Roman Glass, Glass Technology

Three whole glass bottles and six vessel fragments (Fig. 10:1–9) were found in Tombs F1 and F3. Remains of furnace debris from glass manufacturing and chunks of raw glass were also discovered. The whole vessels represent familiar types from burial assemblages that were exposed in the region and date from the Late Roman–Byzantine periods (fourth–sixth centuries CE). The industrial debris is from furnaces used in the manufacturing of raw glass, such as those that operated in the region of Apollonia and its surroundings during the Byzantine and Early Islamic periods (Roll and Ayalon 1989; Gorin-Rosen 2000:54–55; Tal, Jackson-Tal and Freestone 2004; 2008).

This paper discusses the development of Roman antimony decolourised natron glass, its dominance, and subsequent decline, using new trace element data for colourless glass found in Britain. Experimental glasses are used to investigate the influence of different proportions of raw materials (particularly the ratio of natron to calcium carbonate) on the resulting transparency or opacity of glass when antimony is added. Focusing on the 1st to 3rd centuries AD, the study has found that (1) There are chronological differences in antimony colourless glass compositions including (a) some early vessels have abnormally low calcium, aluminium and barium levels; (b) 1st/mid-2nd-century AD vessels in Britain may also contain up to 0.6 wt% lead oxide whereas mid-2nd/3rd-century AD vessels contain less than 300 ppm, and (c) the antimony content tends to decline over time. (2) These developments can be linked to production and recycling practices; but trace elements suggest that all of these antimony colourless glasses share an origin, probably Egypt. (3) Crucially, production of experimental glasses illustrates the inherent suitability of a sodium-rich, calcium-poor base glass composition for making antimony colourless glass, as it readily dissolves added antimony; conversely lower-sodium, higher-calcium glasses start to form opacifying calcium-antimonate crystals with the same quantities of antimony. Thus, the sodium-rich, calcium-poor glass composition from Egypt was ideally suited for decolourising with antimony and formed a water-clear glass. The calcium-rich Syro-Palestine glasses were more easily opacified with antimony to make opaque glass, but were decolourised with manganese, not antimony.

The paper presents a bronze figurine of an eagle from island of Berezan. It comes from badly described object cut by a test-trench of 1902. An approximate location of the trench is defined by interpretation of an excavation map from archive of OAM. Similar (but not identical) eagle statuettes had been discovered in Olbia, in sacred place on Gurzuf Sedlo mountain pass and some other sites. Perhaps, the complex included a fragment of glass bowl Ist century A.D. Both artifacts allow to take a complex to the Ist century A.D. / Статья посвящена введению в научный оборот орнитоморфной бронзовой фигурки из археологических работ на острове Березань начала XX века. Результаты анализа находки и объекта, в котором она была обнаружена, могут быть важным источником для изучения истории населения Нижнего Побужья в первом веке новой эры.

Um Glas kontrolliert abzukühlen muss es eine entsprechende Einrichtung (Ofenkammer oder freistehender Kühlofen) auch in römischer Zeit gegeben haben. Ohne dies ist ein Großteil des antiken Glasgefäßspektrums nicht realisierbar gewesen. Der Vortrag stellt den aktuellen Forschungsstand der Experimentellen Archäologie zu diesem Thema vor (Stand: Herbst 2017). ----- Either a special furnace chamber or separate kilns (lehrs) are essential to cool down glass vessels. Most of the Roman glass production range can only be made by employing such a structure. This lecture presents the current state of research undertaken by experimental archaeology (as of fall 2017).

Le site d'Yvonand-Mordagne est un vaste domaine rural si-tué sur la rive sud du lac de Neuchâtel (figure 1), le long de l'axe routier qui reliait le vicus d'Yverdon-les-Bains (Eburo-dunum) à la capitale des Helvètes, Avenches (Aventicum). Construite à l'époque augustéenne, cette villa comprenant une pars urbana et une pars rustica entourées d'un mur d'enceinte est dotée dès l'origine d'un sanctuaire implanté sur une légère éminence, à quelque 60 m au sud de l'enclos. 1 Fréquenté jusqu'au IV e siècle au moins, le sanctuaire a connu trois phases de construction (figure 1). Le premier lieu de culte correspond à une chapelle en terre et bois construite dans les premières années de notre ère (phase 1). Vers le milieu du I er siècle, le premier bâtiment est détruit pour laisser la place à un nouvel édicule de mêmes dimensions mais orienté différemment (phase 2). Durant cette phase de construction, un temple de type indigène en terre et bois est érigé au sud. Vers le début du II e siècle, ce dernier est remplacé par un nouveau temple du même type, construit en maçonnerie (phase 3). Des fragments d'une statue en pierre plus grande que nature retrouvés à l'inté-rieur de la cella indiquent que le temple était dédié à une divinité féminine dont l'identité reste inconnue.