LOCAL GLASS PRODUCTION IN THE LATE ROMAN–EARLY BYZANTINE PERIODS IN LIGHT OF THE GLASS FINDS FROM KHIRBAT EL-NI‘ANA (original) (raw)
Related papers
These 18 papers by renowned international scholars include studies of glass from Europe and the Near East. The authors write on a variety of topics where their work is at the forefront of new approaches to the subject. They both extend and consolidate aspects of our understanding of how glass was produced, traded and used throughout the Empire and the wider world drawing on chronology, typology, patterns of distribution, and other methodologies, including the incorporation of new scientific methods. Though focusing on a single material the papers are firmly based in its archaeological context in the wider economy of the Roman world, and consider glass as part of a complex material culture controlled by the expansion and contraction of the Empire" Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-1-78297-774-2 (hardcover edition) --ISBN 978-1-78297-775-9 (digital)
Archaeological and Archaeometric Study of the Roman and Late Antique Glass
The Yurta-Stroyno Archaeological Project. Studies on the Roman Rural Settlement in Thrace, 2022
1413 glass fragments were found at the settlement of Yurta -Stroyno during the three years of excavation and one year of the surface survey. Most of the retrieved glass was highly fragmented, which is a result of the fragility of the material itself as well as of its deposition in secondary contexts. The glass collection from Yurta -Stroyno includes a wide range of vessels and glass items, such as personal ornaments and window panes. For the vessels, high quality glass was used, resulting in thin -walled fragments made of translucent, colourless glass, with a minimum of impurities. glass was decorated by wheel -cutting, mould blowing and applied threads. During the surface survey, a group of specific glass fragments was found, later identified as waste from glass production. these include threads, drops, moils, heat -melted fragments and fragments of raw glass, with the latter counting 81 pieces with total weight of 189 g. The retrieved glass material was first typologically classified and preliminary dated based on comparattive data from other settlements, further, the method of XRF analysis was chosen to complement the data needed to interpret the finds. The analysed set of samples represents a selection of different glass objects (89 pcs.), and fragments of the raw glass and the production waste (including production indicators; 28 pcs.)
Chemical Papers
The history of the production of glass objects started about 3500 years ago. Glass is a fascinating material with a cultural and technological history: the integrated approach of scientific and traditional archaeological issues contributes to the reconstruction of the production technology of artefacts, as well as their trade and exchange. The findings from excavations in the territory of Ravenna (Italy) are the starting point for the reconstruction of the possible contacts between Italy and Central Europe. In Medieval times, glass vessels of different types, firstly produced in Mediterranean regions, spread to many areas. The present work analyses the possible typological and chemical affinities between a set of samples, dated back to the 13th - 16th centuries, found in the archaeological excavations of the Monastery of Saint Severus (Classe, Ravenna) with the same type of glasses found in different regions of Central Europe. This work reports and discusses data obtained by archaeological and archaeometric studies of three glass vessel types: prunted beakers, so-called kropfflasche and ampoules. The prunted beaker (nuppenbecher, verre a gouttes) - cylindrical vessels decorated with protrusions along the body - was probably made by Italian glassblowers in 13th-15th century; it reached Central Europe and appeared in numerous archaeological site from France to Czech Republic (Han 1975; Newby 1985; Whitehouse 1985; Gyürky 1986; Newby 1991; Foy e Bailly-Maître 2014; Sedláčková et al. 2014). “Kropfflasche” is a particular type of globular bottle, produced in the 13th-14th century. Similar bottles were be found in: Herzegovina (Andjelić 1975; Wenzel 1975), the Duke’s Palace of Budapest (Gyürky 1986), Czech Republic (Sedláčkovà 2006), Bohemia (Hejdová e Nechvátal 1970) and France (Harden 1971). The last type of the analysed glass – the ampoule - became very common from the end of the 13th century in ecclesiastic sites, used for consecrate oil or wine. Archaeological contextualisation of the site and chrono-typological study of glass vessels were associated to chemical analyses, performed to characterise the composition of the glassy matrix (major and minor components as well as trace elements). The results were elaborated according to the archaeometric glass classification and provenancing of raw materials, shedding new light on glass production in late Medieval times and interpreting the relations and the exchanges between geographical areas and related cultures.
Glass: Primary Production (Rehren 2024, Encyclopedia of Archaeology, 2nd ed, Vol 2)
Encyclopedia of Archaeology (2nd ed), Vol 2, 2024
Key Points: Glassmaking differs fundamentally from the production of the other main artificial materials, namely plaster, ceramic, and metal, in being an additive technology with very little waste • Traditional glassmaking resulted in the existence of several main chrono-geographical compositional glass groups, based on different combinations of raw materials • Glass can take on a very wide range of colors and appearances, mostly through the addition of minor amounts of specific metal oxides, either alone, or in combination • Recent advances in the analysis of glass help to identify the recycling of glass and to refine the definition of compositional subgroups Abstract: Glass is the youngest of the main artificial archaeological materials, regularly emerging in the archaeological record from c 1600 BCE onward; first in Western Asia and Egypt, with other notable production regions in India, China, Continental Europe, and Africa following (much) later. As a material made through the fusion of raw materials, it is chemically complex, and leaves little production waste. Numerous compositional groups and sub-groups of glass are known, of different regional and chronological distribution, reflecting the use of different raw materials. This complexity lends itself to the study of trade in raw glass and the movement of glass objects across time and space, although the distinction among glass compositions is not always as sharp as one might wish.