A small, narrow-necked bottle or flask made of alabaster or other stone, used in ancient times to store and pour perfumes, oils, or cosmetics.
From Greek alabastron, possibly borrowed from an Egyptian or Semitic source. The term was adopted into English through classical scholarship and archaeological study of ancient Mediterranean cultures.
The shape of these bottles is genius—the narrow neck prevented evaporation of expensive perfumes, so basically ancient people invented the modern perfume bottle design 3,000 years ago!
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