{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "id": "a-bowl-without-a-passport",
  "version": "a-bowl-without-a-passport.4",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "a-bowl-without-a-passport.1",
      "date": "2026-10-17",
      "note": "First source-checked review edition."
    },
    {
      "version": "a-bowl-without-a-passport.2",
      "date": "2026-10-17",
      "note": "Visual verification: describe the weathered surface actually visible; distinguish the catalogue's account of cutting from details obscured in this photograph."
    },
    {
      "version": "a-bowl-without-a-passport.3",
      "date": "2026-10-17",
      "note": "Checked the Met’s manufacturing alternatives and qualified transport account. Added the Japanese holding institution’s record for Middle Storehouse 68. Retained the Japanese attribution’s qualification and labeled the English wording an editorial paraphrase."
    },
    {
      "version": "a-bowl-without-a-passport.4",
      "date": "2026-10-17",
      "note": "Checked the Met’s manufacturing alternatives and qualified transport account. Added the Japanese holding institution’s record for Middle Storehouse 68. Retained the Japanese attribution’s qualification and labeled the English wording an editorial paraphrase. Connected the Japanese reading panel to the named Shōsō-in entity and its own record."
    }
  ],
  "title": "A bowl without a passport.",
  "question": "How far can a form travel beyond the history of one object?",
  "format": "Connection study",
  "period": "6th–8th centuries",
  "places": [
    "Iran",
    "Japan"
  ],
  "themes": [
    "Material",
    "Trade",
    "Uncertain routes"
  ],
  "mediaKeys": [
    "sasanian-glass"
  ],
  "next": [
    "a-border-outlives-an-empire",
    "a-dish-translates-porcelain"
  ],
  "entities": [
    {
      "id": "sasanian-bowl-type",
      "name": "Late Sasanian faceted-glass bowl type",
      "kind": "tradition",
      "date": "5th–7th centuries",
      "sourceId": "met-glass"
    },
    {
      "id": "met-bowl-59-34",
      "name": "Bowl with wheel-cut facets, Met 59.34",
      "kind": "work",
      "date": "c. 6th–7th century",
      "sourceId": "met-glass",
      "note": "This object has no documented Japanese itinerary in the cited record.",
      "mediaKey": "sasanian-glass"
    },
    {
      "id": "japanese-bowl-contexts",
      "name": "Related vessels in Japanese contexts",
      "kind": "work",
      "date": "6th–8th-century contexts",
      "sourceId": "met-glass",
      "note": "A group-level catalogue account, including the Shōsōin treasure; not one substituted source object."
    },
    {
      "id": "shosoin-middle-68",
      "name": "Hakururi no wan (白瑠璃碗), Middle Storehouse 68",
      "kind": "work",
      "sourceId": "shosoin-bowl",
      "note": "A separate bowl at Shōsō-in, Nara. Its catalogue’s Sasanian attribution is qualified; no image is reproduced here."
    }
  ],
  "claims": [
    {
      "id": "glass-circulation",
      "text": "The Met describes related Sasanian faceted bowls in Japanese contexts and proposes transport by Persian merchants and embassies as probable.",
      "kind": "circulation",
      "status": "attributed",
      "evidence": [
        {
          "sourceId": "met-glass",
          "locator": "Opening three commentary paragraphs"
        }
      ],
      "limitation": "The examples and proposed transport concern a vessel type. The Met bowl is not documented as having traveled to Japan.",
      "from": "sasanian-bowl-type",
      "to": "japanese-bowl-contexts"
    },
    {
      "id": "glass-making",
      "text": "The catalogue describes wheel-cut and polished facets, while qualifying whether the bowl’s initial shape was mold-blown or free-blown.",
      "kind": "catalogue-fact",
      "status": "attributed",
      "evidence": [
        {
          "sourceId": "met-glass",
          "locator": "Opening three commentary paragraphs"
        }
      ],
      "limitation": "The manufacturing alternatives remain unresolved in this dossier."
