Cylindrical-, square- and hexagonal- shaped jugs with thick walls were ideal for packing and shipping, and they were one of the more common glass forms of the early Roman Empire. Evidence for their function and dating comes from the discovery, in the ruins of a shop at Herculaneum (destroyed 79 C.E.), of a set of square jugs packed in straw in partitioned boxes ready for shipping. One of the products that was being shipped in the taller glass jugs was probably wine.