containers made of alabaster stone, historically used to store perfumes, oils, or ointments in ancient Egypt and Greece.
From Greek alabastron, possibly borrowed from Egyptian or Semitic languages. The plural takes the Greek form -a, reflecting classical usage of these luxury vessels in Mediterranean civilizations.
Archaeologists have found thousands of these tiny stone bottles in Egyptian tombs, proving that ancient people were just as obsessed with fancy perfume bottles as we are today—some are so small they could hold just a teaspoon of precious myrrh!
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