    },
    {
      "id": "glass-japan-record",
      "kind": "catalogue-fact",
      "status": "attributed",
      "text": "The Imperial Household Agency’s catalogue identifies Hakururi no wan, Middle Storehouse 68, and describes it as said to have been made in Sasanian Persia.",
      "evidence": [
        {
          "sourceId": "shosoin-bowl",
          "locator": "Japanese record: 倉番 中倉68, materials/technique and final explanatory sentence"
        }
      ],
      "limitation": "English wording here is an editorial paraphrase of the Japanese attribution. This is a separate object, not the Met bowl."
    }
  ],
  "treatment": {
    "kind": "glass",
    "invitation": "Look at the object; read the route at the scale of a type.",
    "stops": [
      {
        "id": "object",
        "label": "Here",
        "title": "One bowl",
        "text": "The museum record identifies this small glass vessel. The photograph shows its weathered surface; the catalogue supplies the account of cutting.",
        "claimIds": [
          "glass-making"
        ],
        "entityId": "met-bowl-59-34"
      },
      {
        "id": "type",
        "label": "Elsewhere",
        "title": "Related examples",
        "text": "The Shōsō-in catalogue identifies a separate bowl, Middle Storehouse 68, with a qualified Sasanian-Persian attribution. Open its Japanese record alongside the Met bowl.",
        "claimIds": [
          "glass-japan-record",
          "glass-circulation"
        ],
        "entityId": "shosoin-middle-68"
      },
      {
        "id": "route",
        "label": "Between",
        "title": "A proposed passage",
        "text": "A probable mode of transport is useful context. It is not a passport for this particular object.",
        "claimIds": [
          "glass-circulation"
        ]
      }
    ]
  },
  "sections": [
    {
      "id": "light",
      "title": "A surface can conceal its own making.",
      "voice": "Close reading",
      "paragraphs": [
        "Follow the changing sheen around the bowl: pale patches interrupt a greenish body, while its lip catches a thin line of light. The catalogue describes cut and polished facets, but weathering makes their geometry difficult to distinguish in this view. Looking closely also means recognizing what a photograph does not let us see.",
        "The museum also describes weathering. What the photograph shows is therefore a surviving surface, not an untouched reconstruction of its first appearance. The distinction belongs in the reading: material change is another kind of afterlife."
      ],
      "claimIds": [
        "glass-making"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": "scale",
      "title": "A named bowl in Nara gives the comparison another anchor.",
      "voice": "Open question",
      "paragraphs": [
        "The Met names Japanese contexts for related vessels, including the Shōsō-in at Nara. The Imperial Household Agency’s Japanese catalogue identifies Hakururi no wan, Middle Storehouse 68: a cut-glass bowl described as having been made in Sasanian Persia. That remains an attribution in the holding institution’s record. Neither it nor the Met’s account documents a complete itinerary for the bowl pictured here."
      ],
      "claimIds": [
        "glass-circulation",
        "glass-japan-record"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "edition": "pilot",
  "route": "/afterlives/a-bowl-without-a-passport",
  "primaryClaimId": "glass-circulation",
  "sources": [
    {
      "id": "shosoin-bowl",
      "title": "白瑠璃碗 (Hakururi no wan), Middle Storehouse 68",
      "author": "Imperial Household Agency, Shōsō-in Office",
      "url": "https://shosoin.kunaicho.go.jp/treasures/?id=0000011989&index=0",
      "kind": "object-record",
      "locator": "倉番 中倉68; material/technique and explanatory paragraph",
      "supports": "A separate cut-glass bowl at Shōsō-in; the Japanese entry says it is thought to have been made in Sasanian Persia.",
      "limitation": "English descriptions are Artologium’s editorial paraphrases of the Japanese record. The qualified attribution does not document an individual trade itinerary.",
      "language": "ja; editorial English paraphrase",
      "checked": "2026-10-17",
      "verification": {
        "checked": "2026-10-17",
        "method": "indexed-text",
        "note": "Relevant indexed primary-source text checked. Direct scripted access was blocked, empty or incomplete; this is not recorded as a successful full-page retrieval."
