There are over 80 bowls of this kind known today, so the Glass is certainly not rare. Precisely because it is so well known, this type of bowl has come to epitomize Glass art in the transition period from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. The Sassanids continued the Persian tradition of Glass cutting, which had flourished a whole millennium before under the Achaemenids, and passed it on to their Islamic successors. Given the lack of sources and archeological finds, this sequence of events is certainly not as complete as it may seem at first glance, yet nonetheless, the Sassanid Glass finds prove that the quality of Glasswork outlived the demise of the Roman Empire undamaged, at least in the east. Sassanid Glasswork spread far beyond the borders of the Persian Empire early on. Similar bowls have been found in Chinese and Japanese tombs and treasure houses from the 5th to the 8th centuries, as well as among the church treasures of San Marco in Venice and of Halberstadt Cathedral. (Dedo von Kerssenbrock-Krosigk)