Snake-thread includes several styles of discontinuous glass trails applied as ornamentation to the walls of glass vessels. Snake-thread glass originated in the eastern provinces of the Roman empire in the second half of the second century and its popularity peaked in the first half of the third century. Snake-thread decoration was revived in the second half of the fourth century in the east and in the west near Cologne in modern Germany. Serpentine form trails may vary in thickness, may be the same color as the vessel (usually colorless) or brightly colored (common in the West). The threads were pressed into the side of the vessel with a ridged tool leaving a pattern of parallel groves, or a less common waffle-iron pattern. A workshop in Pannonia used variety of patterns.
See ancient glass.