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "met-glass",
      "title": "Bowl with wheel-cut facets, 59.34",
      "author": "The Metropolitan Museum of Art",
      "url": "https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/324830",
      "kind": "object-record",
      "locator": "Opening three commentary paragraphs",
      "supports": "A Sasanian bowl type; examples found in Japanese contexts; proposed transport by merchants and embassies.",
      "limitation": "The Met bowl itself is not documented as having traveled to Japan. The commentary qualifies both manufacturing and transport hypotheses.",
      "language": "en",
      "checked": "2026-10-17",
      "verification": {
        "checked": "2026-10-17",
        "method": "source-text",
        "note": "Relevant institutional record text checked through the research browser; direct scripted requests were rate-limited."
      }
    }
  ],
  "reception": {
    "reach": "Separate catalogue records locate related bowls in New York and Nara. The Met also describes wider Japanese contexts for the type.",
    "response": "The institutional attributions and proposed transport are scholarly accounts, not testimony of an individual bowl’s journey.",
    "consequence": "A named Japanese comparison strengthens the geographical question; it does not supply the pictured Met bowl with a Japanese provenance."
  },
  "review": {
    "checked": "2026-10-17",
    "research": "source-checked",
    "independent": "pending",
    "assistance": "Source verification and prose revised with AI assistance. Independent specialist review remains pending.",
    "editorial": {
      "checked": "2026-10-17",
      "method": "AI-assisted source and prose review",
      "focus": "A second named bowl anchors the type comparison without giving either an invented itinerary.",
      "changes": [
        "Checked the Met’s manufacturing alternatives and qualified transport account.",
        "Added the Japanese holding institution’s record for Middle Storehouse 68.",
        "Retained the Japanese attribution’s qualification and labeled the English wording an editorial paraphrase.",
        "Connected the Japanese reading panel to the named Shōsō-in entity and its own record."
      ]
    }
  },
  "summary": "The Met describes related Sasanian faceted bowls in Japanese contexts and proposes transport by Persian merchants and embassies as probable.",
  "canonical": "https://artologium.com/afterlives/a-bowl-without-a-passport",
  "releaseStatus": "Local review edition; editorially revised with AI assistance; independent specialist review pending",
  "socialPreview": "Canonical investigation card. Selected passage is preserved in the URL and export, not pictured in the card.",
  "media": [
    {
      "key": "sasanian-glass",
      "title": "Bowl with wheel-cut facets",
      "creator": "Maker unrecorded",
      "date": "ca. 6th–7th century CE",
      "institution": "The Metropolitan Museum of Art",
      "accession": "59.34",
      "sourceUrl": "https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/324830",
      "sourceImage": "https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/an/original/DP-42272-001.jpg",
      "license": "CC0",
      "licenseUrl": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/",
      "rightsSource": "https://www.metmuseum.org/about-the-met/policies-and-documents/open-access",
      "creditLine": "Rogers Fund, 1959",
      "alt": "A rounded greenish glass bowl with pale patches across a weathered, iridescent surface.",
      "rightsStatus": "open",
      "changes": "Resized and JPEG compressed; complete source image preserved in the viewer. No recoloring or reconstruction.",
      "src": "/images/research/sasanian-glass.jpg",
      "width": 1120,
      "height": 1400,
      "sha256": "d5c06843e887023f40253ae923c880fc653ef9bee3dbcd7bfa51ae9c64c3675e",
      "sourceSha256": "20d85be193914a47d5c95dde6671b48df1e78b76643619dadfa7a102e8f10e2e",
      "retrieved": "2026-10-18T01:01:27.104Z",
      "displayVariants": [
        {
          "src": "/images/research/sasanian-glass-320.jpg",
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        },
        {
          "src": "/images/research/sasanian-glass-640.jpg",
          "width": 640,
          "height": 800,
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      "displayCrop": null
    }
  ]
}