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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.
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