Dialogue by Mark:

Since the koala bears love the beautiful shapes of their molded ketchup bottles so much, what do you think they'd say about this bottle? Kim our Queen of Art at KidsArt found this decorated bottle way, way back in art history. It was made by the ancient Greeks sometime around 550 B.C.E. The B.C.E. stands for "Before Christian Era," so to figure out how old this bottle is, go back from our year to the year "0" then keep going back 550 years further. That's more than two thousand five hundred years...pretty old for a bottle!

This bottle is made of earthenware clay with with painted decorations. It is in the shape of a heron...a long legged wading bird. This bird has her legs curled beneath her and her neck curved in a graceful "S." The back of the bird is the lid to the jar, and perfume was kept inside. The ancient Greeks made beautiful pottery jars and bottles. Some were tiny jars like this one, only a few inches high. Other jars were as tall as a grown man.

Can you imagine how people lived 2500 years ago? Most of the world was wilderness with only small tribes of hunters. But in the lands around the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the first western civilizations began. Around the time this heron bottle was made, the Greeks were the most powerful people in the region. From their tiny mountainous country beside the sea, they invented many things that are still in our world today...things like coins, the theater, geometry, democracy and the Olympics. Hmm...maybe they invented ketchup too. Super "G'day Mate" and thanks to the Cleveland Museum of Art for sending this Imagination Station Masters' Gallery image.