Peeling the onion: an approach to comparing vessel glass assemblages

Abstract

Roman sites frequently produce large quantities of artefacts which are identified, catalogued and published with no little expenditure of time and effort. This material should be one of the most important resources for telling us about the lives of the people who used it, but to a large extent its potential is untapped. The comparison of assemblages of finds from sites of different types and dates to see if recurrent patterns emerge promises to be one way of exploiting the resource, and this paper explores a methodology for doing this. It is rooted in a particular category of find and area (vessel glass and the province of Britannia), but we believe the approach could have wider applications. In it we seek to reveal the different types of information that the data may possess. All assemblages are likely to be the product of many different influences. Chronology, geography, status, gender, and the ways in which the material enters the archaeological record are ones that immediately spring to mind, and many others could be suggested. Some may be so dominant that the patterns they produce may mask those due to other influences. Our aim is to identify the major influences, and then progressively to analyse the data so that the effect of the dominant factors is removed, and the patterns produced by the less dominant ones are revealed. The gradual peeling of the layers of an onion to reveal a smaller, and sometimes differently-shaped or double core, may be a good analogy for the method.* Vessel glass and Roman BritainThe Roman world saw a great explosion of the use of glass vessels during the later 1st c. B.C. and the early 1st c. A.D. Not only was the scale of production of cast vessels greatly increased, but the discovery of blowing allowed the rapid production of a whole range of new forms, including the closed ones that had hitherto been difficult to produce. This meant that glass vessels could be used as both tablewares and more mundane containers. With the advent of blowing, the price fell, so that by the Neronian period writers marvelled at how cheap glass cups were.

Globalizing the local in Roman Britain: An anthropological approach to social change

“…CA has already had applications to finds data in Roman archaeology (e.g. Cool and Baxter, 1999), and has wider use in disciplines such as sociology (e.g. Bourdieu, 1984).…”

Site Finds in Roman Britain: A Comparison of Techniques

“…To understand exactly how these techniques work requires a relatively high level of mathematical sophistication; but to use them and interpret the results really requires little more than common sense and practice. As Cool and Baxter (1999) argue, these techniques could be of great use in the study of the material-and data-rich period that is Roman Britain. I hope that this re-analysis of familiar data will encourage scholars of the Roman world to employ these methods where appropriate in their research.…”

Roman Urbanism: A View from the Countryside

“…has shown how the forts and vici in Cumbria and along Hadrian's Wall used pottery supplies that were almost identical and were heavily reliant on material either produced within the vici or imported from outside the region. Cool (; Cool and Baxter ) has recognized very similar patterns in the use of glass, and Birley's () recent analysis of small finds from Vindolanda suggests very close links between consumption patterns in fort and vicus. In northern Lancashire and Cumbria, by contrast, few rural sites produce more than a few sherds of Roman pottery and these often include handmade, locally produced wares that are of a different composition to those found in the vici (Evans , 160).…”