Glass of the Roman World illustrates the arrival of new cultural systems, mechanisms of trade and an expanded economic base in the early 1st millennium AD which, in combination, allowed the further development of the existing glass industry. Glass became something which encompassed more than simply a novel and highly decorative material. Glass production grew and its consumption increased until it was assimilated into all levels of society, used for display and luxury items but equally for utilitarian containers, windows and even tools. 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. The volume is presented in honour of Jenny Price, a foremost scholar of Roman glass.

Excavations in the upper Walbrook valley, in a marginal area in the north-west of the Roman city, recovered over 70kg of broken vessel glass and production waste from a nearby workshop, giving new insights into the workings of the glass industry and its craftsmen. The area was developed in the early 2nd century AD, with evidence of domestic buildings and property boundaries. Two later buildings constructed in the mid 2nd century AD may have been associated with the glass-working industry. The disposal of a huge amount of glass-working waste in the later 2nd century signals the demise of the workshop, with the area reverting to open land by the 3rd century AD. The comprehensive nature of the glass-working waste has made it possible to study the various processes - from the preparation of the raw materials in the form of cullet, broken vessel and window glass, to the blowing and finishing of the vessel. All the glass originated ultimately in the eastern Mediterranean, some of it arriving as raw glass chunks, which was supplemented by cullet collected locally for recycling. A review of the current evidence for glass working in London also examines the implications for the organisation of the industry.

These twenty papers dedicated to Mike Tite focus upon the interpretation of ancient artefacts and technologies, particularly through the application of materials analysis. Instruments from the human eye to mass spectrometry provide insights into a range of technologies ranging from classical alum extraction to Bronze Age wall painting, and cover materials as diverse as niello, flint, bronze, glass and ceramic. Ranging chronologically from the Neolithic through to the medieval period, and geographically from Britain to China, these case studies provide a rare overview which will be of value to students, teachers and researchers with an interest in early material culture.

Islamic glass and its craftsmanship in the Medieval period are known almost exclusively from Middle Eastern literature. The study of the structures of the workshop and the very rich glass assemblage from Sabra al-Mansuriya (Kairouan), the Fatimid capital founded in 947/948 and destroyed in 1057, proves that Ifriqiya followed the technological evolutions of glass craftsmanship. An examination of the furnaces and the various artefacts discovered highlights the double vocation of a palatial factory: to produce glass and glazed ceramics. From this particular workshop, installed in the wing of a palace, we found everyday glassware as well as more luxurious types, some with very specific forms, others reproducing models known throughout the Islamic world. These productions are local and imported - distinguished through morphological and chemical analyzes - and form the basis of a first typology of glass used in Ifriqiya from the 10th to 11th century. Architectural glass, partly made on site, is also abundant. The crown-glass of different colours, used whole or in small fragments, adorned the openwork panel walls with various carvings. The windows and their glass offered a rich polychrome and a complex decorative syntax, reflecting significant technical mastery and the desire to display economic and political power.