Shedding Light on Roman Glass Consumption on the Western Coast of the Black Sea

The chemical composition of 48 glass finds from Histria and Tomis, Romania, chiefly dated to the 1st–4th c. AD, was determined using prompt gamma activation analysis (PGAA) at the Budapest Neutron Centre (BNC). Most fragments have composition typical for the Roman naturally colored blue-green-yellow (RNCBGY) glass; Mn-colorless, Sb-colorless, and Sb–Mn colorless glass finds were evidenced, too. Several Foy Série 2.1 and Foy Série 3.2 glass fragments, as well as an HIMT and a plant ash glass sample, were identified in the studied assemblage. The archaeological evidence, the glass working waste items, and the samples with compositional patterns suggestive of recycling are proofs of the secondary glass working activities at Tomis during the Early Roman Empire period.

Unusual Roman Iron Age burials on the Links of Pierowall, Westray, Orkney

Antiquarian accounts and surviving finds allow two Iron Age cist-burials found in the late 18th century on the Links of Pierowall on Westray, Orkney, to be reconstructed, although no details of the bodies survive (but both were most probably inhumations); the unusual finds have not previously received full attention. One burial contained a polished stone disc, used as a palette for grinding some valued substance, probably cosmetic, medical or narcotic. A review of the type emphasises its particular prevalence in northern Scotland, and places it within the wider context of an increase in artefacts linked to personal appearance and behaviour in the Roman Iron Age. The other burial contained a well-known Roman glass cup and a hitherto ignored ‘metal spoon’ which can reasonably be identified as a Roman import as well, plausibly of silver. Such spoons are rare import goods, known from rich burials beyond the frontier on continental Europe in the late 2nd and 3rd century AD. This suggests that the Roman world adopted similar approaches to its varied neighbours in terms of the goods offered in (most likely) political or diplomatic connections.

Chemical analysis and computed tomography of metallic inclusions in Roman glass to unveil ancient coloring methods

This paper describes the analysis of two near-spherical metallic inclusions partially incorporated within two Roman raw glass slags in order to elucidate the process that induced their formation and to determine whether their presence was related to ancient glass colouring processes. The theory of metallic scraps or powder being used in Roman times for glass-making and colouring purposes is widely accepted by the archaeological scientific community, although the assumption has been mainly based on oral traditions and documented medieval practices of glass processing. The analysis of the two inclusions, carried out by X-ray computed tomography, electrochemical analyses, and scanning electron microscopy, revealed their material composition, corrosion and internal structure. Results indicate that the two metallic bodies originated when, during the melting phase of glass, metal scraps were added to colour the material: the colloidal metal–glass system reached then a supersaturation condition and the latter ultimately induced metal expulsion and agglomeration. According to the authors’ knowledge, these two inclusions represent the first documented and studied finds directly associated with the ancient practise of adding metallic agents to colour glass, and their analysis provides clear insights into the use of metallic waste in the glass colouring process.

A Late Roman Luxury Villa in Nagyharsány, at the Feet of the Szársomlyó Mountain

Those who visit the tourist attractions of the Villány–Siklós wine route may not even suspect that a ruin of a high-status Roman villa is hiding under the picturesque landscape with vineyards at the foot of the Szársomlyó Mountain. The Mediterranean beauty and climate of this region attracted the late imperial elite of the Roman Empire, among whom an influential, senatorial family built its luxury villa here. This villa only revealed its significance and treasures slowly. After the excavation of its bathhouse, an unfortunately commissioned deep ploughing twisted large pieces of the mosaic floors out of the ground. After a long pause, the Hungarian National Museum continued the investigation of the site in 2016. The excavations brought to light the villa’s banquet hall, the floor of which was once covered with colourful mosaics representing the highest quality of Roman mosaic art. Masterpieces of Roman glass craftmanship – pieces of a wine set – were also found here. The villa of Nagyharsány plays an important role in the research of the Seuso Treasure too. The luxury reflected by the interior decoration and the artefacts of the banquet hall proved that the educated and wealthy imperial aristocracy was present in late Roman Pannonian provinces, the members of which could afford a set of silver tableware comparable to the Seuso Treasure in quality, understood the literary and visual culture based on the classical education of the elite, and spoke its sophisticated language.

RECYCLING ROMAN GLASS TO GLAZE PARTHIAN POTTERY

Alkaline glazes were first used on clay-based ceramics in Mesopotamia around 1500 B.C., at the same time as the appearance of glass vessels. The Roman Empire used lead-based glazes, with alkaline natron glass being used only to produce objects of glass. Chemical analysis has had some success determining compositional groups for Roman/Byzantine/early Islamic glasses because of the discovery of major production sites. Parthian and Sasanian glass and glazed wares, however, have been found only in consumption assemblages, which have failed to inform on how they were made. Here we reanalyse compositional data for Parthian and Sasanian glazes and present new analyses for Parthian glazed pottery excavated at the early third century A.D. Roman military outpost of Ain Sinu in northern Iraq. We show that some Parthian glazes are from a different tradition to typical Mesopotamian glazes and have compositions similar to Roman glass. We propose that Roman glass was recycled by Parthian potters, thereby suggesting that as yet undiscovered Mesopotamian glass production centres ordinarily supplied glass for indigenous glazed pottery. Furthermore, if recycling glass to make glazed pottery was extended to indigenous glassware, this may provide an explanation for the paucity of Parthian and Sasanian glass in the archaeological record.

Seeking the Invisible

In this chapter, the results of a large-scale programme of glass chemical data collation and analysis are presented to argue that glass recycling in the Roman period was far more extensive than has been realized to date. Over 6,000 samples of glass from published analyses since 1999 are interrogated in order to produce a long-term and large-scale data set for recycling evidence. In addition, literary evidence, and data from shipwrecks and other archaeological sites are summarized and considered, and basic modelling is used to suggest the sorts of patterns we should be looking for in compositional data for glass. It is argued that the quantity of Roman glass that was recycled has been underestimated due to several factors, including a lack of consideration of ‘like with like’ mixing, a lack of consideration of the formation processes of the archaeological record, and analytical sampling bias towards colourless vessel glass.