Alabaster
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(a small flask) (Matt. 26:4, 5 [as given]; Mark 14:3; Luke 7:37) — a kind of white, fine-grained, dense, dark stone of the gypsum family, capable of a fine polish, from which various alabaster articles were made. It takes its name from the alabaster mountain and city in the Thebaid, in Egypt (now the mountain of St. Anthony). Egyptian apothecaries still use alabaster vessels for storing medicines and perfumes. The ancients used alabaster for various articles; from it were made vases, urns, flasks, small bottles, and others.